I would like to dedicate this to all my Journalist comrades and friends... What is the duty of Newspaper. What is the role of Media? From where are we supposed to read and understand facts. There has been very disturbing news from Iraq in the Western Media during last week. Now, it is being told to us that all these are false news. No church in Mosul has been destroyed. The pictures which came out were of the churches burnt in Egypt or so. No circumcision of women has been announced in Iraq. At least Iraqis do not know about this. This is atrocious enough. Inaugurating the class of 2015 in Asian College of Journalism, Aijaz Ahmad spoke... Now, that might strike you as a bit extreme. Let me tell you, though, that I cannot yet give up reading newspapers but I have not had a tv set in my house for six or seven years, and I don’t believe I have missed much. Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean there is no good programming on tv at all. But on balance, trivia dominates. I have been a professor of political science. I have published books on contemporary politics. I frequently write long essays for Frontline on political crises that keep erupting in one part of the world or another. I often do analyses and commentaries on web-based news outlets. I did something on Iraq for Doordarshan just last week. Politics are much too important for us to just turn away. Quite the contrary. One must find the truth and find also the means to spread it as widely as possible. Not being able to turn to the major national and international new channels for serious, truthful coverage and analyses of news is a great advantage to me. I compensate for it by spending an average of about two hours every morning, rummaging through dozens of alternate websites and blogs from across the world that are run by highly dedicated individuals or groups of individuals who spend enormous time and energy in thinking about the world, discovering the truth and spreading that truth free of charge. You may wish to send them a donation, or you may not. We don’t have a widespread culture of that kind of independent generation of information and analysis. Our great reliance on corporate media means that we still depend for getting our news largely on sources that have a vested interest in suppressing much of the truth. Why should a media empire owned by the Ambanis or the Murdochs of this world tell you the truth about corporate crime? Governments are responsible for permitting a situation in which, year after year, for decades now, pauperised farmers are driven to commit suicide? Why should the same governments be interested in encouraging too sharp a focus on the property relations and state policies that are responsible for those suicides. Under democratic formality, they may issue a report here and there. But neither the agencies of state nor the media of the corporates could possibly allow reporting of such facts with the constancy, regularity and detail that may lead to serious public agitation on such issues. So we are being fed with want they want us to believe and discuss.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 15:27:39 +0000
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