Finally! Abhishek and Aishwarya have got married!! All the news channels must have heaved such a sigh of relief!! Thats quite a herculian task off their shoulders!! And this one, particularly, is off our shoulder too!! Can anyone believe it??!! 4 days in a row..all that one gets to hear is where the flowers came in from..or where the mother in law got the beautiful daughter in law her sarees from..how much they costed...what the 'tent' is like..!!! God!! It almost asphyxiates me, as I"m sure it does to any other sane human being!! I wonder whether they had any paan at the wedding...wonder why the media left that little detail unnoticed! They're not doing their job well enough it seems!
A daily newspapers headline..on Page One read.."most eligible bachelor marries most beautiful woman"..does anyone care?? But, we do care when you consume such precious space for frivolous gossip items such as these...have we run out of political and social issues to address or have they been overshadowed with the glitz of such star weddings? I think the latter comes out rather glaringly...and shamelessly.
And then one has the very blown up Shilpa Shetty Kiss!!! This one I find rather "funny"!! Why "funny" you will ask...funny, because here is this girl whose modesty has been outraged..she's the one who's been supposedly forced into an act and yet, SHE is the one who has to face the wrath of her fellow Indians!! I find it absolutely flabbergasting!! Why are HER effigies being burnt?? If we feel that a wrong has been done, we must also recognise against whom it has been done...obviously, there has to be a victim!!
Victimising the victim....thats what this one seemed like to me! Support the lady if you feel so strongly about it!! And then, again, here the lady seems to have no objection to what was inflicted on her..wonder why the world seems to have a problem! And even if it did not in the first instance, the Media, by constantly rerunning the 2 min episode, making it look like a 2 hr kiss will grill it into our heads that "something" is wrong here!!So, we are left with a situation where our thoughts are moulded by someone else's sensibilities....I so hope there was SOME sense in it though!!
With each of my passing blogs, I seem to be becoming a Media critic!! Absolutely unintentional I would say..but it seldom leaves you without strained nerves....and a questioning mind.
posted by Nupur Bhatnagar @ Sunday, April 22, 2007
4 Comments:
print media is still better , at least in editorial there is someone who takes some stands on some issue ..! i read karan thapar and vir sanghvi taking stand on issues of morality wat it means
in context with media and how it is publicizing! yours was 3rd in the row .!
gud work!
news channel talks of all crap .." some news channel are telecasting ramsay horror stories as their exclusive stories".
"they will talk about how rakhi sawant or blah blah put an obscene show at jhumritallaya or watever " and then will telecast that obscene show also..!!
long way to go!!
A brilliant piece! Your views on the media, specially the electronic media are shared by every sensible and mature adult in the country. The fact is that electronic media has become synonymous with sensationalism. What worries me the most is that even news is now sorted according to its ‘saleability’. I remember my English teacher in junior school telling me that good reporting is when the personal opinion of the journalist or that of the media house for whom he works is not allowed to colour the story. Although I still remember my lesson, the media sure has forgotten its own. Guidelines of the Press Council of India are thrown into the bin and TRP has become the factor that decides what has to be aired and what has to be left out.
Another disturbing trend that I have noticed in the recent past is the use of the words ‘Breaking News’. ‘Breaking News’ traditionally has referred to a big news item that has recently been discovered. There are 2 essential elements that are the sine qua non of ‘Breaking News’-the size(or impact) of the news(read :big) and the recent discovery of it. Though the latter requirement is met more often than not, the former is readily brushed aside. ‘Breaking News’ had been a word that was reserved for special news items. It is for this reason that no matter how busy one might be, the flashing of ‘Breaking News’ on the TV set always attracts ones attention. These days, we get to see ‘Breaking News’ everyday and no longer does the word serve the function that it did in the past. The electronic media cries wolf everyday and the day is not far when people will not bother to stop at a news channel while channel surfing even if the news on their screen is indeed ‘Breaking news’. One news channel goes to the extent of flashing ‘Breaking News’ on a bright red background on the entire screen. The result- while in the middle of live coverage, the viewer gets to see not the news item, but the channel boasting of its prowess in getting the live pictures to you.
Although newspapers in our country remain ‘largely unaffected’ by the dirt spread by the electronic media, it would not be right to say that they are ‘completely unaffected.’ Most stories on the front page of leading national dailies use words like-grotesque, dirty and biased and pronounce judgments while the trial that is being mentioned in the story is yet to begin. Also, the journalist covering a story feels that he always knows more about the story than the story knows about itself. Take for example the case of the Nithari killings. Any good lawyer will tell you that the prosecution will not mention Section 302 in the chargesheet when a prima facie case of murder is not made out. The prosecution cannot in the chargesheet allege that Pandher is a co-conspirator unless it has evidence to prove the same. In the case in question, not an ounce of evidence exists against Pandher. Charging Pandher with sections that he is not likely to be found guilty of will not only make the prosecution appear like a fool before the court but will also affect the case of Koli negatively. Once the prosecution has destroyed its own credibility before the judge, the judge will fail to call a spade a spade merely because the prosecution is calling it one.
Since the news channels are dishing out entertainment and not news, I have a piece of advice to give to them. The electronic media must realize that if it continues to behave in such a manner, people are likely to get bored and find other means of ‘entertainment.’ I can’t think of a better example than saas-babu soaps. Once the hot favourite of every household, they have now become tales of sorrow that not many bother to watch.
I quite agree with what u said abhishek...a couple of my previous blogs are also a reaffirmation of the same. I think we are fighting a lost battle when it comes to the electronic media, but the print media does, however leave a ray of hope for most of us...(esp The Hindu!! ;)hehe)
I think after this discussion, both of us are in for a massive censure and reproof from the Gods that be of the media!! :D
when men are made into gods the world slanders...and so the "abhi-ash" wedding fails to have any luster.....
but as for the shilpa shetty case...hmmmm...i really don't think she is the victim here..and even if you call her that it would be a superficial thought.. the real victim is the mind of the Indian people in general... it has succumbed completely to double standards.. has planted its floundering feet not on the firm ground of reason but on the marshes of confused morality and is sinking to its muddled depths...the mind of the Indian needs to come to terms with its own thoughts and carve an identity for itself from its own red and black soil rather than the seasonal white snow of the west which merely turns the soil to a undecipherable gooey mass...a puddle with a shallow bottom...no depth..no clarity...no horizon...
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