First Anna Hazare and then Steve Jobs; it makes me wonder how media and social media had taken these two people to a level nearest to God in the recent times.
Media has always been doing this - turning its eyes from real issues and going after the sensational ones to fill in columns and airtime. Media will have a few excuses too - competition, reader/viewer preference and commercial value. But the independent social media was witnessing nothing but a duck syndrome.
First it was Hazare. There were not many serious attempts to learn about the proposed Lokpal or Jan Lokpal bills, their merits and demerits, checks and balances and their exact role in curbing corruption. Instead, media reserved huge space and time for Hazare and his indefinite fast. It was not so keen to educate the masses; instead it covered the fast like a live cricket match.
Through social media, there was a hurried attempt to widen support base among the users. Hazare was there in almost everyone’s status message and it was considered ‘fashionable’ to support the cause. Majority of them looked upon Hazare as the ‘Messiah’ who had just descended from heaven to wipe out corruption from the country.
The show was over with Hazare breaking the fast and none seemed to be bothered much about corruption thereafter.
Then came Steve Jobs. Media had its first round of celebrations when he quit as Apple head due to illness. His death was the ultimate loss for science and technology, at least the media made us believe so. He was compared to Edison and Einstein. Steve stole the pages of almost all the Indian papers not for just one day but for more than a fortnight.
When Apple customers in the US mourned the death, it was ‘uncool’ for any Facebook or Twitter user in India not to join them, whether he has been a user of the company’s products or not. For at least one week no one dared to think about any other status message or tweet, lest he should be looked down upon as a technological ignoramus.
The world has seen several scientists who have worked their life out for new inventions and discoveries. Some got known and some remained unsung. Steve Jobs or Apple did not invent anything new, they just made the existing products simpler for the user and they cleverly marketed them.
However, in India Apple is not a leading brand in mobile phones. There are cheaper devices to download and hear music and ipad is still not the leader in tablet PCs. Then why was the Indian media getting frenzied with Steve Jobs?
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