On “electrified” days I normally drag myself happily to the coffee maker first thing at the start of the day. Then I carry the neatly folded fresh newspaper (the classic version, I don’t own any of the iThings) lying nearby up to my laptop and eventually start a grim inspection of the headlines. I am always looking for something there and when I wake up (not “get up” – it usually takes me about 2 hours to travel from “get up” to “wake up”) to a functional state of mind, everyday I remind myself that the news are not for me and I should only skim through the ads.
I am somehow under the impression that the purpose for a nation to have newspapers in circulation is to disseminate information to citizens – information about things that have impact on their lifestyle and needs. On that note, let me quote all the headlines on
today’s(Oct 16 2010) Daily Star front page: “A Death Trap over Turag”, “Khaleda’s House: SC bar for out-of-court settlement”, “Food security faces stiff challenge”, “4 workers killed in wall collapse”, “Bureaucracy never let local bodies rise / Local govt system in disarray”, “6 firearms seized in Rangamati”, “Sirajgonj: 2 killed as train hits microbus”, “Train stopped by ‘pulling chain’”. That was all the progressive news (that perhaps explain the rising numbers of
positive thinkers these days?). Interestingly, there’s one pictorial ad too: “Earthquake? If dreams are killed, we will help you rebuild. – Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd.”. This one unfortunately is not the type I plan to skim through; they are generally more positive and talk about things I don’t know yet.
It appears as though the tables have turned. The general public have decided to make the newspaper a platform to disseminate important information to the government so that they can fix up their “to-do” list. “Something bad happened and government not taking appropriate measures? Sure, put it up on the dailies to squeeze their ***s”. But do so in a comforting motion to suggest no direct assault.
So I say
not for me and flip on to colorful pictures that tell no story. Like a few smiling people in a grandly decorated room with masts and flags and victorian sofa – caption says it’s a good meeting, I assume the yielding decision and policy outcome is a prolific national secret. Still flipping on to Bollywood weddings, incomprehensible creative endeavors, delicate financial gist protected within bold sports events… so on and so forth with occasional interesting ads and tempting sale offers.
During my flipping spree I missed the “Today’s Event” listing on Oct 11 which mentioned concert and airing of film “Muktir Gaan” at the Public Library Auditorium. Or maybe I didn’t miss it and just flipped through it as it doesn’t sound interesting enough for a trekking adventure from Gulshan to Shahbag at 5-ish on a workday. Non-newspaper sources later gave me the full news – it was a charity program organized for ailing Bipul Bhattachaya –a singer from the actual Muktir Gaan campaigns during ‘71 (
came on Oct 13 news). It featured talks by artists and participants from the times and presented a history through Tareque & Catherine Masud’s “Muktir Gaan” based on real 1971 footages taken by U.S. filmmaker Lear Levin. Audience turn up was disappointingly low at the event. Later that night I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Tareque Masud on phone (through a friend – I don’t know him personally). I blatantly accused him for not advertising the event properly. He blatantly accused me of not following the news properly. So we decided on a ceasefire. He also went on to regret not placing an ad (which was actually suggested by his cook) on the Zee channels where apparently most of his target audience live and breathe.
Our national media heavily inclines to demand attention from the high chairs. In a more intelligent world Noam Chompsky alleges modern media to assume a role for manufacturing public consent. Somewhere in the middle lost is one important purpose: delivering useful information and administrative decisions effecting public lifestyle.
