Ravi Ranjan Sinha/Has the media got its priorities right ? Probably not, at least in this part of the country called Bihar. Both print and electronic media have devoted enough space and time to Amitabh Bachhan who turned 70 on October 11,2012 but have taken little notice of the fact that the day also happens to be the 110th birth anniversary of the late Jaya Prakash Narayan.
While giving to the Big B what is rightfully due to him as a living legend is just fair and called for almost ignoring JP who pioneered a revolution against a regime which was threatening to become dictatorial is unfortunate and a clear reflection of the value system the mass media is promoting asystem which tends to prefer only the popular or te sensational ignoring the significant In Patna one Hindi daily allotted a page to JP while devoting three to AB another carried a half page article on JP.Not a line was seen about JP in English dailies though AB was the beneficiary of good space.
Among regional channels each one vied with the other in wishing AB a happy birthday with lips of his films as also of a function organized the previous evening.But JP got a few seconds only on one channel. Does this not mean that the media is failing in its duty to educate the new generation about the persons who shaped modern India’s history?
Look at another story that news channels are almost everyday covering.. about Gujrat CM attending Hunkar rally of the State BJP. How is Modi’s coming to Bihar five months later going to impact affairs of Bihar. Such news items are feedstock of only TV studio debates which invariably are noisy. It is time for the media to introspect on its own senseo social responsibility .
Ravi Ranjan Sinha
Senior Journalist
