So its the time of year again. Reportedly Mahendra Singh Dhoni , the captain of Indian cricket team is getting married . You can’t turn on a television set or read a newspaper without images of the couple staring at you with an ‘exclusive report ‘ to follow .
We had the same thing when Sania Mirza was married a while ago . Media started publishing daily status reports on the countdown of her wedding . We got articles of Sania spotted, Malik spotted , comments from various personalities about the marriage , which brands will no longer endorse her , reports from Pakistan , comments from Pakistani politicians , debates whether Sania should have married an Indian instead, where the couple will live after marriage , whether Sania will support India or Pakistan in a cricket match and so on . In short an information surfeit .
This is not just an Indian phenomenon . Remember the Diana death and the commentary that followed in practically every media outlet in the world. Conspiracy theories , comments from every person connected or not connected to the royal family . We get a news report even now every time a son of Diana sneezes .
This obsession with celebrity detail does not extend to just news various memorabilia of the celebrities from their clothes , written letters , used napkins to virtually anything the marketers can think , fetch exorbitant prices .
Why does the media do this . Do we really need details of every minor thing a person has done or said . The precious time could be used to cover something useful and worth to bring to the attention of the public . There are no dearth of issues worth reporting about .
Take for example the Bhopal tragedy . If the media actually gave the issue focus it is giving today in the past we would not have been in the sorry state today . None of the main accused are punished , nor sufficient compensation received nor did we have for cleaning up the contaminated site .
This is not the media’s fault alone . The media shows what the people want . The truth is people are obsessed about celebrity gossip , news , trivia . So we have magazines which make a living solely by publishing real or made up celebrity news .
We have thousands of fan clubs sprouting across every corner of the world . In India temples being constructed for celebrities . One word from a celebrity galvanizes an entire fan base into whatever avenue he/she wants . Some celebrities actually do funnel this into an useful channel like social work . But mostly celebrities use this fan worship / following to successfully launch a political career or a business .
The media/ people needs to grow up and stop this obsessing over minute details of public figures . If you do need to read about something ,there is a vast ocean of knowledge easily available .
druidsden
Druid's Den 
What you said is true but there’s nothing the media can do. It’s the fault of the junta. Junta gotta start asking for sensible news, and only then we can expect some change. It’s great that you already started doing that 🙂
Well most of the people in India are worried how others spend their live rather than taking care of their own.. And the media people exaggerate it to an extent that even the one who is not interested knows it somehow… It is true as u said.. people need to change this very attitude..
Interesting article. I think that the main question is if lonely people flock to Facebook or if Facebook creates lonely people… I wrote an article about this topic combining many different Facebook studies to try to come to a conclusion: http://bit.ly/fAVhCL