The ever-crusader media has been ruthlessly criticized for its paprazzi style of gossiping,  intruding too much into the privacy of prominent persons, euphemistically in the ‘investigative’ brackets.  When the blogging rocks sensationalism and camera phones make anyone a paparazzi at the premise of an accident or celebrity, this trailing-off and ‘peeping Tom’ leniency of the mainstream media can be accounted as an accomplishment of the ‘supply according to the need’ policy with which it strives on.. Says Rajashri Iyer

Who is Sunanda Pushkar?

Until last week every nook and corner of even the remote villages in India were buzzing of these murmurs.

.Sunanda Pushkar is the one who embellishes all the Indian frames now – whether big or small- and ornaments the banners with her charming looks. Discussions and debates on ‘who-is-this’ issue fervor in the newsrooms and classrooms. Even though she doesn’t comes to limelight on her own, media across the country drag her to explode “I am not a proxy….” . That is what we and our media want to.

Going Paparazzi

Paparazzi is not at all an uncommon word for the world after the ghastly death of Princess Diana. Being celeb-obsessed, media the digital and verbal voice of the mass, tend to be on celebrity-heels in accordance with what they have taught from the journalism schools. ‘The ability to ferret through’ is the one quality required to a press person. They are ferreting to the abyss of a man/woman’s personal life to pull out the forbidden and hedonic flurries and redound it to tickle the reader/viewer. When the fast-paced tension-fed life thrusts one for a relaxation, naturally there will be a tendency towards a light-reading or to find it through the media at their finger tip. Whether it is newspaper, radio, TV, internet or cinema, people are always wanted to be entertained.

But from the four sides media in India is being flayed ruthlessly for intruding into the privacy of eminent personalities and public figures.. Had Sunanda Pushakar been a warped figure or an aged one, would media roam around her like satellites? This is the lashing slam Indian media face now-a-day. Every one laments the deterioration of the media standard to just that of a tabloid. (Tabloids are also a part of media!!!).

However, the first priority of the media is to give/supply/provide according to the needs/requirements/wants of the reader/viewer/consumer. In such a way media is to be informative. That information is to be the ‘need of the hour’– to get a niche in the priority list. Eventually, browse through the public interests and figure out the ‘most wanted’ becomes the prime job of the reporter. Perhaps the collected information will be of lesser significance in the ‘informative’ angle but may carry a tint of entertainment. That seemed to be enough for an average ‘consumer’.

When it comes to ‘human interest stories’ sometimes the fuzzy reporter gets around its social value on conditional grounds. It may not be a deliberate denial or ignorance, ‘chasing the news’ asks it while bringing the kitten out by the ‘doggy teams’ (as Chinese termed).

When Celeb-obsessed

Sunanda Pushkar was not at all a so-called celebrity until the bombastic entrance of Lalit Modi through the Twitter. Then there was a bee-line of reporters from various media to chatter and re-chatter the tweets. There were no lines between reporting and sensationalizing. Thence forth, they were under the spell of somnambulism, they drifted along the saying ‘Beauty is Truth, Truth , beauty’.

Readers guzzled their pouring, viewers gulped it without water, and net-savvies never took their hands off the mouse. What this means..? Were the media trailed off?

Recently there staged an open combat between the Chennai Film Industry and Chennai Press Industry. It began with a report dealing with a cine-actress indulged in immoral traffic activities. The Editor has been accused of false reporting and all the cinematic heart-throbs gushed to the street for his blood. Subsequently he had to apologise. For what..? -  For being ignorant of the line drawn between reporting and sensationalizing.

But the way the criminal law mechanisms have been used to arrest the news editor reminded the dark days of National Emergency in 1975.

What do you want?

Most of the newspaper-readers like sensationalism.  You can make out the style of news- paper reading of an average person, if observed. At first, a hurry browsing through the front page, searching for a color photo, something alluring. The next moment he turns the paper back and enjoys the colorful ads and some eye-catching jest or something up-to-the-minute. In the third step, he goes to the 2^nd and 3^rd page to know what is happening in his surroundings. Ultimately he reaches the obit page and halts there, index finger on his nose.

What do you understand out of this? He needs something spicy. If an accident occurs, we cry not out of our sympathy, it is a pleasure to weep over a stranger’s pain. That is simply cathartic. Otherwise, why do face book, twitter, blogs and such social networks, in their soap-boxes publish haunting blood-stained photographs which are forbidden in the newspapers and TV channels? Why every channel survives on crime reporting as a special fragment in the late night hours with enough ads?

It is stupid to whirl around such gossips when the endemic hunger and global fuming are at the threshold. But it seemed to be a matter of concern rather than a subject so succulent. Loaded mindscapes prefer the latter to stretch the limbs only to shrink into. (We feel sorry to display a haunting picture  once again through this site though made it blurred – only because we sense it is unavoidable to serve the very purpose of the content).

