Sachin Tendullkar, a cricketer of outstanding skills would retire from playing international games shortly. He is currently playing his 199th test match of his career of three decades at Eden gardens in Kolkota.
This news item in a national news paper in the centre page of its supplement drew my attention.
Sachin is ‘God’, according to its caption.
It is his penultimate test cricket match before he retires with the 200th test match in Mumbai next week. I am also admirer of Sachin for his outstanding cricketing skills. I remember shaking his hands in Bombay airport a few years back. His smile was charming!
However neither Sachin or his family would be comfortable with the glorification of him in this fashion! This reference is an affront to God, whom we refer to as an eternal Being!
The news papers and the visual media have been on a mood to take full advantage of the forty percent of the middle class in India, who are vulnerable to sensationalised news. The space the media offers to talk about the beauty products, cinema, hospitality industry, fashion show, the glamour industry of travel and tourism, etc. make me feel that it is more for its own popularity and market success. There is disproportionate space offered to these items because, it is what would make the media succeed.
One national news paper had an article on its central page of the supplement today, on alcohol products of a company with photos and interview with one of its promoters. In fact advertisement on alcohol is banned. So the media finds an ingenious way to speak about alcohol products. The ethics in publishing is a self-regualted norm in india. This has become relative now.
The media’s role is to inform, educate, interpret and communicate! It weaves the fabric of a society by its healthy and formative opinions. It functions as the thermostat of a society by downplaying what is undesirable and promoting what is good for every one.
This is still done in a healthy way through the editorials of news papers and the magazines! I like to read the editorials of the newspapers because they lift the debate to issues and open up the subjects for the readers to comprehend and consider. There is soberness and openness in its presentation.
The media has a formative role in weaving the social fabric of a society with strands of values, good practices and noble traditions. It is critical in developing attitudes and norms that would enhance moral values necessary to be a civilised society.
However, it looks like that women get portrayed in the visual and print media to invite attention to their bodies. The cinema has received attention more than it deserve. The culture of entertainment controls and guides the media rather than to play its role in creating a healthy environment for people to grow up, work, relate and live as happy families
I agonise over the way the media in India is self seeking for its own survival and success in a competitive media culture. When I was growing up we had seven national English newspapers and we have at least fifty of them now! For the media houses, it is a question of staying in the market. So they resort to publishing paid new items, become a mouth piece of a particular ideology and promote a mood of simmering restlessness among people by sensationalising news which need least attention.
If a society drifts into disorder or arrogance, its media too has contributed to it!
Where are those who would feel the pain of this decline in the formative role of the media and speak, write and educate to make a change!
The media is to focus on Life, Living and Learning!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
It is his penultimate test cricket match before he retires with the 200th test match in Mumbai next week. I am also admirer of Sachin for his outstanding cricketing skills. I remember shaking his hands in Bombay airport a few years back. His smile was charming!
However neither Sachin or his family would be comfortable with the glorification of him in this fashion! This reference is an affront to God, whom we refer to as an eternal Being!
The news papers and the visual media have been on a mood to take full advantage of the forty percent of the middle class in India, who are vulnerable to sensationalised news. The space the media offers to talk about the beauty products, cinema, hospitality industry, fashion show, the glamour industry of travel and tourism, etc. make me feel that it is more for its own popularity and market success. There is disproportionate space offered to these items because, it is what would make the media succeed.
One national news paper had an article on its central page of the supplement today, on alcohol products of a company with photos and interview with one of its promoters. In fact advertisement on alcohol is banned. So the media finds an ingenious way to speak about alcohol products. The ethics in publishing is a self-regualted norm in india. This has become relative now.
The media’s role is to inform, educate, interpret and communicate! It weaves the fabric of a society by its healthy and formative opinions. It functions as the thermostat of a society by downplaying what is undesirable and promoting what is good for every one.
This is still done in a healthy way through the editorials of news papers and the magazines! I like to read the editorials of the newspapers because they lift the debate to issues and open up the subjects for the readers to comprehend and consider. There is soberness and openness in its presentation.
The media has a formative role in weaving the social fabric of a society with strands of values, good practices and noble traditions. It is critical in developing attitudes and norms that would enhance moral values necessary to be a civilised society.
However, it looks like that women get portrayed in the visual and print media to invite attention to their bodies. The cinema has received attention more than it deserve. The culture of entertainment controls and guides the media rather than to play its role in creating a healthy environment for people to grow up, work, relate and live as happy families
If a society drifts into disorder or arrogance, its media too has contributed to it!
Where are those who would feel the pain of this decline in the formative role of the media and speak, write and educate to make a change!
The media is to focus on Life, Living and Learning!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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