Dying for media glare

Two unnatural deaths – one a murder, the other a suicide – rocked the media in the last one month. Not all murders and suicides attract media attention. Hundreds of farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra in the last few years and the media have rendered minimum attention to them. But Arushi Talwar’s murder in Noida and Karnataka MLA Raghupati Bhat’s wife Padmapriya’s suicide in a Delhi Apartment grabbed far too much media glare.
Media thrives on crime and sensational stories. They have, unfortunately, become the staple of media institutions. In fact, many of them thrive on such stories; and when there aren’t any happening, media have no qualms in creating something sensational out of nothing.
It is over a month since the murder of Arushi Talwar took place. But the whole episode refuses to cool down - at least in the media. There was not a single day since that fateful occurrence when news channels did not telecast some ‘twist’ and given some different ‘angle’ to the story. A couple of channels even crossed the limit by conducting their own hypothetical investigations, putting the police into ‘shame’. One channel conducted an interview with Nupur Talwar, mother of Arushi. The anchor grilled her into making some controversial statements, but to no avail.
Solving murder mysteries these days seem to be a Herculean task for the police department and the CBI. The media are making their job that much tougher by following them everywhere to get some ‘bytes’. In the bargain the whole issue becomes more complex than they can ever imagine. But for the overemphasis and the sensational twist given by the media, the police would have at least reached somewhere. Now they are only groping with lose ends.
Another difficulty is that everyone, including the police, wants to be in the limelight these days. Hence for the police speaking to the media has become a prestigious and worthwhile affair. So the audience listens to a different story from different officials appearing on TV.
That is exactly what happened in Padmapriya’s suicide case. While the police and the Home Minister said she was somewhere in Kolar and would be brought back to Udupi soon, she was found dead in Delhi the next day (15th June). After this, the Home Minister, Mr Acharya struck a totally different pose before the media, observing that Ms Padmapriya’s whereabouts were kept secret for security reasons. Unfortunately, though, such security reasons were not of much use as they could not save the life of Padmapriya. In the meantime the whole issue thus was blown out of proportion by the media, mainly because there were far too many unanswered questions.
Both these crime stories attracted media attention for different reasons. However, the media converted them into glamour and sensation, giving scant respect for the sentiments of the close relatives of the deceased. It is true that emotions and reportage do not go together as the media are supposed to be ‘objective’; but the media, especially the electronic media, can at least allow the police and those responsible to carry out their responsibility with ease so that mysteries are solved and tranquility is arrived at.