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RSS FeedNovember 3rd, 2011
On state of journalism in India
Recently, Mr. Markandey Katju, head of the Press Council of India (and former Supreme Court justice) passed rather severe judgment on the state of journalism in India. To begin, I think his comments are welcome in bringing attention to the quality of media (of which I am often a harsh critic, although my criticism is not limited to any geographical boundaries).
But more importantly, he may have overlooked that everything works together. While Mr. Katju may be right in expressing that the education and the “well-read” level of the media people may be less than their colleagues in other nations, but then again, that might be the case of the nation as a whole (depending upon which country you compare India to). As the country itself becomes more educated and “well-read”, so would the media. It is doubtful that a very educated nation would give its attention to media folks who are not well-read or up to speed on the various perspectives. There is a strong competition in the media market in India, and ultimately, that is what will lead to improved “level” (however that may be defined) of the media, than Mr. Katju and the Press Council of India.
It may seem that Katju could have picked a more productive way of making a change by picking a specific issue (such as “Paid News”) than by criticizing an industry as a whole.
October 3rd, 2010
Commonwealth Games 2010 – New Delhi
Ok, finally the Commonwealth Games 2010 are on the way in New Delhi. This is the first time India is hosting an event of this magnitude since the Asian Games of 1982. The media frenzy that preceded the event notwithstanding, the opening ceremony seems to have gone very well and the first videos on Youtube have started appearing.
I feel bad to have missed the opening ceremony, but as far as I was able to read, the conch shells from India, the Tibetan ‘Dung Chen’s and various other musical instruments have left a great impression on the people who witnessed it.
So, what do we make of all the media hoopla leading up to the event? There is a strange case of media bias. Many of the atomic complaints that the media highlights were all true – things lagged, schedules slipped, etc, and the problem isn’t really in reporting that – that is what the media is here for. The bias starts becoming apparent however, when the next day, the same exact information is repeated as “news” with the only addition being perhaps of a quote from one other person. So, the feeling is that the news agencies have to keep a focus on the chaos that existed before. Having found nothing today, they need to keep stretching the ghosts of yesterday. And if some day turned out to be good, the media simply doesn’t have to report it, turning its attention to other important matters of the universe. This is all subjective however, and if it weren’t for a very repetitive pattern, it would really be fine.
CNN takes a different take. It begins with the very neutral headline: Commonwealth Games begin in India “amid security”. One might ask, as opposed to what? Did CNN expect a free movement of people across the parliament, the presidents house and the capital with no security in place. Did the Olympics begin in Beijing (or even in pre-911 Atlanta) without security? Which part of the title is the news?
And then, don’t even get me started on the BBC. I stopped being its reader back when BBC stopped being anti-India covertly (and became overtly anti-Indian). Incidentally – on that note – BBC still hasn’t found any further details on the “gunmen” of 26-11, although it continues to end every piece on India with the standard 3-sentence paragraph about the 3 wars with India’s western neighbor. That’s really great for about two kinds of readers – those who have in coma for about 64 years, and those who want to have 3 sentences for every country so they can get on the big boss or some other reality show. It meets BBC’s agenda of always hyphenating India so that it doesn’t challenge UK’s rightful place (as what, I don’t really know). [I routinely get some emails from UK readers - something like "Please stop equating BBC with UK!" - and I always tell them the same thing - "I cannot distinguish, because BBC is FUNDED by the UK - it isn't just a UK company."]
Anyway, back to the games, the medals tally can be found here: CWG 2010 Medalls Tally.
September 17th, 2010
Meera Shankar Dinner
Excellent dinner at the residence of Her Excellency Meera Shankar, Ambassador of India on September 14th. As always she spoke very eloquently. I have had the pleasure of hearing her in the past and I have always been struck by how approachable and personable she is. She spoke for about 10 minutes, and in those ten minutes itself, she was able to articulate the various aspects of the US-India relationship, including economic, trade, education and military relationships.
Answering to questions, she did clarify the Indian government’s position on a variety of issues such as collaboration with foreign universities and the issue of increasing foreign direct investment in certain sectors.
The question in mind of many peoples’ minds (including mine) is how can the world participate and benefit from the 8% annual growth that the Indian economy is showing. Clearly with the bank interest rates in US currently at near zero percent, the contrast is hard to ignore.
December 8th, 2008
BBC’s anti-India bias
Despite its best attempts, BBC has never been a neutral media outlet. Observer (observer.guardian.co.uk) has published a detailed report that confirms that one of terrorists who killed 160+ people in Mumbai on Nov 26th is indeed from Pakistan. Here is the link to their website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/07/mumbai-terrorism-india-pakistan1. The article also tells that this person’s parents were led away by the authorities about a week ago.
BBC has only published a one page on Pakistan’s scepticism to whether or not this terrorist is from Pakistan. Here is the relevant link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7757871.stm. It is difficult to believe that BBC does not have access to the same investigative reports that Observer and MSNBC have as it has one of the largest networks inside Pakistan.
No wonder that BBC has lost ground to Observer and other news sources over these years.
September 8th, 2007
Why I think Telegraph India is a dumb newspaper
Here I was, trying to find the India Japan game in the Asia Cup semi final. When I go to TelegraphIndia.com, here are the first 5 news it shows in the sports section:
- No change in Team India’s seven-batsman formula
- Sachin awaits crowning glory
- Dravid eyes a perfect finish
- Moores upbeat on Flintoff
- THE ENFANT TERRIBLE (About Shoib Akhtar)
Further, there is NO WAY to navigate to the hockey news. How can a person who is even mildly interested in hockey read hockey news?
News websites often claim they can only highlight what readers are interested in. However the reverse is much more forced: the readers can only be interested in things that they are aware of.
So, the news websites at least have to make all news available. Then, as readers read some news more than others, the news website can choose to prioritize them.