Saturday, December 6, 2008

Media immunity or media impunity?

There have been some thoughts festering within me, that I wish to express. My thoughts are still an untamed mess; therefore I hereby sacrifice coherency at the altar of expression.
The last week was a strange experience for those millions in this country, who have been brought up on a staple diet of cable television. We witnessed the first live sting operation by our 24/7 news channels and to use an unpolished phase we fell into it 'hook, line and sinker' didn't we?
Welcome to the era of 24/7 hardhitting news, where no stone is left unturned in order to serve up the truth, but to what extent can and did the media go in order to acheive this end and was this really the end they wished to visit?
After a day or so of watching those unforgettable events unfold, it was becoming apparent that the media's focus was neith on the act of terror itself nor the terrorized public, but rather on its own turf war.
The conflict within the media and between the media channels had superceded all else and in its quest to become the first channel to capture the 'breaking news', each channel, in my opinion violated many fundamental tenets of censure, that the media must practice.
By all accounts the events that unfolded deserved focussed attention and the public had the right to information. Yet, the media in its own quest for singular glory, perhaps crossed all boundaries. What we witnessed was a 24/7 war movie or rather that is how the media wished to showcase the events, from the jarring background music to the in your face journalists, who were omnipresent and always trying to shout above the din, rendering just about everyone else speechless.
Enough is enough says one chanel, anger, tears and determination says another. This is not a mystery thriller and the media is not the whoddunit.
What struck me most was the level of maturity or shall we say immaturity displayed by the media.
Take this for example: witnessing some loud shouts outside nariman house, a journalist says thats it the operation in nariman house is over; the commando showed a thumbs up sign. We were to learn later that the operation did not end there. Another journalist says I think there are 6 terrorists inside the Taj, but this is unconfirmed. My question here is, if it is unconfirmed, why do you say it?There were man other such instances.
The media is meant to be a medium for the expression of facts. It was never meant to take the facts into its own hands and twist it for its connivance. Yet, that is what the visual media in this country has been trying to do for the past 2 weeks. We witnessed many scenes of microphones eith being thrust right into the face of the survivors or being thrust into the faces of fireman who were doing their job.
Some of the journalists repeatedly tried and succeded in violating boundary lines set by the authorities, leaving me to wonder if they were aiding or hindering the work of the authorities.
The media has, in my opinion also been singularly biased in its reportage of public opinion. Actors and Socialites, do not represent mass public opinion. Yet, in the days following the attacks, we were privy to comments from every immaculately dressed page 3 figure and were given a crash course in policy making by these know it alls. While I appreciate their sentiments and can understand their anger, the media failed in its responsibility to remain objective.
The most tragic episode in the media coverage, occured after the events ended. Each media house swarmed the hotels like vultures swooping onto a carcass and proceeded to claim to become the first to show us the carnage inside these beautiful hotels. What was the need to enter into these places when the sanitization operations were not even complete? Another interesting thought which strucke me was how singleminded the media was in covering these hotels, but completely ignored the other places. Did the public not have a right to know what happened in the CST or by the same token the hospital, or is the media in this country only a voice for the elite?
The media has every right to criticize a governments policies and has every right to be the ones to say the politicians erred at too costly a price, but the media in this country is trying to stage a revolution and trying to whip up a mass frenzy that it does not have the maturity to handle. It seems to me that the media is just picking up opinions that suit its tune and trying hard to make the music it wishes to hear for itself from this.
I have always felt that the media in this country must be made to follow a certain ethical code of conduct and I have never felt this more strongly than in the aftermath of these attacks. There is a strong need for a more calm media that can at least try and voice different shades of public opinion. Instead what we have are either media honchos who are locked in an ' who will lose their vocal chords first contest' or rookies pretending to be master of all trades but ending up being jack of none.

14 comments:

Marauder said...

Media revolution has done some good to the citizens also like RTI, which came into effect in the middle of this media transformation.

