Blissfully Ignorant Media

Indian society has always been regarded as a heady concoction of “cocktails of contradictions”. Our cities are abuzz with talk regarding our booming economy and the viability of an 8%-10% growth rate of our economy, but are our country cousins as fortunate as we are, perhaps not. Farmers are still committing suicide in the face of mounting debt and failing crops, the agrarian sector is still growing at a mere 2%.

The national press, following the footsteps of our ‘revered’ politicians, seems to have turned its back towards the real India. At a time when the socio-economic equations are increasingly favouring the middle-class this attitude of apathy towards the poor and pandering to the needs of the bourgeoisie translates into good business, but not good journalism. It seems that somewhere down the line the media has forgotten about its responsibility of ‘nation building’, which is unfortunate.

The profession of journalism is different from others as a huge social responsibility accompanies it. Journalists earlier were driven by a sense of duty and were always accountable for the content they published but in the era of globalization and free market it has become just another business driven occupation with profit being its sole mantra. In a scenario where information is the most powerful tool to succeed in this world, the newspapers and media organisations have a bigger responsibility to inform and empower the youth of India.

To do this they need to get as sensitive towards the issues of the marginalised section of the society as it already is towards the “Shining India” living-it-up in the cities. It needs to understand that it is more important to highlight the plight of the farmer drinking pesticides in Vidharbha than the traffic woes of an average delhiite! Maintaining a state of equilibrium should be the key.

All the eye ball grabbing headlines can also be used to sensitise the DU dude about the rampant illiteracy in the Indian heartland. It can help expose government’s populist measures by informing the quota fearing middle class about absence of even primary education for the kids unfortunate enough to be born to ‘lower caste’ parent in Bihar or Jharkhand.