NOTE
Well one of my previous posts 'Who drives Whom?' could not convey the message it was supposed to convey as I feel that the sarcasm intended in the writing did not reflect that well! So I thought of writing this small note. The idea of the post was to convey how Times of India is riding on its publicity wave and the status which it had built from years and years of providing quality content! But sadly we see quality diminishing from the articles, you really have to sift thorough pages and pages of articles to find something worth reading!
Its sad to see that once a good news paper has been commercialized to such an extent that open criticisms are floating around. Its full of news of celebrities and irrelevant articles. Had we ever heard of designer wear, jewelery or for that matter diamonds! By advertising and writing varied articles on such products the hunger was created. An average middle class person was shown dreams of the luxury world. To add to it came along the never ending list of credit cards which lured the middle class into a pool of innumerable debts. Taking loan not only for homes but also for things like jewelery or a vacation to an exotic location.
Hope this article makes it clear that my previous post wasn't all praise for the TOI. Add to it the personal experiences I have had with the paper. It really saddens me, coz as a child I really believed in this paper and I always thought that my voice will be heard atleast by this news daily. On the other hand I am glad, that the real picture is now in front of me! I end this article by quoting to my self "Welcome to the real world!"
11 comments:
i don't quite agree with you here. yes, commercialization of news has happened, but that is a side-effect of the changing sociological profiles of people. if anything, these articles have made people more aspirational and ambitious....and i consider it as something good. if fools get into debt traps after reading articles, they are to be blamed. the commercialization of news, education and lots of other things need to be seen as part of one phenomenon and not as separate cases altogether. and it has its roots in the very economical growth we are so proud of. am i to understand that the author is urging us to discredit the growth path we are following just because some people are not mature enough to take good decisions for themselves?
why did the author not post her criticism against the said credit card company to a serious newspaper like hindu if she was so critical of the quality of the paper itself?
Well..
I don't think news about celebrity dresses or their dogs or for that matter even their cats!(See today's Pune Times you will find an article about Hrithik's two lazy cats and a pug)
I don't see these news reflecting about the growth or success of our country!!The papers are full of this!
On the other hand, I mentioned that I still had a few hopes with the paper and that's why wrote a letter to them, however, after the letter wasn't publish did I lose all the hopes with the paper!
I am not against commercialization, but you can not sacrifice quality of matter for that, I feel there is a limit to everything. I am not completely critical of the paper, its just that these are my views of the paper and everyone has the freedom to express their views and opinions!
exactly my point! everyone has a right to express his opinion. now, TOI has an opinion about how it should potray society and things happening in it....and it is doing just that.
it's pure economics....TOI thinks that writing about hritik's cats/pigs/whatever will what interest people and hence puclishing that will raise the sale of their newspaper (isn't achieving higher revenues the mission of every commercial organization in this world, afterall?).
the only sad thing i can see here is that people find news about hritik's cats/pigs/whatever more relevent and important in their lives than politics/business/whatever. it's not TOI that is altering people's choices...it's people who are altering TOI's options of what to print.
lastly, as far as not publishing your comment is concerned, i would again get back to your last sentence.....everyone has the freedom to express their views, and they are doing just that. now, in the limited print space left after all the news about hritik's cats/pigs/whatever, we can't expect them to publish everyone's views. hard luck your view didnt get published. but that does not show it was not important for the paper or they don't endorse you view. it just means that commercial and practical considerations stopped them from endorsing them in public.
That's exactly what I wanted to point out..they are not providing what the reader's want to read..
It goes something like this..
TOI has a standard, its considered 'The' paper of the country..
Now.. watever they print is considered hip n it becomes the 'In' thing..
so the general readers, enjoy that (or pretend to)and follow that trend..
So its kind of fed into their heads! Initially it was only news papers, then came along the channels (zoom for ex) and so on and so forth..
