I feel that the responsibility of the press is to keep the people informed, keep them up to date on what is TRULY happening around the world. I stress on the word truly here because it is the one aspect that the media tends to bend to the very extremes, the truth. I've talked before about how the media jumps on the bandwagon for anything and everything. Well, now I'm talking about how the media sensationalizes even the most mundane by bending the truth and making it seem like a disaster of gargantuan proportions.
Take for example, the long saga of the Arushi murder case in Noida, India. The day it happened it was headline news that a father killed his daughter as an honor killing. I agree that the cops are partly to blame for cooking up this story and trying to conclude the case without any kind of even superficial investigation, but that does not give the media the right to continue to develop on the story (beyond known fact) and completely tarnish someone's reputation (dead or alive). After the first day of this news breaking out, the press went all out to find evidence to back up the police's claim and they even stooped to the level of hacking emails and facebook accounts to come up with messages that might show that the girl was of poor character, and that her relationship with her dad was strained, hence warranting the honor killing (I really do not wish to elaborate on this).
Move forward in time a few weeks and surprise surprise, after extensive investigation, it was proven that the father was completely innocent and that the girl did nothing wrong. And what do you get from the media, nothing. It is thanks to this media and the fabricated story of the cops that a father had to endure incredible trauma when in reality he would have been in mourning about his daughter's death. But, there is not even an inkling of an apology or a mention that they might have made a mistake. Absolutely nothing. And this infuriates me. A parent's connection to a child is something that only the parent can fully know the magnitude of and this is even stronger in the case of a father and his daughter, and the news media of India went all out to vilify this relationship.
I've actually been wanting to write this for a while now and I've just been letting the thoughts take shape in my head. What triggered my actually writing was this article
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3312296.cms
Please note that I'm not commenting on what the news is about but more on the media. I don't know (and neither does anyone else) know for sure if this was a dowry killing or not and if it is that is a subject for another discussion. But, as it is clear to see, before there is any proof of the circumstances and what actually happened, the news media has come to its own conclusion with absolutely no idea of the facts. No post-mortem report, no interrogations, but they already have a case of dowry killing according to them.
I feel that this literally amounts to character assassination and I'm sure that in any other country the news media would likely be sued (when proven wrong like the Arushi murder case).
Now if this were a single person's opinion I wouldn't really react this much since everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But this is the news, the media, the people who have the power to influence the decisions and the thought process of millions in just a few words (If you doubt this, just read the comments on the link above). Using the cliched statement from Spiderman "with great power comes great responsibility". And quite frankly, the news media does not seem to be even remotely responsible to possess such power and furthermore they are not in the least bit accountible. The trend of the news media in India these days is clear to see, sensationalist headlines and a whole lot of nonsensical fluff (Paris Hilton's dog anyone?). With a headline that is sure to make people read the article, the media makes its intentions extremely clear.
They're here to sell newspapers and increase TRP ratings, not report what really happens.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Friday, August 1, 2008
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Media -- What "Integrity"
At one point of time, I always thought that the media was a good field. You are informing the people about the truth about what was going on in the world, the country, their own city even. Yes, I know that it was an utopian way of looking at it but I never really understood politics back then.
But since last year, the whole media field is one that I find utterly repulsive. You must be wondering what happened to make my view change so drastically. It all began with the election time in Tamil Nadu when I first got a glimpse at the ugly side of the media, the side that makes it a very powerful political tool. There were two TV channels, each controlled by the two main competing parties going at each other with full gusto. One was going full steam about offering people free TVs and land if they voted for one party while the other was making equally outrageous promises.
Then there was literally mass buying of people from one side to the other, and when i say buying I literally mean that people were paid huge amounts just to change their stance. I don't know how many millions of rupees exchanged hands during that period, but people sure did change their stance, everyone from respected faces to movie stars. And how they changed, everything from falling prostrate at the feet of their "new" party leader to vilifying their former leaders using the foulest language possible. And all this was highlighted by the media more and more in a bid to woo the votes of the people for themselves.
But the best joke of all was when the final counting of votes was taking place. Both channels were displaying the count of the number of seats won by themselves and the other party together. And shockingly, both channels showed that their party was leading by over 40 seats. Only the supposedly neutral channels showed anything close to reality. Until the very last moment, until the final result was announced, the losing party's channel still showed them as leading by 50 something votes after which they abruptly ended this program and began showing a movie or something and resumed its everyday schedule like the election process never happened. The other channel showed celebrations of a grand magnitude and then it released the fine print in its promises of offering TVs and land to everyone.
While this was last year, more recently, even the neutral news channels seem to exhibit a habit of strongly taking one side or of ignoring a matter completely. Throughout the cricket world cup, news channels were hell bent on analyzing every aspect of the lives and the performances of the Indian team players rather than focusing on important news. News channels also have a tendency to try and outdo each other with each one making "sensational" sting operations and other such claims. This happened to such an extent that the government had to bring about a law to put a stop on such sting operations.
While you would hope that the media would be better outside the country, it isn't. The VT incident was capitalized upon by the various news channels which kept showing the killers face and even the videos over and over again to secure their TV ratings and in the process getting a maniac's last wish fulfilled. Media is also being used as a way to placate the people by making them believe in something that isn't quite true at times.
