Media Watch What's wrong with the media?
Sunday, July 3, 2022
  • Circulation
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Organiser
  • ‌
  • Bharat
  • World
  • Editorial
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Defence
  • Sports
  • Business
  • More
    • RSS in News
    • Special Report
    • Culture
    • Sci & Tech
    • Entertainment
    • Education
    • Books
    • Interviews
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Obituary
SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
Organiser
  • ‌
  • Bharat
  • World
  • Editorial
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Defence
  • Sports
  • Business
  • More
    • RSS in News
    • Special Report
    • Culture
    • Sci & Tech
    • Entertainment
    • Education
    • Books
    • Interviews
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Obituary
No Result
View All Result
Organiser
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Bharat
  • World
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Culture
  • Defence
  • RSS in News
  • Subscribe
Home General

Media Watch What's wrong with the media?

Archive Manager by WEB DESK
May 13, 2007, 12:00 am IST
in General
Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement chairman Sohail Abro

Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement chairman Sohail Abro

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterTelegramEmail

Something is grievously wrong with the media, both electronic and print. The print media seems especially facing a deep decline. According to the latest figures produced by the Indian Readership Survey whose Round I results for 2007 were declared towards the end of March, the newspaper industry has hit a rather turbulent patch. Its readership reportedly has taken a surprising tumble and figures for 2006 seem to indicate a fall in readership of most English language dailies and magazines.

As a media commentator, Sunil Saxena (Indian Express) recently noted, ?this is the first time, in almost a decade, that a national survey has shown a decline in newspaper readership.? It is not clear whether the readership fall is confined strictly to English language newspapers and journals but not to Indian language newspapers.

Shri Saxena quotes a recent FICCI Pricewaterhouse Coopers report showing that the Indian advertising industry has grown from Rs 9,500 crore in 2002 to Rs 15,000 crore in 2006. Obviously, finance-wise, the media has much to be happy about. But, at the same time, news standards are falling precipitously as was evident from the attention given to the Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai marriage, both by the print and electronic media. Admitted that Bachchan junior and Aishwarya Rai are well-known figures in Bollywood, but one has never seen the kind of stampede one noticed on the screen, of photographers and camera-men running riot in front of the Bachchan residence in Juhu.

Download Organiser App

A marriage is a private affair and the privacy of the couple getting married has to be respected. The photographers especially have to behave themselves in a dignified manner; such good manners were conspicuous by their absence and in one melee that could have been avoided, half a dozen photographers were physically assaulted. This does not reflect well on the profession. There have been celebrity marriages in the past which were duly photographed and recorded for posterity, but the conduct of cameramen on this particular occasion has exceeded all bounds of decency.

The electronic media turned the occasion into a royalty event and the time and attention given to all the pre and post-marriage ceremonies went beyond the realm of decency and common sense.

Similar attention, it would have been noticed is being given to what a novice in politics, Rahul Gandhi has been saying and doing. Rahul is not Prince Charles, though he may fancy himself to be one. He doesn'tdeserve the attention given to him by the media even if it is claimed, as a matter of argument, that he is the anointed successor of the Nehru-Gandhi clan is and accepted Congress aspirant to a possible Prime Ministerial throne.

India may boast that it is the largest democracy in the world, but its thinking as reflected in the media, is still feudal and bespeaks a standard respect and awe for a new ascending royalty. What Abhishek Bachchan is to the film industry, Rahul is to contemporary politics. Even Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been pressed into giving a certificate of merit to this young man's noticeable aspirations. It is an unheard of thing: Even Jawaharlal Nehru was careful to pretend that he was not pushing his daughter to the heights in the party political hierarchy. The reason for this new development, one suspects, is because, faced with the thought of falling circulation, our newspapers and weeklies are resorting to sensationalism?and that, too, of the most vulgar kind. Granting that self-defence is a natural instinct in the process of which normally unacceptable standards are excusable, the manner in which the Bachchans were deprived to their privacy by an intruding media calls for condemnation. In the end, Amitabh Bachchan felt it necessary to apologies to the media but it should have been the other way round: The media should have apologised to the Bachchans.

Have we lost our sense of decency and self-respect? The usual argument is that the public wants to know more about the ceremonies conducted and how the Bachchans look. And that public figures have no right to privacy. It is this approach that needs to be questioned. A public figure has as much right to privacy as any other individual?a point that needs to be stressed again and again. If the Bachchans go to Tirupathi, they again have a right for total privacy. They are there to pray and it is and exceedingly private moment in their lives that no one has the right to invade. There are certain rules of conduct, unwritten and unsaid that must be obeyed and it is sad that news editors are not imposing such restrictions on their staff. In the process the very concept of news is cheapened to a point when news becomes vulgarity. There are certain lines that should not be crossed and it is not for the police to draw them. These Laxman rekhas are ones that should be self-drawn to maintain not only one'sprofessional dignity but to respect the solemnity of an occasion. Births, marriages and deaths are such occasions where a person'sprivacy should be held inviolable. It is not for the media to transgress on the privacy of an individual, howsoever well-known, on such occasions.

