The Times of India hogwash!
By: Geo (April 15th, 2008)
The Times of India, Ahmedabad edition’s ‘Jaago Gujarat-Save the Girl Child’ campaign, one of the most successful and long-running examples of positive activism for a social cause, also swept the UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2006-07. In the western region awards, TOI-Ahmedabad won the award for the “Best Campaign on the issue of Sex Selection by a Media Group.” Special correspondent Radha Sharma, who spearheaded the campaign, bagged the award for best reporting in the category of ‘News Features-Print Media in English Newspapers’. Advertising agency Grey Worldwide bagged an award for the ‘Best Public Service Advertisement in Print’ for the advertisement campaign around the girl child issue in TOI-Ahmedabad.
Some campaign! Everyone bagged something or the other!
As part of TOI’s campaign against female foeticide in Gujarat, ‘Jaago Gujarat-Save the Girl Child’ campaign was launched over two years ago after the Civil Registration System (CRS) figures for Gujarat showed that the number of girls per 1,000 boys had dropped to 824.
The communication aimed at sensitizing the readers about the strengths and achievements of a woman, given the chance to survive. She’ll be more than just a girl, is the thought that the campaign evoked. The campaign depicted how a life, a success story, can be killed in the womb. The sustained campaign also showed how the skewed sex ratio in Gujarat was tearing away at the social fabric and creating disturbing imbalances in many regions and communities.
TOI’s brand director Rahul Kansal said “We don’t just sit back and report on events, we want to assume a pro-active role in bringing about positive social change. You will see more of these initiatives under the India Poised campaign in the coming year.”
Kudos to the Times of India group for their valiant effort in saving the girl child! The amount of space, people, resources and planning they have devoted to this blessed cause is really appreciable.
If you are a regular subscriber of the Times of India, you will surely have noted that this campaign was covered well in the first few pages of the daily, sometimes even on the front page. Very frequently couples with one or two daughters were shown and the parents and children were interviewed and it was highlighted how proud the parents were of their daughters and how they never felt the need for a son as the girl child was more than enough and how many more Gujaratis should follow these exemplary couples in valuing and also nurturing and relishing the company of their girl children.
I know of many people who have stopped subscribing to the Times of India because of the content it shows. It’s really high time that people like Rahul Kansal start thinking about their overall strategy all over again. Just doing social advertising is not enough. Social responsibility is the need of the “times”. The Times of India no doubt does enough in this direction but by ignoring the downside of what the same paper is also portraying.
Sex sells. Soft porn sells too. But then, it should stop selling campaigns in the name of Social activism. If it doesn’t take one of the sides, all of it just looks like a build up for winning awards in just a few more categories, making name, gaining fame and then partying about it.
The new generation of young boys wakes up every morning to what the Times of India shows and writes about Cheryl Cole, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or Carla Bruni and the like. About their teenage stints, their tattoos, their night lives, their secret videos, their boy friends and ex-boy friends, their drug stints, their driving accidents, their children and their motto in life. Already struggling with the surge of hormones and traversing at the pinnacle of their curiosities, these news reports puts increased pressure on them to know more about all that is written. Strangely, the Times of India sometimes even helps them by writing down the websites where this added thirst and curiosity can be quenched. The girl race that is being saved from foeticide, is being projected as things, sex objects, bodies to lust after. These teenagers end up in widespread pornographic addictions, and end up getting involved in raping younger children, engaging in pre-marital sex (often before the age of 18, which is a crime according to Indian laws), and resulting in situations wherein more unborn children are aborted (be it girl or boy).
I agree that the rise in pornographic addiction is not just caused by our esteemed daily but then they are not helping the already bad scene a wee bit.
The communication of their campaign was aimed at sensitizing the readers about the strengths and achievements of a woman, given the chance to survive. What chances of surviving well is that the TOI itself is giving the womankind by such vulgar portrayal in their international news section and on the back page and in their city supplement and now in their tabloid too? Most of the news is what other dailies will set apart as “sleaze”!
Instead of sticking to basic standards and responsibilities of journalism and reporting, the TOI is publishing sensations and sleaze and then trying to make up for it with such campaigns as the ‘Jaago Gujarat-Save the Girl Child’ campaign for which it again wins more laurels and awards!!
And most people will never notice these double standards. Others will tolerate it and many more will play along. Campaign when its time for it and then enjoy sleaze when its time for it!
