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Indian
media is racist, albeit of a different kind. It
bats for glamour, power, influence, high and the
mighty. It seldom plays for people who don't
have a voice, are weak and without power or
influence. In other words, Indian media
practices the fine art of racism of not giving a
voice to people without voice, which is
essentially at the core of any enlightened
media.
The biggest irony with Indian media is its
obsession with insignificant issues and its
ability to transform such trivial matters into a
national debate. At the same time, it is well
versed in the fine art of trivializing the
significant issues worthy of national debate.
More than 50 innocent people, most of them
laborers from Bihar, got killed in Assam by
outlawed outfit called ULFA and the news hardly
created a whisper. Numerous children got
physically molested and brutally chopped into
pieces by two maniacs in Nithari in Noida and
the news lasted just a few days. On the other
hand, a silly English lady called names to a not
so famous Indian actress on the sets of Big
Brother in distant England and that created a
national fury in India thanks to the Indian
media. It became an issue of national importance
and generated many a serious debate on
electronic media as if the issue was as serious
as Pakistan planning an attack on India! If
there is an apt example to explain the meaning
of the phrase “blown out of proportion”, it has
to be Indian media’s handling of Shilpa Shetty
issue.
This is not the first time Indian media is
behaving like a bottle fed toddler. The truth is
that it is biologically and genetically
incompetent to handle issues as per their
worthiness. Perhaps the only consideration for
Indian media today is – how saleable is the
story in generating eye balls. And this
phenomenon is not limited to odd issues that
crop up from time to time. Blindness of Indian
media is omnipresent all the time. The bias is
so evident that it stinks.
Take the example of negative stereotyping of
Bihar, an economically poor state of India
thanks to the myopic policies of Indian
government, by the Indian media. Even if
something great happens in Bihar, Indian media
finds, or perhaps concocts something negative
about it and puts it in national glare. And if
it can’t find anything negative, it simply
ignores the good news. On the other hand, it
seldom reports anything bad about so called
progressive states of India. Roads of Mumbai are
worst of its kind with potholes and craters, but
when Indian media has to talk about bad roads,
it always moves to Bihar. Rape, murder and
abductions are rampant in the economically well
of national capital region (NCR) comprising of
Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida, and Faridabad;
but when talks of crime start it always moves to
Bihar. Talks on caste also lead to Bihar, even
though the neighbouring West Bengal never had a
single chief minister from the backward class.
Talks on corruption again lead to Bihar, when
the most corrupt politicians and bureaucrats are
in Mumbai!
Bihar is economically and socially poor not
because of itself. A large part of blame should
go to the policies of central government of
India in last 60 years that propped other states
on the pillars of prosperity at the cost of
development of Bihar. These included unjust
allocation of funds meant for development of
agriculture, infrastructure, irrigation
facilities, etc. These unjust allocations
combined with regressive policies like Freight
Equalization Scheme virtually destroyed all
possibilities of development of industry in
Bihar despite abundance of natural resources.
Many of us are blissfully ignorant of numerous
historical injustices of this kind meted out to
Bihar by the economic planners of India. Indian
media never highlights this, may be by design or
by ignorance.
And the same Bihar, which is trying to rise
today from ashes like a phoenix, is today facing
the worst kind of reporting racism practiced by
Indian media. A few days back, a global Bihari
meet was organized in Patna which had eminent
speakers like Honourable President of India Mr.
A P J Abdul Kalam, noted economist Lord Meghnad
Desai, Ex-governor of RBI Mr. C Rangarajan,
Chairman of ITC Mr. Y C Deveshwar, and which was
well attended by NRIs. The meet was to discuss
the agenda of Bihar’s growth and to attract
investments. This high profile event was hardly
reported in any national media, though local
media covered the event on a grand scale. My
question: Was it not a duty of any enlightened
media to highlight this meet to create positive
vibes about Bihar and help it in its endeavour
to walk on the path to development? Well,
perhaps Indian media was preoccupied with glam
doll Shilpa Shetty!
But the irony of all ironies is that even on
Shilpa Shetty type issues, Indian media is
biased. It talks of racism in case of remarks on
Shilpa Shetty. But where was this same Indian
media in all its glory when a lower rug Indian
actor, Deepak Tijori, made a similar racist
comment on Biharis on the Indian reality show
called Big Boss? Indian media, it seems, suffers
from selective amnesia. Or, does it wear a mask
to hide its racist face to fight another racist?
To me, it seems, Indian media has become
impotent and it needs a big dose of Viagra to
perform like an enlightened media. Amen!
(The author is a management professional
based out of Mumbai)
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Comments: |
Indian media is impotent and I guess
even multiple dose of Viagra is not
going to help them overcome that
deficiency. The way it all started
during British rule, the SLAVERY
MENTALITY is still there in the
minds of big bosses of Indian media.
