Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Are The National Media Truly Authentic & Credible?

Are The National Media Truly Authentic & Credible?
Aniruddha Jena
AB Fellow

It is matter of fact that everybody is aware of that when it comes to reporting from the rural and poorer states like Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand, how stories are used to be reported and presented. In a country like India, where the meaning of national media is only just for namesake cause one will find 9 put ten media houses, which are claiming to be national media are often ignores stories from the rural part. The sole reason for this kind of attitude and functionings of media is due to the centralisation of news and the idea behind selecting the news sources. In present day Indian media, the so called national media is only limited to be Delhi or Mumbai based and metro centric, which means that newspapers and news channels are very much prompt to cover what is happening in the B-Town, rather going to the quaint little villages and underdeveloped areas of states like Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand etc.  Why they are very much interested to do this because of various reasons like revenue model, readers and viewers are more likely to know about the happenings of B'Town etc. and all.
Taking a recent example to justify my above stated analogies and claims, that how the national media are ignoring the stories from a state like Odisha and how they are being light in handling some serious stories like rape cases. It was 2nd of this on-going April 2017, when a story related to the rape of a physically challenged girl inside a Jagannath temple in Baripada, Odisha. But in so-called national newspapers and Online News websites (English dailies like The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle, Indian Express, Business Standard and websites like Etv Digital, Oneindia.com) and in all the above mentioned newspapers and digital media, the story was wrongly reported. And all the newspapers and digital media reported that a physically challenged minor girl got reaped inside Puri Jagannath temple in Odisha. Whereas the original happening took place inside a Jagannath temple in Baripada not in Puri Jagannath temple. Without even knowing the real truth about the story the national media happily and casually decided to publish it in the name Puri Jagannath temple, which is a worldwide known sacred place for lord Jagannath.  The news went viral and after two days the real fact came into public notice and the whole blunder of the so called national media came in front of public eyes.
This a matter of utter seriousness and concerns, how can the national media hoses can be so lethargic and casual while handling this kind of hyper sensitive and serious happenings, when the commoners have a deep faith and trust over the national media and about the sense of news reporting. And the sad part is that, even few international news agencies also reported the same story wrongly, because they must have taken the same story from the so-called national media houses of India. This blunder has been committed by the national media and they might not realise that how much they have hurted the public sentiments of the commoners, who are the great believers of lord Jagannath and the sacred place Puri. By doing this kind of reporting the national media have axed their own feet and have hurt millions of people’s sentiment.
The wrongly reported stories links are attached below….



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