The BREAKING NEWS

The Vedas describe “Chita” as a fundamental human desire “to know”. No wonder then that man’s curiosity to unravel the mystery of this universe has taken him to the moon and will surely take him further. But that’s not the reason why I am writing this and neither is that a reason for your curiosity to read this piece.

I guess, it has been the title of this article that brings you here. And yes ladies and gentlemen the breaking news is that “Monica Bedi boarded the flight back home”. That doesn’t enthuse you. Right! Doesn’t enthuse me, either! Ok then picture this one “Dr Haneef arrives in India” or say “Ganguly misses his ton”. Bizarre. Isn’t it? Yes, these were some of the “breaking news” that many of our news channels flashed. On a day when some perpetually brooded over the so called ordeal that Dr. Haneef had undergone yet others unendingly debated with former cricketers about how unfair were umpire Samuel taufel’s decision was for Ganguly and Tendulkar. Thank God! India won the test. What a waste of time and energy, debating the repercussions of an inadvertent error that in all finality didn’t matter a bit in India’s convincing win.

From the word go, action on the next day shifted towards Mr Sanjay Dutt. Right from the morning, every news channel started speculating about his fate and within some hours, when the sentence was pronounced, there were these hyper-excited reporters who so painstakingly described each moment, each emotion and each word uttered in the court. From miniscule details of his branded shirt being white instead of the usual blue to his becoming blood red, his eyes getting wet and signs of nervousness and shock on hearing the quantum of sentence, it was all being ridiculously sensationalized and packed for the unsuspecting viewer. And that’s not all, frantic efforts to contact his relatives to get the so called “exclusive reactions” followed. Within a span of some minutes we had “first reactions at the verdict”. A host of telephonic interviews with his friends, neighbours, colleagues of the industry, retired police officers, politicians, with anybody and every body started and coupled with this were the ubiquitous sms polls; all this to judge the fairness of the punishment. Give me a break, I cried. May be there isn’t anything else happening in the country today which was noteworthy. To my surprise while I was toggling through other channels, BBC world ran a detailed news item about the devastating floods that had marooned so many people in Bihar. The national news channel carried a larger variety viz remembering the great Rafi on his birthday,the probable impact of the new credit policy initiatives to sania’s rising status. All this and a lot more, in a half an hour comprehensive news bulletin, devoid of any unnecessary sensationalism.

Pertinent Questions

How do these news channels decide the weightage to be given to a particular news item? Are there any objective criteria to discern the news worthiness of a particular story in terms of how it affects the larger societal or national interests or is it that some hidden agendas or vested motives work behind it? Why are stories which have even the remotest connections with the three letter word “sex” accorded prime importance instead of other real issues? Why and how do people like Dhananjay, Zaheera Sheikh, Mhmd Afzal, Abu Salem and Monica Bedi become media’s heartthrob? Why do media try to generate a sympathy wave for the criminals? What right has the media to debate the fairness of punishment when a man is convicted and sentenced under a due process of law and when he has the right to approach competent authorities for the redressal of the wrongs? And yes why doesn’t anyone shed a tear for an army jawan or a police man’s family? Why is there a general tendency to breed contempt for the institutions of this country? Does the industry lack professional people and therefore has every tom dick and harry who can just about speak well become a journalist?
Anyone would have noticed these disturbing trends that have set in, for long now. Mindless aping, unnecessary sensationazation and needless titillation have become the order of the day. For Mahatma Business without ethics was a sin. Media is big business and lot of commercial interests are woven into it; but it can’t simply let itself be ruled by it , top to bottom. The unfortunate part is that there are certain covert vested interests at play which are sabotaging the whole process of news making. The way media has shaped out there are some agendas that are being carried where in frivolous issues get majority of time and coverage and real issues remain away.

Self Regulation

The electronic media has for long resisted any attempt by the government to appoint a regulator. The politicians and the government officials who have been the worst hit by media’s “sting” activism, have toyed with the idea of tightening the noose around these channels but the larger opinion and rightly so has favoured the self regulation route. Attempts to control and censor the media have been a feature of totalitarian regimes and our democracy would do well to ignore it.

The electronic media industry especially the broadcast medium has seen an unprecedented growth in the recent times. But there has been a dearth of good educational institutes running comprehensive media courses with internship training and thereby imparting sound overall media knowledge to augment this demand. News making is an art and it has suffered due to this lacuna. The industry must take intiative and collaborate with various educational institutions to design a curriculum which factors these concerns and addresses them. This would be doubly beneficial as it would not only ensure a quality supply of well trained journalists but would also provide a platform to widen and sharpen the skill set of the senior staff ,to achieve highest standards of excellence. In a developing economy like ours, every industry has to constanly evolve and improve. And thus the centrality of R&D to the media industry can’t be overstated. The bottom line remains – “Journalists are made, not born”.
While there is no doubt that as a powerful medium it has become a bulwark of democracy and effective governance. Its potential to mobilize public opinion has brought positive checks in the functioning of all most all the public organs of the state. Who can forget the ‘Cash for Query’ expose, Tehelka’s efforts at unearthing corruption in defence ministry or even the landmark role played by the media in getting the justice for Priyadarshini Mattoo and Jessica Lal. But having said this, it can’t escape from admitting its share of mistakes and making necessary amends for the same. “Is good journalism bad business” the topic of the debate at the Indian express RN GOENKA Awards was a step in the right direction. It is high time that media barons and professionals debate these larger questions and therefore clearly delineate and spell out a policy that subtly balances the profit motive with the framework of working for larger public interest. There is a nebulous line that the media has to tread and therefore it needs to be priority driven to eliminate issues which only have a nominal value. Also it has to understand such simple things that everything can’t be sensationalized and blown out of proportion. News can’t be manufactured every moment. Every news is not ‘breaking news’. Last but not the least only good journalism survives.