The miles to go before I sleep...

  • Start teaching science at school and incorporate demo
  • Research, design, implement comprehensive teaching module on science, civic sense
  • Interview social change agents working @ ground level
  • Pilot peer-to-peer teaching programme

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Media Exposed: Rakhi Sawant case

I know! You guys are thinking "As if the media is not enough, here is another blogger who is wasting his time and reader's time to come up with the crap about Justice to Rakhi Sawant". Hey, I am one of you too! Rakhi doesn't deserve the air time or the page-space because she managed to show-off her assets in discotheque-targetting "item songs" and she ended up getting molested. But there is another angle that I am trying to see.

Allow me to start from the beginning. I have a sensation-stuck room-mate who sticks to Star-News and its totally irrelevant and senstionalistic news reports for his worldy no-ledge (thanks to D.N.A.). As a surprise to nobody, Star News dedicated its prime air time to this. It showed footage of Rakhi offering a friendly kiss to Mika on his cheek as a split-screen along with another footage of Mika returning it to her on her cheek in a slow motion to let it sink into the audience. I thought "And she is filing a molestation charge against him?".

But the opinion in equally sensationalistic Outlook magazine along with the pictures published exposes (better than Rakhi herself!) the collective media irresponsibility. As claimed by the article, the media (CNN-IBN, Star News...) neither published the photograph published in Outlook, nor clearly indicated that the footage shown on TV was the one that Rakhi was complaining about.

The reason may be many things, plain want of time dedicated to news, predetermined notion on part of media that Rakhi is after cheap publicity (as claimed by Outlook). But the reasons don't matter. The fact remains that the news report has given a biased angle to viewers.

Again, the specific news report by itself is insignificant since it doesn't affect the greater good of the society. But this fact is only more concerning than relieving. What about all the issues that do concern the society and the public opinion does matter? How am I to expect objective and accurate news.

My hopes are already dampened by The Hindu Group .It abased itself by heaping up tonnes of totally biased pro-reservation views in all its publications, but not finding space for single article on its down-sides.

Media: Shame on you!

Further:
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/fullbvideo.php?id=12722

3 comments:

Driver said...

The point of "fair and unbiassed news" is the subject of your blog and not the article you used as an example. You could have used a couple of different examples - (maybe one useful news as well) - to putforth your real "subject".

Badhri said...

The real "subject" is better illustrated by The Hindu and reservation issue. But the one that really hit the nail in my head is this Rakhi case, since I thought "Rakhi is after publicity". The Outlook article and the pictures helped me open up and accept that it may not be the case.

Vasu the terrible said...

I dont quiet agree that rakhi and mikha were not doing it for publicity. Actually no one would really know. And that outlook article doesent say that "it wasnt a publicity act".

The outlook article says the foll..

to the news media: "if rakhi and mikha are using you for publicity, why are you playing it up and giving them that publicity ?"

Though that question is valid, there is no reason why they couldnt have engineered it. Both of them need it. Rakhi for her upcoming movie, "hot money" and mikha for resurrecting his falling career.

It fits both their agenda and its quiet possible its engineered.

The fact however is the media smacked it lips at some jucy story and played it up. The writer was spot on at the pretentiousness of rajdeep. He was doing both, licking his lips vulgurly at the conterversy as well as acting holier than thou about responsibility of news media.

I still think the whole affair was engineered.

vasu