Indian Media Bash Blog

The issue of discussion is the dorky coverage of Sci-Tech section by some Indian news websites. Well, frankly speaking, its not that bad. Its actually a spectrum: On the one hand you have newspapers like HT that hardly have any Sci&Tech coverage, while on the other hand you have The Telegraph that gives quality coverage to Indian innovation, albeit it’s a weekly affair. In the middle of the spectrum we have Times of India for who the world of Sci-Tech starts and ends at IT.

With the recent media revolution, and the deluge of television channels, one would expect more coverage to this often neglected area of Science and Technology, especially when some make claims of being a “journalist driven channel”. My focus in this post would be CNN-IBN and its dorky Sci & Technology coverage.

Yes, they have been considerate enough to have a section of “Sci-Tech” in the first place. However they have been utterly irresponsible in the selection of articles that qualify to be in the Sci-Tech category. Here are a few examples of titles taken from their “Sci-Tech” section (see snapshots 1, 2):

1. ABC’s of blogging.
2. Want to virtually insult the US Prez?
3. Left takes Bush-whacking to Blogs.

Now, ideally speaking, for a “journalist driven Indian channel”, the duty of a “Sci-Tech” reporter would be to report scientific innovation that’s happening in and around India, and report it in layman’s terms to the general public (for example have a look at the Sci-tech section of The Telegraph); not merely sit infront of a computer and collect articles from Google — that’s “kaamchori”. Moreover, if terms like “virtual” and “blog” are good enough to qualify an article as “Sci-Tech” worthy, its not only an insult to the massive indigenous innovation that’s been happening in major Universities of India, but also a depiction of the severe lack of understanding in the people who drive that particular section of the website. Blogs can be considered as a media revolution, not a technological innovation! Technically speaking it’s just a chronological depiction of content, using technologies that’s been driving internet for ages. They should probably rename their “Sci-Tech” section to “Latest buzz on the Internet”.

I hope the new entrants mend their ways instead of being the flag bearers of desi dork media.

(disclaimer: This article should be seen more as a constructive criticism than slander)