Well, seeing the direction my first post took, I thought I'd write about something else to stray away from becoming a completely political blog. Well, here goes nothing!
Being the inquisitive soul I am, I wake up every morning to a news update from Reuters. Well, sometimes it makes me think. A majority of the population of the world reads the news on a daily basis which leads me to the question 'How much does the media REALLY control? The worlds major news networks {CNN, BBC, Fox, CNBC, Reuters} are all controlled my major corporates/become one themselves {Time Warner, BBC, Newscorp, Reuters}.
Well, to get to my primary point, I'm going to have to take this to a more regional issue. In 1983, India won the ICC Cricket World Cup. The then Indian media really never broadcast too much to do with Indian cricket as compared to Indian hockey, which was 'oh, so glamorized'. With the epic win, Indian Cricket was taken to an entire new level, with hours of coverage and pages of assessment, which saw a sort of hibernation for hockey coverage. For those of you who aren't aware of the sport front on India, we are home to a cricket CRAZY population and cricket CRAZIER media. Since 1983, we've seen a slow decline of hockey and its coverage while a very steady growth in cricket and its coverage. Do you'll also see this co-relation between media coverage and actual growth?
Give me your opinion. Does media lead us on? Or are they just plain ole giving us what we want?
Take, for example, the fantastic media coverage on the upcoming American Presidential Elections. When BBC covers the American elections, we see a pro - Obama outlook but when Fox does, we see a pro - McCain. Now, is it just that the news people at the BBC just don't see that McCain may be better or Fox just don't see that Obama is? If it's just a bunch of innocent mistakes, can I know WHO to trust?
But wait a second, maybe today's media isn't all good? Maybe, just MAYBE we're being led on? Oh no, that can't be. they have an obligation to report the truth don't they?
Let's roll over to the Middle East now. When people think of Iran, a majority of people from OUSIDE the Middle East think of religious fanatics, sort of like what Saddam Hussain and Iraqis were a few years back. I want to know what influences that opinion. It can't be the media, their out there to braodcast the entire truth and nothing else. Or can it?
Well, I'm not convinced with this whole media thing. I need to know from you'll. What do we do about this information shortage and opinion influx? Which network is the good one? How do we know when we're being duped?
I think media can start wars between schools of thought, destroy the morale of a nation and well, control us all. So what is to be done? How are we, as the 'generation X' supposed to make informed decisions about an international issue? ARE we allowed to?
Reading back I think: Screw the United Nations, Rupert Murdoch holds the key to world peace.
Something to think about....How do we make informed decisions? Do we? Is media making the world a better place to live? Or just a better place to broadcast?
P.S. : Please comment! Otherwise, it defeats this blogs purpose.
Friday, August 22, 2008
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2 comments:
well as a wise man (hmmm that sounds too serious)...as a wise guy once said :-) *There are lots of people out there who don't comment...but read*...
from one blogger to another *It was never really about those others was it?* Somehow the knowledge that each of our own words are infact what echoes in the minds of many was disturbing to me first...
All this is obviously *not* related to the subject in hand though so I shall get a move on with that already..heehee...before you decide to chuck this comment and do away with it altogether :-P
Ofcourse being from a country where *freedom of expression* is a birth right we feel it only right that we should be delivered everything the right way...the true way...
But since we now (having lived in dubai) know the restrictions that CAN be imposed to such a right...its only but natural to understand that the media does infact mould the mindset of today's world.
On one hand we have those who control this *reliable* source and curb the views of us people and then we have those who fail to see this actually happening!
Yet again I say the fault is at par for both these parties.
You could say that a layman has no option but to believe in what he *thinks* he sees. Yet amusingly it is this layman, so to speak, who should be knowing the most!
what is media anyhow? Nothing more than another business...atleast thats what it has become.
Although the dangers of how and what they disclose and show are tremendous. How else can one explain the ideas we ourselves have formed in our heads about the things that haven't affected us directly?
By now you must know that I never really make a point... (perhaps cause I don't have one)..but if would have been a ble to take you to the streets of old kolkata...i might have amused you kanishk :-P they'd have much stronger and well formed ideas of what you ask...and I speak of those men who have perhaps never stepped out of their own state and probably never managed to pass high school... (but more of that later eh?)
I found your blog randomly. You definitely make a point.
A year back, a friend of mine (who was in Army for 5 years) told me how misinformed we can be by reading Newspapers .
I a convinced believer of -"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." - Mark Twain
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