The Obsession of Media With Private Lives

Marriages are made in Heaven. But celebrations are made on the planet Earth. The prayers for it are made in the temple of Tirupati and the media splashes it as headline news. Finally, the audiences enjoy it as sumptuous morning breakfast or dinner and all live happily thereafter.
 The marriage of Abhishek Bachan and Aishwara Rai has come as godsend as the media looks hungrily for any news involving celebs and what better opportunity it could get than covering the ceremony. Having got a drubbing very recently at the sad turn of events in the cricket World Cup, 2007 with India Team letting them down, media expects it stands a chance to cheer its audience. What if it is a private and personal event? What if the host and hostess have already announced that there would be only few invitees. Those who call themselves investigative journalists ‘risk’ being shooed away from the premises (as it happened in the other celebs’ marriage of Arun Nayar and Liz Hurley with which the media was so deeply engrossed) just only to carry out their basic duty of reporting faithfully information to its audience! Who cares whether the readers of print media or viewers of television want such information in the first place or not and whether any other information they consider useful could have been provided by the media in stead.
  I think it just exposes our intellectual impoverishment. Is it not?  

Putting All The Eggs In One Basket

 After India failed to make it to the Super 8 in the cricket World Cup 2007 and its humiliating defeat by Bangladesh, I thought there was going to be a long spell of soul-searching to identify our mistakes and weaknesses. Instead, the blame-game is being played with full fury. I wish if the players had used the same power in the fields, the fate of Team India would have been quite different.
 The media which was busy building hype about the cricket World Cup 2007 until Team India crashed out has landed itself in a ridiculous situation. Having put all its eggs in one basket (read cricket), the media does not know how to fill up its space when there is nothing of Indian cricket to write home about. So we continue to see in the front-pages of dailies the photograph of Rahul Dravid holding on to his towel at Kovalam beach. I thought India Team had already thrown away the towel at West Indies . Likewise, one national daily had devoted more than 50% of the front-page for ‘news’on Indian cricket today besides the four pages of daily news on cricket. All these appear to be desperate bid by some to put down cricket everybody’s throat. The advertisers, too, are also a worried lot for having put so much stake on cricket.
 The sooner the realisation dawns on the media, the advertisers and the fans that it may be wise after all not to put all the eggs in one basket, the better could be the performance of India in the world of sports including cricket.     

The Weird World of Cricket Fans of India

Cricket is said to be a gentlemen’s game. In colonial days, it was introduced in India by the Britishers. While the players were always impeccably dressed in white from head to the toe, the spectators were mostly ladies who came to the clubs to cheer them. However endorsements, media hype, betting, match fixing and now murder have slowly vitiated the game and changed its total character altogether.
 Some cricket enthusiasts believe that the game has the largest number of fans in India. With media hype and glamourisation of cricket, it has became fashionable to take interest in it forcing millions including housewives, daily wage-earners and rustic illiterates to delude themselves to be sincere fans of the game. Cricket has been cleverly made an escapade from the daily grind of life. Soap operas and films shown in TVs take at the most 2 hours of viewing time whereas cricket matches can hook viewers for 6-7 hours for ODIs. Since the World Cup matches are going to be played over two months, TV channels and newspapers do not have to work hard to fill up their spaces. Concentrating on one single subject, their commercial interests are going be rewarded any way.
After the disastrous defeat of Team India against Bangladesh, TV clips showed houses of players like Dhoni getting demolished by angry fans. A photo in the front page of a daily showed women in saris demonstrating with placards reading “You come back, we will play”. There have been other types of protests like burning of effigies of players.
Indian fans accustomed to fantasize victory for Team India regardless of its weaknesses and strengths of good teams like Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka had a shock of their lives when India was beaten very convincingly by Sri Lanka. India’s dream of becoming World Cup winner was not only shattered, but also the spectre of not making it to Super Eights haunted millions of fans. Even after a few shock deaths and suicides which followed the defeat, the media is still continuing with their hype about the game. India is hoping against hope of sneaking into Super 8 which can happen if only Bermuda can defeat Bangladesh. The Bermuda team has, in the whole bargain, unexpectedly won the good wishes of one billion Indians! If only (some cynics may still be hoping) Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and others get eliminated, India could play against Bermuda in the final and somehow win, then World Cup 2007 would be ours. Then Team India and millions of cricket fans could live happily thereafter.
If cricket is no more a gentlemen’s game, why then so many millions are still glued to TV to watch matches? Someone had sarcastically described cricket as the game which is played by eleven players and is watched by eleven thousand fools. Today, eleven players still play the game but many times eleven thousand fans keep watching them. I am happy not to be a fan even if the ‘real’ fans consider me as sub-human species. 

Media Hypes Create Vicious Cycles

Media many times is found behind hypes which form vicious cycles. Whether it is sensation-seeking media which chooses to focus on a news or it is exaggerating the same which causes a hype, it is debatable. All the same, the media owes a lot of social responsibility to ensure that hypes are kept under leash and only news which are useful to the masses are given proper coverage. The marriage of Liz Hurley and Arun Nayar has recently come under media spotlight. Their marriage had already been solemnized earlier as per a case filed against them for insulting Hindu traditions. So, when the last event was merely meant to showcase their wealth and influence, what was the need for the media to bend backwards to report ad nauseam about the invitees to the function, the extravaganza in hospitality and even the incident of lathi-charging of over-zealous journalists covering the ceremony. What purpose it served our society which has 300 million people unable to afford two square meals a day? The media should use such spaces for
highlighting the efforts made by unknown heroes who fight against all odds to eradicate deep-rooted social evils. Feeding the minds of the unsuspecting masses with worthless news turns them hungry for such news only.
The sooner the media dumps its old habits and begins on a clean slate, better days will be there for all of us.