Opinion Shack – Page 5

Category: Opinion Shack

The News we Value!

October 8, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

So much of chaos and debates arise the moment we start a conversation about News value. The coming together of world as media ball of fire has further deepened the hole. The interrelatedness and interconnection between nations in more than one way has transcended its boundaries and have in turn started playing with its core concepts of proximity, conflict human interest, impact, currency, timeliness and categorising the level of prominence.

The urgency and desperate need to tie almost every piece if news with political agenda has somehow weakened rubber of trust in news value. The truth and objectivity in approach end up locking horns with ideology of news and Media as a whole. The setting of agenda ends up lying in the lap of the monetary gains and loose the thread of transparency in between.

Due to the need of media to gain on the numbers, be it money or audience or TRPs, because everything is interlinked with monetary gains The pressure falls majorly to create a content to bring about ‘scoops’ in the serious business of shaping up opinions on a mass level. Along these lines many times the truth is justifiably compromised, and facts are twisted and turned to take an altogether a different face so that their van be a very convenient and smooth digress from the topics of concern.

Because of the deadline that needs to be met the gatekeeping sometime is deliberately kept at the backseat for the pressure is on the immediacy of the news provided rather than the in-dept content. Thus, the gates are opened for some news and shut down for many others. And what the obvious justification for hampering and tampering with the news value is their right to know. And the eyes and ears of public which is the media in major sense bows down to the rulings and pressures from above!

Films

Media as Industry

October 8, 2021October 8, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Radio TV, videos, cinema, magazines, comics are all part of Cultural production. We can hate it or we adore it, whatever the case may be but we cannot deny the importance and forcefulness of Media i today. Everyone talks about it. We need it like air. Even if we don’t want it in our lives but it has become like an omnipresence in our lives which tags around our existence. Some sees its relevance while others have their own bias. We tend to politicise it thus in turn publicising the very aspect. It is the current flow that looks to keep its foothold for a long time. Various aspects of media contain meanings, thoughts, values, ideas that work at different levels unlike regular productions of things and items. But the similarity between them is also striking. Like these mundane products, cultural production is also developed in mind its mass reachability and access. So they also need to be developed cheap and in abundance. The reason being, there is a constant thirst for new production as there is ever growing market for new content. The new idea will always have more currency and acceptance. Moreover in current scenario there is a strong mergence between the technological and economic aspect of the industry that in turn help it in thriving in it full potential!

In Television, mostly ratings and the advertising rule the content available for the viewers. This give birth and nurtures well the concept of drama, scandal, propaganda. In fact it has become the fuel driving majority of economies. It has power strong enough to deviate from the more important issues and has the capacity to stay focus on the non-important topics due the the hype and uproar created in its favour. In films since they have wider money backings and support from investors, banks etc. so they have more choice and leverage to control their content and production. How far and strong they go about doing it is all together a different matter.

Newspapers, magazines and Alternative news have a more cut-throat competition an they have more number of mergers and acquisitions. Due to this there are more 24 hr. news channels, n obnoxious level of increased competition. This results in point-to-point marketing, target-oriented advertising and sales to engage variety of more and more viewers and consumers. So media studies focus on different perspective of of media industry. For instance what is produced, how is it done. What does it imply. Who controls the production. What is its impact, who all are represented here. What ideologies are promoted. Who are the consumers and how do they consume any product or content etc. There are so many more questions attached to this ever growing industry and we know that the answers lie very well inside this rabbit hole as well. What is further more important is are we going to deliberately look for them and try to break the vicious cycle of Media behind an industry and vice versa?

Films

Desire the Queer Divide

October 6, 2021October 6, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

If I dare to borrow then, ‘the representation of gender is its construction,’ in the words of Italian-American feminist theorist Teresa de Lauretis, who coined the term ‘queer theory’ in 1990. However she gave birth to ‘queer theory’ where she specifically focus on lesbian desire that can give great strength to films focussing on lesbianism. The term ‘queer’ that was earlier looked down upon, is now shading number of bifurcations like, gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and their ideas and identities. She in her theory wanted to question and rethinking the boundaries and outlines of homosexuality that term it to be something away from normal. She questions the headings of sexual identity that in a way make it negatively invisible in society and social structure. There is a need to understand these bifurcations in sexuality as a separate and legitimate identities that are exiting and have their own social, personal and political results and influences. So films taking up such issues are not merely pushing the cause, in fact they are trying to transcend among various aspects of their existence and visibility.

Still, the term ’queer’ in itself reflect a question mark as far as its meaning goes. Something that is strange, not regular, perhaps not normal. However the same term is used along the lines of homosexuality. A parallel is drawn with terms like gays and lesbians. Is it what we need? Do we need terms like these to create a divide for those who want to be included? Aren’t we extending the gap further? The moment we start chategorising in order to give a special identity to any section of society, we end up marginalizing them subconsciously…manytimes we are marginalizing ouuselves even for in our mind we need the others to recognise us and our existance they may or may not be different from others. However, we tend to forgo the fact that is not we wanht in actuality. What anyone really desires is equality and not special treatment, because thats where the demarcations and barriers emerge. Manytime it is we who increase this divide furtherand the gap just keep on widening! When we take the same canvas to cinema and try to paint a similar picture, the results end up as same. It segregates the community from the rest. In order to specify, sometimes we tend to over-emphasize the idea and it ends up getting the feathers ruffled all around. When what should be the scenario is just to let it seep in slowly and naturally for it is natural to many and they dont need to be seperated in order to be included .The movies should be just movies and not a medium to segregate according to the sexual orientation because each concept is not to the person beliving in it. We are all in this together so we need to stay in all its totality !

