Republique de ignorance
Reporters are often ignorant about what they are reporting. If you disagree with this statement, you might not have seen a report by IANS news agency published on Hindustan Times website about an anti-piracy and "corruption" software Republique that film director Sajid Khan claims he is using for his latest film Housefull to prevent illegal downloading of the film over the Internet.
Sajid Khan was quoted as saying that if anyone tries to illegally download the movie, not only will the files get corrupted but their IP address will be recorded and they will be prosecuted for piracy.
Who developed this anti-piracy software? And when? The reporter as well as the person who picked the story for HT website didn't bother to ask the question. Both failed to detect the hoax and very smugly warned their audience about the impending dangers.
But the readers weren't as ignorant or gullible. "Probably, it has been tested on farm animals rather than real people, but sure he wishes to go ahead with his BIG PLANS!" one of them commented.
A Twitter user @flyyoufools said: "Dear Sajid if you really cracked the anti-piracy thing then sell it to Hollywood. More money than your movie can make."
A few days ago, another Twitter user was wrongly attributed for a tweet that she had retweeted (a way of forwarding a message on Twitter) in a report by some information technology industry magazine!
Why does it happen? Maybe, because reporters rely heavily on press releases and cooked news handed to them by public relations professionals. Reporters are too happy to spew the gyan that's given to them by companies and their PRs. "Why bother to study the subject when there are 'experts' to give you all the information about things that are happening in your beat (specific topics that a reporter is supposed to keep track of). Studying will only confuse you." Ignorance is bliss!
Sajid Khan was quoted as saying that if anyone tries to illegally download the movie, not only will the files get corrupted but their IP address will be recorded and they will be prosecuted for piracy.
"We even have a call centre in Mumbai with 35 people on board monitoring the illegal downloading of the film. We've tested the process too and it worked wonders in five seconds," he added.
Who developed this anti-piracy software? And when? The reporter as well as the person who picked the story for HT website didn't bother to ask the question. Both failed to detect the hoax and very smugly warned their audience about the impending dangers.
But the readers weren't as ignorant or gullible. "Probably, it has been tested on farm animals rather than real people, but sure he wishes to go ahead with his BIG PLANS!" one of them commented.
A Twitter user @flyyoufools said: "Dear Sajid if you really cracked the anti-piracy thing then sell it to Hollywood. More money than your movie can make."
A few days ago, another Twitter user was wrongly attributed for a tweet that she had retweeted (a way of forwarding a message on Twitter) in a report by some information technology industry magazine!
Why does it happen? Maybe, because reporters rely heavily on press releases and cooked news handed to them by public relations professionals. Reporters are too happy to spew the gyan that's given to them by companies and their PRs. "Why bother to study the subject when there are 'experts' to give you all the information about things that are happening in your beat (specific topics that a reporter is supposed to keep track of). Studying will only confuse you." Ignorance is bliss!
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