Media, sensationalism
Sir: The news channels of the electronic media are becoming unbearable, of late. Most of them underrate the intelligence of the viewing public. They exist and subsist on sensation, and constantly air reports about murders, rapes, road accidents, sexual perversions etc, even while they term them as instances of ‘national shame’. These channels not only present such cases, bud do the trials and give advance judgments, demanding that the perpetrators of these crimes must be hanged. However, their moral indignation on every such incident does not last for more than a day, by when they latch on to another similar incident, and start another media trial. These incidents, in fact, are aberrations. In the process, the real India is being ignored, other than in the projection of faces of panelists who keep engaging in discussions to a level of utter boredom. Where are the sights and sounds of real India? How long can viewers see the faces of the select crowds or the anchormen? If the men in the media consider each stray incident in this country as a national shame, the people of this country should hold their collective heads hang down in shame!
Of the vast population, only a small percentage can be considered blessed if they are able to spend their lifetime without having a brush with litigations, and similar hassles. Issues of the ordinary people and the middle class are one too many, and none of these get any attention in the media, other than the routine mass protests being undertaken by various political parties. It is a pity that the Indian electronic media stoops to such a low level.
Dr (Major) Umacharan Panigrahi, Station Road, RAYAGADA
Govt, society
Sir: The period of the UPA II government at the Centre was marred by policy paralysis to the extent that many saw the cabinet as a bunch of inactive people headed by an invisible Prime Minister. Now we have a new government that has completed one year in office. In the face of demands for more of economic reforms, a section of business honchos have expressed the view that good intentions have run ahead of reality on the ground, while another section believes that the Modi government has delivered on its promises. The Prime Minister has recently laid stress on cooperative federalism, arguing that nation-building is not a one-man’s job. The government recently roped in the country’s business sector to give the nation a push in various fields, by setting formula-based ground rules for business to effectively play its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) role. The corporate entities are responding to the government’s call in a fair measure. But, alongside comes in the factor of support from the members of the civil society in the government’s task of completing the ‘work-in-progress’ — call it ‘Societal Social Responsibility (SSR).
K Ravi, GGP Colony, BHUBANESWAR
