Last night I happened to turn on ‘@ 9’ on NDTV with Pranoy Roy. The first issue that was being discussed was Mayawati’s spree of building statues of herself and her party; how the general public is reacting and what other political parties have to say about it. The second issue later was how a young couple from Rajasthan eloped and married within their clan (which is not traditionally accepted), and how the village panchayat has issued a Rs. 1 lakh reward to bring them back, dead or alive.
Both issues are quite heated topics and my angst (if one can call it that) is not with the subjects themselves but with the remarks that Mr. Roy made. It has always been my understanding that news reporters asked questions, elicited answers and at the end of the clip summarized. When I was a kid, I actually looked up to Mr. Roy because I felt he reported well. Facts were clear, language was easy to follow.
Last night however he made quite a few very judgmental statements, bordering on cynicism on India, on a news broadcast. It made me wonder about news reporting. What exactly has it come down to? Emotional reporting at horrifying events? A reporters opinion rather than clear facts? or simply, random statements?
3 comments:
I think media, not just in India, but elsewhere too, have assumed a very narcissistic role in society, where they believe that their opinions matter the most. That means that objectivity or even the attempt to be objective goes out of the window. The media elite think they have the moral responsibility to inform the ignorant masses of the 'right way to think'. What they need to do of course, as you pointed out, is aim to present facts and raise the bars for good in depth reporting that gives us a clear view of situations, trusting us to form our own opinions.
Prannoy Roy and NDTV were the ones i really admired. Today sadly he has fallen prey to the lure of TRPs. The other day there was fake news in the NDTV channel about the flooding of the new terminal of Delhi airport. It was found to be fake. It was the other old terminal that was flooded due to the rains.
It is all about the T R P ..creating controversy where unnecessary.
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