CWG get into TRP war: Nauseating negative TV hype
Delhi, which will host the Commonwealth Games in ten days, has been witnessing unprecedented rains. Weatherman says this is the highest and worst in the last 50 years or so. Unusually, it rains every day incessantly. This has really resulted in some glitches being coming into the fore in the City’s preparedness for the Games.
Strictly speaking these are all nothing. A decorative piece in the wall falling or garbage gathered around the construction site. Due to strict security measures, no media persons are allowed inside any stadiums. They, it looks, go around the periphery of the vast complexes and pick up a hole here or there, and go overboard. The 24-hours news channels, who hardly bother about Olympic sports, lap it up and blow it. This has crossed the limit nowadays.
I follow hockey. The stadium that was proposed to host the Commonwealth Games has been constructed at least seven months in advance — and it has successfully hosted no less mega event as the World Cup.
The stadium, which now has parking facility for 400 vehicles underground, and has in all three turfs and two floodlight facility, was not constructed to host the world cup, but only to host the Commonwealth Games. So also so many other stadium, they have not only been constructed, but also hosted one or two test events, as we had hockey at Dhyan Chand stadium.
Then what is this bloody nonsense we get to see on televisions and newspapers. It appears the media is so immature it becomes totally untenable to host mega event of this nature which has the potential to damage or improve the image of the country across the globe.
The problem here is not jus the events. It is the media’s obsession to individuals. They root, target individuals. If there is corruption, if there is lack of preparation, why to target individuals, why not the system that produce, sustain and project these individuals.
We saw in hockey this phenomenon. We targeted KPS Gill for the all the ills that ultimately led to India not in the Olympics family. What happened now. One bad fellow was replaced by another bad fellow, and it is said in some quarters the former was better than the present!
This is the problem if you look at the problem individually, but not holistically. Had we concentrated on systems, we will be having a system of training in place, system of people to control coaching will be in place, and many such other things. What we have now is temporary absence of Gill, continuation of sick called Selectors, each coach subverting the other, imported brains not even getting the state of art equipment. System, that brought us down, continued while the fortunes of some bosses went down and then climbed up.
Same is happening here in the name of Commonwealth Games. Thugs who run Indian sports escape through the façade of Olympic autonomy, and Suresh Kalmadi is the ugly face of Indian Sports. We don’t have any sympathy for him, not the least for his cronies who subsist on hockey. But, if we target Kalmadi, as the media is busy nowadays, somebody else will occupy the Indian Olympic Association seat, and will repeat what Kalmadi had been doing.
The media, certainly crossing all the ethic borders, is doing a calculated damage to the image of the country.
They make mole out of mountain, and there are always experts on the small screens to spit venom on anything and everything. There is no considered views. These news channels are now on their worst. Last year, a journalist was selected as the Best Sports Writer, we have not seen her even a single day in any stadiums in the last ten years! So, coverage for them is not sports, only controversies if there are there, else create one.
Last 20 years, it used to take minimum an hour to reach Dhyan Chand stadium. Now, it takes hardly 20 minutes. Why, a new metro has been opened near my house. This was opened three months ahead of schedule. We in Delhi feel proud of the achievement. This is due to Commonwealth Games.
If India can create a vast network of underground metro in record time, what is the buzz about one foot bridge breaking?
If there is any award instituted for denigrating your own country, it should go to Indian media.
They have targeted Commonwealth Games, to improve their TRPs.
1 Comment
I agree that media exaggerates and that too possibly quite a lot given that sensational news forms the basis of their revenue model. So I factor this into account when I watch the news. But what about the delegations of different CW countries like Oz, NZ, Scotland, Canada who have visited the CWG? Surely they did not come un-invited. I am assuming they would have been asked by the OC to come and visit. This being the likely case, it is the duty of the OC to make sure what these delegates do not have any complaints with what they see. We all know that most of these delegates are very unhappy with the facilities and thats what they have conveyed to their respective authorities.
Now, it is well known that the media exaggerates, and it is also common knowledge that big organizations have dedicated departments to liase with the media so that they maintain a good image and if things go wrong damage control happens fast. I don’t think this has happened for the CWG. More than the domestic media it is the foreign media reports which have caused maximum damage. It is because of these reports that many star sportsperson have withdrawn from the Games. This is a very serious setback. We can blame the media as much as we want but there MUST be a strategy on the part of the organisers to prevent things from coming to such a pass.
And, by the way, for the media to target the system, they have to target individuals. They cannot call Mr.System to join a discussion panel. System is composed of individuals and its they who are to be held ultimately responsible.