A Rant About The Media

Is it just me or do the media really need to get their priorities sorted out?

There were so many reports about My Name Is Khan, they blew the whole problem out of proportion. I felt the same about the tiff between Chetan Bhagat and the producers of Three Idiots, what started off as a small dispute that could easily be sorted out in a sensible manner quickly grew to become the page 3 article in many newspapers.

We’re hardly being informed about the rate of farmer suicides in rural India, or about what we as the people can do to help this world become a better place to live in. Rather, our minds are being filled with sensational stories about the woman who didn’t know she was pregnant till she got to the operation theatre or gossip about ‘Who Is Priyanka Dating Today?’ How can we be expected to grow into learned citizens if this is all we’re being taught by the media?

What got me thinking about this was Javed Akhtar’s speech at the Star Screen Awards. He said something along the lines of:

‘It’s not that people don’t want good lyrics and good scripts, it’s the film industry denying them this.’

This could easily be applied to the world of media. It isn’t that people don’t want to be informed about important things, it’s the media that have got it wrong and think all the general public want is gossip and sensational stories.

I do agree that gossip about the celebs we love and hate is generally quite fun to read, but the very least that should be done is to get complete confirmation about if the stories are true or not. Take the recent alleged link up of Shahid Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, a thousand articles came out linking them and now it turns out it was all a rumour spread by fanatics.

Some people say these stories are to cheer people up and to stop the newspapers from being all about doom and gloom. I know I’d like to read about a child saved from a well rather than where Saifeena are going on Valentine’s Day if I need cheering up.

All in all, the media need to pull their socks up and stop getting so worked up about arguments that happen in Bollywood. I sometimes feel sorry for some the stars, imagine having your every move tracked and written about. The media should try and bring about peace rather than egging on fighters, and if they decide not to do this, atleast they can publish honest, important and meaningful stories and give Bollywood the amount of limelight it deserves, which I, while being an avid fan, still think is less than what they are getting currently.