Media. Is. Revolting.

Its shocking. India is so rapidly coming on the world map. Emerging as a country that MATTERS. And yet the Indian media is so irresponsible and pretentious. There are a number of news channels aplashed across the telly tody but none can claim to responsibly report news. Instead they all aim at twisting and stretching news in whatever way needed to emptionally enrapt the foolish mass of audience that dosent distinguish between drama and news.
Take for instance the news about the five year old boy Prince, who fell into a narrow dith and was pulled out after about 50 hours. The media had a ball. The kid was shown repeatedly either sleeping, or eating, or crying till he was finally fetched out. After around 30 hours of digging had been done, the media started announcing that the boy was now just a few moments away, just a few feet away, and dragged that piece of news for another 20 hours.
There was just one boy and one ditch. And too many news channels. shamefully enough they could not even get the basic information like the boy's age, right. Some claimed it to be 6, some five. Nor could they agree upon the depth of the ditch. While some announced 50 feet, some 56, some 60...
Even more shameful was the response of the public. To merely hear their voices on TV people from god knows where would call up and announce that they'd been up all night praying, or watching TV or lighting candles or even organiuzing public prayers for the boy.
To be honest, the situation hardly seemed that dire to me. The kid was given enough food, seemed to be in quite a comfortable position, and had a very justifiable enough reason to have played hookey from school! Then why all this unnecessary hype???
And even after the boy was fished out, he kept appearing in different TV channels, playing, pranking, and generally being made an unnecessary fuss of. Its a very obvious enough proof that all the media is there to do is to keep the general public distracted in such mindless emotional dramas. Now whether it is encouraged to do so by the politicians, or hotshots who profit in some way from doing so, or is simply tempted because the general attitude of the public itself is still so entwined in the same.
It is understandable enough to want to wish the boy well. But there appeared to be NO such complications as to have expected him to be otherwise. It is understandable enough to be curious about whether the boy came safely out or not. But I cannot and absolutely cannot digest the fact that people prayed all night, and not just one or two, but scores and ascores, hordes and hordes, wishing the boy to get out. If humans had so much humanity in them
then terrorism wouldnt plague us. And those scores of phonecalls that claimed to have prayed for Prince would have jammed the phonelines of all media channels when the bomb blasts in Mumbai happened. Shockingly enough, I didnt hear any such phone calls....
The media is such a strong weapon in forming public opinion, making or breaking it. While it still remains to be decided that whether should media undertake the responsibility of forming people's opinion or not, or merely act as an informant, it should atleast be responsible enough to not resort to mindless drama.
Reporting news, and reporting it correctly and accurately is a responsibility enough. On top of that if the news channels do choose to form public opinion, they should concentrate on maturing the general opinion of the pulic, keep them on their feet in such a way that the public is educated and enlightened well and truly as to where its rights and duties lay.
The print media is hardly better off. News papers emerged with tacky front page headlines such as "Paatal se Nikaala Prince", and "Kurukshetra Mein Ek Aur Mahabharat" for a news item that was hardly worth more than a few lines on the side coloumn. Moreover, the story stretched further on inside the papers.It shows how much of an emotional fool the masses make themselves and how the media encourage wholeheartedly it to make money.
We Indians blame the government, the media, the police and lord knows what other institutions for our backward status, for lack of amenities, for social disgresses. And yet, we do not realize that all these institutions are merely a reflective and responsive act to the mass opinion. If we, the masses refuse to such dramas and unnecessary lurid blow ups that the media distracts us with, the media will be forced to report according to the going mass intellect. Once the media changes its attitude, the government, the police, NGO's, religious groups and every other institution that forms the present society will knuckle down to delivering its best. Its up to us to stop taking the muck and mickey and expect what we deserve. Once we start rightfully and voiceferously asking for what is due to us, it shall be delivered.
Jaago India Jaago. Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached.