Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Breaking news

Li'l Prince's ordeal became national news. For the weekend, the whole county was holding on to the progress in Kurkshethra. Every news channel worth its salt was there, every newspaper was right on it. Forwards on mails, sms, the whole deal.

Are we so starved for human drama? It reminded me of this short story BU put in our Eng. Lit syllabus. This story was of this one story of a kid, a gal, who's stuck in quick sand in an area struck with earthquake. And of a journalist, as he stays by her side for 3 days, waiting for the govt. to do something to save her. And then slowly watch her die...

This time it was more of a happier ending...n I'm really glad that it is. But really makes me wonder if we are so starved of suffering like this...

Any news guy would tell u that this makes excellent TV. A poor young kid, stuck in a horrific scene, battling for life n death, and all that jazz. Bumbling officials, weeping parents, the whole deal. And a nation hooked. Human interest story...the question is, which human are we talkiing bout here?

6 comments:

DD said...

Tragedy is always overwhelmingly present in photography awards...maybe people love to watch tragedy whch is not their own...but somewhere the line blurs...I rem this famous pic whch won tons of awards including a pulitzer, of a barely living skinny african kid about to die, and a vulture nearby, waiting for it to die..the fotographer cud not live with the fact that he did not do anything to save the kid and committed suicide soon after
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm
Life is not always unfair...

Anonymous said...

Bad news is good news man... So you either create one or extensively cover one... All for popularity and TRPs!

Sh'shank said...

i am disillusioned myself.
frankly the way certain reporters keep going on and on abt sone crap makes me wonder if i would turn out something which i detest completely.
breaking news phenomenon. everything is a big deal

crumbs said...

@ dd
yeah i've seen that one.true, most of the photography awards do go for ones that capture agony.same goes for the tsunami pic that won.n as for blurring the lines, for how many?that photographer cldnt live with it, so he comitted suicide.but zillions of others who saw the pic, including u n me are doing just fine right?maybe it disturbes us for a day, a week a month...then we move on.we've just learn to live with anything.get over anything.

@ gaana n pricky
cant blame reporters alone...they do it coz people watch it.yeah, as reporters they shld have some responsibility, ethics and all that blah yes, but at the end of the day, even they have families to take care of. its just that we have become so numb with everything, that unless it is big, and involes horrific amounts of drama, no one bothers.
and pricky...that one fear is something that all of us live with...n maybe i just was too much of a coward to face it...

Me Thinks.. said...

news is all the unpredictable blah that we were forced to mug up for exams..some channels were at it the whole day..yeah i agree for once!!

crumbs said...

@me thinks
the whole day?the whole weekend i heard of little else.
n nw that u agree with me, i can die in peace :P