Give it a thought..may be it will make sense :)
you can try converting this into a chicken-egg issue, but we have to see the reasons behind the cropping up of these channels in the first place. the news vehicles started providing the low quality news because they idntified a market for it. now, more and more people adorned that view and the market for news about hritik's cats/pigs/whatever expanded.
i don't contend the fact that these big media houses are opinion makers and that they should 'ideally' have a responsibility towards the society. but they can't, and should not, compromise on their commercial gains for the sake of the betterment of humanity....for they are no NGOs.
will shweta, or people like her, be ready to accept a drab and boring newspaper devoid of any ads and masala and still be fine with paying Rs 20 for their daily copy to be provided with quality news? if they are, im sure someone will spot the opportunity and latch on to it. and then we will have a newspaper you can rely upon to act 'responsibly' (although even that responsibility will arise from economic considerations only). the only other option i can see is to revert back to the dark days of communism.
till then, happy TOI reading.....
I am re-iterating that I am not completely against commercialization, I understand that there has to be a balance, but that is exactly what I am talking about.. the 'Balance' which is missing! The balance is completely skewed with the great inclination of these newspapers towards commercial aspects!
who decides what is balanced and what is not? they have found a balance between what would be socially acceptable yet economically fruitful, and they are acting on their own understanding of balance.
if you have a different notion of balance than them, read a newspaper that resonates with your notion and leave TOI for people who find papers writing news articles about hritik's cat/pig/whatever a balanced approach.
we are in a democractic setup and nobody is forcing his idea on anyone else. if junta is foolish enough to be made a fool of, they deserve every bit of it.......
Yep.. agreed, but then I don't think they are having a balance, in the sense that even they are aware that they haven't struck a balance, they are just pushing the limits slightly..an anomaly would be the public transport buses, they keep pushing people in.. and operate with that.. they really don't strike a balance but at the same time are balanced enough to chug forward with the load..
And im just voicing my opinion here.. ain't stopping anyone from reading TOI or anything.. and for me im still trying to figure out a paper which will suit my taste.. may be I will stop reading newspapers all together!! Hahaha!
what is a good news paper - something which sells ( cause if the consumers does not like a product, then it is not good )
now what sells - something which reflects man's basic instincts - rather the famous 7 sins - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.
the ToI marketing team perfectly understands this.
I would say that the ToI team is doing perfectly what it has been hired to do - it has not been hired to bring to people's notice how a SCC failed politician builds a 5 crore house - it has not been hired to expose the factory where a 10 year old works for 50 rs a day - it has not been hired to bring to the nations notice how laws are made to loot the country nor it has been hired to expose the industrialist-politician nexus which destroys lives.
It has been hired to make money for the publishing house whose owner hired it.
And the only way to make money is by selling sin - and it does precisely that.
The Fourth Estate is too powerful a medium to be left uncontrolled. and the intelligent Indian superclass has realized this long back. That why it wants us to drool at shirtless Salman or ***** Hilton while they enjoy a ride in their fancy car and they mock the Indian democracy.
So the choice is urs - keep drooling - or get into a position where u decide what to make people drool on
And dont worry about right or wrong - cause its the winner who writes history - and the winner is always right - tell me one person who was wrong and has won is history!
Well Patch,
Lemme bring out a point here, TOI had built its reader base when it had a standard. Now its just riding on its old golden day's publicity!
Well any person doesn't always look forward to satisfy his senses, we do take medicines even though they don't satisfy our sense of taste!
Also, apart from that I don't think news about Salman Khan or Ms Hilton serves any of the 7 sins of a man!
I would like to quote here the words of famous Adman Prahlad Kakkar, while responding to a letter from Richard Gere, when he was apologizing. He had said 'The voice of India is not what speaks loudly through newspapers or news channels, but the voice of India is the one which is unheard! Which is never spoken of, which never speaks out loud but still is heard the loudest'
ankit i think shweta was voicing her opinion abt the balance in TOI, and you are right ... who decides what is balanced ? but then "who decides abt who decides" what is balanced? i am sure there are no right answers here other than what you have been saying ... democracy , and so shweta has been voicing her opinion abt what she feels abt TOI. I am kind of curious if you are employed by TOI or something.
In any case no-one argues that commercialization or something other is not the prevalent force behind the "supposedly insane" publishing, but then just coz one can hypothesize the reasons why TOI might be publishing someting dusnt mean one cant give an opinion on it. Yes the explanations make sense but so is shweta's opinion that she forms on the basis of TOI's decision to not publish. If you want to change shweta's attitude towards stuff in that "accept the things etc coz that is how it is gonna be" ... well u never heard abt "getting what u want by shouting".
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