Well, in the recent times, both have come to mean the same thing. The media is supposed to act as a watchdog in the working of the government. The media needs to act responsibly and give us news.
A few of the news items on news in the past few days that have really irritated me. Just go through them. I am sure you too will know what I am trying to say...
When Sanjay Dutt/Mayanta was asked in some news interview (I don't remember which channel) that whilst Mayanta had changed her name after her marriage to Dutt, Sanjay's sister Priya Dutt retained her name after marriage. Sanjay Dutt gave his personal views on this statement "I would have been angry (or something) if my wife would not have changed her name after marriage". (This is not the exact comment but it meant the same)..
Bas when this interview was aired, this comment became national news on both TV and print media. Everyone from the National Commission for Women to celebrities was very keen to give their "expert" opinion on the topic. Delhi Times asked readers for their comments on this news item. Even viewers were divided. The "comment of the issue" however as expressed by some guy from Delhi who wrote "Meri wife mera sir name rakhne na rakhe…kisi ke baap ka kya jaa raha hai..Aap ke paas koi kaam ki news nahi hai kya??".
Another issue that did not deserve the airwaves it got was the recent by-pass surgery which our PM Dr. Manmohan Singh underwent at AIIMS. AIIMS is close to where I stay and the 4-5 days the PM was in the hospital, a lot of media vans were parked around the place literally creating traffic snarls on the 6 lane Ring Road. 2-4 log to ambulances mein hi mar gaye honge Hospital pahuchne se pehle..but why would the media be bothered about that. They had much more pressing issues at hand. Thanks to the omnipresent media people, every one in the country knew what our PM had for breakfast, lunch and dinner the few days he was in hospital, who all came to meet the PM (and if these visitors were willing enough, we also knew what they discussed with him). Everybody also came the exact procedure of a by-pass surgery (again thanks to the media people who caught hold of some cardiologist from some hospital in Delhi who explained the detailed why and how of a by-pass surgery. (bas 2-4 mantriyon ka aur bypass ho jaaye to sab ghar mein hi by-pass surgery kana shuru kar denge :P)
Somewhat similar to the recent "news", another news item that caught the country's attention was the shoulder surgery that Shahrukh Khan underwent. The media was in overdrive, interviewing him before the surgery and afterward too, and in the middle coming out with an entire time line of ''The day SRK was operated." Starting from when he landed in India (from London..as we came to know thanks to the media) to when he slept off after surgery. Also next day the whole country knew that he had Khichdi and curd for dinner after the surgery. However my question is – why do we need to know what he did during the day or how would it have made a difference to the country if he would have had Tandoori Chicken instead of Khichdi.
But recently the media broke all limits A few days ago there was a small news item about a girl from Noida whose ex-boyfriend had passed around a MMS of the girl, who had stripped off on camera. The news got the space it deserved, somewhere on page 5 or 6. However a bunch of hardworking media people from Media Today went an extra mile to get hold of the clip from somewhere. Also the next day's newspaper had a 2 page article with screen shots of the clip. She should have thought about the MMS leaking when she made it. Though she would never, even in her wildest dreams have imagined seeing it in the papers.
Another item that I couldn't leave out was the Chand-Fiza story. When Haryana CM Bhajan Lal's son converted to Islam to marry (for the second time) a ranking official of Haryana Government, it was on the news. When he suddenly disappeared from his house, the whole country knew. When his wife Fiza attempted suicide, the country immediately knew. When an FIR was issued against him by his wife, and now when he divorced her through SMS, it was half a page news with media people asking Muslim clerics whether divorce via SMS is valid or not...but my question is how does the extensive coverage of such piece of news affect the common man in any way??
Till a few years back, journalism was a very respected career and journalists were considered brave people who traveled to unknown places to report the happenings/events. Travel to aaj bhi kar rahe hai, but maybe they are looking at the wrong places or wrong news...
But I guess its not the fault of the media too. Everybody seems to have opened a 24 hour news channel, and to increase the TRP's the media people have to search for news and this is a major reason that every small bit of news is made out to be an earth shattering news. All channels now come with experts for everything...a couple of political analyst, some ex-players of each sport to discuss the sporting events etc.
There is no news left now, it has become pure sensationalization...Most news items on TV now come with their own background score with the music completely in-sync with the news. The tone of the narrator also adds to the whole effect. If it's a murder the music is spooky in a bid to try to scare the audience. If its a show throwing incident ( like there was a new attack on Navin Jindal today), woh 10 seconds ki clip is repeated n times and news people show all previous show throwing incidents starting from George Bush. In-fact each news item now seems to be straight out of a Bollywood flick with a complete storyline, actors and music.
It's high time the media realized that they have to act responsibly, have to raise issues which affect the citizens of the country...and not just any piece of news sensationalized to suit their needs for TRP. We just need a bit of NEWS...nothing more.
