The Hindu Business Line : Media glare that hurts

THE flip side of being a journalist is that at any gathering or party you will find at least a few people who seem to think that you are responsible for all the ills of the media and will take you to task for that.

For some time now, one has been witness to the growing disenchantment with the media in the public domain, and quite often one cannot quarrel with what people are complaining about.

Of course, the most common complaint is on how the "secular press" has ganged up against the BJP and its friends and cannot find anything right in the way the Sangh Parivar conducts itself.

But while this charge can be debated spiritedly and the media's role defended staunchly, one finds oneself on a bit of a sticky wicket when the complaint veers to the undue importance given to the coverage of trivia in both the electronic and print media.

"These days, particularly in the supplements, you guys seem to find nothing more worthy or reporting than DJs and VJs," a professor in Chennai commented the other day, adding acidly, "as though there is no life beyond what appears on MTV."

The simple explanation to this is, of course, that the media is on a search for young readers or viewers. But, sometimes, in this search journalists literally hound celebrities and the rich and the beautiful from the entertainment industry. And if there is a news event concerning somebody glamorous, particularly a woman, all hell breaks loose.

For instance, two recent happenings: Miss India losing her crown and a former Miss India ending her life. Both were tragedies in a way; and both got more than adequate media attention, though the treatment was rather different.

It appeared as though Ms Lakshmi Pundit, who had to relinquish her crown for reasons concerning her so-called marital status, got the wrong end of the stick from journalists, particularly those in the electronic media. While contestants for the Miss India title have to be unmarried — though why this should be so beats understanding — Ms Pundit had apparently told her house-owner in Mumbai that she was married, and this because, as we found out later, it was impossible for a single woman like her to get rented accommodation in the area of her choice.

Anyway, she was disqualified and had to return the crown; actually, she herself chose to step down because, as she put it, she did not want to spoil India's chances of winning the crown at the Miss Universe pageant.

But even after she had done this, the media refused to stop chasing her. It was embarrassing to watch one particular Hindi channel literally crucify Ms Pundit. The correspondent — ironically, a woman — kept thrusting the mike in the face of the beauty queen, asking her to comment on the sordid saga, even after the crestfallen woman kept saying she had no comments to make.

"Lekin hamarey darshak yeh janna chahengey ki aapne aisa kyon kiya? (but our viewers would want to know why you did this?)," screeched the journalist, signalling to her cameraperson to keep the camera rolling. And the entire footage was telecast, with Ms Pundit pleading with the channel that she should be left alone, as she had no comments to make. One marvelled at the good manners and equanimity of Ms Pandit.

Of course one can argue, and validly too, that once a person decides to come out in the public domain — be it as a politician or a celebrity — he or she should be prepared for public/media glare. But, then, there can be too much of it, as have discovered many a Bollywood star who would prefer to have some space of their own and anyway do not really need the media glare all the time to keep their professions alive.

Fortunately, the media seem capable of handling the dead less harshly, at least they did so with Nafisa Joseph, who ended her life because of a failed romance.

Though Nafisa's suicide was handled a tad more sensitively than tragedies involving celebrities, it does not make it any less painful for her family and close friends who cannot mourn her death in any semblance of privacy. Every aspect of her personal life, including the number of boyfriends she had, were all grist to the media mill.

And now we are even told that however beautiful, bright or successful a person might be, what is of paramount importance is "inner strength", "resilience" and what not. There is no denying that all these stories are lapped up by readers. They might complain later but they will read/watch such stories nevertheless!

So is it the voyeur in each of us that makes such stories so irresistible? And as for journalists, what exactly is their role? Do they just have to give their readers tantalising and titillating stuff... only because people want it? It is like saying that people get the governments they deserve.

What about our role as a watchdog? Agreed, people today are in no mood for lectures or pedantic stuff. But that does not mean the media cannot make news and views interesting. A newspaper or a TV news programme has to be, by sheer necessity, a mixed bag — something for everyone in the family.

Add to this a dash of glamour and celebrity stuff if you must, but obsession with such news, just because the journalists think people are interested in it, is the worrying factor.

If this trend persists we may have to bid adieu to journalism of the crusading kind — that brand of journalism which can highlight and investigate a society's failures, and shortcomings in a manner that will touch the reader's soul, and spur him to respond appropriately.

Similarly, the positive stories of the triumph of the human spirit against all odds — physical, mental or psychological — need to be told, to inspire thousands others battling similar situations.

Alongside, the media will have to play the role of a watchdog to the politicians — expose their corrupt and untruth ways, as also tell positive stories, when we can find them!

But if the media choose to ignore all this, and continue on as peeping Toms, prying into people's lives just because they are rich, beautiful or famous, it will only prove right what Julia Roberts (who enacts the Hollywood heart throb Anna Scott) says in the film Notting Hill: "Newspapers never die." She is anguished about the tabloids picking out some of her nude pictures taken years ago when she was a struggling starlet, and splashing them on their front-pages. She tells the hero (Hugh Grant) that her being discovered in his house by the media would be a story that would be filed and dug out each time anything was written about her.

Well, the media will have to decide if they want this notoriety.

(Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)

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