According to me, the clearest proof of a lack of integrity is when people jump the bandwagon and show their support of it as though they have supported it all their life. This is widely the case with fans of Chelsea FC in the English Premier League. These fans were nowhere to be seen until the Abramovich era. It is a similar situation with the media world. They made several mentions of the fact that Indians are making their country proud when a person of Indian origin became the president of one of the West Indian islands. Everyone now knows about Sunita Williams, the NASA astronaut of Indian origin. The key word here is "Indian origin", because she was born and brought up in the United States to an orphaned Indian father. She is also half Slovenian because of her mother and the only link she has to India is through supposed distant relations of her father in Gujarat.
Despite all these facts that show that she is barely Indian except for her origin, all the media in the country proclaimed that she was doing India proud. There were people supposedly praying for her safe return because of all the glitches on the International Space Station. While this sounds like a very concerned and considerate act, it was actually more an act of garnering media attention. There was not a single mention of the other astronauts scheduled to return with Sunita on Atlantis. There was just the constant repetition of stock video from her time in space and the constant proclamation that she is doing India proud. Upon her safe landing, her distant relations and a bunch of utterly random people in Gujarat even went to the extent of organizing a party and celebrating with fireworks just for their one moment in the media spotlight.
All this left me utterly disgusted with people. If you want to be proud of someone, be proud of the Indians who are risking it all to protect our country's borders, be proud of the people who are helping the country progress. Stop looking for some distant person who barely has any connection to the country just to proclaim that they are doing the country proud. Try to have the integrity to stand for something honest, stop kidding yourself that someone of Indian origin somewhere does something just to make India proud. If everyone was doing this, then England should be proud of America because it is of British origin and somewhere up in heaven there is a humanoid ape that is proud because its descendants are doing well for themselves.
But since last year, the whole media field is one that I find utterly repulsive. You must be wondering what happened to make my view change so drastically. It all began with the election time in Tamil Nadu when I first got a glimpse at the ugly side of the media, the side that makes it a very powerful political tool. There were two TV channels, each controlled by the two main competing parties going at each other with full gusto. One was going full steam about offering people free TVs and land if they voted for one party while the other was making equally outrageous promises.
Then there was literally mass buying of people from one side to the other, and when i say buying I literally mean that people were paid huge amounts just to change their stance. I don't know how many millions of rupees exchanged hands during that period, but people sure did change their stance, everyone from respected faces to movie stars. And how they changed, everything from falling prostrate at the feet of their "new" party leader to vilifying their former leaders using the foulest language possible. And all this was highlighted by the media more and more in a bid to woo the votes of the people for themselves.
But the best joke of all was when the final counting of votes was taking place. Both channels were displaying the count of the number of seats won by themselves and the other party together. And shockingly, both channels showed that their party was leading by over 40 seats. Only the supposedly neutral channels showed anything close to reality. Until the very last moment, until the final result was announced, the losing party's channel still showed them as leading by 50 something votes after which they abruptly ended this program and began showing a movie or something and resumed its everyday schedule like the election process never happened. The other channel showed celebrations of a grand magnitude and then it released the fine print in its promises of offering TVs and land to everyone.
While this was last year, more recently, even the neutral news channels seem to exhibit a habit of strongly taking one side or of ignoring a matter completely. Throughout the cricket world cup, news channels were hell bent on analyzing every aspect of the lives and the performances of the Indian team players rather than focusing on important news. News channels also have a tendency to try and outdo each other with each one making "sensational" sting operations and other such claims. This happened to such an extent that the government had to bring about a law to put a stop on such sting operations.
While you would hope that the media would be better outside the country, it isn't. The VT incident was capitalized upon by the various news channels which kept showing the killers face and even the videos over and over again to secure their TV ratings and in the process getting a maniac's last wish fulfilled. Media is also being used as a way to placate the people by making them believe in something that isn't quite true at times.
According to me, the clearest proof of a lack of integrity is when people jump the bandwagon and show their support of it as though they have supported it all their life. This is widely the case with fans of Chelsea FC in the English Premier League. These fans were nowhere to be seen until the Abramovich era. It is a similar situation with the media world. They made several mentions of the fact that Indians are making their country proud when a person of Indian origin became the president of one of the West Indian islands. Everyone now knows about Sunita Williams, the NASA astronaut of Indian origin. The key word here is "Indian origin", because she was born and brought up in the United States to an orphaned Indian father. She is also half Slovenian because of her mother and the only link she has to India is through supposed distant relations of her father in Gujarat.
Despite all these facts that show that she is barely Indian except for her origin, all the media in the country proclaimed that she was doing India proud. There were people supposedly praying for her safe return because of all the glitches on the International Space Station. While this sounds like a very concerned and considerate act, it was actually more an act of garnering media attention. There was not a single mention of the other astronauts scheduled to return with Sunita on Atlantis. There was just the constant repetition of stock video from her time in space and the constant proclamation that she is doing India proud. Upon her safe landing, her distant relations and a bunch of utterly random people in Gujarat even went to the extent of organizing a party and celebrating with fireworks just for their one moment in the media spotlight.
All this left me utterly disgusted with people. If you want to be proud of someone, be proud of the Indians who are risking it all to protect our country's borders, be proud of the people who are helping the country progress. Stop looking for some distant person who barely has any connection to the country just to proclaim that they are doing the country proud. Try to have the integrity to stand for something honest, stop kidding yourself that someone of Indian origin somewhere does something just to make India proud. If everyone was doing this, then England should be proud of America because it is of British origin and somewhere up in heaven there is a humanoid ape that is proud because its descendants are doing well for themselves.
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