Breaking News ! Breaking News !

That’s all you can see flashing across the TV screen as you flip through the zillion news channels. An almost exact copy of something that had happened just a few weeks before was played out again with the hospitalization of Pramod Mahajan’s son.

Now it’s almost evening and the same marquee is still playing on at the bottom of all news channels with slight alterations every now and then. While some channels (mostly the English news channels) have had the decency to show us with what else is happening in the world, a few (mostly the Hindi channels like Aaj Tak) are still going on analyzing, probing, cross examining, discussing what the kid did last night. An army of reporters has been deployed at his residence, at the hospital, at the party’s headquarters and probably even in front of the house of Mahajan family’s most far flung residence to get even the smallest whiff of developments. The anchor constantly goes on repeating the same old story in a hyper excited voice. The split screen constantly repeats the same old clippings of Rahul Mahajan walkin around. Then every ten minutes or so one of the reporters stationed at the crucial points starts repeating the same old thing which the anchor has been yapping about for the past 2 hours.

But some news channels are more innovative and resourceful. Some show interviews with specialists who would give their ‘expert’ opinions about the patient without having even seen the patient and simply basing their diagnosis on the various degrees of reports coming in. Some even show interviews of the family doctor making claims about depression, drug abuse, alien abductions, etc. Then you’re left to wonder … who’s gonna be next ? Maybe the driver’s wife or the servant’s dog or the neighbor’s relative living in Canada !

I have some problems with this kind of journalism and I would like to raise some questions here (ofcourse writing here is almost like thinking in my head and going to sleep .. but then what the heck ! what are blogs for !)

1. Why is this thing so important after all ? I mean the guy isn’t even a politician ! He is simply the addicted (probably) son of a deceased politician who himself was fading into obscurity ! He may have been a big politician or the future of BJP someday but today he is not even a member of the party ! So why is it that his life should be so important to us ? I’m sure there are millions of people going through worse tragedies in life everyday but they don’t seem to be breaking news by the second ! This is probably what sensational journalism is all about. Making loud and bold declarations (may or may not be even true) about someone who is remotely famous.



2. Why do we have to keep watching the same thing again and again and again ? It’s true that probably you have to keep informing about the events in case a viewer has just tuned in. But then what about the loyal viewers who have been watching your channel for some time ? Doesn’t this mean that they’d simply get bored of watching the same old stuff and simply click on the next channel ? What about the other things that were lined up for that day ? Do they suddenly loose their relevance just because some kid consumed / was fed too much cocaine ? It would probably be better if they’d repeat the story every hour or so if there are no new updates and then carry on with other news. The marquee is there anyways !



3. Who are these sources who make claims such as there was a woman among the people visiting Rahul (and so what anyways ?) and that there was a conspiracy to kill him and that Sonia Gandhi is actually a Martian parading an Italian ? Isn’t objective (and professional) journalism about giving facts and not speculation and rumors?



4. What about the important issues such as reservation and Office of profit bill or terrorism in Srinagar ? Did all the politicians and terrorists and students suddenly go on a vacation just because Rahul Mahajan consumed more booty than he was able to handle ?



5. And finally, what’s with the whole sad orchestra playing in the back ground as visuals of the aggrieved mother or son the dog are shown in slow motion and in black and white ? Now that’s got sensationalism written all over it ! It’s sacrilege !

It’s like being a drug addict where every boost increases your body’s capacity and resistance even further. Small shots don’t have an effect anymore. You need more and more quantities every time just to get high. That’s how people are becoming nowadays. Junkies. Normal news just doesn’t ring a bell. They need sensationalism. They need big flashy graphics and compelling music to understand the issues and the plight. The evidence is right in your face. The injustice in Jessica Lall murder case was an outrage some time ago. Now it’s invisible like the murderer himself. Pramod Mahajan’s medical condition and his eventual death were all over then. Now nobody even speaks about him. Then the reservation issue was the hottest debate till day before yesterday. Today I didn’t see even a single mention of it. Even the office of profit issue rose and died away in the last two days. Today the latest rage is Rahul Mahajan taking cocaine. Who knows what’s next.

I think the media itself is to blame for this. The sensationalism created around everything attracts the attention of the viewers away from previous issues. The 24 hour focus on the same issue over and over again drills it into viewers’ minds. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, thanks to the sensationalist media, we have become a society with a short term memory.

I think the positioning of the news channel TIMES NOW sums it up the best. It says Feel the News. That’s exactly what it is. Simply watching the news doesn’t affect people anymore. They need to be made to feel it.