Spotlight on!

A recent string of events has led me to believe that in India, only the smallest, most insignificant happenings get glorified to no extent by the attention craving media.

A famous comedian once quoted that, "The media is there here even before the incident occurs". Though said on a lighter vein, it does tend to get one thinking how on earth these microphone toting, irritating journalists are ever ready on the spot to shoot baseless, inconsequential questions to the dumbstruck witness or detainee or whoever the poor chap is.

Let's take the Sashi Tharoor event. What did the poor guy do anyway? He tweeted. Big deal. Like the Kerala Government and the Central Government do not publicise their conduct. Tharoor, being more educated than the average politician in India, and also being somewhat tech-savvy has taken to 'tweeting' his opinions on the net. Great way to involve the youth into politics, as the so-called politicians keep saying,'Youth are the driving force of the future India'. But then, we don't like tweets, Nu-uh. Let's just let the 'youth' figure out what stance the government takes rather than tweet about it and give them an idea. GASP. What an affront to the serving purpose of the Indian Government! Atrocious. How could you Mr. Tharoor? Couldn't you have just left the youth hanging in the air rather than educate them? See how you've angered the biggies.

So, a 'tweet' gets all the attention. Popular News channels have their 'breaking news columns' as follows:
"Tharoor garners support for his tweets"
"Tharoor's 'tweet' surprise' (If that wasn't lame...)

What the hell is wrong with Indian media today? Ruchika and 'Kasab' have been sidelined amidst this tweet frenzy. Really people. Wake up. Justice has to be served and in fact no one gives a damn about Tharoor's tweets. There is no need to get your old harrowed bones to stick out over a harmless tweet.

Oh, and every other incident, be it small or big becomes a 'BREAKING NEWS'! What on earth?! Of course, Aishwarya Rai's wedding to Junior Bacchchan is as important as the 123 deal made by India! GOD. The genuine attempts by the media to highlight an important happening are non existent any more. Everything is glorified to an unnecessary level, every small minute happening is recorded on tape, every private ceremony made public and every mishap sorely punished by advertisement to the nation as a whole.

The entity of the media has become a joke today. What was once THE most powerful weapon has today been reduced to a shambles fraught with the desire to publicise an event much before the other news channel does. Is this what the country banks on? Unreliable news information sought from further unreliable sources? Reuters and the World press can only look on and wonder at the amount of publicity each channel gets by openly and shamelessly advertising themselves as better than the rival channels. What happened to gaining information from said channels? Oh wait, they get lost amidst the frenzied advertisements and celebrity gossip that has become predominant in all the so-called chains of news material.

To add on to this utter embarrassment, we have branches of the same channels, that half heartedly publish the trends in the stock market. Lo, and behold, we also meddle there and every increase or decrease in the nifty becomes a small event considered to the 'other' breaking news. It's laughable really, save for those one or two rare, incredibly earnest individuals, striving to publicise the truth and nothing but the truth that makes one still turn on the switch to watch the parody.

When will this competition to gain the top position end? When will the media stop being a spotlight craving entity and become the provider of the current status to the country? The answer lies in the strife to eliminate such questions from being put forth. And that will be the day when the media is reinstated in all its former glory.