… and we blame the media!

Filed in Media 17 comments

TRP, Publicity, Sensation, Crime, Murder, Rape… and yes “Breaking News” – That’s what a present day Indian associate with the term “media”. Thanks to the LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) concept of early 1990′s and subsequent changes in the Cable TV Regulation Act and other laws that Media revolution boomed in India. From “Press” to the present day term “Media” did not took much time either. One might not know the ‘full form’ of TRP but every time some ‘spicy’ program is aired broadcasted, people say it is done for the sake of Publicity! For them, TRP stands for Television Rating Points.

Phew! Every time we see a blunder, we don’t at all miss the chance to get to the roots of the same – in the process sakes up the whole matter! The media does the rest…! Be it a God-man falling prey into a sex-scandal or the speech by the President, we tend to blame the media for the hype and sensation surrounding it.

But before blaming someone the whole industry, had anyone thought why these blunders are happening? The top person of the country is saying that price raise is benefiting the farmers! What a blunder! Other one is saying that because of raise in price of sugar, people will not take sugar and eventually reduce Diabetics! And one defining the Mumbai Taj incident said “Bade bade sahroo mein choti moti ghatnaye hoti rahti hai…!” (In big cities such small things happen)

Wow! That is the control and understanding that our so-called leaders are having in their speech and when the media catch up to this… we blame the media! I agree the India TV style (my mom will kill me I named it) news presentation is catching up in every form of media and that is ruining the image of what media was a decade back, but ‘media is governed by the society not by the board of directors’. Media is for the people and if people rejects a particular style of presentation then TRPs will be down and in turn the style will be changed by the organisation. After all like marketing and “politics”, media too is a profession…

Media is a reflection of the society and the mindset of the society. A Chinese style TV serial won’t have best of the TRPs. An alien style news presentation will only get the underwear ads (oops! I named it again). We need to be mature ourself and need to respect the chair we hold – we never go that deep and we blame the media…!

This is a very controversial topic and I want your feedback in shaping the opinion. Do share your opinion here.

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Posted by JD @ 9 March 2010 17 comments

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Mar 9, 2010
9:36 am

#1 Nalini Hebbar :

I think that the press is doing a real fine job blowing up itsy bitsy news beyond proportions (I admit they are going overboard for whatever reason–TRP, eyeballs. advrts) but who cares about them!!!!
I am personally happy that there is atleast one watchdog against corruption…of the financial as well as the moral kind…for that I thank the media!!!…we can't trust the police, the judiciary, the politician, the govt. servant, the doctor, the hospitals…no one at all!!!

Mar 9, 2010
10:30 am

#2 WASIR PHUKAN :

YEAH THATS supremely TRUE, TRP's the ADs & all that……but these days sometime media is taken as weapon by politicians for their benefits & to show wrong directions & opinions to the general public for their benefits,(a news live only praise congress in assam as it is own by one of its ministers) specially to small town people….as they are not so jagruk as they say!!

Mar 10, 2010
2:27 am

#3 Jayanta Deka :

@ Nalini
The press is doing all the needful in comparison to others. But again remember it is a business!
The Indian media might not be able to find a solution to a problem, but they can at least make the corrupt system think twice before going for the kill.

Mar 10, 2010
2:31 am

#4 Jayanta Deka :

@ Wasir
There's always two sides of the tale. Media is a business and a part of the system, so corrupting the media is another corrupt practice!
As far as local news channels are concerned, they are more vulnerable to propaganda as money matters at the end of the day.

Mar 10, 2010
4:18 am

#5 anuja :

Media has been given the status of fourth pillar in our country.Media has the power of strong driving force,its certainly true people first watch the scam or scandal enjoy it n then blame media for the same.they don't see there r many cases which has been highlighted by media and ultimately forced the govt to provide justice…

Mar 10, 2010
8:07 am

#6 runjun :

I agree with you all, that media is playing a vital role by policing the police in our utter corrupted system. But it disturbs me a lot that sometimes in the run to grab more sensational news, the media persons forget what is right, and provokes civilians to behave abnormally. The live coverage of suicide of Gopal Krishnan Kashyap, the social activist, shows that like any other sector of today's system, media too is more concerned about business than the real help to the sufferers. The current scenario is really a matter of concern. Eyeball is an important part of their existence but they should not forget that younger generation is more concerned about real news and not self created sensations. The way they present silly things with the tag 'Breaking News' is really irritating. Above them is the sound bytes they use with those clips!! They sometimes get upon our nerves! Otherwise fine…

Mar 11, 2010
1:56 am

#7 Jayanta Deka :

@ anuja
I somehow agree, as my blog post too suggest; but many a times I fail to understand the actual blunder they do! In the race of "exclusives" I feel most part of the story is not properly shown. The process of news reporting is to show 5Ws and 1Hs at the beginning but they keep them to be discussed at the end and make sensation of it.
What comes first is just the questions and not the answers!