What is now becoming more and more clear is that the media?both print and electronic?need to find ways to redefine news. Granting that it is not going to be easy and that competition is pushing mediamen to make a nuisance to themselves, it is still important that editorial offices give some deep thought to self-regulatory rules that could be broken only at great cost to themselves and their standing in society. Here'swhere institutions like the All India Newspaper Editors Conference (AINEC) or the Press Council come in the picture.

There should be some kind of general agreement on reportorial behaviour during such special occasions as marriages and funerals. This is especially relevant in the instance of television and radio coverage.

One noticed correct behaviour when, for instance, Indira Gandhi got married or when the Mahatma'sfuneral took place. Dignity and decorum were observed. To say that times have changed and with the change in times reportorial behavious is bound to change, is to make a mockery of journalism. The fall in standards is there for all to see and it needs to be arrested before journalism is seen not as an honourable profession for the education and enlightenment of society and the common good of all but as a commercial venture where the bully, the pusher and shover comes out the winner. Recent events must serve as an eye-opener.

ShareTweetSendShareSend
Previous News

West Bengal Newsletter Lawyers? battle at High Court; Protest state terrorism by CPM

Next News

Conservative Estimates Ostrich like comrades in Nandigram

Related News

‘2G fame’ DMK leader A Raja raises secessionist bogey, threatens to fight for ‘independent Tamil Nadu’ | Watch Video

‘2G fame’ DMK leader A Raja raises secessionist bogey, threatens to fight for ‘independent Tamil Nadu’ | Watch Video

DEFENCE SCAN:  RAKSHA MANTRI REVIEWS SECURITY SITUATION IN JAMMU & KASHMIR

DEFENCE SCAN: RAKSHA MANTRI REVIEWS SECURITY SITUATION IN JAMMU & KASHMIR

Silence of the Lions

Silence of the Lions

Conversion by Church : Jainism Facing  Existential Threat

Conversion by Church : Jainism Facing Existential Threat

Amravati Beheading: Mastermind Shaikh Irfan sent to police custody till July 7

Amravati Beheading: Mastermind Shaikh Irfan sent to police custody till July 7

All problems of northeast will be solved by 2024, Amit Shah tells BJP meet

All problems of northeast will be solved by 2024, Amit Shah tells BJP meet

Comments

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Organiser. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.

Latest News

‘2G fame’ DMK leader A Raja raises secessionist bogey, threatens to fight for ‘independent Tamil Nadu’ | Watch Video

‘2G fame’ DMK leader A Raja raises secessionist bogey, threatens to fight for ‘independent Tamil Nadu’ | Watch Video

DEFENCE SCAN:  RAKSHA MANTRI REVIEWS SECURITY SITUATION IN JAMMU & KASHMIR

DEFENCE SCAN: RAKSHA MANTRI REVIEWS SECURITY SITUATION IN JAMMU & KASHMIR

Silence of the Lions

Silence of the Lions

Conversion by Church : Jainism Facing  Existential Threat

Conversion by Church : Jainism Facing Existential Threat

Amravati Beheading: Mastermind Shaikh Irfan sent to police custody till July 7

Amravati Beheading: Mastermind Shaikh Irfan sent to police custody till July 7

All problems of northeast will be solved by 2024, Amit Shah tells BJP meet

All problems of northeast will be solved by 2024, Amit Shah tells BJP meet

Maharashtra: Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as Chief Minister, Deputy CM at Raj Bhawan

PM Modi, Shah’s decision to make me CM opened eyes of many: Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra Assembly

PM Modi’s directive to recruit 10 lakh people in 1.5 years will bring new hope and confidence among youth: Amit Shah

Amit Shah slams Opposition for negative politics, targeting Modi in 2002 Gujarat riots case

All Above 18 Eligible for Vaccination From May 1, Announces Centre

India’s COVID vaccination coverage exceeds 197.95 cr

BJP’s Rahul Narwekar elected as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker

BJP’s Rahul Narwekar elected as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker

  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Cookie Policy
  • Refund and Cancellation
  • Delivery and Shipping Policy

© Bharat Prakashan (Delhi) Limited.
Tech-enabled by Ananthapuri Technologies

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Bharat
  • World
  • Editorial
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Defence
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Business
  • RSS in News
  • Special Report
  • Sci & Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Education
  • Books
  • Interviews
  • Travel
  • Health
  • Obituary
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Circulation
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Refund and Cancellation

© Bharat Prakashan (Delhi) Limited.
Tech-enabled by Ananthapuri Technologies