I don't think framing a 'code of conduct' policy is feasible as the decision on who should constitute the board making the policy is open to debate and the decision will never really be made. Callous act of CM Deshmukh to bring in RGV to site of blasts would have not had so much impact if not for the buildup effect these news channels gave to it.

Having said that, it's the duty of these news channels to demarcate the borders in terms of levels to which they can provide 'breaking news' without poking into others' privacy or hurting public feelings.

Trying to put some policy in place will lead to some act similar to POTA, which was used by some leaders to win their personal battles with citizens and other leaders. Press should not be reined like a horse, but should flow like a calm river

Marauder said...

Yeah, do you use Airtel? You have "Expressed yourself" quite well despite your apprehensions about lack of coherence it still makes a good read. Sooper!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi thanks for ur comment, ur right media has done good too, I dont deny it, but I simply feel that by doing all this good they seem to have led themselves to this pedestal from which they think they can do or say anything.
Well as to the question of who is to frame code of conduct policy, that arguement could be extended to just about anything from films being uncensored because they represent creative expression of thought, to even politicians who will always say they have the backing of certain sections of society. That doesnt mean we dont have policies and code of conducts ruling them does it?
At the end of the day all these codes of conduct and institutions are created by people, so while it maybe impossible to acheive total objectivity as long as humans such as you, me and he/she are involved, we need to to aspire to it dont we and the only way anything in this world acheives progress is by restraint and I truly think that it is for the good of the media if there are some codes/restrictions in place

Marauder said...

True, Mumbai incident could be termed as press going overboard in trying to ascertain their supremacy and freedom in the country. I guess we need to eliminate the reason that makes news channels act this way, like TRPs. But in a competitive market, it does not look possible.

Self-restraint would lead to better growth than someone using a whip from behind. Agreed, a code would do good. But it should be recommendatory rather than forced down the throat of media. Maybe a code of conduct that is universally agreed to by all the news channels would work. Aapicer kitta objectivity pathi paesa mudiyuma? :D

Like a stubborn Llama, the more you try to rein in the press, the more it may try to break the shackles and may concentrate more on making mountains of a molehill. On the government's side, imposing a restriction or mandatory rule gives an opportunity, say, to all those MPs who were caught getting bribe to ask questions to cook up cock and bull stories and conspire against news channels to get their revenge.Possible!!!

sansmerci said...

As they say ...we have VIEWS channels not NEWS channels anymore!

Anonymous said...

@Swar, ur absly right on that one :)

SR said...

As usual good stuff - nadula enna 'Chanel' :) ???? Personally I did not watch this episode, but I get a good feel of it from you article.

Anonymous said...

Thanks SR :)nadula endha chanel na English chanel than all the way :D

Ram said...

media-va paththi paesaRadhula use-ae illa, in my opinion. getting angry seeing what they do is even more useless :P

PS: get the news from the media and ignore the sensationalism, is my way of looking at it.

Anonymous said...

in a way ur right Ram, but if we just accept whatever is dished out to us, there wld never be progress. Expression is one form of dialogue and its my way of displaying my opinion :)

Ram said...

my point is that it's amongst the least of the worries that we have right now. There are much larger issues that we can lose sleep over :)

Sarathy said...

Just watch DD news if you want real news! Somehow, someone needs to impose a limit on the media and hold them accountable. I will talk to my machan Obama and see what can be done about this..

Also you should try to get a regular column where more people have access to it, similar to the Marquette Tribune!

Anonymous said...

irukalam, but in the context of the event I guess its pretty debatable whether its a low priority issue. I mean if this was about some c grade film star's image, your absolutely right- its a waste of time and space, but this in my opinion is one way to mislead people with dangerous consequences.

Anonymous said...

@sarathy, would love to watch DD news, only of they update it, they are a few million light years behind the other channels in proviidng 'latest' news unfortunately, ya talk to your machan Obama and machi Michelle and c what they can do abt this:P
Regular column means what, monthly mokkai's a?Dont want to inflict so much torture on hapless readers:D