Mar 11, 2010
2:09 am

#8 Jayanta Deka :

@ Runjun
Nice to get your comments this time here itself!
Coming to the point – You cannot pre-fix what you will do in certain point of time! Yes, Gopal Krishnan incident was a shame, but if you see it the other way the media was doing its duty only. Media is not "police" that it will keep stopping such incidents. Remember Media is not a government service like Army or Police. If one is severely ill, even doctors charge huge sum to treat that! Same goes with media! More to that media serves most of the population for free! (a nominal cost in comparison to the actual recurring cost!) and it is a business!
Well, I agree the short comings and can't at all speak for the "media" too! I hate people who take the camera to shoot films – not news – and hate the tone with which news is presented. If I keep on listening to such tone, I might end up hating Hindi (oops I said that!)
Media is still driven by the people. Stop commenting after watching the program, rather revolt before hand – because if you watch it, it means you liked it!
Keep the spark alive…
Cheers Life..
JD

Mar 11, 2010
8:51 am

#9 runjun :

@media was doing its duty only. Media is not "police" that it will keep stopping such incidents. Remember Media is not a government service like Army or Police.
—————————————
Duty!!! Yeah, duty only! The duty of acquiring business! We are so involved in our business that we cant behave like a human. We could peacefully see someone preparing to burn himself/herself…such is our sense of duty! If you think that stopping someone to kill himself in the fit of emotion, is the duty of police or army only, then I am sorry! I can't agree with you.
———————————-
Stop commenting after watching the program, rather revolt before hand – because if you watch it, it means you liked it!

Watching a program once does not mean liking it! Could you judge taste of a food without trying it once?
Liking something means you should have a desire to watch it again and not running away from it….I had a roommate who was pursuing a course in journalism and she made it a routine to watch news everyday. I always wondered how she watch those clips again and again. And just to save myself from it I tried to reach home as late as possible or keep cooking in the kitchen!! In place of watching news channels, and making my BP high, I prefer to read print news.

(I am sorry if my comments hurt your emotions. Hope you would not mind it on personal grounds..)

Mar 12, 2010
2:19 pm

#10 rupam sarma :

Hi JD,
How are you? Thanks for visiting my blog & I read your post.

Regards
Rupam

Mar 13, 2010
4:06 am

#11 ddeka :

Overall media is doing its duties and highlighting ,alerting the people about most of the issues. It has great impact on the societies as well as on all sectors of the systems which may be political / social/ economical issues.
It is the platform to discuss all issues openly and able to establish true democracy in a country.

Mar 16, 2010
5:24 am

#12 trips in city :

Im just wondering…were the war crimes and human rights abuses only perpetrated from the Serbian side, since there appears to be an absence of Bosniam muslims and Croat leaders, facing any charges. In my view there are always two sides to a story, and I wouldnt want to think that the Serbs are now on trial, because they had dared to refused the concessions suggested bt the UN.

Mar 16, 2010
11:48 am

#13 Magali :

We all love playing the blame game & so the media becomes the perfect scapegoat for everything…

Mar 19, 2010
12:12 pm

#14 Aradhana Agrawal :

No doubt, you have chosen a very controversial topic on which discussion is still going on and it never ends. Well, who knows the truth? Mango people never apply their brain in judging which news is right or wrong.Have you heard this phrase "face sells everything",everything depends upon the way you present.Why India TV is the most watched news channel in India although it always shows crap things.But who will be going to tell viewers.Every Coin has two faces;Head and tail where one blames media and other support it.So, everyone is correct in his/her point of view

Mar 22, 2010
5:18 am

#15 Anonymous :

Hi Jayanta,
I'm sure you won't be knowing me even though we are 'classmates'.

Nice to do through your post '… and we blame the media!'. A nicely written post.

A few comments/queries. Here we go.

(a).Be it a God-man falling prey into a sex-scandal.

Do you really think the God-man fell prey to (into) the sex-scandal? I think he was not innocent and can't be seen as a prey. In fact, he was the hunter. Sorry to differ….

(b).An alien style news presentation will only get the underwear ads (oops! I named it again).

Do you think underwear ads are lowly OR the underwear is lowly? If the ans. is underwear ads then it is ok else I protest coz a thing protecting valuable asset can't be lowly. LOL….LOL.

Keep it up Jayanta.

Mar 30, 2010
10:37 am

#16 Anonymous :

Hii,Jayant
Me and some of my frnds hv started an E-magazine called Reader's Quotient it is totally for a noble cause of funding education to needy children, just wanted to ask if u shall be interested to come along with us
If yes pls contact us at sangeeta.goswami@readersquotient.com
Waiting for ur revert

Regds/Sangeeta
http://www.readersquotient.com