I am a self-confessed
news junkie!!
I started with hating
news at a very young age, as news time meant no other TV programs. Dad insisted
on watching it from the beginning to the very end, revising the headlines.
Those were the days of 20 minutes of structured news bulletin starting and ending
with headlines; featuring twice, once in Hindi and the other time in English.
The news readers dressed formally, stared into the camera and read from the
prompter with a very straight face. Dad as a middle class man with finite means
and influence felt the genuine need to know the bigger picture.
Soon his interest and
need rubbed on us, me and my sister. Our young minds started finding the news
as captivating, intriguing and thought provoking. It was stranger than fiction,
the quest for truth and justice, conspiracy theories, corruption, power,
politics, foreign policies… we followed Dad's interest in it.
People often noticed and complimented our knowledge of news worthy events.
We were very excited at
the onset of cable TV as news became more interesting. The monotone was
replaced by analysis and discussion and investigative journalism where the
quest for truth became a little more intense and a little more dramatic. But it
was mainly marked by our new found role models; smart, intelligent, confident
TV journalist who oozed passion and conviction …. came across as good
Samaritans. The khadi kurta’s, rolled up sleeves of pin striped shirts, the
enunciated appeals, the visits to far reaching villages or war zones, the
discovery of unknown statistics, the analysis panels and hard hitting questions
to and from social activists were embraced by us with awe and love.
But as common wisdom
goes, everything is good in moderation.
Soon news channels were
24X7. And many more in number. More reports, more repetition of news, more
not-so-true news, more of over the top discussion panels, more non-breaking
breaking news, more repeated shots of news crew shoving camera in the face of grieving parent/celebrity/undertrial, more
Bollywood gossips.
The Indian news casters
and journalists tried to strive for a bigger role, as celebrities and
political supporters The discussion panel became more dramatized and chaotic much like
facts and news. They try to make fashion statements. Many were seen by rubbing
shoulder with politicians while standing with and behind them; making a
personal profit from their professional influence.
At this point I moved to
US. The media here is sinister in its sincerity.
You can believe in
anything and there will be a newspaper/news channel to say how you are right and more
importantly those who do not believe in your belief are wrong. You can believe
your neighbor is an alien, dinosaurs still exist, bigfoot reads newspapers,
unicorns can rap. And there will be a “news” medium to verify and validate it
while shaming the non-believers.
Same news and opinions
are badgered. Mistakes/gaffes/typos are highlighted till they get set in stone.
People with different opinions are showcased so they can be mocked. Attention
grabbing headlines are first engineered, then analyzed, then repeated till they provoke a reaction… then the reaction becomes the next headline.
Left, right, center!!
All kinds of opinions color the newspapers/podcasts/news sites/new TV channels.
They viciously attack and demonize the “others”. The
newspapers/channels/website sale has been miraculously revived. I myself read
several newspapers but the bigger picture that my dad sought and found is made blurry
for me by the large number of sources of constant news, business of profiting from news, propagation of opinions, advice on how I should think and the assurances that “I
am right”.
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