How much is too much?

Mona

India is witnessing a new pastime — Sheena Bora murder trial. A frenzy, just like it witnessed when superstar Salman Khan almost landed in jail, and, the last minute anti-climax! Sheena, largely an Indrani story now, is running on prime time garnering high TRPs. Day after day, the Sheena case making it to the front page of most newspapers and there are also days when an entire page is being dedicated to it. It is so similar to another high profile murder case that we witnessed sometime back—that of Arushi Talwar. Is it the worst case of sensationalism or there are forces that are directing the media to not let go; two research scholars Gurpreet Singh and Sidharth Negi share their views.

Mockery of journalism

Sheena Bora is a murder case, is in trial and would reach its logical conclusion. Where comes the need to report on what the accused Indrani had for her breakfast or what she wore to the court hearing. It’s mere sensationalism. Day after day wasting news reels on something as trivial as this makes a mockery of journalism. It’s not only waste of  readers/watchers’ time but also invasion of privacy of those involved. Digging skeletons out of the closet, is it justified? What if Indrani or Peter Mukerjea are proved to be innocent? Would they ever be able to get on in life? Sheena’s murder is unfortunate, but how come media only covers cases of the rich and mighty? There are graver issues that are waiting to be brought into people’s notice which are being relegated to the background and for what? For Indrani-Sheena make prettier pictures or salacious stories? How about talking of rising unemployment, drug abuse or lawlessness in Punjab? Shouldn’t we be raising noise about it too? I would like to repeat what Shekhar Gupta said while delivering a talk at Panjab University, “When news becomes noise, the lines get blurred and facts become fiction.” I would rather be spared of this fiction and wish media takes on real issues as aggressively as this one.

— Gurpreet Singh, research scholar, Department of Law, Panjab University.

On demand 

Let’s admit Sheena Bora case is a startling one. A rich, influential person goes missing for three years, and, nobody bothers? It’s not just a story of three people but a telling comment on the state of society, the dynamics of relationships. If you and I go missing, wouldn’t anyone care? The murder mystery sure is newsworthy and it’s the duty of the media to follow it which they duly did. If they had shelved the story, wouldn’t we have questioned their reliability then? Newsmakers are themselves coming on shows and commenting, they are baring their reality. Shouldn’t we commend this bold step? You can say it’s an overkill of a story if there are any guidelines on how long a story should run, but, are there any? Also, it involves a power couple. If they are guilty and have gotten away for three years, wouldn’t it be possible for them to manipulate things in their favour, as probably they had done for three long years, had media slackened its reporting? Also, people want to read about the rich and famous. Media isn’t operating in vacuum, people are interested in the story and so it is running. 

— Sidharth Negi, research scholar, School of Mass Communications, Panjab University

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