Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Kya har ek NEWS zaroori hota hai?


In our country everything makes news, and I mean literally everything. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we roll under our blankets in the night, each moment of our day is blasted with overdose of news. Right from the infamous, dramatic events of bollywood to the twisted tales of politics and countless cases of corruption - news pieces keep fluctuating on our mental graphs. At times their volatility strikes our day with thoughts and contemplation and other times they crash our minds with the sheer absence of their irrelevance in anyone’s life.

Multimedia has further heightened the extent to which news can penetrate into our lives. Even if you wish to leave your newspapers aside for a day how will you escape the TV channels, social networking websites and smart phones which won’t let your mind rest in peace. Our lives were already traumatized with dedicated news channels, which present every miniscule thing like a “never before seen” event. Not to forget the theatrical impact which is accorded to all the news items for creating the thrills and frills of daily soaps. I mean who cares if SRK slapped some hippy looking father of triplets (does he have any other claim to fame?) on a drunken night and then patched up like characters from Suraj Barjatya’s family sagas. Don’t we see enough of such acts on televisions and in movies that now we have to read about these as well?  And why should we poke our nose into the health and wealth of Yuvraj Singh? We all sympathize with his condition and hope and pray that he recovers soon from the clutches of Cancer. However we do not want to know what injections, chemicals and rays are being administered to him every day and what state of mind he is in, while undergoing all this. Aren’t we already sniffing too much into his life by prying on his health and might-sink career that the media is further attempting to bring alive his daily woes to public.

With social networking websites a new genre of users has burgeoned – that of wannabe journalists. Every person tries to propagate (read: report) news in most uncouth manner killing the very spirit of journalism. Forget the gravitas of the language chosen, most of these people don’t even verify the veracity of the information, they come across, before posting it for others to read. Things get worse when such rumours come accompanied with individual’s stinking thoughts laced with hinted expletives. We all like to be aware of things happening inside and outside our country, but when any random information occupies the slot in breaking news ticker to an extent of becoming a trend, our minds automatically get switched off.

Whether or not Sunny Leone is doing Hindi films or why Mayawati allows only bare footed people to meet her or if the Vastu of 27 floors Antilla is preventing Mukesh Ambani to shift to his dream home, are merely pieces of information, which do not require to be tweeted, re-tweeted, posted, scrapped about or flashed in the top headlines and breaking news section of any form or media or multimedia. We can of course choose to laugh about such news or turn deaf ears to them, but wouldn’t it be better if media stopped perceiving every incident as sensational or scandalous and focused on issues which are relevant to us. And if you believed that relevant news can’t be funny, entertaining or amusing then check out the latest headline in today’s newspapers which reads “Two Karnataka ministers caught surfing porn on cellphones”. 

4 comments:

  1. I agree...and well said Mad. Not to mention that media doesn't limit itself to blowing every irrelevant incident out of proportion, but the times when they fall short of such stories they are quick enough to create a fake one. They really think we are fools right? Fortunately though, we are not. :)

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  2. @ Prachi...

    Media has now become like gossip section with some serious, impacting news and lots of "w.t.h" kind of news.. our sanity or insanity perhaps doesn't matter to them.

    But like an optimist, let's hope things change

    Till then happy reading :)

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  3. Interesting !! though i feel all these fake/hyper/stupid news were always there - in newspapers though !! but now its easily available thanks to online newspapers & FB... hence they give a feeling that sometimes they are too much/fake or made for revenue generation !!
    But i do agree that it is killing the spirit of journalism or probably giving birth to a different type of journalism (where in corporate / politicians control them and have a say what people should read or know)...

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  4. @Amit,
    Appreciate your thoughts :)
    Sensationalism has become rampant in today's time because of sudden mushrooming of 24/7 news channels and websites. These channels and websites constantly need some issue, news for their readers/viewers round the clock and hence the whole issue.Nevertheless there are plenty of people who enjoy such media information as well, so works fine for everyone.

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