Articles

Media Watch

Press is an industry where new and fresh news is brought from every nook and corner of the country and across. The function of Commercial media channels is to provide news that is of interest to their reader, viewer or listener with due justification to the freedom of speech and expression. But Press today, is seen to be crossing the line repeatedly while reporting on women issues just to make the news more exciting and sensational.


Print medium is seen to be playing with the news and when it does that, the seriousness of the news is lost. For instance, check this headline which appeared in The Pioneer - It described the rape of a woman as “Sex worker ‘raped’ by four youths.” The word “Sex worker” takes out the barbaric ness of the crime committed and in fact suggests that since the victim was a sex worker, the definition of rape as “sex under duress” did not really apply to her at all.


Another instance where a Tamil newspaper, Dina Thanthi came out with a report, “She took advantage of her beautiful looks to cheat the policemen”. This statement leads the reader to a conclusion that the woman is the bad character in the story, but the policeman is no child to be lead astray with a chocolate bar. Why wasn’t he pointed out? In another similar case, Nakkeeran, in its Aug 25 issue, interviewed one of the police officials, Kannan who was suspended on charges of illegal detention and rape. He is quoted as terming a woman victim as ``a prostitute

who targeted police officials''!

The names of rape victims and even their photographs are openly published, in spite of a Supreme Court verdict against such a practice. The rape and subsequent suicide of Deepa Murmu, was splashed across all the newspapers in Bihar with such ferocity and with photographs that her name virtually became a household one. In this age when sensational stories sell, less importance is given to the perpetrators of the crime of rape, or to the follow-up stories in which the culprits may be sentenced a few months later.


Stereotyping of women as news subjects is also quite common: They are either presented as victims, mothers or as sex objects. Women account for 41 per cent of the presenters and reporters of the world's news but the disaster is that women development issues are only 18 per cent of news subjects.


Media is seen to be playing a role of provoking or tantalising a particular group. Role of the press should not end in mere reporting of facts but go beyond them. It should extend its sphere by giving room for open and free discussions by the public. TV news channels especially NDTV have set new and high standards for Indian media to follow because of the programmes such as “Big Fight”. 

 
Arpitha H

Is there any hope of doing perfect Research?

I strongly believe that we cannot treat the above statement as a closed ended question and we should rather consider the effectiveness and the utility of research and not its perfection. If there is no hope of doing perfect research then there should not have been any thought on research. If there is no hope, then there is absolutely no point in discussing or analyzing this subject further and the government would have to curb all the funding for research activities.


Researches are there to fulfill our requirement and to assist us in our activities and improve our knowledge bank. The term research itself suggests searching again because the need of human being changes with time and there is a necessity for newer inventions. Hence, I will refine the term Perfect Research and divide Research into two types: Complete and Incomplete research. Incomplete research too might be perfect but, since it does not include all the aspects, it is treated as Incomplete.


We can take Abraham Maslow’s motivation theory 'Hierarchy of needs' to support the above standpoint. “'Hierarchy of needs' is probably the most popular and most read motivation theory. His theory suggests that within each person there is a hierarchy of needs and the individual must satisfy each level before they move onto the next. There are five hierarchical levels:


Physiological needs: Food, shelter, sexual satisfaction i.e those needs needed for basic survival.


Safety needs: The need to feel safe within your environment. Also refers to emotional and physical safety.


Social Needs: The need for love, friendship and belongingness


Esteem needs: The need for self respect, status and recognition from others.


Self actualisation: The point of reaching ones full potential. Are you capable at excelling yourself?” (“Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”, learnmanagement2.com”)


However, there are a few hitches with Maslows theory and hence Incomplete. Firstly, it is difficult to say at what level a person is at within their hierarchy and when that level has been satisfied. In addition, there is little statistical evidence to prove that this theory actually works.


Considering the above two types of research, we can go one-step further to see the aspects of research to understand this better –


Accuracy and Validity.


Every research can be seen with these two aspects, which are both attributed to the theory of Evolution. Flowing River is not the same the next minute is a famous Buddhist thought and the same thought can be applied everywhere. Change is the nature of the world and because of this basic nature, accuracy of the research varies. Take the example of Japanese Production method – ‘Just In Time’. This is a well-known theory and is used by most of the managements throughout the world. This theory speaks about reducing Inventory waste by maintaining required amount of stock at the right time and order for new stock as and when need arises. (“Just-in-time (business), wikipedia.org.”) Now, can this theory be applied everywhere? No, because the accuracy of this theory is based on several other factors - Availability of raw materials, Labor, Time, Production Cost etc Theories that are applicable in one country may not be put to use in another. Hence, the accuracy varies.


The second aspect of research is Validity or Age. Research, which is true today, may not be true tomorrow or even the next minute and the Validity of the research remains until the evolution of a new research theory. We can take the example of Atomic theory here. Initially it was observed by the scientists that atoms were the smallest indivisible particles but gradually around 20th century atoms were found to be actually divisible and later the term "elementary particles" was invented. (“Atomic theory, wikipedia.org”)


Albert Szent rightly says “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” (“Gyorgyi, “
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi quotes”). Research is a continuous process because human mind does not have any boundaries and researches, which now seem complete with no possibilities of any counter argument, could be questioned at a later stage. No matter what the outcome of the research is, it definitely helps the society and is the foundation for a better tomorrow.

Posted by Arpitha H at
11:03 AM

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