The struggle for Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh, spearheaded by the Telenagana Rashtra Samithi president T S Chandrashekhar has become a highly debatable issue across the nation, especially in media circles. The struggle, however, has taken an ugly turn, as the leaders are trying to play on the emotions of the common man, thus polarizing the whole state in terms of geographical and community divides. The historical unification of states based on language in 1956 may have had its limitations, but it was the best method possible those days and has been a major success in several states in the South. The leaders in Andhra across political parties, though, are raking up the whole issue to get political mileage and strengthen their base.
The entire episode has been the staple food of the media in the last couple of weeks. In fact, media, especially the electronic media, were chewing the Hedley … over and over again, much to the annoyance of the viewer. It is a forgone conclusion that the US will never extradite Hedley to India. Besides, it is also alleged that Hedley may have been an FBI informer and he can embarrass the US in more than one terms. Here was a clear case of dearth of news and media went all over Hedley making him the most important person of the world for quite many days.
So, the Telangana ‘power struggle’ came as a saving grace for the media and they were too happy to gobble it befo
re anything could be decided through proper channels. For days together reporters got stuck in Hyderabad, more precisely, near Osmania Univeristy and doled out stories after stories of the ‘struggle’. Every single move and almost every breath TS Chandrasekhar was recorded. Some reporters even took courage to send him to a coma, even as he tried to speak. But no channel, no newspaper, seemed to do an analysis and take a firm stand. Media looked more confused than the politicians themselves. It is true media are not the ones to give solutions. But powers that be can draw a lot from media when they make decisions. TV channels were busy showing the violence than going in depth. What they were looking for, it seemed, was some excitement and not so much an effort to find a solution, making leaders aware of the ramifications of a crucial decision.
Indian media seem to be struggling when there is ‘dearth’ of news. When nothing ‘big’ is happening, they seem to be lost and find it difficult to appease the audience. This is struggle is mainly due to the fact that media today have termed only certain events, happenings and developments as newsworthy and not others. Scores of developments taking place as regards agrarian crisis, doubts, famines, floods, communal discord, corruption etc do not seem to get enough media attention. Even if they do, follow up is hardly to come by. In the bargain, viewers are left high and dry as they have to struggle to keep their heads straight reading, viewing the same stuff day in and day out.
Media need to at least seriously consider the well being of the viewer.