Beauty is Truth

No doubt, Sunanda Pushkar is stunningly beautiful even in her 40 plus and so also our ex-minister Shahsi Tharoor. I know personally, a lot of people who were least bothered  of what is happening inside the Parliament, started watching the live Parliamentary sessions after Mr.Tharoor began to charm the ambit with his ‘careless’ locks falling unto his bright eyes, the internationally adored accents slipped off his mouth.. Even when  in the hook, everybody hanging on to every word uttered by him and he reciprocated in the same vein reaching out to all with his brilliance. That is palatable about its news-worthiness. In a nut shell, people irrespective of party politics likes to hear him, likes to hear about his ‘external education’ and ‘external affairs’.

Beauty, Sports, Recession, Cinema, Sex – media purveys on these aspects some times too much. That ‘too much’ is the add-on and problem-making. Otherwise it is the accepted way for media in its rollercoaster run. It simply reflects what the majority of the populace lusts after.

Sports and Cinema

This trend is not a new-born pester-kid, but a long pampered one. That is why Anna Kurnikova had been in the limelight even though she has not received a grand slam. She was just a model exhibiting her curves and thus embellishing the sports page. So was it with Sania Mirza. Though could achieve a grand slam, she did not do enough as Saina Nehwal or P.T.Usha to their respective fields. Still media has been by her tail as the ‘vodafone pug’. Youngsters around the globe stand abate whenever she wheezes on the ground. Cameras were at vigil to open whenever her skirt moves a bit. Advertisers formed/ a bee-line at her gate for a single snap. That is why Sania-Malik marriage created ripples and waves across the nation as if at the Kargil war time.

Cinema and film personalities have been an obsession as well as a mystery to the common men since its origin. If liked, people nurture a notion, a yearning to know ‘more’ about their ‘real’ life beyond the reel. As always moral-police and culture-guard rein the mind-set, then. By the entry of mini-screen, the distance between the common men and the stars shortened and the equation has changed for better acquaintance. So it mattered if a cinematic heart-throb lights a cigarette or a ‘next-door girl’ visited a coffee shop hanging on somebody’s arms. The word ‘gossip’ has been added or promoted to an individual column or segment or sometimes a new edition in journalism. Believing that celebrities make a difference, readers throng to it and it became a motivating factor for the Press. (And Edward Egglestone has already stated that journalism is nothing but organized gossip).

Politics and Sex

Politics and Sex can be a potent blend in India where every village tea-shop is abuzz with the latest political swings, its analyses and cropping up. Indian villages are known for its creative scandal-mongers. N.D.Tiwari is the latest one in those heady-combo shots.. In the cent percent literary state Kerala, it could crash-land an off-shot air plain as well as a State Minister. In another incident, the then State Transport Minister attempted to molest a lady IAS officer    When she popped up this case another lady IFS officer came out with her similar experience when the accused was the State Minister for Forests. All these cinders were unveiled through the media blows. A lot of people came to know these scuffles and there was no way other than a resignation. Then the people said “Thank you, media”.

Shahi Tharoor-Sunanda Pushkar case is too toeing the line in this category, though there is no accusation of molesting. If there is no much fluff to plump up you will not go to check the dictionary to find the real meaning of ‘cattle class’ and ‘interlocutor’. So the only thing to go behind the sari tip of the lovely Sunanda is that being a widow she lives with all the glam and pomp of a reputed lady. She never wears white sari and sits in a corner to chant japas, instead travels across the globe with big business shots and tries to bring an independent IPL team for Kochi, in Kerala, the ground reserved only for men. When it became a ‘Politics-Sex’ combo (plus cricket) it hit the headlines, but it never exceeded those obscene scrolls in the personal Blogs and comments on the social networks regarding the affair..

Knowing the pulse

It has been a ‘near the knuckle ’ issue with god-men entangled in sex-scandals and from Sai Baba it now puts the brake with Nityananda. That also involved a film personality and thus got ample popularity. Cold-blooded crimes including police tortures are also a part of bringing out the cathartic enjoyment to the reader/viewer. Whenever there is a heart-rending accident or vandalizing calamity occurred, media never pulls back its news tubes in the name of ethics, but transforms to be a generous host. They know the pulse-  that is it.

Raps executed by the media never stops. It goes on whenever and wherever a need arises. Beyond a profession it becomes an industry. A 24-hour news channel apparently empties out if there is no ‘breaking news’ to scroll on. So it badly needs fillers which can be spicy or hot as to the choice of the viewer who keeps the remote button waving in his hand.

When it comes to the news paper, the reader needs something ‘hot’ over a cup of tea. If there is no news about a cold-blooded murder, a gang-bang, a blast, a calamity or a simple suicide or hit-and-run case, he feels lost. ‘o. nothing special today…” he will sigh.

There is no doubt that the publication of the names or photographs of prominent public figures based on confessional statement can never account as good journalism. Media should draw the line and decide where the public interest ends and private space begins.

Such ethics should be taught from the schools of journalism. But as far as the media targets their readers/viewers, it is obliged to extinguish their quest. Moreover, media especially the Print focuses mainly on lay-men and hence feels as stooped down when perceiving from an upper angle.

“… the one who has never sinned throw the first stone“,

Related posts:

1. The battles online….