Maybe after the public awareness for politics...they will realize the hype that media creates and do something about it too..
A few of the news items on news in the past few days that have really irritated me. Just go through them. I am sure you too will know what I am trying to say...
When Sanjay Dutt/Mayanta was asked in some news interview (I don't remember which channel) that whilst Mayanta had changed her name after her marriage to Dutt, Sanjay's sister Priya Dutt retained her name after marriage. Sanjay Dutt gave his personal views on this statement "I would have been angry (or something) if my wife would not have changed her name after marriage". (This is not the exact comment but it meant the same)..
Bas when this interview was aired, this comment became national news on both TV and print media. Everyone from the National Commission for Women to celebrities was very keen to give their "expert" opinion on the topic. Delhi Times asked readers for their comments on this news item. Even viewers were divided. The "comment of the issue" however as expressed by some guy from Delhi who wrote "Meri wife mera sir name rakhne na rakhe…kisi ke baap ka kya jaa raha hai..Aap ke paas koi kaam ki news nahi hai kya??".
Another issue that did not deserve the airwaves it got was the recent by-pass surgery which our PM Dr. Manmohan Singh underwent at AIIMS. AIIMS is close to where I stay and the 4-5 days the PM was in the hospital, a lot of media vans were parked around the place literally creating traffic snarls on the 6 lane Ring Road. 2-4 log to ambulances mein hi mar gaye honge Hospital pahuchne se pehle..but why would the media be bothered about that. They had much more pressing issues at hand. Thanks to the omnipresent media people, every one in the country knew what our PM had for breakfast, lunch and dinner the few days he was in hospital, who all came to meet the PM (and if these visitors were willing enough, we also knew what they discussed with him). Everybody also came the exact procedure of a by-pass surgery (again thanks to the media people who caught hold of some cardiologist from some hospital in Delhi who explained the detailed why and how of a by-pass surgery. (bas 2-4 mantriyon ka aur bypass ho jaaye to sab ghar mein hi by-pass surgery kana shuru kar denge :P)
Somewhat similar to the recent "news", another news item that caught the country's attention was the shoulder surgery that Shahrukh Khan underwent. The media was in overdrive, interviewing him before the surgery and afterward too, and in the middle coming out with an entire time line of ''The day SRK was operated." Starting from when he landed in India (from London..as we came to know thanks to the media) to when he slept off after surgery. Also next day the whole country knew that he had Khichdi and curd for dinner after the surgery. However my question is – why do we need to know what he did during the day or how would it have made a difference to the country if he would have had Tandoori Chicken instead of Khichdi.
But recently the media broke all limits A few days ago there was a small news item about a girl from Noida whose ex-boyfriend had passed around a MMS of the girl, who had stripped off on camera. The news got the space it deserved, somewhere on page 5 or 6. However a bunch of hardworking media people from Media Today went an extra mile to get hold of the clip from somewhere. Also the next day's newspaper had a 2 page article with screen shots of the clip. She should have thought about the MMS leaking when she made it. Though she would never, even in her wildest dreams have imagined seeing it in the papers.
Another item that I couldn't leave out was the Chand-Fiza story. When Haryana CM Bhajan Lal's son converted to Islam to marry (for the second time) a ranking official of Haryana Government, it was on the news. When he suddenly disappeared from his house, the whole country knew. When his wife Fiza attempted suicide, the country immediately knew. When an FIR was issued against him by his wife, and now when he divorced her through SMS, it was half a page news with media people asking Muslim clerics whether divorce via SMS is valid or not...but my question is how does the extensive coverage of such piece of news affect the common man in any way??
Till a few years back, journalism was a very respected career and journalists were considered brave people who traveled to unknown places to report the happenings/events. Travel to aaj bhi kar rahe hai, but maybe they are looking at the wrong places or wrong news...
But I guess its not the fault of the media too. Everybody seems to have opened a 24 hour news channel, and to increase the TRP's the media people have to search for news and this is a major reason that every small bit of news is made out to be an earth shattering news. All channels now come with experts for everything...a couple of political analyst, some ex-players of each sport to discuss the sporting events etc.
There is no news left now, it has become pure sensationalization...Most news items on TV now come with their own background score with the music completely in-sync with the news. The tone of the narrator also adds to the whole effect. If it's a murder the music is spooky in a bid to try to scare the audience. If its a show throwing incident ( like there was a new attack on Navin Jindal today), woh 10 seconds ki clip is repeated n times and news people show all previous show throwing incidents starting from George Bush. In-fact each news item now seems to be straight out of a Bollywood flick with a complete storyline, actors and music.
It's high time the media realized that they have to act responsibly, have to raise issues which affect the citizens of the country...and not just any piece of news sensationalized to suit their needs for TRP. We just need a bit of NEWS...nothing more.
Maybe after the public awareness for politics...they will realize the hype that media creates and do something about it too..
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