Saturday, March 12, 2011

Media's role as passive EDUCATORS of the world

(This was a mail sent to CNN IBN news channel, about an article Sagarika has written in Hindustan Times, analyzing the result of a youth survey held in India)


Dear Sagarika,

Excellent analysis ! Congrats.

But if Indian Media place a mirror before them,they will see a picture resembling their own world view in general !  

Our youth have learned and internalized a world, priorities and values that the media have projected. Hope you will agree with us that the role of media as passive EDUCATORS of the world is undisputed.

Definitely the breed of poets,rebels,intellectuals,dissenters,freethinkers and adventurers would vanish from the world ! Will media project any icons in the world other than achievers in sports,cinema,politics,or the underworld ? Then how can our youth grow up admiring poets,intellectuals or free thinkers ? 

I was writing to the print media leadership from late 1980s ( electronic media was absent in those days, as you know ) that, if news items like the one that has appeared beneath your article in the HT middle page today - 'Das ist innovation' - by Thomas Matussek, on Indo-German science co- operation, had appeared as' Head line items' on the front page of news papers, shifting the usual political news to the inside pages for about 6 months on trial basis, the world would have internalized a PRIORITY SHIFT in the theme of life. Your priorities are what men in the world, especially its youth, internalize as their priorities in life !

Sagarika, I was practicing free lance hypnotism from my college days. Under hypnosis, even the sense of taste and  smell get altered with the power of SUGGESTIONS ! Media is like a giant black board fitted over head of the world.What ever is displayed on the board gets converted into peoples priorities, likes and dislikes and values. It acts like hypnotic suggestions on peoples mind.

You may say that the number of men who read news papers, and watch TV does not form the majority of our population, but this minority consumers of media's world view are the ones who control the lives of the majority, as bosses at offices and work places, or as teachers at schools and colleges etc. etc. Hence the  effect is complete in society.

Do you remember how Arundhati Roy and her likes were treated by the Media upon her frank utterances over  Kashmir and Naxal issues? How can our youngsters then turn liberal ?

Media is torn between the demands of multiple masters - - -while the moral obligation the professional vows of 'objective reporting of news' act as the first MASTER,the second is the inner pull of their own consciences about the TRUTH VALUE of the 'reported content' of the so called news, and its relevance for people, and the last is that of the demands of the masters of business and politics, with whose money and favour that the Media industry run. The last class can never tolerate liberalism. The first master can never accept the demands of naked TRUTH. Hence, they end up manufacturing this neutral gender world, where nothing better than the generation of youngsters that you have described in the article could come up to occupy the future !

People could reinvent their lives for better only if Media could reinvent their priorities and values ! No other agency could save mankind, because they only could create and spread changes non-violently. 

I know, you will not get time to go though our blog posts that depicts how severely capitalistic values have intruded into the domain of democracy, and how 'sense of reason' perils in our modern day organizations that thrive under capitalistic values. If you can, please visit links : http://influxofcapitalisticvalues.blogspot.com/http://perilofreason.blogspot.com/

We once again request you to depute a young team under you to study the net essence of our various blogs, and then create a 30 minutes documentary on 'what democracy was intended to be' etc. It will definitely enhance the reach and depth of your channel.

Regards,

Abraham Joseph 
Founder secretary
Conscience of the society- a non-profit for philosophic initiatives into causes of Reason,Fraternity and more centrally, reinventing democracy .

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