INDIAN MEDIA NEEDS TO BE MORE POSITIVE

The USA today had the front page carrying tributes to Madiba. The appellation makes a reference to the clan that Mandela belonged to. A photo of a car poster said, Tata Madiba, and in the Zulu language, Tata means father, as Madiba was fondly called just like Gandhi was called Bapu (father) by the Indians.

Other front-page news of a USA Today, a newspaper still trying to graduate from its tabloid type presentation and its unique Gulliver font, was a feature of the rover on Mars.

Contrast this to the front page news of Indian newspapers, which are replete usually with sexual escapades of the high and mighty, or the gory details of some heinous crime or with similar offences so repugnant to the mood in the wee hours of the morning, when you wish to wake up to positivism and propriety.

One of the reasons for this over exposure to negativity could well be the distrust that the people have in the system. While, most of us have, at some point of time or the other, bent or endeavored to get around the system and get our job done, but when others do so, we decry it. We also tend not to trust the system that we have ourselves have been able to bend. Additionally, when people in public gaze commit a misdemeanor or a crime, we are always very curious to know, if the system will indict them or cave in to shelter them.

Therefore the Indian media is always front-paging such news. Be it Tejpal, or Justice Ganguly. Both of the have committed crimes and those crimes have been reported, and then the system should just take over, follow the due process and bring them to justice.

The USA Today also carried an item, tucked away on the inside bottom somewhere, about an ex Mayor being jailed, when he pleaded guilty on 2 counts of felony and one of misdemeanor, for crimes like pinching a lady colleagues bottom when he was Mayor, but such news did not find space on the first page.

Here, if the media ignores, then perhaps, many culprits like them will manage to bend the law and either get away scot-free or face punishment disproportionately low compared to the enormity of their crime. In the past, the media did ignore. TV news used to be only Doordarshan (government) and news papers few, making it simpler for the government to gag it. But today, that option is not so simple for the government, as the an active social media cannot be gagged so simply.

If it would not be for media gaze, Bal Thackeray would ensure that Sanjay Datta is not be incarcerated for wrongful possession of arms.

If it would not be media gaze, the Janlokpal would never see the light of the day.

Media does drum up public opinion and in a democracy public opinion is the only weapon that governments care for. While I don’t believe in regulating the media, the media must self regulate and guide the mood of the nation than imbue it in negativism.

The high pitched debates of Arnab and Rahul Kanwal should be focusing on positive subjects also like why Indian Defence systems cannot be spruced up to the best in the world or why the Mars mission could not have been launched 5 years ago, or what went in making the Mangalyana a success. How a doctor, fighting against odds is providing medical aid to Dengue victims in some god forsaken village of Andhra Pradesh. But today, the debate is about all that is murky and morbid.