Media Fails Us
Posted : January 26, 2007 at 9:24 pm [IST]
I happened to hear the speech of President Kalam yesterday on the eve of our Republic Day. He had made reference to some wonderful work that has been done by the individuals, institutions, or some state. Let me start with some of those.
Shall I talk to you about the proud feeling I had when the farmers in Punjab succeeded in doubling the seed cotton productivity in tune with the world record?
Shall I talk to you how a village in northeastern state has become prosperous by developing its core competence in native silk production?
Shall I talk to you about the elation of the Gujarat farmers celebrating the arrival of electricity to all the villages in the State?
Shall I talk to you about many great human beings whom I met in various parts of the country such as, one great soul providing the leadership for transforming a polluted rivulet into a clean river in Punjab through the efforts of pilgrims themselves, or about another divine soul who has connected the hearts of people of Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu through the flow of water or about another divine personality, building a bridge connecting the peninsular region to the mainland near Kochi over the backwaters of the Arabian Sea in the Tsunami affected area?
Shall I talk to you on how 65 villages with a population of one lakh in Tamilnadu have generated a self-sustaining economy through PURA?
Shall I talk to you about the way that the judicial system of the State became a partner for on the spot disbursal of compensation to the victims of an earthquake in J&K for ensuring timely compensation to the right persons?
The speech has some more references of unique achievements that hardly get any coverage. Neither the media talk of the achievements or major failures of the projects of the national importance, such as Bharat Nirmaan or NREG, nor it covers the road, irrigation and electrification projects for the rural India that could have helped the country go ahead faster on the road of development.
Let me confess I have not come across these success stories in the national newspapers that I read. The national newspapers are shy of covering the success stories of Indian people in different fields. Why is that? Like the bollyhood endeavours (that has been proven wrong hundreds of time through flopped films), the media too keep on working under a misunderstanding that only the news regarding Nithari, Nitin Katara, Jessica Lal, or Kavita Chaudhry, and Madhumita Shukla are the marketable ones, and are liked by the Indian people reading newspapers. As per the journalists and reporters, the hot news only serve the Indian tastes and society, and so these news get covers running in pages and to all details.
Even in the national newspapers of January 26, there is hardly a respectable coverage of even the President’s speech on the eve of the Republic Day. Is it not surprising that there are so many awards from Padma to gallantry award for extraordinary brave work of the children from all over the country? Why are the stories of these persons of extraordinary merits and achievements are not told for the benefit of the mass? On the other hand, the same national newspapers have covered the news of public anger against the monsters of Nithari fame with all humane touch and in all details with a number of colour photographs. What is the message that the media wish to pass on to the public by giving all the coverage to the culprits of Nithari? Can these coverage not induce some more psychologically sick persons to repeat the horrendous work of Nithari style to get publicity with photographs on the leading news magazines of the country?
Why can’t the media cover at least 20% of the space for the work going on in rural India, or some great achievements of our technologists, scientists and educationists? Does it happen because of the inferiority complex among the journalists community but for some exceptions?
In last few months perhaps the foreign news media and their reporters have covered the achievements of Indians better than the Indian reporters both in quality and quantity. Latest *Business Week has beautiful article on outsourcing in rural India. Why can’t Indian media follow the examples? I saw a similar indifference in coverage of the recent Bihar Global Meet. The same media that has been covering all the jester-like statements of the great leader of Bihar and all stories of kidnappings in Bihar for years in all details didn’t bother to cover the event.
Let the media take some responsible step and not only those that are meant for page 3 celebrities. Let the media appreciate what the President writes in a special article for The Times of India on the Republic Day, “In short, the media is for the one billion people of India and has a big role in bringing smile on every face.” Why can’t the media go for a little re-engineering the structure and content to suit the need of the country and see it helps itself too?
*Outsourcing Heads To the Outskirts
Pilgrimage To the Heart Of Yoga
- Indra
Category: Industry/Management |
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