The sensitivities of the current population have been numbed not because they have not been exposed to opinionated news reports but because they have got confused by being exposed to both opinions at the same time and that too in such convincing manner. Campaigns to numb the prick of guilt and steamy article and photographs to quench the fire of lust.
How long will we keep dancing to the tunes of a select few who lead us through a make believe fantasy world wherein we are fulfilling social responsibilities and also fostering the brute beasts inside of us that craves for more and more lust with each passing day?
In a generation that listens with its eyes and thinks with its feelings, a generation which derives its thoughts by deduction and not by induction, in short a society that doesn’t think clearly anymore, media like Times of India should take more socially responsible steps and not just plain social activism that just gains them accolades.
Adolph Hitler said, “I want to raise a generation of young people devoid of a conscience, imperious, relentless and cruel.” Will it be very cruel on my part to say that TOI is only furthering the Fuehrer’s cause by saving the girl child from the boiling cauldron only to guide their fall into the fire?
The Jesus of the gospels is very clear, acrid and unilateral about his viewpoints on life and the philosophy of living it in our societies. He projects the worth of human life not only in this life but beyond and raises the standard even in our thought lives so as to make life a worthwhile and responsible experience for one and all, both the boy and the girl. He bagged no award, but the Cross, he got no accolades for his ‘Jaago’ campaigns, but rebuttals, and got no gold or silver or trophies, but only whips, and nails and a thorny crown.
Perhaps it takes more integrity, guts and character to stand by your convictions and the people at TOI are surely a long way of from that. Jesus not only set the standard for social responsibility and activism, but he also paid the cost. The TOI fears the cross, the nails and the crown that society gives to the champions of “Truth’ and therefore prefers to hogwash its readers and the society at large and enjoy like Herod did.
The Times of India are playing an active role in bringing about social change for sure, but we need to ask Rahul Kansal, his definition of “Positive” or was he wearing the lens and using the microphone of relativism!
Jaago Duniya, Save Every Child!
Tags: 40th Abby Awards, abortion, accolades, best campaign, Bible, brand director, britney spears, carla bruni, cheryl cole, Christ, civil registration system, cross, crown of thorns, CRS, deduction, foeticide, fuehrer, Gender sensitivity, girl child, gospels, Grey worldwide, herod, hitler, induction, Jaago Gujarat, Jesus, Laadli, nails, news features, night outs, paris hilton, party, pornography, postive social change, Pre-marital sex, public service advertisement, radha sharma, Rahul Kansal, rape, ravi zacharias, relativism, save the girl child, semi clad, sex, sex ratio, sex selection, sleaze, social activism, social responsibility, special correspondent, tabloid, teenage pregnancy, times of india, TOI, trophies, UNFPA, vulgar, woman, womb
April 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
this was nice
even i have unsubscribed TOI for this purpose
April 15th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Maybe you can use your time more constructively… rather than write such grossly exaggerated articles. This really reeks of a personal vendetta against TOI or something. To say the least, all your arguments are based on wafer thin judgements and seems to be the by product of a lazy afternoon and a whimsical mind. This is almost funny…. ROTFLOL
April 15th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Geo,
Thank you for highlighting a very valid matter in the present day societies. The tabloids of the Western World went down this path and have poisoned the minds of the youth with enough sleaze that the youth dare to show off the bedroom skills of their older counterparts right in the public!
TOI are following the same path and the results are predictable. They might be eyeing for a larger readership - which I think they will get - at the cost of a morally degraded, lust driven society. To reach their business targets, the dichotomy will still continue… unfortunately.
We as a family had to take the decision of discontinuing the TOI for the same reason. Our motivation has been the words of Jesus who said that
Isn’t it better to live a life of purity before our Creator?
April 16th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
it is indeed a thought provoking article…wat u hav mentioned is something i have experienced…there r times tat d content tat is shown is very embarrasing and i wouldnt really like my parents to view tat…:)…i m glad tat u hav put a new dimension to this which otherwise really goes unthought about..
