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Our Latest Story
Mydeas Story: Media Woes and Media Woos…
Not only the television, but the more compact of boxes, the laptops and handy cell-phones have been abuzz with the keyword ‘Anna Hazare’ for the last fortnight’s time. Now at 35 million search results, while Anna ruled cyberspace, to no one’s agony perhaps, the idiot box didn’t take heed from earlier national level events, and kept recording, telecasting and repeating the Ramlila Maidan footages like no less than a reality show, especially the one that boasts of 30+ cameras working round the clock! If such is the stance of our country’s media, Peepli Live wasn’t an exaggeration then. They don’t try to serve us a sense of responsibility or just raw news. They hover around the same old TRP hunting sensationalism. Starting 15th August, when they all had the Independence Day special for all their shows, it has been a dream run for the Indian Media till Anna chose to break his fast this Sunday. While TRPs soared, ad slabs were at their max, the common Indian had started feeling constipated with so much of just one thing! At one point we are 28 states and 7 U.T.s which are as diverse as chalk is to cheese, the other way round, the nation unified, has its eyes stuck to a revolution-in-the-making. All this loyalty is not cent percent because they all want to, but mostly because the driving force, our media wants it to be so! Of course the media is the voice of the people, our medium to raise a voice, it sometimes plays Chinese Whispers and sends the message which was never there! We are a country of superlatives! Hence medium in plural becomes media! And how!On most days we had a little rain, a lot of sun and humidity beyond tolerance. The 40 odd media vans, burning diesel to get their transceivers work stood outside the Maidan. Also with them they brought a plethora of cables, entangled to add to the mess already there and getting the couch potatoes the live feed for everything that is not needed along with some real news here and there. With the cameramen and the reporters on their feet round the clock and expecting a masala act to take place like Bedi’s Ghunghat Act or Swami Agnivesh being caught on cam, the ones at home could only cry ‘stop’ to the unending repeats of the footage.
If someone would have been all thanks to the media for this unabashed coverage, would be the Indian Cricket team that despite losing all they could will just be under the managements axe and not at the the mango people’s expense for just the only time in many years. However, that simply drafts out the inconsistency of the work ethics and standards that our media houses practice!
It is no sin to do all this on grounds of sensationalism et al. The concern arises when somewhere in the ticker of a government news channel we come to notice that the floods of Eastern India have gone worse or that the constitutionally elected MPs have to bear the brunt for just not being on the Anna side of things!. There hasn’t been a day missing moments of drama, politics and gross remarks over political names and cameramen rushing to such hoards. . All this and more was witnessed in the revolution for a better India. Media being the agent of this a change needs to take its role much more diligently rather than just business. It would be wise if they created just business out of entertainment and just news out of national matters! It certainly gets mixed up more than often.
Nonetheless we are ready to digest it with just a grunt now and then but a more responsible approach will surely be a welcome change. Let us not give them a chance to capture sensationalism. Let us be sane. Charity begins at home. So does change.