Face to face with ourselves
I was checking today�s global news stories on the web and I couldn't help but feeling a little disheartened. Out of the 20 odd headlines that I saw on the page, 15 were connected to regions of conflict or war, one was about attempts to calm down fears in Russia because of NATO's recent expansion and the others were random stories from currently insignificant parts of the world.
I get the feeling that that last line sounds almost apathetic of me. Though in truth, I make that statement almost deliberately. For I feel that this is the way things appear to be nowadays. If the news isn't about war or conflict it doesn't make the headlines of the front pages. It almost mechanically gets relegated to the back pages marked with an insignificant title; sourced from the wire services (because no worthy news publication would deploy reporters of it�s own to cover such stories), or at best it might be penned by an unnamed correspondent belonging to the lower rungs of the organisation.
I was recently reading a book ("Breaking the big story") about memorable moments in Indian journalism. The author of the book, in his prologue, states that one of the responsibilities of the press is to hold a mirror upto society.
In light of the circumstances I found myself in, I wonder if I want to agree with him. In a place deep down that I might not want to talk about at parties (to borrow a line from the movie �A Few Good Men�), have we really become so unfeeling as a society, that only sensationalism and violent upheaval can grasp our attention. A society where everything given prime importance is nothing but superficial because the only things that should matter are buried deep down, outside of the spotlight which finds itself focussed, almost permanently, on the dark underbelly of civilisation.
Simultaneously I also desperately want to disagree with him. Can we just blank out all hope, that as a society we may never find ourselves blessed with atleast some redeeming factors. That we might actually be as ugly as we appear, when we look into that metaphorical mirror being held upto our face. I find that to believe in that is rather unimaginative and frankly insulting to the human spirit which wishes to thrive with dignity.
I was checking today�s global news stories on the web and I couldn't help but feeling a little disheartened. Out of the 20 odd headlines that I saw on the page, 15 were connected to regions of conflict or war, one was about attempts to calm down fears in Russia because of NATO's recent expansion and the others were random stories from currently insignificant parts of the world.
I get the feeling that that last line sounds almost apathetic of me. Though in truth, I make that statement almost deliberately. For I feel that this is the way things appear to be nowadays. If the news isn't about war or conflict it doesn't make the headlines of the front pages. It almost mechanically gets relegated to the back pages marked with an insignificant title; sourced from the wire services (because no worthy news publication would deploy reporters of it�s own to cover such stories), or at best it might be penned by an unnamed correspondent belonging to the lower rungs of the organisation.
I was recently reading a book ("Breaking the big story") about memorable moments in Indian journalism. The author of the book, in his prologue, states that one of the responsibilities of the press is to hold a mirror upto society.
In light of the circumstances I found myself in, I wonder if I want to agree with him. In a place deep down that I might not want to talk about at parties (to borrow a line from the movie �A Few Good Men�), have we really become so unfeeling as a society, that only sensationalism and violent upheaval can grasp our attention. A society where everything given prime importance is nothing but superficial because the only things that should matter are buried deep down, outside of the spotlight which finds itself focussed, almost permanently, on the dark underbelly of civilisation.
Simultaneously I also desperately want to disagree with him. Can we just blank out all hope, that as a society we may never find ourselves blessed with atleast some redeeming factors. That we might actually be as ugly as we appear, when we look into that metaphorical mirror being held upto our face. I find that to believe in that is rather unimaginative and frankly insulting to the human spirit which wishes to thrive with dignity.
posted by Pierre at
11:24 AM
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