This in a way reflects reader's
mentality as well. They have to sell
their copies and people like to read
more of Masala kind of news than the
serious stuffs and something that
matters.
We Indians are so much obsessed
about the west that we copy
everything what they do. We got what
it is called the Inferiority Complex
and think that people in west are
superior. I guess we need a media
reform like what Fox (Rupert
Murdoch) did in America. When
Americans were tired of their media
who published lots of junks all the
time, the Fox News happened and
today News Corporation has the major
share in American Media. In-fact it
grew so much that Rupert Murdoch
moved the base of News Corporation
from Australia to America couple of
years back. I am sure even a large
portion of Indian public is waiting
for that to happen. And when (not
if) that happens it will be too late
for our Desi Media to THINK and
REACT.
As far as corruption is concerned in
my experience Bangalore is more
corrupt than Patna. But nobody
highlights that. To File a FIR one
needs to pay 300 - 500 depending on
severity to the police inspector. If
you want anything in Bangalore,
government officials are waiting to
mint money out of you. Every Officer
has a rate and without that Dakshina
nothing happens in Bangalore. But
whenever we talk about Corruption
media brings Bihar in front.
I guess a reform is much needed and
it will be the next Independence
movement. The original independence
movement started from Bihar and this
time also it will start from Bihar
but for a different cause. This time
the movement will be to free
ourselves from the impotent and
biased media.
Its time to stop thinking and get
into Action and Say JUST DO IT. -
Samir Kumar Mishra - Feb. 4, 2007
This article has been excellent and
really deserved to be read by all
media-men where most of them have
become transformed into broker and
media has become as worthy as
prostitution, where no morale is
left. They cover Shahrukh Khan's
concern over KBC in competition with
AB, or flash whole day news of
Abhishek Aishwarya marriage, or this
big boss episode, but seldom you
will find them reporting correct and
real news. NDTV whole day flashed
wrong news of success of KBCIII
while the truth was that KBC3 had
crashed and met a worst TRP. Why
they are sold out so much that now
they release wrong and negative
news? They have become the worst
professionals who have lost respect
in public eyes. The day is not far
when these media men will be
thrashed publicly and frequently as
their standard now suggests.
How Deepak Tijori kind of worthless
person who directs "c" grade flicks,
did manage to go racial in a public
and national broadcasting channel
and no lawsuit was filed against him
and the program manager? Why this
matter was not taken and these
people showing racial flakes against
Biharis were sued by any bihari
media even? Why Bihar is smaller in
matter than Shilpa Shetty and even
this Deepak Tijori?
Has our president's presence become
so much non-existent that Brad Pitt
and Anjelina Jolie's travel in tempo
becomes bigger news? Surely our
citizens taste has been bad and this
is why we have been the lagging
nation for so many years and now
loosing to our neighbors like China!
In fact the Indian media has become
a rampant look of racialism at home
who have lost their morale and sense
of responsibility, and which is
reflection of our country's state
and it's people's quality.
Very good article indeed which must
be prized. - Ravi Shankar,
Mountain View, CA, USA - Feb. 4,
2007
Media at its best could truly do a
great service to the nation like
during Emergency, Jessica Lall Case
and so on. At its worst it could be
just a cheerleader for rich and
powerful. All the recent coverage of
pointless and useless things like
round the clock reporting on
Abhishek Bachchan's marriage, Page 3
personalities, cheap
sensationalizations of every thing
point to the cheap standards of the
media. Especially the round the
clock news channels. Apparently they
could report anything. I wonder if
they are subject to any
accountability of truth or they can
just report whatever they please in
the hope of catching few more
eyeballs. When I wonder why we even
bother to watch and crib these
channels, I guess the only reason I
could think is that because its on
TV. Apparently we could watch
anything as long as its on TV. The
one channel I really cant criticise
enough is CNN-IBN. Its obsession
with Abhishek-Ash marriage and
useless things like that is
disgusting. CNN being my favourite
news source, I watch this
occasionally and every time I end
disappointed with its content. I
wished CNN did not lend its name to
this channel and cheapened its brand
name. - Ravindra Kumar - Feb. 5,
2007
Media shows anything which sells,
increase their TRP, particularly
with the advent of 24 hr news
channels. And Biharis are the
easiest scapegoat for all the
problems India is facing. We can
fight, raise hue and cry about all
this biasing but only with the
position of strength. And let's be
honest, we are still far away from
that. Bihar today is at the same
position as India was in initial
90s... about to grow but still the
land of snake charmers and a country
who had pledged its gold with the
IMF. Think if the same Shilpa issue
would have happened at that time
what would have been Indian's
reactions and Westerner's reaction.
They would have laughed on us all
the more.
