True Realities - Irritated Commentaries On The State Of The Indian Journalistic World

I have been wanting to say this for a while but decided not to, mostly because I felt I did not have the right to. This is a post about the Indian media, at the moment. That I was a journalist once upon a time may have affected, to some extent, how I perceive the journalistic world - with some amount of contempt and awe at the same time.

That I am not a journalist today makes me feel like, maybe, just may be, being one may have given me the right to say all of this. How easily we forget that we live in a democracy sometimes. So here's what I have been noticing and hating, possibly every time P turns on the television. And yes, this is ESPECIALLY about our television media.

A policeman beats up an alleged sex worker in some remote part of UP. It makes that day's breaking news. Which is lame, to say the least - not that the news isn't news, but breaking news signifies something that has a significant impact on the country/world or changes the course of events in big ways. But you know what's worse? The headlines say - Dalit woman beaten up by policeman in UP.

Why is it important for the population to know that she is Dalit unless it has been proven that the policeman hit her BECAUSE she is Dalit? Or a Dalit sex worker (alleged) specifically? Are we really trying to incite the already delicate sensibilities of this nation's people?

There are many such instances. A minister's missing dog is found - it becomes breaking news. My Name Is Khan hits box office records in record time is breaking news - it can be big Bollywood news, but breaking...? On national TV, prime time, cover story?

I don't get it - I thought that this is satellite TV, anybody in any part of the world with one dish antenna can plug in to see what's showing in Indian channels. Heck, I know the world's USA and China and Pak and the rest are also plugged in to see just what we are broadcasting and how they can use it or misuse it. We KNOW that we are monitored, we KNOW that the world is watching, we also vaguely remain aware that those news reels may well be the electronic chronicles of history in the making and we record such absolute nonsense. A hundred years from now, if somebody decides to go over news reels to write down what this century was like for us in India, what the hell are we going to see?

Missing dogs, a man who survived a mighty electric shock and the likes? Seriously?

Clearly, uneducated people seem to have more sense that educated elite that run these channels. Of course, we do know they are owned by large corporations that have political inclinations and favours to pay and redeem, but just how completely inane is it going to get?

Yes, this is a debate where one likely response is to just turn go back into the field and do some 'serious journalism'. I don't think we are in that age any longer though. Nobody is paying a serious journalist. Nobody is hiring a journalist who knows what makes breaking news and what the public needs to know, which includes a healthy amount of good that does happen in this nation.

Does that mean there are no great journalists anymore? Maybe there are. Maybe they are busy earning some money because they too have families to run and vacations to take. I don't blame them. Maybe they are too old. Maybe they are telling other stories because they can't take the hypocrisy anymore, reporting on art and education, on pop culture and travel, which are things that fascinate us a lot too. But maybe, they are just too tired now, or maybe, their boss is not going to let them write that story. Maybe the sponsors do not like it.

Maybe they are writing and nobody is running ads on their channels and papers and they are about to shut. Maybe they are saying things people do not want to hear.

But you know the biggest problem? Maybe, the people don't like it either and would rather watch heated debates that get you nowhere (literally, if not figuratively), useless pieces of information that keep them entertained and watch a few more ads instead of what's changing the course of history, in good ways AND bad, presented in the right way.

Maybe, we are too tired at the end of the day to go back and face the truth. Or just maybe, they are dying before they even tell their stories.