Adil Najam
I have been forwarded a link to this video over a dozen times since yesterday. Like some of those who forwarded this to me, I do not find this video funny. And I certainly do not see any journalistic value in it. In fact, I find it rather disturbing, sometimes disgusting, and entirely disgraceful. I don’t really want you to see the video, but I do want us all – and especially our electronic media managers – to think real hard about what we are doing in our totally laissez-faire (the better phrase would be ‘mader, pidder, aazad’) attitude to what goes out as information, infotainment, and entertainment these days.
Note that the so-called “reporter” Shahid Hussain of Samaa TV tells us nothing about what the protest march is about or for. He finds that irrelevant and assumes everyone else will too. He accuses everyone of ogling and leering at the young nurses and is interested only in the fact that it is a march by young women. Why they march in protest, who they are, what their demands are – all of that matters not to him. I, for one, find all that relevant, but have no idea what this is about. Nor is there any condemnation of the ogling that he is supposedly ‘reporting’; only an expression of his own amusement and rather cheap and demeaning puns (‘nazaroun kay hifazati hisaar‘)!
Yet, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that it is the reporter Shahid Hussain and Samaa TV (through their cameras and narration) who are ogling indecently, misrepresenting and demeaning young working women in Pakistan and possibly also lying in what is supposed to be a “news” report (Do we have any evidence that the rickshaw actually got stuck because the driver was ogling? Did the policemen actually tell the reporter that this duty was good for tucking in their tummies and that they would like more such duty? Or is all of this just made up for by reporter’s wild imagination?)
I am not a prude. I think I can enjoy a good laugh and appreciate the pressures of live television with good humor. Nor would I ever think of advocating media clampdown or censorship (I was a working journalist during Zia-ul-Haq’s time when censorship was real as well as ugly; my commitment to a free media is absolute and unwavering). But I do know what is clearly not funny and what is disgusting. This is both.
This is not a call for clampdown or censorship; this is just a call for basic decency and reasonable taste. This is about the media making bad choices. Really bad choices. And making them again and again. These are not just ‘mistakes’. These are willful and deliberate attempts to sensationalize, trivialize, sexualize and dehmanize important issues.
With the case of Salman Taseer’s murder and the role of the media in fueling hatred so recent, would this not be the time for the media to think introspectively about what values they are promoting and what prejudice they are spreading? Some will no doubt accuse me to making too much of this. Maybe I am. But at a time when we have seen the destructive power of the media and of anchors to ruin lives, instigate frayed nerves, and spread venom in an already fractured society, it is the responsibility of the media to monitor itself.
The issue may be different as might be the stakes, but the dynamics of instigation, of misinformation, of legitimizing anti-social behavior and of dehumanization are exactly the same. And so is the damage to society as a whole. What are the values being promoting here: The disrespect of women? The trivialization of worker concerns? Raw chauvinism? Even if these are values already in society, is it the role of the media to trivialize, evangelize and celebrate them?
All those who habitually lie to themselves about how we have great respect for women in our society; well, this is the respect we have!
There is a great line in the movie Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” The media in Pakistan today has assumed great power. I wish it would also learn to demonstrate some responsibility.
Adil,
I agree with you, that the report is not only shallow reporting but also share embarrassment. However I would also like to highlight why such content is aired in Pakistan.
In the race for rating in the Pakistani media, the relevancy of news and the basic values and structure of a news report, a constant pressure comes from the owners of the channels for ratings from the news editorial. This in the absence of trained news managers and editors not only sensationalize the news and creates a lot of noise instead of information (on an individual level) that can be transformed into knowledge (on a societal level).
That is why are one of the most informed nations with 30+ News Channels in Pakistan (out of 80 television broadcasters) and probably the least knowledgeable people knowing and appreciating the basic values of a society.
We must question why there are no efforts on investments made by media houses on human resource, instead it is considered easier to poach on to others’ human resources by simply offering a lump-sum amount to a star of another channel.
This has not only resulted in an increase of upto 25% in doing media business in Pakistan over the last one year but has also resulted in deterioration of basic values, morale of the real journalists in Pakistan.
I fear that the media will be cluttered with more such reports in the coming days, if we do not realize the importance of basic values and how media is impacting the collective intelligence and psyche of the nation.
AJ
@C
“nobody, not even the bloggers here, have the guts to name the killers eventhough they definitely know who is killing whom??”
You seem to lack the guts to even name yourself.Do appreciate the good please.
@ Adil Najam
Why didn’t you post this video which clearly states the demands of nurses???? Pls research and update yourself before
spilling ink on others!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoBJijOUKO8&feature =related
Samaa is the crappy channel who presented Mumtaz Qadri’s smiling interview after the murder of Salman taseer. Samaa and waqt tv are being penalized by pemra. What other high standards of journalism can you expect from such pieces of scum.
Media is not falling down, it’s people like you who are ignorant
sitting at the peak of some K2! Killings are going on in Karachi and more than 35 have been killed. Now curfew has been imposed in some areas, But not to speak of the media who just had one of their brilliant reporter targetted and killed, nobody, not even the bloggers here, have the guts to name the killers eventhough they definitely know who is killing whom??
First make yourself courageous enough, Mr Najam, to name the killers and condemn them, as did Zulfiqar Mirza lately, before maligning the electronic media which alone is NOT responsible for exposing all the ills fully knowing that the hypocrite secularists do not have a heart to bear someone without losing his life exposing their ugly faces ! If you gave the guts share some responsibility with the media and let us know at large the real and bitter truth you’re knowingly suppressing like anyone else!