News has a built in problem of being perishable. Having been born out of the past news also suffers from a second hand syndrome. The construct of news defies completeness. Keya latest chal raha hain ?keya naya khabar laye ho? Sun en me aaya… these are the dialogues that are associated with the world of news. And more often than not news and rumor like Siamese twins get inseparably joined in the same structure making it difficult to separate one from the other.
Efforts have been made for ages to tackle these built in problems of news. Eye witnesses got special importance in the eyes of law people in power employed special agents to give first hand feedback .Messengers ran the Marathon to report the news of battles. Epics portrayed the need of running commentary from the point of action in the battle field. Sanjay represented the dual role of a broadcasting channel and a news reporter in himself in the Mahabharata. Sage Vyaas would have been really surprised to see how his brilliant idea has cloned itself into scores of news channels and are moving the heaven and the earth to look for their action field of Kurukshetra. The demands of a new generation consumer, market forces, and evolving technology all have put their own bits to make news change colours fast. In those days news was meant for kings and his men, common people have got nothing to do with it. They were busy leading their own lives. In fact being in the news was not even good news for them. Only in the fairy tales the son of a farmer would hit the headlines winning the double jackpot of half the crown and a full princess.
Today one look at the papers will tell a totally new story. Men in power are conspicuous by absence unless they are part of some drama and story. Newspaper have changed colours literally, mast heads give way to pictures of mega stars. Almost every news item is illustrated with scantily dressed models .News today needs dressing up and garnishing of glamour to appear attractive and the readers are none other than the common mortals. Who would have believed that there was a time, not very long ago, when the newspapers used to look at advertising with lot of suspicion? Leading dailies would reject ads if they were not happy with content. Front page of the news paper had its own sanctity. As competition hot up situation took a dramatic turn; News papers today carry a huge payload of brands along with its regular consignments of news. In order to accommodate this additional load of valuable brand baggage they have gone into a bloating binge. Every morning your favourite newspaper cannons on your door along with the bulk of a thick rim of classified advertisement pages. Magazine covers open up like Draupadi’s sari into an eight page gate fold.
Once news got out of the confines of official rigidity it starts celebrating its freedom by taking cues from the world of entertainment and popular culture .It wanted to be anything and everything at the same time-enlightening, exciting, forthcoming, dramatic, demonstrative – news start carrying too many adjectives and agenda at the same time. The new recipe made news wear many hats and out fits. The crime reporter looks no less dangerous than the crimes he reports, the dress of Bollywood and page three reporters can vie with the items they are presenting; your daily destiny forecast comes from a person who looks more of a tantric than a reporter. Today in order to be a somebody you need more than talent the x factor . The trend seem to have caught up with the news channels ...what do you think ?More on this next time meanwhile post your POV
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