In fact my blog titled ‘Can Media See the Goodness’ was well appreciated by all. Though the content is specific to Kerala, the
context is applicable to every state. I am so happy that the subject went through some discussions amongst the senior media experts in Kerala. I know it because I got a few calls. I thought they were calling to abuse me; but I could hear a different song. They all were expressing their helplessness.
One of the Senior most media persons (a celebrity in the News Channels) says, “Sajeev, we the senior journalists in this state are all fed up. We feel helplessness. If we write or air anything positive about anything, readers/viewers think that we are biased. All positive news are being perceived
as paid news and all negative news are believed to be truths; that is the way our people think.”
“People in Kerala want sensation, they are least bothered about the economy or industries or global matters. They want sizzling hot and spicy news, which we can provide only through negative news. Hence media in Kerala is totally depending on Police; as Police is the only source (and easy sour
ce) to get such spicy news, whether it is a murder, rape, an intelligent theft, or any other brutal acts. In fact the readers/viewers don’t even look for the other side of the story,” says a senior journalist who had left this field being fed up with the unhealthy practices.
The celebrity News reader even told me, “why you really want to stick around here and do business. If you really want to grow, go out of Kerala. Here people consider all businesses as exploitations and businessmen as frauds. If my channel takes a different approach to show the positive sides, our viewership will drop and we will be out of business. “
One my ex-media marketing colleague opened a top secret, “boss, ours is a news channel, but commercially we are competing with entertainment channels. So to get the viewers to flip to my news channel,
we should be more spicy and thrilling that the crime thriller movies and emotionally hijacking TV serials.”
This is scary. I don’t think no society in the entire world must have faced this kind of a challenge. How do we get out of it? If we don’t find a solution, we will see this state turning out to be an atom bomb of negativity. I think its time ‘to turn Karala Positive.’ Please share your thoughts on this.