Welcome to the Making Of The Faking News!
21st century people, huh?
Inventions, discoveries, luxuries, technologies, liberties, facilities: sounds
like an intelligent world, eh? Lets try scaling it!
One of the most notable
feature of this era is the well developed and advanced communication system; be
it the earth to space or one nation to another internet, cellphones and
television have introduced us to a smaller world. And when I say so I have a
double meaning to the statement- first one is the obvious positive perception
of connecting the people globally and effortlessly; but my second and a more
underlined interpretation is that of a small and ill psyche. We boast of an
efficient 24hr tv, phone and internet system these days; but the matter is how
we are enhancing.
I will not discuss the lieud
mms that have black listed the use of cellphones. But television is a thing to
discuss today. And here I'm not going to criticise the telly- czarina Ekta
Kapoor or any of those unending glycerine teared daily soap that attract a
million indian households; they come with a board (which is least viewed) of
fiction! But let us consider one of the most important mass communication tool
of NEWS! (through electronic & print medium)
How advanced are we as news
reporters today? Well here in india, we have more than 3times a dozen 24*7
newschannels. And even more than 10 times of the total newschannels we have
newspapers and online news portals in english and all the other vernacular
languages. There is radio in 80% indian households, internet in not more than
5%, tv and newspapers manage to reach out everywhere possible and impossible.
So yes! The reach of NEWS is in at least 92% indian households! But the question still prevails how successful are we
as news reporters today??? Its an irony that I have to say we're not as
successful as we are in terms of reach! Because if we view the Indian media
today it would be more appropriate to
term it as News Makers instead of News Reporters!
One of the recent report on
one of the big story in the present time left me stunned for a while; the
report had a common sharing wall paper of one of those attitude quotes between
a relationship where the guy was pleading while touching the girls feet! The
headline was this shows the Girl's character; in no defense to the woman
accused such pictures are widely shared on social networking sites these days,
people share them out of mere humor/fun with no intended meaning! Who would
ever imagine that a picture shared out of random fun would make it to the
headlines giving their character certificate? Next day the same newspaper talks
of the woman wanting to hide her real age- 38!
Just a couple of days ago as
the Cricketing Maestro Sachin celebrated his 39th birthday after achieving the
incredible feat of a 100. International centuries, a very popular news channel
aired a half an hr program that ridiculed me, the show was titled- 'Kyu Roye
Sachin Apne Janamdin Par'. It talked about Sri Sathya Sai Baba's demise last
24th April whom Sachin firmly believed in and cried relentlessly out of grief
on this occasion.
The disastrous shows such as
Team India ke Paanch Pandav during the World Cup last year are beyond
discussion, since that particular channel has for very long emphasised on
exaggerated and expanded news making! And yes! I still continue to use the term
News making instead of delivering or Reporting!
Since maximum Indian
celebrities are on twitter these days; it too has become more of a news making
platform than a its original purpose of social networking. Well if you
remembered the infamous Ayesha Takia- Sidhharth Mallya spat then yes! You're
already getting my point!
To the fact that anything
spiced up on tv sells- even tv stars manage to make headlines; and their
weddings (slpy if rumoured to be one of those secret weddings) are sure to get
some coverage space!
Talk about our politicians;
they may not be performing true to their post but they are quirky enough these
days to make it to the front page of a leading daily and of course the latest
hot trend of pride to make it to the twitter trends!
Reading a newspaper or even
checking out the news channels for that matter (which have more advertisements
than content) makes you believe that you live in a practically screwed nation-
politically, economically, criminally, infact totally! Has the goodness
vanished??? Don't we have any of it to highlight; to restore some hope???
Despite of having some very
capable and respectable journalists in our country the product that mainly goes
to the larger masses is of an extremely poor quality; we are providing lesser
news and more of marketable sensationalism to an entire nation filled with not
so rational thinkers!
So my question to our
Respectably Responsible Journalists and the entire News Industry sitting right
out their behind and before the Camera lens, 10years....20years or whenever in
future down the line when you sit in front of your Television Sets what would
you expect from your kids (or those their age) who would over take your
position of News Persons? Deliverers/ Makers or Sellers would come in only
after you choose to select anyone and train them so for their time to come!
That's all for Today!
Stay tuned for the next
program right after this short commercial break!
