was talking to my grandmother and my periappa this mornin g. Both Chennai and AP seem to be floating in tons of water.
Both asked me why MSM doesnt’ seem to think that Chennai and Vizag deserve national coverage. Afterall, a whole chunk of the audience – especially the English viewing one – seems to be sitting there.
My grandmother said “they (the MSM) don’t consider anything South of Narmada to be part of India”
What she said rankled, but it seems true. I can understand the Hindi news channels not carrying too much on the floods – assuming that Hindi caters to a regional audience – but surely the English channels and papers could have done a bit more.
check out Jaggy’s photofeature on the floods in Chennai here.
my mother in law told me yesterday from kakinada in AP – “everyone around us is crying – they have lost their homes and possessions – people have even lost lives – who is in a mood to celebrate diwali?” and noone even knows about it. disaster fatigue + unglamorous disaster area?
200+ people die in AP and nary a squeak from the media.
60 people die in Delhi – the number of minutes of coverage is not funny, and the times of India calls for war.
200+ people die in J&K in the earthquake and the media is relatively quiet after the first few days.
8 people are killed by terrorists in J&K and the sense of security is heightened.
it makes me wonder if michael moore was right about the media being there to increase our sense of insecurity.