Media and India

         Towards the midnight of 15^th August, 1947 - It was when the entire nation was glued to their radios, so that they could hear Jawaharlal Nehru, making history while delivering the first speech of free India – The Tryst with Destiny. 1947 -2016, almost everything about this country has changed. Back then, radio was the only medium of live media, but today, we have hundreds of options at hand.

One of the most powerful and relied upon option, among hundreds is the News Channels on TV. This is evident by the fact that, during the counting of votes of the recently concluded Bihar polls, the mistake in the facts of one news channel, shook the entire country, right from the common man to the government. And, when this was rectified, it was devastating for some and a breath of life for the others. From news on the share market to the prices of daily food, weddings of stars to high profile scams – they have it all. This is just an example prove, how dependent we have become on these channels and their anchors.

        The question here is – Are these channels taking undue advantage of their viewers and their confidence? Are they delivering news or manufacturing them?

      Our news channels manage to cover all stories related to the so called high profile people, be it their parties or funerals. There is all of it on the news, though; none of this will make a difference in any of our lives, largely. Quite obviously, the population of the common man is way higher and so are the happenings in and around their life. So, both, the news channels and the audience should take interest in what could be of major importance to everyone, rather than just looking for the “star” factor everywhere.

      We tend to believe anything and everything that is shown, without even taking a second to think if proper ground work has been done or not. This does not mean that there is no research done. Of course it is, but, to what extent? What is the amount of adulteration, no one knows.

      This in no way means that the effort of all the teams involved in bringing news to us should not acknowledged or appreciated. The task is commendable in all ways. But at some point, we all need to stop looking at everything from a commercial aspect. We need to add a humane touch to our lives, become more empathetic and understanding, rather than just being sympathetic.

      There is yet another dimension to this – the ‘type’ of coverage rather than the coverage itself. In the recent times, floods have caused a lot of destruction in the country – Uttarakhand in 2013, Chennai, Cuddalore in December 2015. Certainly the entire nation knows about both of these disasters, thanks to the media coverage given to them. We could relate ourselves to the people affected, because during those periods, all that the news channels showed were happenings at the respective places. What we do not know or cannot relate to is; the flood that impacted 1.5 million Assamese in September this year. This is because when Assam was devastated, our media was busy in decoding the mystery behind a 3 year old murder.

The same calamity affected different states of our country, but our reactions were different each time. Uttarakhand got the attention of the entire nation whereas Tamil Nadu got the support of South India and few Northern states as well. But Assam? No one apart from them was bothered. This happened not only during the flood, but is happening time and time again. How can we become so insensitive and indifferent?

It is said, “Nazariya badlo, nazaare badlenge” meaning, change your perspective and see the world around you, changing. This is exactly the need of the hour. There are a lot of noteworthy and positive achievements happening all over. So, instead of just focussing on the bad and negative, we can actually try and give credit to the good doers around us.