Statutory Warning: The title is Irrelevant.so if you are expecting something about subject.you can quit.
“Adnan” a teenager from Mumbai was kidnapped last fortnight, news was kept under wraps for few days, but it was leaked by some policemen eventually. And then news was splashed in all leading news papers. Mumbai Mirror had gone ten steps ahead, the news read, “The kidnappers seemed to be from good family & have good English. As per the police the last call was traced to …….”
Kidnappers panicked, dumped off the boy. Cut to present….with a possibility that the media might be held responsible in some ways, they are on a lookout for a scape goat. And what better than Orkut! So this kidnapping was termed as ‘Cyber Kidnapping’ & that too on the basis of a profile in Adnan’s Orkut friend’s list. And since then every body is having a field day. Orkut should be banned is the chant. But as on today it is very clear that Orkut was never there in the scheme of planning, the kidnapping was planned way ahead they were just on a look out as to whom to kidnap and this kid was the inopportune victim.
The responsibility in the above case lies partially on the Police(for leaking out the information), media for acting irresponsibly and publishing the news and to a large extent the family of the boy(though have no authority on commenting on it).
This is a classic case of Me 1st phenomenon currently in vogue as far as media is concerned(be it print media or mass media). There aim here is not to provide unbiased news but to provide news with a sole purpose of higher TRP’s.
There was a time when we had good Old Doordarshan to depend upon, for news. And at that time the news used to be Pro-Government & boring. Then, came Zee news in early nineties. It made its debut with a piece of news on a bunch of politicians fighting each other in a meeting. It was quite a piece with people tearing each other’s clothes. We all were very excited to see uncensored news and the then the expectations were high leading to a hope to see exciting and unbiased news & truth.
Cut to present, the news channels have come up like mushrooms. Every 3rd channel now is a news channel. All leading newspapers & magazines have some stake in each of these channels. And these channels have a stake in radios also.
In the hoard of publishing/ showing first and researching later the quality of news has worsened day by day. What we get to see is B-Grade news and that too made up news.
The media has lost its credibility for sure but should it loose its responsibility also? We all might know What Salman khan has had for dinner yesterday and he is using a toothbrush of which colour but do we know what is actually happening in the Tandoor Murder case? Or Nithari massacre? Or Nitish Katara murder?
Last year in October I was reading ‘Frontline’ and read an article which not only saddened me but appalled too. This was the case of Khairlanji(Maharashtra) where all the members(except one) of a family were gang raped and later burnt alive. The reason was they were from low cast and hand filed a genuine complain against the upper caste people. The news appeared 1st in front*ine and that too one month later. The attempts of the sole survivor to get an FIR done and to bring media were futile. News did appear in the local paper but stated wrong facts. I am enclosing the link to a site where you can read about the incident. I REQUEST EVERYONE TO READ THE ARTICLE TO KNOW THE BRUTALITY.
https://atrocitynews.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/khairlanji.pdf
The news was not reported by any of the leading dailies and nor was it covered by any of the Me 1st channels.
Instead of real news what we are getting to see is
$ Prince(and all other kids after him) fall into a pit its national headlines, an emotional pot boiler.
$ How many times Bacchan family has gone to Siddhivinayak & with whom.
$ Heated & numerous discussion on whether Dravid should have taken the decision of follow on. For God sake even do mistakes in our daily work, for him also this is his profession.
$ Repeats of reality shows on prime time news.
$ These days Zee is showing Lalu as leader Par excellence, why? Arrey he is appearing in their show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa….
$ A girl & a guy run off from their home and go to a news channel office, why? Because they know that that’s the place to get publicity from.
$ Live interview of some babe who says she has married Abhishek! Her purpose was to gain publicity and our channels gave her that….free of cost.
These channels & tabloids(there are no real news papers now) have lost their focus,
Instead of leading & guiding the people what they are giving us are some half baked lies.
No body is bothered about checking facts or presenting reality. The energies which they waste in sleazy sting operations or to know what actors are doing can be really centered on investigating the blast case.
But I think problem lies in us also, they show what people see and people see whatever is shown.
I think it’s high time that the media(all forms) should understand their responsibility first as citizens and then as guide to common people. They should be instrumental as a helping hand rather than being botheration.
They should be out there to report the acquittal of criminals like Shibu Soren instead of telling us what Salman or Sanjay had for lunch.
They should be out there to take the opinion of people as far as Nuclear deal is concerned instead of showing the re runs of laughter shows & reality shows.
They should be behind the lives of police or the concerned authorities to get results in ‘N’ number of unsolved bomb cases instead of wasting their energies on a spoilt brat like Rahul Mahajan.
They should be leading more campaigns like that of Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Matoo or the murder of Manjunath….
Though Times of India has launched a Lead India campaign but having visited the site I feel it’s just a face off and an in adequate effort.
Have loads to write but don’t want to go on and on…I just hope that the Channels & News papers rise above TRP’s or number of readerships….
Visit this link.https://ibnlive.com/news/tv-channel-stung-by-own-sting-on-sex-racket/48200-
3.html shows the present stage of Indian Media
PS The idea of the Title is to Grab Attention.(Read Ambuj's review on Titles:)
PPS These are solely my view.comments & reaction are welcome