April 16th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
want to really credit godwin for taking a stand and all the others who expressed their opinion….although godwin seems to have lashed out at the author rather than the subject….
personal vendetta or sound judgement ??? probably godwin, you need to come up with some views of your own on the subject…if the author has also managed to make you think..i guess he has done his job… not only thinking but thinking justly is the need of the hour…not many people who have the guts to take on the issues facing the society…
whimsical mind ??? A great man said,
April 17th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Somebody rightly said ” The problem with this generation is not lack of evidence, but suppression of evidence”…We see all kinds of gross acts and deeds in and around our world..But the problem is that we’ve closed our eyes to them….Media has a huge hand in either directing or misdirecting the society. The social act of “girl child campaign” is I’ll say a fantabulous one. But you can’t have “save the girl child” on one page and “Cheryl Cole saving her clothes and not using it” on another.
By the way Godwin if you say that this article is a by product of a “Lazy afternoon and a whimsical mind “. Then I pray that God gives you many such Lazy afternoons and a whimisical mind to understand the truth.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I generally don’t pay attention to such doomsday propheteers, who enjoy dancing to the tunes of religious jingoism proclaiming decay of our social fabric. I read this article cuz a good friend of mine sent a link on my scrapbook.
I would like to point out here that young(that goes down to even class 4 kids today, no kidding!!) and old alike don’t need to wait for the next edition of the TOI to get their fix of daily porn a.k.a scantily clad women and lurid details from personal life of sex crazed celebs. FYI, porn is circulated in schools, internet, mobiles and every other digital medium amongst friends circles today. So out of ignorance if one blames the media for propagating this, its an overstatement to say the least. I agree that what is being shown on TV and in papers is not exactly family friendly, but the authors article is pointing towards the classic case of treating the symptoms whereas the disease has taken roots and is spreading from somewhere else.
Targeting the media is not going to help matters. Clamping down on them will hardly help curb the spread of the so called “sleaze”. The demons hide in the dark sniggering and smirking at people like the esteemed author of this article, while they bravely take potshots in true quixotic style at the first visible target without sound judgement . Thats why i said that the article, for all its supposed seriousness and sense of purpose, is funny.
And Dear friend Navin, Newton and Archimedes were men of science driven by a sound scientific outlook towards life, everything they said or wrote was backed by diligent research, mathematical proofs and already existing laws of physics/science. Really, trying to push this article to those heights has got to be in intended joke. You were kidding right? I acknowledge it and laugh…
Well, in case somebody is not interested in my lengthy ramblings….
YOU ARE ALL BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE!!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Oh Holy Santosh, looks like God has blessed you with acute shortsightedness and a small cocoon of a world so that you remain happy in your own thoughts and in what you are able to see. I will pray to God to open your eyes wider and let you know that the truth…. is infact out there, so get out of your happy existence and question and investigate the real reasons for all that is wrong.
Don’t waste your prayers on me, instead ask God to reveal the truth to you rather than rely on your own intelligence!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Sorry for posting too many times, but I realize i did not respond to everyone who addressed to me on all the points.
)
Navin, I appreciate the unbiased manner in which you reacted to my post (well, i thought it was unbiased even if you didn’t mean it that way!
You are absolutely correct that I have lashed out at the author, and it for sure was my only intention. The reason is that if the author can spend his valuable time in composing, editing and posting this article for public viewing he should be responsible enough to do his homework before you gallops off like a knight on a horse. Reminds me of some of the political parties (you know who, the usual suspects!) who cook up some issue and raise a hue and cry over it, where at the end of the day it accomplishes nothing.
What i would like seeing is the author using his considerable writing talents in writing something which would set the ball rolling and make some actual difference. Taking on TOI is not bravery, taking on the PORN mafia is bravery, taking on the India establishment which is turning a blind eye is bravery!!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
hey seems someone is really worked up…
decay of our social fabric is not a doomsday propheteers subject any more….
who says TOI is the only media promoting sleaze…. i am just talking about the dichotomy of trying to saving the girl child on first few pages and stripping them down in the remaining…
you are assuming that what i have written in the blog is all that i know!! its as if all my views that i ever have on this subject is out there on the blog…!!
keep assuming…
who is trying to heal the symptoms? who is trying to clamp the media? did i ask for a revolution against the ‘toi’? did i ask for a banning of it… i am just raising the point of how people hide the dirt with acts of grandiose….
about physics and its impeccable laws…i think you should read the blog http://gracejunction.com/blog/seance-for-science/
or search for the hadron collider on the google….maybe you will be startled to hear some of the scientists and their confessions….
the impulse is to reacte as you have done godwin… not because i cant find fitting vocabulary….. but my convictions dont allow me….
your comments are really welcome and i personally am liking it and appreciate your views.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Nice to hear from you Geo. When i wrote about Science I was merely reacting to an earlier comment. There was no intent of blasphemy or any such thing!
