Perspective..
here's what happened today..
i walked into the office of a leading Hindi daily, to be part of a panel discussion on the rise of extremism and separatism in India.
i was a little late, given the state of traffic in my parts, everybody else was assembled and waiting. A Doctor, An Educationist who owns a school, a self confessed poet and social activist...and two reporters of the paper of course, ....all men.
they look me up in a cursory manner, i knew i had been dismissed!!! relatively young woman, they knew her not!!!
we began the deliberations planned, the issue was raised, the men asked to speak first of course!!!!
the venerable retired soldier of the indian army, the self confessed poet spoke first.
what i heard was a confused medley of arguments based on inaccurate facts, plenty of opinion, slanted in favour of the rather simplistic cultural nationalistic world view, nary a nuance...factual errors aplenty.
the physician next, now what was it that he said? extremism, regionalism, separatism, naxalism, communism...all isms painted in a single colour all nefarious , all red!!!
the educationist next...well i gathered nothing, those many words strung together, sound and fury signifying nothing!!
this piece is not about my perspective on the issues raised for the day, what troubled me was the mediocrity the media rolls around in, the newspapers that provide information and help form opinion, seem to function on principles other than merit, they dont do the essential leg work, they dont have informed researchers of their own, they no longer put in the long hours and the hard work required for verifiable and reliable research.
they take the easy path out, rely too easily on what the so called opinion makes of their lands say, without doubt or question.
how then , and why should , the common citizen hope that the media will function as the fourth pillar of democracy?
i left my sad little bundle of any such hope that i may still have had, in that office today...
Vinny Jain
here's what happened today..
i walked into the office of a leading Hindi daily, to be part of a panel discussion on the rise of extremism and separatism in India.
i was a little late, given the state of traffic in my parts, everybody else was assembled and waiting. A Doctor, An Educationist who owns a school, a self confessed poet and social activist...and two reporters of the paper of course, ....all men.
they look me up in a cursory manner, i knew i had been dismissed!!! relatively young woman, they knew her not!!!
we began the deliberations planned, the issue was raised, the men asked to speak first of course!!!!
the venerable retired soldier of the indian army, the self confessed poet spoke first.
what i heard was a confused medley of arguments based on inaccurate facts, plenty of opinion, slanted in favour of the rather simplistic cultural nationalistic world view, nary a nuance...factual errors aplenty.
the physician next, now what was it that he said? extremism, regionalism, separatism, naxalism, communism...all isms painted in a single colour all nefarious , all red!!!
the educationist next...well i gathered nothing, those many words strung together, sound and fury signifying nothing!!
this piece is not about my perspective on the issues raised for the day, what troubled me was the mediocrity the media rolls around in, the newspapers that provide information and help form opinion, seem to function on principles other than merit, they dont do the essential leg work, they dont have informed researchers of their own, they no longer put in the long hours and the hard work required for verifiable and reliable research.
they take the easy path out, rely too easily on what the so called opinion makes of their lands say, without doubt or question.
how then , and why should , the common citizen hope that the media will function as the fourth pillar of democracy?
i left my sad little bundle of any such hope that i may still have had, in that office today...
Vinny Jain
read the newspaper report of the event today and found the reporting accurate. i suppose one must acknowledge that newspapers too function within the social milieu,react and respond from within and are but creatures of society, not leaders...
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