Friday, July 11, 2008

Indian media: Too much of sensationalism

I don't get to watch Indian television daily, but I still keep an eye on them once in a while by visiting their websites. The two sites I visit so are CNN-IBN and NDTV. These are sort of the two large English visual media in India. For the last one month or so, one issue (other than perhaps the left Congress party fiasco over the proposed nuclear deal with the united states) widely flashed is a murder of a young teenage girl Arushi in Noida, a suburb of Delhi. The unfortunate girl apparently had to pay an innocent life to the cruel world of cunning and sheer callousness. The callousness of the cruel people leave the society to a state of shock and uneasiness. A sense of fear is invited all around. But my point is none of these.
I am appalled by the way the Indian media went about sensationalizing this news. I can understand the many soap Indian yellow news channels (most of the Hindi news channels are just that) going this way. The two celebrated Indian news channels NDTV and CNN-IBN are just no better. Day in and out their journalists competed to present a set of tabloid style news with the quest to attract the greedy readers and audience. I say this with utter disappointment. Here is a girl, the only child to their parents and she is lost. There is investigation on going. It is a basic courtesy not to write stories about the victim's family without having enough substance to what they talk about. News readers and media can talk senselessly on any topic and feel happy for it. Their flash news are spread across the country like tabloids. There must be some integrity and social responsibility before they venture into such silly acts. I dont have a problem when they expose any irregularities in the investigation or any cover up. But they should not air their verdict as if they are the supreme, even before doing a proper evidence collection. After saying nonstop incorrect stories about the family, now they can simply accuse the police and CBI for all what happened. Look at the family. They lost her daughter, they are portrayed as villain to the public, they lost their social reputation and health. Man this is agonizing. Police and CBI can be questioned, later on for all wrong doing. They can still be brought to justice, for any harm they created, but who can question or challenge the media? They offer all kind of accusations, but they are the one who enjoy the freedom to tarnish anyone of their choice. This is not a good going for the channels which claim to have reputed journalists. Pity!

3 Comments:

Blogger Pankaj Panjwani said...

This is world full of crazy business people. Media houses like Hindu suffer because they dont give all this masala to public.

8:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Completely agree. It is really sad to see these glorified journalists being too childish and acting smart. Look at the blog written by the senior most executive of CNN-IBN. What can we say about the lesser members? This is the blog by Diptosh Majumdar
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/views/honour-and-prejudice/51155.html
Isnt he a ashamed of writing such senseless piece of crap? Isnt he having a family, sister and mother and daughter? Then after all this, CNN-IBN had a session debating about the very purpose of media sensationalism (after the CBI folks addressed the media briefing the conclusion of their investigation). These media can reap money for that as well. There they state that, "while section of the media indulge in so and so..., it is unfair to stereotype the whole media". What a big piece of joke. Here is a media with full of hype and pride. Their journalists including the top most editor wanting to show his mettle by writing insane articles and now they act smart and tying to wash their hands in darkness. High time, people realize their hypocracy.

5:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good words.

4:23 PM  

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