I was at my home this weekend and had the luxury to do things at my will – I thought watching TV was not a bad option. Not oblivious of the ‘World Cup’ fever, I watched a couple of decent contests. And then I followed news. News channels had their hands full – ‘Bhopal Gas Tragedy’s verdict’ and the subsequent events were keeping the ‘(breaking) news mongers’ busy plus they had the added responsibility of covering the ‘biggest sporting carnival’. One thing that struck me was how media somehow misses small yet important news bites. To illustrate it with an example, I will guide you through a couple of news related to my native place Patna.
Patna was in news last weekend. For those who care - BJP was holding its national executive meeting in the city after a decade and half. It was a treat for the national media with every news channel of some worth giving this meet the ‘desired’ attention. And to their delight, there was some ‘masala’ added with the outburst of CM Nitish Kumar over an Ad depicting him alongside Narendra Modi. As I have already pointed out the entire event for two days received the ‘desired’ media attention. I personally do not have any qualms with the ‘extent’ of coverage of this ‘big meet’ – what irks me is the complete disregard for ‘non sensational’ news by the media fraternity of our country.
Consider this – Venue: Patna; Date: 27/05/2010 (Buddha Purnima); Event: Inauguration of ‘Buddha Smriti Udyaan’ by his holiness Dalai Lama and almost the entire national media gave it a miss. Many would argue the logic of equating the inauguration of a park with the ‘national executive meet’ of the main opposition party. However, this is not just a park – here, kept in a 200 feet high ‘stupa’ are the remains of Lord Buddha donated by various Buddhist countries; the park also houses the saplings of the famous ‘Bodhi Tree’ - one from Bodhgaya and other from Sri Lanka. Further, I think even the regional media which covered the event missed the symbolic relevance of this park. Located just outside the Patna railway station, in the heart of the city, this park helps in providing a new identity to Patna. With the coming up of this park, distinct symbols of three major world religions now lie within a radius of perhaps 25m. Just opposite to the park is the famous Hanuman Mandir with the distinction of having the second largest budget / revenue by any Hindu shrine in Northern India (behind Vaishno Devi). Not far away is the ‘Jama Masjid’ of Patna with its beautiful minarets. Together these three structures symbolically offer a humble lesson of ‘co-existence’ & ‘brotherhood’. Dalai Lama offered the ‘Stupa’ & the park to the service of mankind and as a source to spread ‘Peace’ across the globe. In today’s difficult times such messages need to be propagated. Unfortunately, this time our national media missed the opportunity completely. I sincerely hope that from now onwards, media would give a little more respect to the ‘spirit of human existence’ in its coverage and would place it at least at par with the ‘bickering of our political leadership’.
Comments
First of all are you referring to only news channels & newspapers, when you say Media?
Because I am sure there must’ve been some channels like Aastha, Sanskar, or other such religious channels that choose to promote such events.
There are religious magazines and dailies who cover these events in great details
The question is… Do you subscribe to these channels or read such magazines?
I’m guessing the answer is NO… and that would kind of answer your question
If some channel were to show this event on National TV… I would've considered it as too Preachy; On the other hand I don't like the idea of covering a rally or conference either
What is the role of media anyway?
I would describe the role of media as something that I want to see them highlight
Like you want them to highlight (sometimes atleast) news that promotes peace and harmony
For ex: I love it when News Channels report India’s win over another Country... but when we lose... I wish they’d shut their traps and not talk about it anymore… I wish they’d talk about politics then
Relevance for media is… what is relevant for consumers of the medium
Thats answers many questions… Why would an insane person like Rakhi Sawant be covered on a national news channel?
It is wonderful to see that people like you, see reason behind just plain simple co-incidence.
I mean, the whole communal harmony bit might not have been a planned effort on the part of the state, however, you saw it as a brilliant message to promote harmony.
I assure you this, if people started thinking like you, this would’ve been frontpage material… For now, some people want to know ‘How Nitish Kumar snubbed Narendra Modi’ & the media is happy reporting it to them
I am not a good writer and hence I failed to explain myself clearly... The event may sound like a religious one ... it had more cultural leanings... it was not meant to promote the religion as such but to bring out the values which are still as much relevant to human kind as they were some 2500 years ago... :)
Further, in my bid to catch a glimpse of that site, I surfed through the entire set of channels available through my cable operator (including the ones suggested by you)... I could not find the news bite... :)
As far as the coverage being preachy is concerned - it is just a news about inaugurating a park ... I am sure our channels are wise enough not to go into religious sermons (However, if you consider that almost all promote superstitions then there is that possibility as well)
I do not think that the excuse you gave about media is valid here (it is akin to what Indian filmmakers have been saying for years -- Junta wants this) - the truth is whenever consumers have been given a choice they have chosen quality product - and if you really want to check this just see which has a higher TRP - a Rahulk ka swayamwar or a Cricket / football match or for that matter even a filmfare award ceremony
And no I never said that the Stupa was made deliberately to show the harmony in the society - I just stated that now that it has been built, there is an opportunity to use it as a symbol of peaceful co-existence... :)
Also I have never ask the media to back down on its coverage of political events ... I simply have called for a better coverage of other aspects of our existence as well ... :)