Newspapers today

It doesn’t matter whether your toilet has a normal flush-and-water system, or a tissue paper system like the U.S of A. The most important piece of paper at the start of one’s day still remains the newspaper. For most of the businessmen around the world, the newspaper comes as a light brown paper with black text and loads of charts, but for the rest of the world it is black and white. But is today’s newspaper just black and white ?

When we think of the colors black and white, it can mean a lot of things. But I feel the newspaper should be black and white for one primary reason. The newspaper should only show the world the truth. And truth always comes only in a black or a white, there are no greys in between, or even any other color for that matter. But today’s newspapers are much more ahead than just showing us the facts.

We all are aware of the fact that in order to keep the newspaper’s cost so low, they have to rely heavily on the advertisements. But if you look at the extent of advertising done with today’s newspapers, you would feel that you are not reading the news, but an Ad-agency’s portfolio. More than half of every page is filled with advertisements for new products, new offers from the local market or an online store and even huge full page adverts for some Megastore which offers you commodities at prices lesser than retail.

But no newspaper will go a step in the other direction and investigate the validity of the advertisements they print. Today’s newspaper wont carry any report how these megastores con the public by selling them market surplus. They don’t carry any reports about the hidden costs behind the attractive loan and EMI schemes on offer. After all the newspaper’s business comes from these colorful patches on every page. Turning on to the showbiz section, you will frequently read about the yearly earnings of film stars, but how often have you read about the daily earnings of a common wage laborer or the illegal earnings of the traffic police. That fact of the matter is, newspapers today are becoming more commercialized.

Small news is blown up to infinite proportions for no reason. Take for example, the news of some teenagers barging into the PM’s compound, or a small kid falling into a pit, or some cities in America facing a complete black out for a few hours. Did this news really require so much attention ? Then is the favorite section of every newspaper in the world – War and Riots. The journalists today can write pages together on this subject. Then why not about people who help victims of natural or artificial calamities ? Why is it that only multi-national corporations and celebrities make it to the newspaper for their charity claims ? An Iraqi newspaper once had a Palestinian woman kissing an crying orphan as its cover page photograph instead of the war photos. The war was left to the last pages because they wanted their people read about the good things first. Why cant every newspaper take such an initiative. Why cant newspapers think more about giving the people the news that really matters to them ?

The sports section is no different. All you will read about is cricket, player rants, player endorsements and player facts. Other sports news will include news from other poular sports from around the world like Tennis, Formula 1, Chess and Hockey. Why cant the Indian motor sport, Indian football, Archery, Weight Lifting, Arm Wrestling etc. get coverage ? They make it to the news only when some sports person is caught for things like drug dose or ranting against something or someone. Why isn’t the progress of these sports covered instead ?

During festivals like Diwali, Ganesh Festival, Christmas, Id etc, you will see our newspapers flooding with articles on the festival, the Indian culture etc. But where do all these ideas go when articles on skimpy clothed party animals are printed ? The most coveted section of the newspaper today is the Page 3. Parties, Page3 celebrities, scandals…this is what is gaining popularity. News today is being used to market products, make people famous, cover parties, put forth gossip or even make use as a political tool. Newpapers still live up to their name and do give us the news. But what is the news ? Is it really what we want to know ? Or are we being made to read what they want us to read ?

The difference between a theatre play and a movie is that the theatre allows you to choose your line of sight. You decide what you want to watch and hear during the play. But in a movie, you are forced to see through the Cameraman’s eye. He decides what you are supposed to see. But still the motion picture gains more popularity over the theatre because its considered glamorous and happening. Same is the case with the newspaper. Its us the readers, who have unknowingly supported its transition into a glamorous and commercial thing. We are responsible for reflecting a wrong ‘want’. And the publications are more than happy to give us what we asked for. We added color to the newspaper and hence the facts are no more just black or white.