http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=5397&mod=1&pg=1§ionId=5&valid=true Media consumers here in India are seeing in the events in Britain a reflection of the changes that have taken place in the ecosystem of news.
When television began to expand in India in the 1990s, the state-run broadcaster Doordarshan was nowhere as confident of its professional worth as BBC has been, thanks to the confused tinkering with policy by the Information and Broadcasting ministry. Between the too-willing regulators in the ministry in league with the aspiring corporates, the news industry has been successfully driven into a quagmire of haphazard growth. By late 90s, the Murdochian model of journalism that took hold internationally was welcomed in India too. Like the self-replicating virus Mr Smith of the movie, The Matrix Reloaded, every other television channel and newspaper in India has modelled itself on the news values of the Murdoch empire. As is being amply illustrated in the ongoing expose of the empire and its strategies, sleaze in journalism poses multiple threats to the readers/viewers. We all feel it is fun to peek into celebrity affairs, because they are in public life. We also love to trash the personal lives of the politicians because they too are in public life. But to get us our ‘fix’ of news as entertainment, the organizations break the laws, form corrupt and unholy nexus with those who can trade information. Secondly, every story has to be sexy and personalised to make the target squirm and give us the kick of voyeuristic pleasure. This sexing up is done cleverly. On the one hand, it pretends to provoke moral outrage in us against such behaviour; on the other, it stokes our prurience and gradually naturalises it instead of making us think responsibly about it. Thirdly, once the strategies are set, there is no guarantee that these will be used only against celebrities and politicians and will not be used against you and me. This is precisely what happened in the UK. Phones of dead soldiers’ families and crime victims have been hacked to dish out sensational stories to the public. Intrusion into the private lives of ordinary people can be seen on many of the English and regional language channels in India as well. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
