Hindustan Times
Unequal world
Are we obsessed with China?
All major and minor Indian newspapers used pictures of China’s 60h birthday celebrations prominently on Page One last September.
Made me wonder if it was such a big deal.
Did the Chinese newspapers give India’s 60th birthday celebrations the same prominence in 2007?
Actually, I don’t know.
But is it right to get patriotic with news?
I have been very uncomfortable on the rare occasions we allowed into the paper words such “we”, “us” and “our” for “India” or “Indian”.
What does “we” mean? “India” or “Hindustan Times”? What is the reader supposed to understand when he/she comes across “us”, “we” or “our” in the paper?
There is a real temptation to put ourselves in the story. Let readers feel the paper is about them and we – them and us and the country – are one big family.
But do we not need a certain degree of objectivity?
Should the paper look and feel hurt every time India was criticized for its abysmal human rights record?
Here is why I am asking these questions.
Hindustan Times was possibly the only in town to have put China-at-60 pictures inside,
We went instead with pictures of M S Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir from the ICC award functions in Johannesburg – both had bagged top awards.
Well, we were apparently not right.
Everyone at the news meeting next morning felt we should have stayed with the China picture.
In hindsight, I should have.
But it wasn’t my patriotism or the 1962 war that made me bury China in the inside pages. Just thought the cricket picture was about “us”.
One is always learning.
I did, however, wonder if People’s Daily, for instance, put on page one pictures of celebrations in India when it turned 60.
But, hey some things can’t be compared.
If US president Barack Obama announces a visit to India, we will front page it, of course, and put together an elaborate plan on how to cover his visit – what he eats, what he smokes and what his wife and daughters do.
Can we expect the same of the US newspapers if Manmohan Singh (or Atal Bihari Vajpayee) was visiting the US?
It’s an unequal world and some birthdays are more important than others.
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Yashwant Raj on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Filed under Media · Tagged 60th birthday celebrations, China, China’s 60h birthday celebrations, Chinese newspapers
See on one day Rahul baba quips. My family has always doen great things be it dividing Pakistan or bla bla bla..
Same Rahul gandhi another day coems lecturing how we shoudl ignore pakistan..
In my view neither tomotomming division of pakistan was neede not this underplaying of pakistan in latest statement. Because let us face it we can;t ignore someone who keeps sending blood thorsty terrorists in india.. Those bomb blasts will keep reminding us.
My point is yataha raja tatha praja ..The way rahul baba keeps vacillating people too keep vacillating .> one day Chian is worst enemy another day they become most important trade partner..
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
of course
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We, us and are, are words which give us a common feel, a feeling that we belong to the same family, all of us are Indians, its good to use words that make one relate to something, it gives us a better understanding for sure. For the China page 1 story, I agree with you, its great that they have their happy moments, and being a part of our neighbours celebration is great but….overdoing things is not a good idea, I think for us an Indian winning an award carries a lot of importance.
And what do we get after making it a cover story…..a question being raised as to why our P.M. is visiting Arunachal Pradesh???Excuse me!!!
I think its time that we make ourselves strong from within, its time that we value our people and generate the spirit of oneness in them…coz by the end of the day ones country is ones own, its our home, our land.
A very Happy Diwali to you!
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
a very happy diwali to u too
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in journalism ugly things sell.
you put one page special on pt Bhimsen Joshi, and no body will read it.
instead, one page on serial killer of goa would sell like hot cake.
you have to dig shit to sell. and you are committed to good journalism - meaning highlighting sunny side of the life. and you have to find the middle path.
as for me, i would admire any journalist who is leaning towards higher / finer sensibilities.
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If we are to consider Mark Twain then, “Only presidents, editors and people with tapeworm have the right to use the editorial ‘we’.”
China is the most-confounding country; you can tell in by just meeting people in office who have travelled the World over if they ever met and had a Chinese friend for a period long enough to say something about the country. I am not that widely-travelled but a lot of people in Reuters and they couldn’t say anything either. Happy Diwali
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We Should be obsessed with China. It is basically a trading (bania) country. The only major war that China lost convincingly was the “Opium” war against the Britishers in the nineteenth century. It required a communist regime to come out of that defeat. It has a tradition of 4000 years. First country to use paper currency. A country very rich in music, dance, fine arts, religion, technology and you name it. We should be more worried about economic agression !
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If it makes you feel better, I agree China did not merit the first page. One is not about to tell the paperwallah to change to some other paper just because one did not like the front page on a particular day!!
However, I do suspect (and could be wrong) that our assessment of newsworthiness of the page is now being influenced by TV. To my mind, there is nothing unusual happening on the Chinese front that has an immediate impact.
But the fact that they continue to slowly creep into our country via various routes should form the basis of an extended series of well researched articles to make the public aware of the dangers we face in the long run.
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Why only China? I think we are obsessed with US, UK, Australia and many foreign countries. Their people are given special treatment here even if we are ill treated in their country. Shah Rukh Khan threw a star-studded bash for Jermaine Jackson even though he was detained at the NY airport for almost 2 hours.
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It’s great that you’re sharing this information…because I’ve often wondered what goes into making page 1 of a leading daily…Sometimes, as reader, I find a complete discrepancy between what I think is important and what goes into page 1. As far as the China decision goes, I don’t know what transpired in the newsroom, but I was most happy that HT didn’t go with the 60th b’day pictures. Not only did it break the monotony, but I felt great that someone thinks Indian players deserve greater prominence than the dragon’s b’day.
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every news agency would follow all the minute details of obamas visit to india. thtats a given. people would be eagerly waiting for every bit a information they can get. so its clearly a demand and supply equation here. its not that the people are not interested in all those tiny details. so say what you want there are quite a lot of people who want to know what obama’s dog is gonna have for lunch !!
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