Is the Indian media biased in favour of popular interest news?
By Editor on Dec 18, 2006 in media
I received a forwarded mail from someone and it provoked an interesting question – how much prominence does the Indian media give to news of popular interest over other news? Let’s say news of popular interest are those news items of issues that have established themselves among the masses pretty well and have the ability to generate mass interest whenever there is any development.
Here is an excerpt of the mail:
On Tuesday a news swept across all the news channels ‘Sanjay Datt relieved by the court’. ‘Sirf Munna Not a bhai’ ‘13 saal ka vanvaas khatam’ ‘although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breathe a sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn’
And then many experts like Salman khan saying ‘He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean’ Mr. Big B, ‘Datt family and our family have relations for years – he’s a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek’. His sister Priya Datt ‘we can sleep well tonight…it’s a great relief’
In another news: Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing badly; Greg chapel said something …..; Bomb scare in Gorakhpoor express; and Shah Rukh Khan replaces Big B in KBC and Sonia asked PM to consider reducing petroleum prices. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Datt’s ‘phoenix like’ comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.
Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me, it read – Hisbul Mujahidin’s most-wanted terrorist ‘Sohel Faisal’ killed in Anantnag, India. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.
It was past midnight, I started visiting the Indian channels, the ones who are ‘Sabse tez’, but Sanjubaba was still ruling. They were telling How Sanjubaba pleaded to the court saying ‘I am the sole bread earner for my family’ ‘I have a daughter who is studying in US – who will look after her’. And then they showed how Sanjubaba was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict. Also how he went to every temple and prayed for last some months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act…..was being made into a hero.
Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists’ whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp killed the Hisbul Mujahidin’s supremo and in the process lost his life….. To the bullets fired from an AK47. He has a wife and a daughter (just like Sanjubaba), age …..18 months. No news channel covered this since they were too busy covering the Sanjay Dutt episode.
The debate and discussions on media-bias have been done innumerable times already. There have been debates on hundreds of crime victims elsewhere in the country whose cases the media chose to ignore. Does a opening of a store by a Bollywood star makes more TRP sense for the media than what happens beyond the metros?
That said, we cannot conclude that the media do not highlight social issues and news of national importance at all. There have been instances of the media picking up stories about crime victims from nowhere and highlighting them to the public.
My question now is how many news items of importance might have get killed because the media had to devote their airtime and editorial space providing repeats of one particular news item of popular interest?
Popularity: 4% [?]
On Dec 19, 2006, deepak said:
Good Morning, Electronic CoBs. Its wake-up call.
On Dec 19, 2006, bella said:
ya you r right…this is a question to ponder over…. you flip to any news channel and same sanjay story is doing the rounds. And one more question to think over is..
There are ten’s of news channels which run 24X7…they have to have repeat the same news over and over again. Even you know a lot of channels are their in which one reports has to give 4-5 stories in a day.. now the question is from where would they dig out so many stories…so they end up covering who is marrying whom…
wonder were this will lead to ??
Bella
On Dec 19, 2006, अनुनाद सिंह said:
I don’t think there is lack of issues which are important for India and its janata.
But it is a sad fact that Indian media is highly biased for Sanjay.
Why do they not ask the hard questions?
On Dec 19, 2006, hobbit said:
Commercialisation of media?
On Dec 31, 2006, India News Sucks said:
No doubt. Indian media was totally biased when it came to defending Sanjay Dutt and went all out. It’s also sad that they were able to influence the judiciary by running his gandhi role in Lage Raho Munna Bhai. The final sentence he was given is total watered down version and he deserved much severe punishment for aiding Islamic terrorists.
One more notable thing is how they used Saddam’s execution to increase their rating. They ran all sorts of debate and SMS pole but removed all those views which didn’t suit their interest. I had sent SMS to NDTV and TIMES NOW TV channels supporting the hanging of the dictator but they never got aired. Even during debate they will put some weakling in support of hanging and who will fail miserably in convincing the public that hanging Saddam was right thing to do.
So much for free and fair media…
On Feb 16, 2007, gurjot said:
Well it is quite right as the example is in front of us. The indian media today is more concerned about the filmstars, cricketers, and other celebrities.. it has made a common artist like rakhi sawant to an important personality.. it is more concerned about the scoop in politics than about the serious happenings. but one thing to note is that our indian media is not completely at fault. the line “jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai” is ruling the scenario. the india media is showing what we want to see, what we want to hear and read. otherwise how many of the readers read political or serious articles with interest as much as they read about ash-abhishek love story, or shilpa shetty’s plight in a country overseas? Our young generation especially is more interested in knowing about sanjay dutt’s or salman khan’s life. So media has understood the psyche of the indian readers and are thus giving more information about such people of interest.
On Mar 12, 2007, Anonymous said:
dumbing down of media. one wonders in all this rush for masala news, how is one expected to squeeze in any serious business news….maybe get rakhi sawant and her like to endorse the business?
On May 14, 2007, Sindhu Patil said:
this is happening within the UK media as well.
On Jun 15, 2007, Bhaskar Choudhury said:
Bhaskar Choudhury said…
Commercialisation of Media..
I understand and sometimes get pissed that today’s media is too blunt.
It’s very predictable how the new is moving and who is moving where may be due to bombardment of information.
Thanks to ourselves.
When people stops channel browsing for eye catchers like Ash-abhi marriage (area of huge imagination), Pain sticking face of macho Sanjay Dutta (fun to watch).
Common man doesn’t have the interest to repeatedly listen and remember pain, brain cracking speech all after the end of a hectic day. Especially today, when we have numerous selection to watch from, unlike in past we had(the ruling party motivated only channel) Doordarshan.
When media is free and run with adv and TRP revenue can we really blame them for today’s scenario.
I believe we still awaiting paparazzi craze in our country. If time allows the cultural watch dogs to being more liberal, no doubt the photography as career will be in boom.
On Aug 7, 2007, arun said:
Hai This is Arun,
India is having 100+ crores of population. and there are plenty of problems are facing daily. But this media is only corering sunjay’s issue. and i have a doubt may be this media and some of the polyticians and bollywood doesn’t want to punish him because of he is either An Actor or son of Former minister. i don’t think they are believing justice is equal for all people. The person having the AK47 with out any reason is not a small case.
On Oct 14, 2009, ela singh said:
yeah,i agree with the point that our Indian media is biased.But these media people show us what we want to see,what we want to hear.You just tell me how many youngsters of Indian are interested in serious articles about day to today problems.Most of them give preference to celebrities gossip over important co of our society.