MxMIndia

Tag: Delhi rape

  • Why is it that we journalists don't bother to do rigorous, sustained follow-ups on such important stories, why do we quickly move on to the next one? (The Gujarat election result has already hijacked the Delhi incident.)

    Anil Thakraney: Amnesiac Indian media

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    How many of you remember the rape and brutal murder of the Dalit girl in Khairlanji? Am sure some of you do. How many of you are aware of the current status of that criminal case? Perhaps very few of you. And how many of you can recall the victim’s name? I would hazard a guess and say probably none of you. And this is just one example of how, as a nation, we quickly forget about such big tragedies. Sadly, the same fate awaits the poor girl who got viciously attacked inside the Delhi bus. And who’s to blame for this? The memory loss suffering desi media, of course.

     

    So then why is it that we journalists don’t bother to do rigorous, sustained follow-ups on such important stories, why do we quickly move on to the next one? (The Gujarat election result has already hijacked the Delhi incident.) The reason for that is the training our editors give us from a very young age. Right from the start it’s ingrained in us to always be topical, to always dig into the latest, hottest news, to always churn out fresh content. So that you remain one-up on the rivals. It’s also assumed that the public tires out from repeated coverage of the same story. I have personally witnessed editors striking down stories because they were too ‘old’.

     

    The way this nation is going downhill in many respects, I am beginning to feel there is an urgent change required in the ideology of ‘new, new news’. Editors need to reboot their strategies, they must encourage their reporters and deskies to keep a regular track of significant stories, right till the point they reach their logical end. Perhaps restructuring of the newsroom is required, so that one set of journos cover the topical stuff, and the others cover continuing stories. After all, readers and viewers have never said they don’t wish to consume ‘old’ news, the ‘latest news’ approach has become a default operating programme inside newsrooms.

     

    And sustained coverage will keep the pressure points alive. No criminal will ever rest in assurance with ‘mamla thode din ke baad thanda ho jaayega’. It’s time for some doggedness in the newsrooms. Let’s get stuck into these slime balls, and let go only after justice is served. We owe this to the nation.

     

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    PS: Last week, the popular US TV comedy show, Saturday Night Live, took a break from their regular jokes, and opened with a touching tribute to the dead kids of Newtown school. It features the New York City Children’s Chorus singing “Silent Night.” Good thinking.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XGFiE536gg[/youtube]

     

  • With shockers in the news every second day, the question arises – does media feed the frenzy? Paritosh Joshi takes a closer look

    Paritosh Joshi: Eternal Vigilance – The Price of Freedom

    By Paritosh Joshi

     

    Twice last week we have been shaken to the very core of our being as unspeakable horrors unfolded, in a distant commuter town in Connecticut and then right here at home on a bus in Delhi. Anger, indignation, frustration, desire for vigilante leveling of scores outside the criminal justice system, fear, sorrow, resignation… they have all run their predictable, grim course as people vent a deluge of emotions that inevitably arise in response.

     

    There’s a subtext to the discourse that we cannot, even dare not afford to miss. In both instances, the media and their portrayals: of gun culture in one instance, attitudes toward women in the other; are being identified as a factor in amplifying and even glamourising criminal dysfunction. Anguished voices in digital forums are pointing at how a deranged mind of a bright if introverted high school student may have sought out his gruesome final fifteen minutes of media glory in a schoolyard massacre. Or how Indian films and television shows don’t merely condone ‘eve teasing’ but encourage it, thus building a slippery slope from where descent into the most perverted sexual crime is an inevitable consequence.

     

    What compounds the felony, in popular perception, is that the media are seen to be doing this driven solely by the greed for more eyeballs, even if it is at the cost of taste or common decency.

     

    Which brings me to a theme that I have dwelt on before and will continue to belabor, ad nauseam if need be, until things begin to improve. The theme of responsible self-regulation.