I never said that physics laws are impeccable. Being a science student, I am familiar with the compromises, assumptions and imaginary quantities thought up to get to some rational explanation for everything we see around us. You can’t deny that it has greatly helped. After all, you and me sitting in front of laptops merrily tapping away is all thanks to them.
You cannot be so dismissive about the Scientists who are relentlessly working to find explanations and reasons to make life better and safer. I don’t remember having ever seen any “holy” men who haven’t sought medical help. Maybe I haven’t seen enough, but many do wait patiently for new cures to arrive, new ways to be discovered which can enhance the quality of their lives.
I don’t believe that its a choice between taking the Science side or God’s side. I believe just like the fruits of nature, God meant science to augment and aid our lives. Scientific approach demands questioning everything. It demands evidence, or where not available logical deductions from other points of reference. So if some Scientists claim that our existence is an accident, its extremely unfair to pooh pooh them saying they are naive and foolish to disregard the word of God. Maybe they haven’t really got it, but at the same time they are not talking in the air about this “accident”. There is evidence which supports their claim too. Unless someone can completely strike it down, it cannot be discounted.
Yes, we can contemptuously dismiss sciences efforts saying “aah now they say they were wrong about that”, but eventually they will get it to it. Case in point, Medical science stands on the verge of creating human life WITHOUT sperm cells. (Tailored human beings… what questions does that raise? )
So if scientists are making really slow progress and faltering at every step, give them a breather. Are you trying to rate them on the same scale as God? maybe they will take another million years to find out the truth… but there is nothing wrong in it!
April 19th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Dear Godwin, the real reasons for right and wrong lies in everybody’s heart. You don’t need to be a scientist or a journalist or a science student to understand it. I’m with you when you say that TOI is not the only paper or the source thru which sleaze enters. Like I said earlier “sleaze” is there in the heart. But do you see any human couple fulfilling their natural desire in the public??? NO… But you’ll always see animals doing this. The point of the matter is, though sleaze is in our heart, its perpetuated by the media (Don’t read TOI alone) and brought out of the closets of the bedrooms. That’s when people start thinking about it as “nothing wrong” and are so exposed to it that ultimately they get addicted to it and are waiting for some prey to complete their desires.
I also agree to your point that science is a way by which God wants to give His people a better way and better life. But there’s a thin line which when crossed has the human beings in believing that he can become God.
Just to share something, if you say that scientists have the proof of our existence then I want to ask you a question. Do you know that if the inclination of our planet earth is changed by one degree at its 57th decimal point, the planet will either boil down or melt down. Such is the perfection that no one in his perfect mind can believe that everything happened randomly and therefore the earth’s inclination happened randomly too. I would suggest that go thru some books. “Evolution” is a disproven theory and the science fraternity has already accepted it. Those who don’t want to accept it are like one atheist who once attended this highly convincing lecture about God and later he came to the preacher and said
Professor Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of our time, in his famous book, A Brief History of Time, suggests that, “if we discover a complete theory of science .. we would know the mind of God.”
We must disagree! It is not science that reveals the mind of God - the most it could do is to serve as a pointer. It is only the knowledge of Jesus Christ (The Son of God) and a study of the Bible (The Word of God) that could do so. We are indeed privileged to know the mind of God. This mind is one that looks beyond science and technology and offers us love and hope. It addresses the fundamental problem of sin and human rebellion against the Creator.
Dear Godwin, one more thing prayers never go waste. God bless and take care.
April 20th, 2008 at 8:21 am
That’s really well written Godwin. I like your style and respect your views and content.
Like you, I too am a science student, a manufacturer (therefore making my livelihood from technology that science has provided), an ardent follower of developments in science and technology, constantly reading and updating myself (as much as I can) and even giving talks about it across India.
The more I read and know, and see the developments, I really stand in awe….in awe of man, who is not an accident, and more in awe of an infinetely awesome God who created this finitely awesome man.
Science is not an enemy of God. It is a product of what God has made. God empowered us with it. Science is the evidence that God wants us to ask, seek, knock and find out answers and know more about Him and his creation. Science has allowed us exhibit his characteristics in us. The only problem is that riding on science, many a men have started feeling that he is God and now doesn’t need God and have started playing God.
