Some Interesting Facts!

These amazing facts were uncovered by the Strategic Foresight Group, an Independent Think Tank, during the course of their research:

• A weekly in Europe, Ekaitza, was fined in France in February 2002 for publishing a cartoon in the week after 9/11, showing the two collapsed towers with the caption that said "We dreamt of it – Hamas did it" and the publisher tendered an apology for publishing the cartoon. (This episode is mentioned in Globalised Islam by Olivier Roy, eminent French scholar, published in 2004 in UK.) .
• The Arab world is the founder of the modern thought, particularly in science and technology. Al Khwarizmi is the founder of modern algebra (circa 9th century). Al Kindi wrote 250 books on philosophy, physics, medicine and metallurgy. Ibn Haiyan founded chemistry. Ibn Haytham discovered the science of optics and also explored momentum and gravity of the earth 600 years before Galileo. Al Biruni determined the earth's circumference. Ibn Sina wrote 450 books on medicine and philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.
• About 400 million people have been killed in all the wars of the last 2000 years. Out of them more than 100 million were killed in the 20th century alone.
• About 100 million children die every decade because of hunger, malnutrition and preventable diseases; at this rate 500 million children will die in the first half of the 21st century.
• According to a UN report, there are 88 million unemployed young people in the age group of 15-25 years. As the UN methodology is liberal, the actual number of unemployed youth might be more than 100 million.
• The Gulf Cooperation Council states are likely to accumulate a surplus of more than $1500 billion from oil revenue during 2006-2010, if the price of oil is around $55-60 per barrel. The surplus of all oil exporting countries is expected to be over $2500 billion by 2010.
• Lashkar-e-Taiba, based in Pakistan, is the new leader of Islamic International Front created by Al Qaeda.
• Lord's Resistance Army, based in Uganda, is probably the most brutal terrorist organisation in the world; it forces its new recruits to kill their own siblings. Yet this group has drawn hardly any punitive action from the international community as compared to some of the other groups.
• In the first Crusade, the French and German Christians first killed Jews in large numbers in their areas before they marched to the East.

I read the Blog today! ....Oh Boy.....

Just when people had written off any kind of alliance or tie up between the Times Group & Mid Day, we get to hear this!

Ravi Dhariwal, Executive Director of Bennett Coleman, and Tariq Ansari, Managing Director of MiD DAY Multimedia, made the following joint statement in Mumbai: ‘The Times of India, with its leadership position in the morning broadsheet market and MiD DAY, with a successful formula for the middle-of-the day, are in fact complementary players. With this alliance we will endeavour to garner a larger market share of both readers and advertising in major metros of the country’.

For the complete story, check out this link:

http://www.mid-day.com/news/city/2006/december/148260.htm

Exhibit 19 on http://www.mediaha.blogspot.com/ posted on March 01, 2005 had fuelled rumours that the Times Group might up its stake in Mid Day. With the kind of financial powerhouse that the Times is - I guess, this too isn't much far away.


Scroll down a bit more - Exhibit number 11 on mediaha says:

Exhibit Eleven
Saturday, February 12, 2005

Apology

This refers to the item ‘Times to tie up with Reuters for news. Name and last-minute hiccup over Sunil Lulla appt to be resolved’ that appeared on Mediaah! on Thursday, February 10, 2005.We have received a legal notice from Mr Rajnish M Singh, Advocate, on behalf of his client, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, saying that the item harmed the reputation and goodwill of his client. That was not the intent of the news item and not the intent of Mediaah!In his letter, Mr Singh has also said that the item is totally baseless and has no substance or truth in it.While Mediaah! would stand by the information published, Mediaah! apologises to Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd and has deleted the above mentioned item with immediate effect.

And I was thinking 'Times Now' is a tie up between Times & Reuters (sic).

The mission statement of the Times Group reads, "We are in the business of aggregating and delivering customers to our advertisers." I keep getting this feeling that strategic or non-strategic, commercialisation and profit-making are gaining credence over everything else within the media domain. So, what do we expect next? I guess this:

Exhibit Three
Thursday, January 01, 2004

Shocker! Times to allow advertising on edit page and sell Medianet Buoyed by the response the main edit page article on Aventis that The Times of India carried earlier this year, the newspaper has taken a dramatic decision of allowing advertising on its edit page as well as allowing Medianet to get active with some of the content on the page.


Can it get any murkier? I guess we should now expect the Gen-Next of Advertorials - any guesses?

Does Free Media Exist? I Seriously Doubt!

I had thought of trying to avoid dealing with something serious and textbook material - but then I guess to start off - this issue would interest any journalist or media student to start off with.

Well, this issue has been discussed threadbare and put to death in every other media studies and journalism class. But then, in spite of all the talk of free media - media regulation in the developing world and supposedly free media in the developed world - I guess it is high time we all let the cat out of the bag and discuss an open secret - that free media is more or less extinct.

Numerous instances in the western media - supposed to be at the pinnacle in terms of freedom of the press - vindicate the stand that the media in all its forms is invariably controlled and its direction steered by the powers that be. Sadly enough, respected publications such as the New York Times too have given in and have taken a pro-government stand on the Iraq war. Thomas Friedman - touted to be the next Walter Lippmann was supposedly bought over (or maybe caved into pressure) to support the Bush administration in their Iraq misadventure (bloggers might provide you more on this).

Advertorials have made their way into respectable international publications. So when money can buy you editorial space in the supposedly 'Free Media' - what remains is just a farce. Especially with the print media struggling on the revenue front and looking for newer avenues to remain in viable business, commercialisation seems to be ruling the roost.

The fact that the world's leading news agency's primary revenue generating business is its financial news arm is an indicator of the scheme of things. I guess what we have now is an edited form of the media - even before it reaches the editor's desk. News is not what we get from the newspapers - it is out there and being ignored at the cost of the affluent readership of the newspapers.

To quote an example - we all heard of various stories happening in Mumbai on 26/7. But honestly, tell me, how many of us know of what happened to thousands of slums in Govandi? We all heard of Air India Colony - Kalina made news on the international front. But then - they could at least climb onto their terraces - where do the slum dwellers go?

Well, let me have this very clear - I am no slum welfare activist - this example was quoted to me by a Professor from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. This was just an example to illustrate that it is money that counts. It all finally boils down to economics - plain economics. The Times Group makes no bones about stating this very clearly - our target group is the cream layer - around 12% of the population provides for more than 70% of the revenue - so doesn't it make sense to cater to their taste (read page 3) ?

In the present scenario, aren't commercial interests dictating the tone and direction of our supposedly free press?? (I guess it is a subtle but smart way to control the press). Think about it!