Only a strong, developed Bihar will
be the befitting reply to all this
and nothing else. I am feeling the
undercurrent which had never existed
in the history; feeling so deeply
about being Bihari rather then
his/her caste. And any assault on
Bihar/Bihari is assault on him/her.
This constant hammering since last
fifteen years has made this
possible. I say this is rather a
blessing. Bihar will rise like the
Phoenix and that too sooner than any
one can imagine. - Anand Lakhmani
- Feb. 5, 2007
I will tread on few toes here ! Here
is an uncomfortable fact:
Whenever we refer to anyone
different from us we are ALL racist,
ethnic chauvinist, communal,
casteist or whatever. While every
one has a bias in their minds the
courage to openly display our bias
is lacking and we only speak out
when those different from us are
absent and we are with our own type
or 'kind'. This applies to the vast
majority of Indians including the so
called intelligentsia living abroad.
It is surprising how the English
speaking public school educated
elite freely adopt racist derogatory
slang against their fellow
countrymen. The non-resident Indian
while retaining most of the biases
against on those fellow non-resident
Indians also adopts biases against
others in the country of residence.
Thus the term "gora" (Caucasian) and
"kala" (black) are used in equally
derogatory terms to refer to
sections of the host population in
North America. Additional derogatory
ethnic categorization is used to
denote people from other states:
Gujju ( Gujarati); Harry, Bhayyia (
Bihari, UP), Surd ( Sikh), Mallu (Malyali),
Ghati (Marathi), Loti (Andhra),
Southie ( generally South Indian but
more commonly referred to the
Tamilian); Shed (Harijan, scheduled
tribe or caste); Chink (Chinese,
also refers those from the North
Eastern region); Nep (Nepali); Miya
(Muslim), Anglo (Christian, Anglo
Indian), Bawa (Parsi), BC (backward
caste).
Any name unfamiliar to their ears
evokes derision, thus any one called
Selvaraj, Paswan, Patel, or Lodha is
automatically written off from the
social network (Imagine yaar moving
around with a Lodha!) The
metropolitan brown sahebs and
memsahibs have nothing to describe
themselves, even if their names such
as Kakkar, Jhakhar, Puri or
Chattopadhyay may be equally
unfamiliar to others.
It would be comforting to think that
only the spoiled brats of the rich
and powerful have these biases and
thus represent a very insignificant
minority. Unfortunately this is not
the case. Down to the very rural
roots of our society we carry biases
against the others. In select
company there are ribald jokes about
the why the offspring of a
particular caste (otherwise known
for academic excellence,
administrative and clerical
proficiency) can never be truthful
because such is the trait, (and if
by chance a child is found to be
sincere then the lineage is in
doubt!). There are similar
derogatory tales about other caste's
and groups. There are always two
sets of names to identify a group of
people; one is the actual official
name of the caste or community used
in polite mixed company whereas
there is an additional name for the
group or community which is
derogatory in nature to be used only
when the persons of this community
or caste are absent.
Biharis are particularly good at
this. We can dispense with examples
as these would be offensive to
whoever reads this.
Not to say that the Hindi film
industry is free from biases. Apart
from art films you will never have
the hero as Christian, a turban
sporting Sikh, or a dark skinned
South Indian. We cannot imagine a
hero in the film named Bishan Deo
Mahto. The name will always be a
more genteel Rakesh Saxena. One
would think that the Narsaiyas,
Venkateshwarulus and the Devalingams
would protest that India has a lot
more people with names other than
Arora, Sharma, Saxena, Khosla, etc.
However the rest of India chooses to
keep quiet as we are too busy
running down the more unfortunates
amongst us. - Reza Sami, SC, USA
- Feb. 6, 2007
Media alone is not responsible for
this? When readers gleefully agree
to Rs 1.50 for a newspaper which
costs Rs 20 to produce, this is what
they deserve. The fact is that
readers and their issues have become
marginal to newspapers and media
houses, simply because subscription
revenues are no more important for
the financial health of these
companies.
Newspapers and TV channels now
survive on advertising revenues and
consequently advertiser's interest
is more paramount than that of
readers. Modern media is now nothing
more than a marketing medium. Given
this it makes perfect sense for
media managers to keep
readers/audiences engaged with
trivial issues so that they become
passive receivers of messages rather
than active readers to question the
status quo.
If we wish to change state of
affairs, we should be willing to pay
a reasonable price for our source of
news and simultaneously push for a
publicly funded media house on the
lines of BBC. There is also need for
the government to fix a lower celing
on the price of newspapers/magazines
so that they compete on content
rather than price alone. Latter was
resorted to by the British
government in 1980s, when
independent newspapers were facing
extinction due to the price war
unleashed by Rupert Murdoch. -
Krishna Kant, Economist & Corporate
Analyst, Mumbai - Feb. 6, 2007 |
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