Is What We Think to be News Actually News

Here are a few things that happened in India in the past few days.

A seven year old child was murdered in cold blood in the bathroom of a school because he did not give in to the sick carnal desires of a middle aged man.

A lady was for the first time appointed to the position of the Defense Minister of India, breaking several glass ceilings along her away. She would take on a role traditionally held by men and would butt heads with some of the top ranking defense personnel; most likely to be of the opposite sex as well.

A maniacal self-proclaimed god man was jailed, but tales of his wrongdoings refuse to cease; the latest one being that he forced young girls to fast for his long life for he convinced them that he was the “universal husband”. His punishment is in no way commensurate to his crime.

A devoted journalist was murdered outside her home because of her beliefs and her refusal to accept autocracy. There are no leads on her case and it could may well remain an unsolved one. One voice silenced, but many questions rose on the freedom of speech and opinion in this country.

India refused a safe haven to refugees belonging to the Rohingya tribe; who escaped Myanmar after suffering terrible atrocities befitting of the term genocide; citing security concerns at a time when plights of refugees around the world is raging strong debates and many western power players have been shunned for refusing Syrian refugees citing similar concerns.

But we all know what news alert is going to raise the maximum interest. How many men wronged Kangana Ranaut? Was it just Hritik Roshan, was Aditya Pancholi worse or does the blame lie squarely on the shoulders of Suman family.

It is understood that the bread and butter of page 3 journalism is gossip. It doesn’t mean that it is less sanctimonious than defense news or sports highlights. But when it is given the same importance as the death of a seven year old or the plight of approximately 40000 refugees, I think we need to reconsider where our priorities lie.

It may be inferred from my article so far that I am about to start a rant on the lack of serious journalism in the country. But I am going to do exactly the opposite. I think there is lack of serious readership in the country.

She dated a few men, for whatever reasons things did not work out and for obvious reasons there is bad blood between both parties. It should be noted that everyone involved in the situation was a consenting adult. The attention would have been justified if there was any evidence of criminal wrongdoing; which doesn’t seem to be the case.

There is no reason why somebody’s personal life should generate so much frenzy. Social media exploded, some came out in her support branding her as the revolutionary against nepotism prevalent in the film industry and the torch bearer of feminism; others slut shamed her. The galore of articles and videos that followed in the media just seem to be proving the well-established economic theory of demand and supply.

Some argue that this is a gimmick to promote her new film. Kangana is an accomplished artist. Her movie “Queen” inspired many young girls to recognize their self-worth. Her path to success has been nothing short of extraordinary and she is one of the few in the industry who can proudly claim to have been “self-made”. She shouldn’t need such maneuvers to promote her film. And even if this is true; we need to understand the reason behind why public relations experts started to think that such gimmicks were successful strategies. There must have been some statistical evidence to prove correlation between success of the film and such PR strategies. If there is evidence; then the PR folks did their job just right and it is the consumers who fell for it.

The parties involved in the situation feel that they need to be heard; the media feels they need to provide them the platform to be heard. But ask yourself, do you need to hear this? And if yes; do you need to hear it just as must as the cry of the seven year old which went unanswered or the voice of a veteran journalist which was silenced.

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