So you don’t like spinach? Eat it every day and chances are
you’ll end up liking it. Meals thereafter would not seem inviting in the
absence of spinach, you’ll miss it and might even crave it. Though what I said
may seem like an exaggeration, the point I’m trying to make is that what we consume regularly will consume us eventually. And no, I’m not here to talk about the
veggies but the prevalence of ‘sensationalism’ in news.
I know you have heard about it, read about it and complained
about it ad nauseum, I have, but kindly bear with me for a few paragraphs.
Let me start with my favourite: ‘bees minute mein sau
khabrein’( a hundred news in 20 minutes)!! It is like how Sharukh Khan tried to
eat paani-puri in Rab ne bana di Jodi. Consume it and you’ll end up with diarrhoea.
No opinion forming or genuine news could be digested in that amount in 20
minutes. News channels I believe have therefore become the leading cause of
indigestion, metaphorically speaking.
Vada-pav, bhel-puri, pav-bhaji are the most delicious
snacks, especially at a road side stall. If you think about it these are the
hawkers who will yell the loudest to catch your attention; add all kinds of ‘masala’
to ensure you are hooked; but ultimately what you get is what they want you to
have (it is their creation, their ‘thoughts’ have been put into it). Now, I’m
not saying that we can’t drool over it, or we can’t go out for bhel-puri once
in a while with the entire family; but how many of us would have it regularly,
day in day out? For nutrition we need to have healthy food regularly and
somehow it feels redundant to say it out loud.
The entire furore over Deepika’s cleavage was like mess
food, very distasteful, utterly ridiculous and yet believe it or not some of us
did consume it sumptuously. And pretty much like the mess owners, the newspaper
bravely claimed that what it served what nothing short of haute cuisine. The recent hot topics were Rajdeep Sardesai getting
slapped, what Modi wore when he boarded the plane and what he changed into when
he landed in America, how he charmed the people at MSG who by the way were
mostly Modi supporters anyways. The thing is it’s like a packet of lays chips,
we say we would stop but no one can eat just one.
Sensational news are meant to be addictive, passive
effortless consumption of the same is what attracts us. It is the junk food of
journalism. It’s intoxicating and irresistible. Why think about Ebola or ISIS
or the Hong Kong demonstrations when we can watch how Salman Khan has an air
plane in Big Boss, which by the way was another breaking news? You can watch
re-runs of soaps on news channels (come on damn it!!). If you observe
carefully, you’ll even find some of the anchors nauseated at what they have to
report like a vegetarian chef who was made to cook non-veg against his will. They
do it as their job but if we stop ordering, they will have to change the menu.
The stuff which make headlines have been, of late,
pre-packed and convenient. Just put them in a microwave and bam!! It’s all
done. No chopping of fresh vegetables, no dicing of meat, no measuring of
castor sugar, it’s all in the pack; dry, frozen, added with preservatives and
ready to eat. What’s wrong with that? I would like to coin the term ‘mental
obesity’ here. If you eat that food regularly and not exercise, you will grow
fat and maybe die of a heart attack. Similarly regular consumption of
sensational or un-newsworthy news would cause a layer of fat (not literally) to
solidify over our brains. We will become intellectually lethargic and our
minds, the proverbial ‘couch-potato’. Why do you think that McDonald is
expanding like crazy? Not because they serve food which is balanced but because
the food is convenient, the food chain is highly visible and the buzz around it
is loud.
There are over 135 news-channels and thousands of newspapers
in India. Add social media to it and we have plenty of sources for news. The problem
we face is how to cope with this overwhelming amount of news? The solution is
simple: like a person deficient in Vitamin C should consume more citrus fruit,
similarly one can choose the news-paper or channel according to one’s need
(mind you: NEED). A businessman could watch business news for example. The point
is that we have to decide the type of news we consume like the food we consume
and if you prefer junk for breakfast, lunch and dinner then ‘may the force be
with you’.
There are credible news agencies who do provide genuine news
and analysis beyond the melodrama.
The problem is the people who follow them
are already well informed and many of those who do not, tend not to follow them
out of sheer stubbornness. It is like a healthy person eating healthy food and
an obese person gorging himself on donuts. This divide has to be reduced. The
excuse that I do not want to apply my mind because that’s what the news
channels are for has led us to this point.
The last thing is that we can do something about it. If the
papers sell cheap news, change it. It is a democracy, vote with your wallets.
The news-channels work for TRP which is directly related to viewership. CHANGE
THE CHANNEL. It’s that simple. You LITERALLY have the REMOTE in your hands. The
scary part is that today if journalism was art, the gallery would be Wal-Mart.
Stay healthy! Cheers!