Actually, scientists are very reasonable people who take sides by weighing the evidences in front of them (for or against a creation argument). God in the bible respects people who take well reasoned stands. Therefore He speaks about man thus: you are neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, therefore I will spit you from my mouth! Jesus moved with the ’socially unacceptable’ in the society, and he strongly spoke against hypocrisy. God respects the stand of man as long as it is clear.
But an ordinary man, hardly does these things. Instead of investigating or reading or thinking, he often makes his opinions or takes his side based on intuition, guess, feeling, majority or tradition etc. This vast majority forms their life on the basis of these often unreasoned beliefs and there starts a faster disntegration of the social fabric, or the disregard to Godly values, or a life driven by the what a few powerful and influential people make believe. It has become a generation that hears with its eyes and thinks with its feelings!
This is where a media like Times of India comes in. It is the biggest media conglomerate in India. It is highly influential and becoming stronger by the day. The reason for its gaining power and influence and clout is that more and more people are laying aside the tiring act of thinking and reasoning to the people at Times of India while they enjoy their lives. Actually, people are working 60 to even 72 hours a week and after that, if they also have to read and research and form true opinions, its a bit too much of a ask. When will they enjoy their lives? Time and tide waits for no one, so a majority decide to enjoy while they can, and once they are past a certain age, they will sit back to think and meditate and come to conclusions. So they decide to put their trust on media like TOI to do the thinking for them, to form opinions for them, to come to conclusions for them. Being in such a level, the point I raised in my article was
1) a media like TOI should not just display social activism but social responsibility too. Reason: Thousands of people take TOI for what it reports and form their opinions, thoughts, lifestyles, and understanding of trends and fashion and society and even beliefs etc on basis of what it writes.
2) with its clout, the TOI is almost like a daily devotional for tens of thousands (can i say that it has a “deemed-sacred text” status?). When it displays a dichotomy, a majority of the population, especially the growing up generation grows up with it and then considers it normal to be good on the outset and then do anything they want when they can.
Every person, has this struggle inside…a pull between the good and bad, the benevolent and evil, the light and the darkness. Its there in me and you and all. We all struggle everyday to bring the light to the outside, the good to the outside, and keep the darkness and evil inside. We sedate it, civilise it, or knock it down. But increasingly, we see a trend where this darkness or evil inside the hearts of men is glorified. Strangely it coexists now (physically and externally evident) with the light, the good. Hope you are getting it. This trend of now being proud and boisterous of what once was a social stigma or a NO-NO is all empowered by media. And this is dangerous.
I cannot write everything that I want to in this limited space, but seems I have made my point for now.
By the way, I enjoyed reading the adjectives and adverbs you associated with me.
When I write these blogs, I am not on a drive to convince everyone to my side, I just desire that atleast they will think. Also, I have the freedom of expression like TOI or you have. The freedom of my opinion. I have not expressed opinions based on sudden conclusions. Do read my other blogs and you will also know a bit more of what I am trying to convey to the readers. To make it easier, I give you the link
http://gracejunction.com/blog/category/author/author-geo/
Do keep writing Godwin. It has been a pleasure reading your comments. We are posting it all, cause we want everyone to hear all sides of the issue and decide for themselves. Opinions like yours will keep this blog more balanced.
God bless.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:38 am
saving the girlchild from what: abortion of the foetus or abortion of the personhood of a woman?
May 24th, 2008 at 2:17 am
An important point that everyone missed out is the point of relevance.Thats what it really comes down to,i mean what do we care how the sex lives of the celebs are going.In my opinion a newspaper should only include those articles that seem important for the general knowledge and awareness of the public.But regretfully and ironically some of today’s top news are all related to sleazy scandals and the same.Another important quote i would like to state is about art(media being an extension) being an imitation of life,well the tables have turned now.Today we have a generation that seeks inspiration and direction from all the the wrong sources.The very real fact that the present generation relies heavily on the media for their social acceptance simply cannot be argued upon.Further more psychologists call the present generation the I-Pod generation,because they want easy instant access to seemingly every part of their life.And in such a scenario when the first thing you read in the morning paper is that Maria Sharapova dosent moan while making love , your very tolerance and acceptance to what you believe is right and wrong pre-existing within you is seriously compromised.
(i apologise for being so candid, if i came across as offensive in any manner)