Sensitives v/s Sensationals

Its been a week since the terror attack that took place in various parts of south Bombay now. I have been keeping a track of the activities on the various news channels as well as the news papers and can see a gradual change in them. For the three days of ongoing battle between cammandos and terrorists, there were no commercial breaks shown on the news channels, they were showing live updates of the the three places under attack and to fill in the time they were saluting the martyrs. A continious bombardment of the teror attack tht made me feel so very vulnerable. In the news paper the news spilled from the main sheets to the supplimentary sheets that are more popular for colourful imagery and full of articles on lifestyle. But soon after bringing down of terrorists things changed. News channels were back to their usual format. The follow ups shrunk. A mere BREAKING NEWS strip at the bottom of the screen would have certain facts in marquee. Some news telecasts about the attack were completely repeated. But in all these, Doordarshan's News Channel maintained a consistency. Even during the conflict, DD News was not restricted to the exclusive terror attack videos and news alone. It still continued to cater to news form all over the world. It always gave updates on the bombay issue and even had talk show, but as a part of their usual format. I think it was the one that was aware of its responsibilty to maintain a certain limitaion on waht information to be given out and wot needs to wait for the time being. While the other news channels seems to hav facilitated the terrorists in keeping a track of the moves outside, DD surely did a commendable job in minimalising such drawbacks of media coverage.

Today the news has retreated back to its original position, same pages in the news paper and few minutes on channels. Now its taking the usual turn to the Blame Game, pointing fingers at one another, especially with the elections right ahead. Hope this time the case will be seriously investigated and not used as a weapon bt people for selfish motives. May our media matures and redefines its role...........for the betterment of everyone!