ELECTRONIC  MEDIA AND SUPERSTITIONS !

The increasing number of 24x7 TV channels are willing to cater to any thing that will amuse people to death. The lucrative entertainment industry thrives on sensational soaps,family dramas, teleshopping, paid news,advertisement, dooms day theories, reality shows,fear mongering,superstitious themes,faith preaching ,

 dedicated timing for slots for highly profitable astrology,  on spot instant counseling  for Vastu shastra,

 feng-shui,  and yoga experts. In particular, the live telecast of religious festivals (e.g. Kumbha 

Mela, Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri etc), and big sporting events has been shown to boost the TRPs. 

Serious issues, no doubt, fail to touch the conscience of the nation. Otherwise, a country that is 

constantly struggling to meet its fuel and energy demand would not have chosen to disgrace itself by 

burning a whopping 2-lakhs liter of petrol to host a rather infamous Formula-1 racing event (Indian 

Express, October 24, 2011). The dazzling show was endorsed by most famous sports personalities, 

business tycoons and cinema stars. Our national media, especially the English TV channels, who 

otherwise never shy away from pontificating to bureaucrats and politicians, colluded in this show-biz 

propaganda in an almost hysterical manner. Most 'prime time shows' were virtually transformed to 

high-pitch 'sale time shows' with a singular agenda to impress upon viewers that pride, prestige and 

prosperity of India was solely hinging on this one mega event!

There are many other examples how technology is used to (mis)educate and enslave people. These 

techno-hyper challenges pose a greater threat to the advancement of scientific temper and critical 

thinking among people. Someone seriously engaged in spreading science education, rational inquiry 

and developing scientific temper should also be prepared to deal with such pressing issues. We 

cannot stop propaganda, but we can certainly take some discrete steps to stay immune to it. The goal 

is not to spot other people’s weakness and follies and laugh at it. The efforts should be directed, as 

Baruch Spinoza has famously said, " ... not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but 

to understand them." First thing we can do is to learn how to identify various forms and means of 

propaganda and understand how human thinking can go wrong.

[Myth,superstitions and propaganda in scientific age ].