Media more harmful than terrorists?

Many of my friends know I hate media. I hate even the statements like "Pen is mightier than sword" and rather believe the current current media is more harmful than the terrorists.
Probably I am inviting debatable discussion but feel this is a valid topic to discuss and do something about it. There was a time when Rajiv Gandhi used to say "Hamen Dekhna Hai" while the viewers who had no choice but watching Door Darshan were saying "Hamen Nahi Dekhna Hai". That was when the proposal to introduce Prashara Bharathi Bill was well received by many. I was one of them because I also was seeing only SAARC meetings and Rajiv's speches in DD News and nothing else.

But I and if I believe many of my friends need to swallow the words and accept that whatever bad Door Darshan may be, but the TV Channels needed the kind of governance existing in DD.
The recent 26/11 shows there were many supporters in India who helped the terrorists for killing innocents in Mumbai. I sincerely feel more than any one, it was media which helped them the max. They showed everything of rescue and attacking operations through TV. While Commandoes were trying to interact through Signals, the media was very busy to show every moment of their's to improve their viewership and helping the terrorist supporters know what is happening. If this is called the strength of Media it is more harmful than Terrorism and more mean than Prostitution.
I remember an incident in Mumbai when two girls were abused by a mob. they must have felt quite humiliated after that unfortunate incident but more humiliation happened when the Media competed to show the snaps and provide as much description as possible to explain how they were ill treated. While they justify masking the faces of girls their spouses were still in the photos clearly telling everyone in the world about who were the vicitims of this shameful action. And media tried to justify they are doing their duty in taking the snaps in another incident when a specific community was beaten up on roads. Can they do the same if the person getting beaten is their relative? And what if the person dies? With this justification they may even do the coverage of killing of any person in the name of "doing duty".
Recently Politician was physically attacked by some barbarious people. More than that, I hated the people who were desparately positioning their cameras to capture how badly the person was being hit. Given a choice I may prefer to punish these people rather than those who really hit the politician. The fact that these people really wait in the sensitive area for incidents to capture and contribute to increase the viewership of their TV Channels. What if some of these people are hit by me and if I ask the cameramen to cover the incident?
What happened in the first week of new year 2010? Some channels discussed toomuch about a rumour published in a Russian magazine and discussed to such extent that a company's properties were attacked. The attacks were definitely not from the public and were doctored by a few antisocial groups. But the TV Channels are the triggers to these incidents right?
Media manipulates the news. I remember the incident in US when some of my friends stayed 1 year after a terrorist- who involved in 911 incident vacated the same house. The Police wanted to investigate and hearing that the Media met a few neibours and asked about our friends. Unfortunately my friends vacated the house 1 week before 911 incident to another house in the next lane of the same colony. When Media asked, the neibors said that these people used to talk in strange language and a couple of times, they heard the word White House. However one of their colleague was also interviewed by Media during that time, when he revealed that the people actually were his colleagues and that they were staying only in the next lane. And you know, Media omitted this piece of information when telecast because the whoe excitement will be lost. It created terror to my friends and they were worried for several days till they got confirmation from Police that their investigation is routine and they knew the terrorist left long time back. All the Police wanted to verify was to see if any evidence be available from this house.
But what is the contribution of media in this episode? What if some mad crowd attacked these people with such bad input from Media?
I feel there needs to be more governance on Media especially the News Channels. the kind of provoking and violent movies shown in other channels only come next to New channels.

PMI Conference: A National Event

I recently presented a paper in PMI Conference. The event took lot of time, and I tired a lot for various reasons and being sick, still motivated to attend the sessions for one and only one reason. And it was not about presenting my paper. The motivation was because of the way the event was organized.
the curtain raiser was a great presentation following our National Anthem "Vande Matharam". The vision about 2020 talked about some of the great facts about India. India is the country who invented the ZERO, the numbering system. We are the country where World's cheapest cars was made through indigenous innovation. The Session also mentioned about Mahatma Gandhi one of the greatest leaders ever born in this universe. And with many foreign delegates present, there was no hesitation to be proud about our country, including singing both the national anthems, unlike some pseuodo intellectuals who were worried about foreigners getting embarassed about we singing our National Anthem.
Patriotism is something that is the right of all of us. And demonstrating it doesnt need any special forum and any hesitation. Thats where I saluted the event.
While we have our own issues like high population, poverty, lack of education while most of them depending on many others, we are still united and determined to improve. Identifying project management as one of the important driver for the development of this country is very good point and is something to work on.
Personally I feel, the root cause is Population which urges the people to go for short cuts in wherever they needed to compete among toomany players. Thats where the corruption starts. And thats where people ask for reservations without real education. When more people live in less space lot of resources needed to be shared but the urge for survival forces burglary. In addition, the health issues comeup as toomuch population cant assure hygene.
HOWEVER, project management being order of life, some of the issues can be overcome. For example, if I plan my travel properly I dont need to bribe the Ticket Collector for a berth in the train. It also saves you a lot of costs which you may need to pay as premiums while doing the things in the last minute. Cost Management- part of the Project Management can help you improve your reserves and use them in right place. A good quality avoids bad investments and more value for less money in short time (as there will be no rework).
I have seen costs being shot up in events like marriages, just because Project management techniques were not applied.
I will definitely be part of this initiative of cascading the PM culture everywhere. I know it is difficult but not impossible.

What is our Social Responsibility?

My daughter needed help from me for reading news in her school. She came with news items and asked my opinion on how to read. While giving the guidance like how to start and how to give relevant expression in subtle manner as per the context of new item, I also wanted to give my opinion on the kind of news she can share.
Should we speak about Yedyurappa's political instability and the unfortunate killing of US Soldiers?
I didnt know what are the norms set by her school for such events, but guess the news must cover the categories like political, technical and sports etc.
I still wanted to be a bit eccentric as many people know.
I asked her to downplay the news item (as given in NDTV) of Yedyurappa who stated that he was forced to ditch some loyalists in the process of establishing stability in Government. I asked her to read it somewhat like the Crisis in Karnataka ends as Chief Minister made an assuring statement. In similar way, I asked her to read the news in AP in the lines like Congress is now united and want to work for win in Greater Hyderabad.
Than, in the sports section I asked her to highlight the success of Viswanathan Anand and Sachin emphasizing that Sky is the limit for performance.
I also asked her to mention Mistry's innovative Product Sixth Sense under technology. In addition, I asked her to include the miracle baby survived with heart outside body.
The reason why I wanted to spend more time is to ensure the discussions will be more healthy. There will be lot of hurting incidents that keep happening. While there are many reasons for that, one of the major cause in my opinion is the broughtup and lack of healthy thinking.
If you have two pieces of information like "innovation like Sixth Sense" and a hurting incident, I prefer to share the first one and ignore the second. I feel the media also must do the same. As long as they give more space of headlines for bad events, these events keep happening. Whereas many good and motivating events are not attracting the attention of us.
I want my kids and her friends to have the healthy habit of discussing good topics and improve hopes on change towards optimism.
Not sure how many of you agree.