Day 234 - Media Abuse

Since the mid-eighties the one thing that I have very diligently followed is...News.  I have always been a current affairs maniac since my childhood.  Got into the habit of reading the newspapers when I was in the 5th standard at school.  To this date, the first thing that I look for in the morning is the newspaper.  A typical 'Madrasi Mama', I know!  If, for any reason, the newspaper isn't delivered on a given day, a sense of incompleteness prevails for the whole day.  In terms of visual media, since the days of Salma Sultan (with the mandatory flower) and Tejeshwar Singh (in his rich baritone) on Doordarshan I have been following the news.  'The World This Week' was the first current affairs based program that I really loved to watch.  I think the show opened up the world to us in a way that had never been attempted before.  Kudos to Prannoy Roy!

Speaking of Prannoy Roy, the psephologist par excellence, started delivering election results as well, in a way that no one had done before.  I was hooked again!  The liberalisation era opened up the media sector and there were these host of channels that started producing current affairs footage for all of the 24 hours in a day.  They even broadcast a war, live into our living rooms!  I was hooked onto channels like NDTV 24X7 and Aaj Tak (providing the Hindi dosage!).

Over the last couple years though, the media has gone crazy, especially the visual media.  Quantity has replaced quality.  Quality has nosedived.  Sensationalism is the mantra.  Clearly, commercialisation and competition is having an impact on the quality of the news.  The TV channels are bothered more about their circulation or TRP ratings.  Earlier, it was only restricted to local media but now even national TV news channels too have been hitting the screens with unusual stories, which have no relevance to the entire nation, apart from satisfying their voyeuristic tendencies.  These TV channels create episodes of their own based on suicide, crime, sex, corruption, magic and superstition which I guess, have nothing to do with news.  I DO NOT want to know about the domestic quarrel of a certain husband and wife in Meerut.  I DO NOT want to know about the goat which was born with an extra leg.  I DO NOT want to know the gory details of how a jilted lover took revenge by using acid!  Most importantly, I DO NOT want any of such episodes to be played again and again for an entire day, numbing my my senses.  I DO NOT consider these as news.

Journalism has hit a new low.  Needless to say, I hardly watch television news channels these days.  I still read the newspapers in the morning.  These have become booklets instead of the standard 10-12 pages of newsprint previously (some of the pages being full page commercial adverts); but they are not as bad as some of the visual media being dished out to us.

I am sure there will be more people out there who feel the same way.  I hope they outnumber those who like the programming of a few TV channels for their sensationalism.

Take care.