Monday, May 08, 2006

Can we have a More POSITIVE Media


Year 2006 began on a very sad note. Every day we hear the death of a towering personality. If not that, its the death of innocents and sectarian violence in India and other parts of the world. Death of Bismillah Khan, Naushad, Pramod Mahajan, bomb blasts at Mumbai and the list is endless.

Reading newspaper in the morning gives heartaches. Switch to a news channel and you see the blood splashed everywhere. Add to that an infinite number of crime stories and diaries making the life a living hell. Breaking news almost breaks your heart and a bit of head too.

Eventhough you may be miles away from the place of crime, you are made to feel it and suffer the pains of everybody involved. Some may say this is necessary and even justify it as the very purpose of showing it. But a newspaper and a channel full of this content more often wears down heavily on the human mind, which then for some strange reason refuses to think positively. Its not that good things are not happening at all. Infact they are much more and better than these. But a sad news ends up consuming the entire space in the media which incidentally finds pleasure in sensationalising the content. Competition has forced the media to present the news in as grotesque a manner as possible.

My question is, can't we have enough good things to say and show? So many encouraging developments take place in the society every minute that deserve our attention. Media can pro-actively search and bring it to the audience. Even in the Middle East, the front page is consumed by such encouraging headlines and the bomb blasts etc which have become a sort of routine for the citizens there, get published in some obscure corner of the paper. Can the media in India also do such things. Can they resolve to showcase atleast one very encouraging and positive development each morning. That would make the life a lot more pleasant and livable.