Someone told me once, "In the rest of the World Media Groups earn from Entertainment and spend on Current Affairs; in Pakistan, Media Groups earn from Current Affairs and spend it on Entertainment". I think everyone who is reading this will agree with the line.
It is obvious you know. Right now any Current Affairs program whether it be on Geo, Express, ARY, Duiya you name it is fighting for ratings. They will do anything to add spice into it. Its not Poverty, Unemployment, Education, Population or other major issues which are spreading like a plague but issues with which they can add thrill what is known in Sub Continent Film Industry as "Masala" in their shows. You can clearly see that the basic aim of any anchor is to somehow make one of the guest say one such thing which can made headlines (those bright red bar we see in the bottom of our TV sets) or can anger any other participant to make such statement. If somehow unfortunately there are few Intellectual people sitting discussing the issues with logic and ground realities then sometimes the anchor himself/herself have to make any absurd statement (you know these media group owners are not giving them these big pay cheques for nothing) in a try to add some spice or they will try to add another guest next time who can talk nonsense non stop with loud chants (woww what a lovely sight isn't it) so that if any intellectual debate is building up he/she can give the required ingredients.
You can find Action (participants in a try to assault each other), Drama (yeah if anyone by mistake starts to cry big news), Suspense (these damn commercial breaks), Crime (you know all politicians are crooks), Documentary (the start of show about a land far far away), Fantasy (you will find each show with anchor saying if this didn't happen and if that didn't happen we would be Super Powers but these damn Politicians) or Horror (these terrorists are really helping their paychecks off course and interestingly you will find that these anchors will make them a hero and a villain depending upon the circumstances i.e. America). So with all the ingredients present who need to go to Cinema Halls to spend Rs 200-300 on just 2-3 hours entertainment when you can watch live action on your TV in just Rs 250 for the whole month.
Who cares if there are studies showing the media is creating a hype among people and is misleading them in many cases or serious groups asking these Media groups to evaluate themselves and to make some kind of regulations to follow. But where big money is involve who cares.
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