Is the Indian media as guilty as those in the Indian polity in the “neglect” of the country it covers (and uncovers)? At least two well-known journalists, from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, seem to think so.
Kalpana Sharma, formerly of The Hindu, writes on the media website, The Hoot:
“Elections are a time when the media discovers India, the real India. If people complain that their Members of Parliament only visit their constituencies once in five years, the same can be said about the media. In the run up to any election, municipal, assembly or parliament, you find newspapers full of stories about the “real” conditions in which people live, stories that could have been written at any point in the previous five years.”
Tavleen Singh writes in The Indian Express:
“We in the media are almost as much to blame as the political class because we spend far too much time talking about stupid things and ignoring what is crucial. Throughout the election campaign we have spent so much time discussing the foibles and failings of the Gandhi progeny that we have found little time to talk of real issues. I got so tired of hearing important journalists discuss the badness of Varun Gandhi and the goodness of Rahul and Priyanka that I stopped watching the news channels. How many times did we hear serious discussion of why our public services are such a mess or why after 60 years of Independence our political leaders are unable to provide clean drinking water? Or why unplanned urbanisation has put Bharat Mata well on the road to becoming a continent of slums by 2050.”
Is this just heroic self-flagellation?
After all, aren’t there islands of sanity in the media, print and electronic, which cover the bijli-sadak-pani issues on a realtime basis day after day, month after month, year after year?
If frivolous media “brands” erected on the 4Fs—food, fun, fashion and fornication—thrive to the point of wiping out the serious media, what does it say about the concerns of the lay reader, viewer, listener, surfer?
Is the news consumer too guilty of neglect?
Read the full articles: Poll time reality check
Also read: How the media misses the woods for the trees
churumuri 
“heroic self-flagellation”.
That is a good expression! Journos are no less hypocratic than the leaders and no less arrogant either. They know which side of the bread is buttered. Covering the netas fetches brownie points and influence. Covering common man’s plight has the remote chance of getting a Magsayse prize as in the case of Sainath. We read too much about politicians and too little about governance. If the journalists eat out of the hands of ruling party, how can they critically examine the performance of the Government?
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Is the news consumer too guilty of neglect?
If not, explain why does a crap newspaper like ToI has so many subscribers?
It is also the reason why some of us still stick on to papers like Deccan Herald and The Hindu, inspite of their Machiavellian tactics.
To be fair with ToI, it reports our local civic problems more than say The Hindu and even Deccan Herald!
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Tavleen is absolutely right on the ordinary anchors (like Nidhi Razdan,Burka Dutt,Sagarika Ghose etc) are positioned as political analysts and no serious issues gets discussed.Priyanka being asked about the kind of ‘bhabi’ should would like to have by an obsequous TV18 journalist was nauseating.And these are the people that have the galls to criticize politicians of trivialising democratic debate!!
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Of course!!!
Both are responsible!
But also, it is the responsibility of media not to pander to popular taste. They have a responsibility. To inform, to help the audience evolve?
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“Is the news consumer too guilty of neglect”? Only partly.
While serious newspapers can blame the newsreaders for embracing ToI, whom will the TV channels blame – there is no competition of serious news for frivolous news. All newschannels peddle the same crap.
And “serious” newspapers have only themselves to blame for giving up ground to the ToI.
Complacency and lack of imagination has hurt DH more than anything else. And Hindu’s lack of objectivity will make people run away miles from it.
Really, cant the media barons, journalists and the marekting whiz kids drum up a formula to mix the 4fs with serious issues that makes it an economically viable and thrivable enterprise. They can pick cues from Indian cinema that has managed to bridge the art and the commercial.
No point blaming the reader. He watches what is available – if there is no choice to CNN IBN, NDTV and TimesNOw, what can he do?
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Forget others. What good stories did Churumuri publish except post after post of opinion polls?
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The Media is dominated by foreign funded Colonialist and Abrahamic apologists who have destroyed umpteen heathen societies with their innuendo, propaganda, and colonial apologetics. That is the problem with the media. Blaming a generic politician or media class is just another equal equal tactic by the seculars to cover up the failing of the deracinated nehruvian colonialwalas. Tavleen Singh is hopeless.
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So called media went into frenzy over :
– shankaracharya murder case ( manufacturing evidences and playing out lines scripted by missionaries ),
– hindu terror case ( where they tried to pin blame for samjhauta blasts on Indian army ),
– case where they blamed kar sevaks of setting themselves on fire in godhra,
– case where they unambiguously and unanimously endorsed denuke “deal” for India and attempted to bring India under a western inspections regime
– case where they whisked away Quattrochi with scarcely a whimper
– blanked out news of Swami Adityanath’s torture
– participated in foisting fake human parts trial on Swami Ramdev to discredit ayurveda ( at behest of missionaries and their puppet Brinda)
– Screeched about Democracy in nepal all of which was cripted out of US state department ( who were so confident they didn’t even bother to change their operative Ian Martin, who midwifed East Timor christian colony)
and so on…….
This is India’s shameless media in service of colonizer. Raise your voice Indians.
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Now, Churumuri has answered Sandesh by writing about a Philhormonic orchestra director who has trained youngsters from the lower strata of society. It will be back to poll prediction by this evening!
As shapers of public opinions, the Journos have got their priorities all wrong. Don’t blame people for giving too much importance to political news. It is not what people want. It is what the journalists perceive as the desire of people. Journalists must try giving first page space to art, literature, agriculture and the like, instead of politics and see the difference.
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Well, how many of the media and indeed outside of it; have any problem with its seeming rot? It’s obvious they love it.
The most identifiable example of this rot is the mix of “views” with “news”. This can be easily corrected if Newspaper Ombudsmen did their job and took and handled complaints seriously.
Let Opinion and View be relegated to the Ed and Op-Ed pages!
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Good to see such a post highlighting that majority in the media are pre-occupied with non-issues like the dynasty, charlie-chaplin statue, sanjay dutt, varun etc..why give them too much of coverage?
Atleast some media houses like Ind express, Hindu have kept their election coverage more positive rather than the sick moronic stuff emanating from Eng TV Channels and ToI..
@S.Singh
Selective news coverage as mentioned is so despicable..Sad that many real issues are blanked out which proves there is an hidden agenda out there. Alert bloggers like us can play a role in unveiling the mask..
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Yes..Selective obsession. Once in five years, you get to see this tamasha..sonia,rahul n priyanka wooing voters and media pouncing on all kinds of tit-bits and asking them all the seet n right questions..
n yes Unfortunately, We dont get to see the supposed to be leader MMS in any rallies. Why ??
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