I have been following the Times of India (TOI), a daily news publication, regularly since I moved to Mumbai. As expected the headlining news are terror related. However, I was surprised at how TOI sensationalised all terror related news. It was not just TOI but every other newspaper as well - Hindustan Times (HT), Daily News Analysis (DNA) etc. The sensationlizing process gets worse when it comes to TV news channels. It almost feels as if a soap opera were unfolding on the screen instead of a journalist trying to 'better inform' the nation's citizens.
Yesterday's (Sunday Sep 28 2008) TOI was once again littered with coverage of the crude bomb blast that took place in Delhi on Saturday, Sep 27. The news was titled DEADLY SATURDAY AGAIN.
They even had a cartoon depiction of the events.
Furthermore an entire page was dedicated to the bomb blast.
However, some upifting and positive-difference-making news were related to either the bottom sections or crammed with other news that the publishers must have felt obligated to report just because they are a media firm.
For instance this news about a 16 year old teenager who spends his sundays teaching English to a couple of Marathi girls on a volunteer project which ironically is a TOI initiative.
Also this news about a 13 year old who mobilised 300 students in his school and was able to raise Rs.1,00,000 in less than 2 weeks without direct contribution from any of the parents in the form of fat checks!
While the first news was in the bottom of page 2 the second one was on page 3 next to a real estate ad.
It all leads me to conclude that the Reign of Fear started by George Bush has been globalised. Here in Mumbai we are in a constant state of apprehension and caution. No one knows when and where the net bomb is going to go off. No one is sure if he or she will come back home after school or work or a trip to the market. The media has really 'empowered' the terrorist groups by not just reporting of their fatal undertakings but also giving them the publicity even celebrities crave for. (We not only know their names but also where they live and work, what they eat, who their family members are, how-when-where they put together certain plots and all kinds of information.) In short, thanks to hyper-coverage by the media outlets, today terror sells (almost as good as sex).
But then, why wouldn't it. Bomb blasts happen on a weekend basis in India. Bomb scares are daily occurences. Today (Monday Sep 29, 2008) 17 crude bombs were found in Ahmedabad. India might not be at war like Iraq. However, it is at war with itself. At times it seems as though God has forsaken his own country. Maybe I am right, hopefully I am wrong. Anand had a good post about the state of India on his blog few days ago.
P.S. Recent update from in.indiatimes.com: Live bomb defused by a civilian in Faridabad. Indians have gotten so used to bombs in public that even regular people can now defuse them. Enough said.
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4 comments:
How about putting up the photographs/news clippings of the 16 year old who teaches marathi and the 13 year old who raised funds on the blog also... it would be in line with the theme of this post! :)
Anand, I was uploading the pictures while you were typing that scathing comment. So hopefully the pictures will calm you down.
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