The Indian media today faces the ire of the Nepalese public who are tormented by the ruthless reporting of the disaster.
Another point being added to the list of criticism is that the media is acting as the PR of our leader Narendra Modi..
Well the latter shouldn't apply as long as the efforts made from Indian govt. Is proving useful. Nepal should be happy to receive aid without worrying about whether or not the Indian PM takes credit for it. Indian PM may not be planning in 'Neki kar, dariya me daal'.
Now going back to the insensitive media coverage, lets not forget that Indian media's spotlight on the calamity also helped drive global aid and rescue efforts.
Should it have been traumatizing and insensitive? - No
Could they do it with due respect to the emotions of people who suffered ? - Yes.
Then why did the media behave like this?
Let me tell you why?
Agreed that Indian journos.. (Not all of them,mind it) insensitively covered the disaster in Nepal like shooting an extremely emotional saas bahu serial...
But are they alone responsible for that..?
Don't we the people of India.. get enthralled and amused and happy or sad... Excited, inspired and emotional.. and all with what we see on TV...?
We do!
Serve us a plateful of emotional drama and we lick that plate all day.
In Dr. Abdul Kalam's experience:
" I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck.
But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.
In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE…? "
In India if you had such a news landed up in front page during a crisis like Nepal's the paper would be tossed into the bin for not being able to prioritize news.
Indian Media.. And by that I mean.. News as well as entertainment media.. Today Is what the common viewers have made it.
So don't sit there criticizing them alone.
