Needs to undergo some changes!. Review on Gujarat Samachar

Gujarat is favourite target for conflicts and controversies. These days there is a media war between two Gujarati dailies - Gujarat Samachar and Divyaa Bhaskar. The latter came with a bang in June 2003 and from that day, the monopoly of Gujarat Samachar was shattered into pieces.

Gujarat Samachar(GS) is published from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat and Mumbai. It has enjoyed monopoly in local dailies since past few decades, as other newspapers such as Sandesh, Jansatta..etc. etc. were not preferred by people. Ever since I started reading newspapers, a few years back, I have read GS, and The Times Of India. I always felt that the news were hollow. They were either missing something or were blown out of proportion.

Everyone remembers the communal riots which took place in Gujarat 2 years back and the killer quake which hit Gujarat the year before that. Gujarat Samachar played a major role in overhyping the former incident. During the riots, all you can see in the newspapers was pictures of cars and autorickshaws burning and empty lanes due to curfew. The lines would read nothing but how many Hindus and Muslims were killed. It did nothing but creating more tension between the two communities. Instead of promoting peace, all it did was promoting violence. People get easily influenced by media, and it took advantage of this and provoked violence. There were rumours that the editor of the newspaper allegedly took a few crores of rupees to stop printing about so much violence.

People have the tendency to remember all the negative aspects. They don't remember the exemplary feeling of brotherhood these two communities showed in 2001 Earthquake which hit Gujarat on the Republic Day. But, they remember only communal riots which took place in Gujarat.

I think Gujarat Samachar people get some unexplained thrill by creating a sense of disgust in the minds of the people. Whenever someone will commit suicide or there will be a murder in the city, that Gautam Mehta the photographer has to take the pictures and print it on front page. If they write an article on it, its fine. But showing a picture of dead body in such a condition is not really what I look in for a piece of news.

Moreover, I wonder what the editor has in mind when he selects the front page news... On the following day of Dusshera, the front page news will be ''Amdavadio 2.5 crore na faafda-jalebi ohiya kari gaya'' (People of Ahmedabad belched after consuming faafda(a deepfried item) and jalebi worth 2.5 crores.) If thats not enough, the front page will show a man frying faafda and jalebi in some shop. This will be followed by the some short stories of shopkeepers who sell faafda and jalebi. Gimme break!!

Once in every 6 months, they will print a picture of a dead body of a cow, and it will be followed by the news item that the cow died and 4 kg plastic bags were found in her stomach. Accepted that proper disposal of plastic bags is necessary, but I am sure that there are better ways to create this awareness.

Anyways, with Divyaa Bhaskar coming into picture, these people havn't slept properly in past 8 months. They started to attract consumers by offering them gifts, that too guaranteed ones.. like a bucket, soaps, detergent powders(??) and all... All you have to do was to cut coupons from the front page, stick them up on a piece of paper and give it to them. Me and my mom argue every morning, because as soon as I hold the paper in my hands to read, I find a square holee in the the front page... One day I asked her, who's picture was it in the coupons? she replied that.. she thinks its either Rabindranath Tagore or Jesus Christ (????) and it turned out to be Monalisa.. LOLLLL....

But now, if Gujarat Samachar has to survive in this competition, it has to bring up the level of news, because, competition out there is quite tough...