Ek Kathak Aur Uski Kathayen

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Decide for once, Powers of News Reporting

I understand that TOI is trying its level best to go become a soft porn site. I think, they are however, a little confused. In half of the 10 odd nude/semi-nude pictures of women the written matter goes like,

The eight soft-porn actresses stripped their clothes to protests against
film censorship befor being arrested for indecent exposure and public
scandal

OR/AND

The movie starlets wearing pose for
photographers at a park near the Roman
Catholic church in Manila's district
of Malate, before being arrested by
policemen.

Either they figure we can't see the women are nude, or they think we're brain dead and our short term memory is worse than that of Dory of Finding Nemo and so, we need a refresh with every picture, or maybe the editor has no idea of what he's doing, or maybe they can answer it better.

I was just thinking, if they really want to go the soft porn way, Or they want this particular section to be soft porn, (You can check this article out, while you're at it), maybe... just maybe, they could drop the mask and just have a picture galery (without the crap, like the one written above) or porn stories in place of "Say your say"!!

And I thought this was blasphemy!

15 Comments:

  • At 10:15 PM, September 19, 2004, Blogger Unknown said…

    I would love a soft porn paper at 2 rupees a piece a day.This would be like that russian news channel with nude presenters.
    Ok now I'm getting carried away

     
  • At 11:51 PM, September 19, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Soft porn at rupees 2 is fine, only if they decide on what side of the fence they stand. Let them go the porn way if they want to, but whats with this neither-here-nor-there scenario!

     
  • At 1:41 AM, September 20, 2004, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I am in total agreement with you kathak..
    see the pune time and you will know it all..
    in fact i have a suggesion for the pune TOI editors.!!!
    they should name pune times Porno Times.This will be a apt title for it.
    happened to be in california some days back..
    our newspapers are way ahead in pornography as compared to newspapers there..
    i fact you won't see such indecent things in paper there at all.. all the indian media portray about US is the most black side porn/film industry here..

    Praga

     
  • At 12:02 PM, September 20, 2004, Blogger S m i t h a said…

    Porno times is apt.
    Praga? i knew someone with that name...
    K, i think they are just `Indecisive` on which side they really are?
    Thats the fourth time in the last few days im using the word `Indecisiveness`.... see what i mean akshay?

     
  • At 3:34 PM, September 20, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Praga,

    ...in fact i have a suggesion for the pune TOI editors.!!!they should name pune times Porno Times.This will be a apt title for it.That would apply to the city supplements of every city that has one. Only, Porno Times and Pune Times, both could still stay 'PT' (An observation, if I could make one :-) )

    And did you check out the main page today? 1/5 of the page was actually an advert of an upcoming news channel and then some crappy back page stuff, again on page1. But ofcourse, 1/5 of page1 into adverts is better than the couple of times they have sold the entire front page for advertising !!

     
  • At 3:36 PM, September 20, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Smitha,

    K, i think they are just `Indecisive` And a big joke on the term newspapers!

     
  • At 10:25 PM, September 20, 2004, Blogger Unknown said…

    I agree , actually I don't think TOI I think their taking a conscious descision to be "stupid".
    If you see globally and there are case studies on this,
    tabloid sell more papers.
    For example in England the sun sell more than the Times.
    Thus TOI by add such content is just tabloidising themselves to appeal to a larger "dumber" audience.I'm not saying its right here , neither am I defending the times of india group but thats the trend..
    I don't know whether anyone of you have read mid-day in mumbai I know for a fact that half the blokes buy it for the mid-day mate on page 3...
    This is the same reason MTV plays remixes all day...
    Media Trend ..
    I know it sucks.
    We are slowly being to consumers not human beings

     
  • At 6:01 AM, September 21, 2004, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Akashy,
    i don't think its a matter of being a consumer or a human being. lust is in human mind and you can't stay away from it.
    But the thing is what do we portray to the world or as a matter of fact to the coming generations, when we say TOI is the largest selling newspaper in india with wide range of reader base..???

    btw.. smitha, its good too know that someone else is also there who has a name as mine.. :)

     
  • At 12:06 PM, September 21, 2004, Blogger S m i t h a said…

    Hey Smitha-from-the-previous-comment,
    sorry to disappoint u. my name is not Smitha. its just my pen name. for more details read thisbut dont worry..there are tons of girls with that name.

     
  • At 1:39 PM, September 21, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Akshay,

    Media Trend, is possibly what you could attribute it, however, only partially. Because, you wake up one fine morning and hey, the trend for today is porn and then you start off... its something that gets on gradually.

    I think, its more of like you said, trying to appeal to a wider section of the audience, however, in the process losing out on its main focus i.e reporting. And that, is something which anyone, the newspaper in question, should not be doing.

     
  • At 1:49 PM, September 21, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Smitha,(from the anonymous comment)

    "lust is in human mind and you can't stay away from it"

    I don't think that is the reason why TOI is turning into cheap porn. Its a possibly, their way of trying to attract more readership, serving the lowest common denominator... like Akshay said earlier.

     
  • At 9:54 PM, September 21, 2004, Blogger Unknown said…

    As an example of Media sensationalization the CBS USA in an apology said,
    "I put mainstream media in the same league with comic books. The goal of the media is to sell. When it comes to any message coming from the media, caveat emptor. "
    BUT,
    Caveat Emptor meaning
    "The axiom or principle in commerce that the buyer alone is responsible for assessing the quality of a purchase before buying."

     
  • At 8:43 AM, September 22, 2004, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    k,
    """
    I don't think that is the reason why TOI is turning into cheap porn. Its a possibly, their way of trying to attract more readership"""

    you got my point total wrong. by saying "lust is in human mind and you can't stay away from it" i meant ppl will always love to see porn at least to some extent in papers,note a point that i am not saying all the readers here.
    but is it the right way to increase your reader base..??
    somebody do write a mail to TOI readers..
    btw.. enough of these comments.. i am waiting for some other good story... k..??

    -Praga

     
  • At 8:58 AM, September 22, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Mainstream media, in the same league as comic books! Truer words were never said!

    I was having a similar discussion, on the link in question with a friend of mine, and he said something like, "glamour sells, so whats wrong if they're using glamour to sell".

    Now this gets down to, they use glamour to get more reader base, then the reader base says, its okay to use glamour to sell because thats what sells, and then they put in more glamour and then.... you get the picture? And then ultimately I guess, it all comes down to who's making the money.

    But the question still stays, "Where's the news?"

    Caveat Emptor?
    Where's the place for that in all this. You just buy the paper, never mind the quality, or lets not bother with the quality.

    Or maybe you need a glamour magazene more than a newspaper, only if they would get down to Rs. whatever a day!

     
  • At 9:03 AM, September 22, 2004, Blogger Kathak - The Story Teller! said…

    Good story Praga? Hang on for some time... I don't want to do another recycle job this soon!

     

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