Great Chaitali. I'm glad you wrote about this. Many years ago, way before so many news channels surfaced, someone had said to me that the kind of electronic media that is developing in India will one day create a lot of trouble for it. Those words came back to me today.

Media creates our reality and it therefore must function responsibly. As you rightly say news channels are the most scary because they form our opinions like none other. I find most (99%) of the Hindi News channels to be simply outrageous in their content and their viewpoint. The English channels are a little more sophisticated in their presentation and their selection of news but even they have tremendous flair for turning non-issues into world threatening crises.

All you can rely on for change is really the hope that the number of discerning viewers will continue to increase (sounds like a chicken and egg situation) and so will their collective voice against all this nonsense.

Good article Chaitali, here with us it is the same and i also notice this in newspapers which sometimes have headings at the top of their articles that do not cover the contents at all, just to catch your attention.

My husband is very "matter of fact" about this. He compares the brain with a hard disk. Just put it on your hard disk he says and do not pay more attention to it than necessary.

We had in our country a music band that had a very simple solution lol, they sang:

Hey there is a knob on your TV
That can turn you from it all away :)

I have become very selective in watching TV or reading papers. On the Internet you have lots of news channels too nowadays. Guess it all will boil down in the end to awareness and our own choices.

Dear Chaitali,

nice article.

i am reminded of an incident which was told by M F Hussain when he was interviewed by a TV channel.

in the bygone era during the time of Chanakya, in the medieval India there was something as powerful and as slanderous as todays media...it was the ring of prostitutes.

it seems the shrewd Chanakya used to rely on this ring for breaking news and for spreading discontent among his enemies....

news, media....these days.....

the ring in those days....

Hussain said that the former had turned out to be more powerful entity than imaginable.

:)

lots of love

Chaitali just what I was trying to say on the open thread a few days back. News channels are really going overboard these days. I have almost stopped watching them.

Oof and the Hindi news channels tobah! Mera toh sir chakrata hain jab kabhi galti se bhi mein inhe dekhti hoon!

This thing that you have written about the handling of the stories is so true Chaitali. I remember once coming across a 'news item' on one of the Hindi channels where the reporter with his camera crew were busting a racket that a quack/tantrik was carrying out. They barged into her house. And started accusing her of fraud. The victim and her family too were present at the scene. But what was really infuriating me was that through out the episode the victim woman who was holding an infant (a baby girl ) in her arms kept weeping and saying that the quack had taken money from her and promised that she would be delivering a male child. Then she kept pointing to the infant in her arm and crying and howling now I have a girl child and I am doomed etc etc. They kept highlighting the woman's desperation. This went on through out the programme.

I was shocked to see this episode. I didn't know who I should sympathize with. The victim or the quack? Aur sach kahu toh mujhe zaada gussa uss victim aurat aur uske family par aa raha tha. Lag raha tha jake do chaper maar doon (apologize for the aggression but can't help it!) unko aur uss stupid reporter ko bhi!Here they were standing right in front of the camera mourning the birth of the girl child while carrying her in their arms. I felt so sorry for the little baby.

And the reporter just didn't bother. For him what was more important was all the dramatization that was helping him create thrilling experience for the audience.

There was no sensitivity at all in the story. The reporter could have connected it to how preference for male child gets people into taking such extreme steps and how the girl child is still considered a burden to parents and how this social ill needs to be removed. But no. This would not be masala mix for the channel.

Just imagine what a news like this is telling people. I'm sure many people who watched this programme must have been saying Oh! Poor woman could not have a boy. Stuck with yet another girl child. Is this how the channels think they are going to bring about any social consciousness in the people? If so then I think they need to get their heads checked. Unko apni dimaag ka ilaaj karana chahiye!

Must say this is a fantastic blog and I am really happy I came across it.

Hi Aachi, Mieki, North, Simran and Anusheh.

Dear Anusheh,

The media must understand that it has the power to change things but more important is what type of change it is trying to bring about. Progressive or regressive? Like the case that Simran mentioned on the open thread about the hue and cry that the channels were trying to make on the Katrina Kaif incident. Perhaps some sort of a monitoring scheme (by viewers) needs to be developed which will not inhibit freedom of expression but will help to direct it towards more sensible and sensitive direction.

Aachi,

Definitley media is a very powerful tool. And that is why those involved in it must be careful in what they are putting out to their viewers.

I too am reminded of a story. This one though is fictional. It was one of the Bond movies where a media tycoon in his desire to rule the media world (and through it the world) plots and plans events and circumstances that lead to situations were enemy countries unknowingly end up killing each others men. Once he is affirmed by his men that the work has been done he immediately airs it on his channel and prints it in his papers. So it's his company which has the breaking sansani news first!

Dear Mieki,

So the scene is the same everywhere. Even I've noticed many news items in the print media where the heading is something and the content something. No link. or even if there is its connection to the heading fills just two three lines of the item and the rest is all incidental things. Many items don't carry the necessary data or information or facts that will make the story more comprehensible.

Some of us are priviledged to be aware of all these things but there are millions who are not and for whom choices are also limited. I often wonder about where they are being lead to by these channels. It is quite scary.

Hi Simran,

Channels are too busy with their TRPS. Sensitivity is lacking just like the story that you mentioned. They think they are being sensitive by focussing on the woman's misery but on a larger scale they are doing just the opposite. Thanks for adding to how aggressivley the media is handling sensitive issues.

Glad you find the blog fascinating.

Good post Chaitali. I was just thinking of how many stories can be a case in point. In fact it's almost become a deterrent to watching news channels, especially Hindi ones, for the truth/objectivity is no longer something you rely on. I remember the whole fiasco with Rahul Mahajan and how the media in effect (on every news channel) did nothing but report that story as 'breaking news' for 4 days non-stop eclipsing deaths, terrorist murders and even key international events because they could not give us enough of the 'behind the scenes'. Not for a moment did anyone heading these channels ask themselves the very pertinent question- 'who is Rahul Mahajan anyways???' Naturally then they went on to make a sweet/hapless/victim out of him with equal aplomb, covering his wedding etc as if he were nothing short of a famous celebrity.

Really makes you wonder how this doctoring of 'public opinion' is in fact affecting the outcome of many cases in court, the behaviour of public figures and responsibility to the people.

Truly as you say we are quite in the 'hands of the fourth estate'.

Hi Chaitali and Jasjit,

We are truly living in a period of the information and communication revolution. But i believe it is also an evolution. Guess only thing we for instance as an aware parent can do is make our children and grandchildren aware of this.

And of course what you are doing here and your blogbook will no doubt have influence too.

I do not know if you have read some articles of DK Matai on the Intentblog. Some ten years ago he founded a few philantropic corporations, kind of think tanks in Europe of which many prominent people are a member. By means of his articles he is giving much information on different aspects of society and is encouraging the blog community at Intent to share and comment on their views and to try to develop solutions too.

And now for instance Al Gore is busy with a tour of awareness through Europe about the global climate change. Every news channel here in the different countries have an interview with him and show excerpts from his documentary movie.

Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing it :)