Tryst With Destiny

P. Sainath is one of the most respected Indian journalist of this era. He is the 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award for journalism, literature, and creative communication arts. He has articulated what many people have believed all this while.

Dissent

P. Sainath claims that anything worthwhile that has happened in journalism has happened because of dissent. This is nothing new, journalism was always about dissent. Yet you will have to stretch your memory to indeed remember when was last that the Indian Media showed dissent against the government. Does anyone believe that after Tehelka Scam our minister have not taken bribe? Indian media houses have consciously decided to not go against the government. News is not only about reporting what is happening but also about uncovering the unscrupulous deals our ministers are brewing up. If it is so then why despite explosion in number of news channel not even a single scam gets reported. Be it the spectrum policy or huge graft charges in the national highway development project or farmer suicides. I rarely see electronic media raking those issues up.
Is this lack of dissent good for the nation? No one in their senses could respond in affirmative to that. The reasons are not difficult to cognizance. Media is a huge business these days. Nobody wants to go up against the government and risk their moolah.

We show only what the readers want

I have heard this statement many a number of times from editors of news channels and Mr. Sainath has put it the best way it could be put. I will only enumerate certain category of shows that I see on "news" channel that have no business being there.

1. Comedy Shows. This is as oxymoronish as it gets. What business do comedy shows have on a news channel. What is even more absurd is the fact that they don't have any comedy show of their own. They just run clips of shows running on entertainment channels.
2. Tantrik Shows. Is this news. That's all I can muster when I see this kind of shows on television. I believed the news is all about spreading awareness and fight against superstitions. Here we have certain news channels doing the exact opposite and actually strengthening the same by.
3. Saas Bahu Shows. As if saas bahu shows were not enough on entertainment shows, we now have actual news channel shows dedicated to cover TV Shows. I believe India will be the only nation in this whole wide world where we have news shows tracking happening of soap operas.
4. Baba Shows. You wake up in the morning and on TV various babas would prop up to spread their version of religion. This despite the fact that we have numerous channels dedicated to these babas.
   
5. Crime Shows. This is not a genre of shows which unique to India like the four pointed above. Almost every news channel throughout the world has some type of crime show on it. It is not the show per se but the manner in which these shows are presented which is where I have problems. According to me dramatic re-enactment of interrogation is nothing but titillation. That is just one instant I have always found that crime shows instead of focusing on crime try to focus on crime which titillate general public. To add to this recent allegation in which minors abducted and subsequently battered a friend to death in Ghaziabad. I believe the time has come when a certain code of conduct has to be drawn up as to how crime can be reported.
   

As Mr. Sainath also points out if a Fashion week for seven days we have our media following it as if an event of national importance is taking place. What they forget is that less than 3% of this nation's population is able to buy those clothes. And we have no show which shows rural poverty, distress of the poorest. Media can't run away from their responsibility like this. It has to be held accountable and it is we the people who will have to rise and hold them responsible.

Race for TRP

In the race to be the first to report News channel report stuff without verifying the facts and often end up character assassinating people. Two recent examples come to mind Mr. Talwar in the Aarushi Murder Case and the poor school teacher of a girl school who was implicated in a fabricated sting operation of girl student trafficking case. Indian Media has got into the habit of presenting news in a spiced up manner. Be it terrorist strike, rape cases, murders or plane cricket controversies nothing seems to be beyond the reach of these spice merchants. They repeatedly show the same stuff repeatedly and some time end up provocating public. TRP has become end all of everything.

For them Amitabh's visit to sherwood is news enough to show the entire day. They love when Rakhi Sawant comes on TV. Is it news is anyone’s guess. The time has come when News Channel realize that the path they have chosen is only making them losing their credibility.