Media Culture
Dog bites man, no news. Man bites dog, news. The recent demonetization of high-value currency notes has unfortunately brought about the-man-bites dog approach to news reporting, for I read often enough how a lot of people, 70 and more, have died while sanding in queues in ATMs across India. That hundreds die every day as a result of poverty and malnutrition is unfortunately not newsworthy. It is dog bites man. We need to express genuine sympathy and compassion and stop pretending. We need to reflect more and consider the larger picture. Not simply shout and scream and display knee-jerk reactions. If some peoples' hearts bleed for the victims who died while standing in ATM queues it is also time to give sympathy to hundreds who die as a result of poverty in our country every day otherwise our hypocrisy is there for all to see. Let's express compassion for both groups. If we don't, we need to hang our heads down in shame.