     

    Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were among the earliest philosophers to develop the theory of Social Contract. The theory attempts to explain why an individual in human society is prepared to surrender some of her individual liberties to become a part of a governed collective that in return protects her other rights and freedoms. The idea develops quite intuitively, predicated around the permanent vulnerability of an individual outside of the collective to all sorts of perils, natural and man-made, and how joining the covenant instantly trumps a large majority of them. Extending this Social Contract idea, the Media belong to, and are intended to serve, the community in which they operate and to which they must perforce surrender a few of their untrammeled rights in order that they retain most of them. If the Media are seen as engaging in dysfunctional behaviour, they open themselves up to the charge of defying the Social Contract and can be penalized by being docked all their rights and privileges within the democratic polity of the day.

     

    A particular example of Media delinquency is on display when horrors, such as those of recent memory, are squeezed for all they offer by way of ghoulish ‘entertainment’. We all remember the classic but usually entirely rhetorical “Is bhayanak apatti ke baad aap kya mehsoos kar rahe hain?” type question asked to unwary and naive survivors of disasters. Even in the current events cited above, the victim’s and the perp’s relatives have already been sought out and interviewed at a stage when their lives have abruptly upended most cruelly.

     

    I see tokenism too. A few media houses have organized public vigils and little quasi-political rallies where they will have plenty of ‘grief’ on display, complete with slogans, banners and similar appurtenances that need to be worn only so as to demonstrate bnafide intent. This is not going to cut it.

     

    In fact, nothing less than a public mea culpa by the Industry as a whole particular issued by the leading News and Entertainment broadcasters, followed by an unequivocal commitment to introspect on and develop prescriptions for what ails their ethical systems, will suffice in the court of public opinion.

     

    What if no such acknowledgement is forthcoming?

     

    Well then, start preparing yourselves for that most unfortunate and liberty-destroying outcome: a government-appointed and -empowered media watchdog.

     

    Paritosh Joshi has been a marketer, a mediaperson and a key officebearer on industry bodies. He is developing an independent media advisory practice. His column, Media Matrix, appears on MxMIndia on Thursdays

     

  • This is what usually happens after crimes of rape. Another juicy story will grab the imagination, the trial of the accused will go on for years, and the nation will move on. The debates will re-start when the next attack happens. In short, a whole lot of sound, but of little value

    Anil Thakraney: Feeding frenzy over rape

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    And so, another horrific rape has happened in Delhi. And the media has gone into an overdrive, as the channels try to outdo each other on the frenzy scale. Panelists are shouting, anchors are hollering, and this has led to parliamentarians taking a break from FDI and quotas, and diving into the rape debate. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has asked for death penalty for the rapists, completely ignoring the fact that India is reluctant to hang convicted terrorists. And of course, the activists can’t be left far behind. Morchas are being planned on the streets. Even Arvind Kejriwal decided to forget corruption for a day, and he’s joined in the act. All very well. But you know what? Nothing will come out of all this shor sharaba.

     

    One, because after the dust has settled, the media will forget all about this incident. This is what usually happens after crimes of rape. Another juicy story will grab the imagination, the trial of the accused will go on for years, and the nation will move on. The debates will re-start when the next attack happens. In short, a whole lot of sound, but of little value.

     

    Secondly, the main reason why rapes continue is the medieval mindset of the average Indian male. As long as we live in a patriarchal society, where the male head of the house sets the agenda, this crime will simply carry on. And for the hard-core buggers, even the possibility of life imprisonment won’t be a deterrent. It could take centuries for this mindset to change, we cannot allow rapes to go on. Our scientists, doctors and creative people need to figure out a way around this problem, we need lateral solutions. In South Africa, a medical technician has developed a product called RAPEX. It’s shaped like a tube and is embedded with barbs. The woman inserts it like a tampon, and any man who tries to rape her gets his organ stuck into these barbs. We need innovative ideas like this.

     

    And this is the sort of stuff the media should encourage and promote. Screaming and shouting on prime time TV is of no use in this matter. By the way, I write this piece on the evening of Tuesday. And have consumed a higher dose of BP tablets to deal with Arnab’s rage on rape.

     

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    PS: Speaking of rape, here’s an ad gone all wrong. Virgin Mobile is known for quirky work, but sometimes creative people can cross the thin line. A US ad has tried to make fun of rape. Even the otherwise edgy Sir Richard Branson was compelled to apologise following outrage in the social media.