Stone Pelting for change?

By NIRAJ ARYAL

We have seen and experienced various uses of stones. For example, sometime we have used it in breaking street lamps and sometime breaking heads.

During the Panchayati period, there used to be no regression thus no agitation. People had no idea whatsoever about other better systems available than the Panchayati one. In those days use of stones were just limited to breaking the street lamps. Now the case is bit different.

The change between Surya Bahadur and Lokendra Bahadur type of education to Girija Prasad and Madhav Kumar type has been between the street lamps and the heads. But Breaking (something) has remained the same.

We have used stones in various phases of our lives in various ways. Hitherto, its constructive use has been always neglected. Our mind has been always destructive. We never think positive.

Be arrogant, Be irritating, Always create problems, Don’t look for solutions…. and always think negative. This is what we have learnt from our leaders.

Credit must go to educators of the likes of Bahadur’s, Koirala’s and Kumar’s. Use stones for change they emphasize on.

We never used stones for building our nation. Here we can say stones are the destroyer and they are the creator as well.

For what change stones are being used this time?

Time has taken a backward turn i.e. regression. The Nepali politics has gone back to April 1990. This time their (Stones) role (for aggression) has become even more important. The Slogan will be "STONE PELTING FOR CHANGE". Use Stones to re-gain your lost rights. Stone-out the government! Stone-out Thapa! This is we have learnt.

But is this the end? Who will assure the lost populace that this time it is going to be the end? Who will tell them this change will bring peace and harmony to the nation? Who will tell them that there will be no more people like Govinda Raj, Khum Bahadur and others. Who will tell them henceforth stones will be used in constructive way?

Yellow Journalism

It was in the mid-1890s, Joseph Pulitzer(in the New York World) and William Randolph Hearst (in the San Francisco Examiner and later the New York Morning Journal) transformed newspapers with sensational and scandalous news coverage with the use of drawings and the inclusion of more features such as comic strips..

The two publishers were very keen in increasing circulation and obtain more advertising revenues.

After Pulitzer began publishing color comic sections that included a strip entitled "The Yellow Kid". This type of paper was labeled "yellow journalism." Drawn by R.F. Outcault, the popular (if now-unfunny) strip became a prize in the struggle between Pulitzer and Hearst in the New York newspaper wars. Outcault moved the strip to Hearst's papers after nine months, where it competed with a Pulitzer-sponsored version of itself.

"The Yellow Kid" proved the first merchandising phenomenon of the comics. The character was portrayed in keychains and collector cards, appeared on stage.

The papers themselves trumpeted their concern for the "people." At the same time, yellow journalists choked up the news channels on which the common people depended with shrieking, gaudy, sensation-loving, devil-may-care kinds of journalism. This turned the high drama of life into a cheap melodrama and led to stories being twisted into the forms best suited for sales by the hollering newsboy.

Now coming back to Nepal, one could find various notable examples which are at times not very important but very interesting ones.

This time it’s not the debate on FDI in Media. Where Nepali media men and the intellectuals are divided as usual on various issues of national concern.

This time it is the fight in between Nepal’s leading vernacular dailies, Kantipur and Samachar Patra.

The real issue, still the readers are confused of and how the problem was sorted out is a mystery.

What came to the public (Courtesy Kantipur) was, " A person is killed in Mr. Murarka’s home at Biratnagar, who is also a financer of Samachar Patra". The opposite version says " The person hanged himself to death".

The news got a good coverage for a month in Kantipur Daily and Kantipur F.M. And suddenly it stopped coming. How the two leading dailies managed to sort out the problem is a big question. This could well be an example of Yellow Journalism, but this time, it is not just to increase circulation and obtain more advertising revenues. But it looks as if some fishy deal in between the two media monsters have been struck. I am confused.

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