Indian Readership
Survey (IRS) is an institution that measures the readership of newspapers and
viewership of news channels and ascertains their value in the market. It
releases its report every three months. It released its report of the second quartet
of the current year on October 1. The daily declared by this institution to
have the largest readership manipulates this certificate and exercises its
superiority over its “rivals”. The
interesting thing is that this meanness is played not by Hindi or Urdu dailies
but by big English dailies. In the last quartet report, this institution
declared The Times of India to have the largest readership among all English
dailies. In its October 3 issue, the Times on its front page carried a big
headline, “Number one TOI
widens lead over rivals across India”. Then it writes in which city how far
ahead it is from its “rivals”. However in capital Delhi it simply says that its
readership has grown. That is, it does not say that here The Hindustan Times is
No. 1 as usual. It should be mentioned here that the survey does not provide
the number of copies published; it only estimates the number of its readers.
Let serious readers think
It is all but natural
that serious readers have no interest in this mutual competition between these
newspapers and channels. However it is the serious readers who can ponder over
their strategy to increase their readership and viewership (TRP). Besides presenting
on news channels reports of events in a sensational manner, hair splitting, making
mountains out of molehills, and making non-issue an issue and issue a
non-issue, these media portals also promote obscenity and waywardness just to
increase their TRP. In this regard the print media is also not lagging behind it.
The magazine sections of two newspapers of Delhi, The Times of India and The
Hindustan Times are replete with obscene pictures. They do not hesitate in
destroying the young generation and involving modern prosperous families in mental
waywardness just in the name of art and culture. But the most heinous work this
media does to increase its TRP and earn monetary benefits is to disseminate the
lies of government agencies more and more in covering incidents of violence and
terrorism. In this process newspapers and channels try to surpass each other.
Media is also an industry and business
This competition among
between these newspapers is not to highlight realities and promote virtues but
to suppress realities and spread obscenity.
It was never that a newspaper or channel challenged the police story of
a given incident of terrorism. Sometimes police statements on incidents of
violence and arresting of Muslim youth and allegations leveled against them are
so ridiculous that their realities become obvious even to ordinary citizens. Common
people mock at these stories but these newspapers and channels try hard to
prove them “solid” and “concrete”. Some so-called reporters even present
stories of police and secret agencies as their own. And it is apparent that
this strategy of media is aimed at increasing its TRP and reaping some benefits
from certain political and social groups. As this report of The Times of India
shows, it is these newspapers and channels that confess the fact that
newspapers and channels are also business enterprises, and that like other
businesses they too have competition among them.
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