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Showing posts with label Mainstream Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mainstream Media. Show all posts

Friday, March 13, 2009

Is mainstream media victimising Hindus?

Many are seen complaining that mainstream Media is against Hinduism.Many others have the opposite view.They feel Islam is the number one enemy of the Media. Some also feel that media is against Christianity. What is the truth? Let me try to explain my view.

Many Hindus [I think]feel Hinduism is under attack when Sangh Parivar's agenda is attacked by the media.They some how believe in the Sangh propaganda that attacking it is same as attacking Hinduism. Same is true of followers of other religion.When the sordid and murky happenings inside the convents are exposed,some Christians believe that Christianity is attacked. When Jihadi madrassas producing terrorists are attacked by the media many Muslims feel their religion is under attack.



As an organisation, mass Media which includes newspapers,magazines,TV Channels etc are established primarily for 2 reasons. Main aim is to make profit to the owners. At the same time the owners will try to propagate their point of view [politics and or religion]. So no Media is neutral.They basically try to make maximum money by selling the owners politics.Wise owners will try not to push their point of view too much so as not to jeopardise the profits.

As a reader in Kerala the National Newspapers which I follow are The Hindu and The New Indian Express. The Hindu is evidently anti-BJP while the Indian Express is pro-BJP. That is their political view. But they try to convey news in a neutral fashion so that the Circulation is not affected much by their political bias. But no one can say that The Hindu is anti-Hindu or Indian Express is anti- Islam. Religion is usually not attacked in pages of these newspapers.

There are many Malayalam Newspapers. Most popular are Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhoomi. Manorama is a pro-Church and anti-Left newspaper. Mathrubhoomi have multiple owners, most prominent is a Janata Dal leader who is now with Left Front.Many others are close to Nair Service Society. So Mathrubhoomi many a time do not have a fixed bias.
Now let me examine the National TV News Channels that I see namely,NDTV,Time Now,CNN IBN and Headlines Today. All the National News Channels handle the National Parties, BJP and Congress with due respect. But most of the regional Parties are dumbed as corrupt, opportunistic or chauvinist. The same is true for the National Parties but that fact is conveniently forgotten.This respect of the News Channels to Congress and BJP may help them to get some favours from these Parties.
NDTV obviously have a soft corner for Congress.Like wise Headlines Today favours BJP.Times Now and CNN IBN do not seem to have fixed bias.None of the four attack Religion as such.Any way they do not attack Hindu religion.Some times I feel,their anti terror rhetoric turn in to anti-Islam bias.

So there is no logical reason to believe that Mass Media as a whole is against Hinduism. Mass Media represents several political view points which is not against any religion.
Why then there is a cry of victim hood from some Hindus? Such a cry of victim hood is carefully propagated through a whispering campaign orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar.They want all Hindus to believe that attack on Sangh Parivar's divisive policies is an attack on Hinduism.Thus they believe that sufficient pressure can be put on the media to prevent reporting of the truth.
Similarly many Christians and Muslims believe the same when media attack some practises of the Clergy of their religion.
Such unreasonable attack on mainstream media helps only the Communalists.