“Thought I was the only one that was annoyed by insensitive yellow journalism. Didn’t expect #GoHomeIndianMedia to start trending so quickly”
tweets Shiwani Neupane
Ithaca Grad and Co-Founder/Web-Editor of Story South Asia
More than a week after the massive M7.8 earthquake ripped through Nepal, the Nepali public is turning to Twitter to express outrage over “insensitive” and “morally bankrupt” coverage of the tragedy by the Indian media.
It started with a trickle, but now #GoHomeIndianMedia is a full-fledged trending hashtag in Nepal. (UPDATE: It’s now trending worldwide.)
But why? How did we get here?
For more than a decade now, we’ve witnessed the privatization of TV news organizations and the subsequent race to sensationalize stories for a bump in ratings, and get a bigger share of the lucrative Indian TV ad budgets.
I call it the “Bollywoodization of news”.
I remember watching Aaj Tak on TV many years ago and the correspondents had arrived at a scene of a road accident before the ambulance had. They whipped out their cameras, started filming and asked a bloody person on the side of the road who was clearly in pain, “How do you feel?”
Sadly, that wasn’t the exception, but the new normal in the 24x7 coverage by the Indian media.
Today, the Nepali people are asking the Indian Media to pack up and head home.
Ratna Vishwanathan tweets “Times Now reporter asks an injured woman did someone of your die? She says my 10 year old daughter. He asks her the same thing 6 times??”
The general consensus today out of Nepal from twitter and on the ground is two-fold. The Nepali people are deeply grateful to India for it’s swift response and tireless relief efforts after the earthquake, but is outraged at the Indian media for treating victims of the tragedy as props for a TV soap.
Rohit from Pokhara comments on the flow of #GoHomeIndianMedia tweets from Nepal.
Ironically, many members of the Indian media have already left Nepal and are reading this news from New Delhi.
Two opinion pieces that are worth reading. Here and here.
In their quest to uncover the next “Breaking News” story, the Indian media is literally breaking news!
If you enjoyed reading this, you should follow me on Twitter at @amrit_sharma.