Films

Its all and Overdose… is it?!!

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Saturation point is long past. Too much of Media, media studies, critics, cynics, everyone and everything that is vocal and global! Television, newspapers, radio, books, magazines, videos, tik-toks, vlogs and blogs, you name it,we all have it! Surfing the internet is almost like putting dishes in the dishwasher, expensive for soul but cannot do without it as well. Media hold over our mind and action is so widespread that they in a way rule our daily life. Desktop publishing, writing and internet content have increased their production manyfold. They are creating heavy control over media that is way cheaper and more effective as medium of money and power generation than Hollywood, Bollywood and other production(hoods in the woods)! We have power to create our own meaning, watch what we like, for howlong we like, have our very own likes and dislikes and emotions. We then become self-ruled, independent yet dependent consumers of others’ media and critics. This beomes the eventual crux of media studies.

What is media? It is actually a mediator. The news that we receive is now a raw product, infact, It passes through various channels, coated in various, words, gestures, songs, pictures, writings etc. Then it is communicated further. It is passed through the space and time through as many people as possible. We already agree that media has obviously high reachability. It is developed throught the usage of advanced technology. The content is mainly given by few centric companies however the receiver is diverse public. Although there is hardly any direct communication between source (media houses, companies etc.) and the receiver( consumer, audience, public).

Even though the media is all about communication, but it is mostly single-sided and there is a threat to turn communication in a big monetary business and propaganda of certain ideas and ideologies. Still it is important to study media because it is one of the best ways to understand ourselves. We spend most of our life either watching tv, films , videos or surfing internet. Infact our ability ot speak, think, comprehend and establish relationships are extremely affected by it. Or identity is identified most of the time because of the influence of media. Thus studying the media is infact studying the humans as social beings.

Some critics say that media studies is hyped. It does not give any thing exclusive and is infact shallow and disposable. It is not a subject to be taken seriously as a discipline. However to counter answer the blame, we can support it by saying that its openness and wideness as-well-as its interdisciplinary nature many times, scares and angers or irritates the critics. It moreover has more indept knowledge of contemporary and current life and world and the happenings around. Hence what we eneed to do is filter the information that is relevant and true. We need to have the discretion of what to choose when, how to and why. This will automatically make us learn media studies in a very organic manner. Everything today is interrelated. To understand one aspect we have to study something totally different as wellbecause there is most of the time some connection between them at certain level. The written part is just one aspect. Media tells all in various perspectives. The policts, art, culture, society, everything else and beyond is told by media in one way or the other. They need to be studied very systematically. In fact, BBC even recommended it to be started at primary level for kids. Thus targeting kids through marketing strategies catering specifically to them, even though they really may be far away from what is projected. So at one point it may seem to be quite overwhelming, but the need to understand and mould our behaiviour is so deep that we need to dive deeper then we already are at the moment. Let us watch what the next turn will be and see where the tide take us!

Films

Films! What they Mean…

October 1, 2021October 2, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Most of the formalists believe that film is construction of reality that is a mere figment of imagination. According to them film is an art that is abstract in nature. They think it can be compromised upon and is easy to be manipulated. However the realists argues that there is a very logical and calculative side to film. They are construction of realty but, the base of the construction is definitely real and can be proved. Also there is technical aspect of cinema has given it authenticity. The editing table, where the editors join the dots in such a manner so as to reflect the real as real. Their skill set as well as the development of existing ideas and ideologies all make it very real in understanding.

Hence the thoughts, ideas behind making a full-fledged film does not come from mere a random thought that comes in someone’s mind. It is in fact, a result of deep thought provoking concepts, theories where study of text is as important as execution of the concept. Thus making film study much deeper and interesting and an eyeopener for those who believe it to be a mere piece of random art form only for entertainment. It has a much deeper meaning and strength to it and the construction is as scientific as it is artistic for the audience to consume it as holistically as they need to and want to. Their is a deep connection between the macro as-well-as micro level of understanding of the genre. The emotions, images, physicality, psychology, structure and philosophy makes the study of meaning of cinema all the more alluring. The language,technicalities and the visuals are deeply essential to be understood in order to understand the crux of its core. The character sketch, theme, storyline, plots are all natural to the the meaning of films. The question of why a particular film is made is as important as that of how it it made for ‘why’ has the power to answer and satisfy the understanding of emotions, context and whole psychology behind comprehending the meaning of films.

Camera is powerful! But the the ideas behind have an altogether different power over the act of creating a strong outcome. But when we combine the two the result that we see has the capacity to blow our mind, for the take on meanings sometimes change 360 degrees! This brings us back to the possibility that Films are a power vault that can open the gates of human emotions and sometimes hace the capabitlity to change the course of human nature!

Opinion Shack

A scarcity of empathy

September 30, 2021September 30, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Sometimes I recall those moments of staring into the endless sea, that ominous feeling of being alone. But the lighthouse has always fascinated me – structures setup by people to help their own but nevertheless with the inevitable usage in mind that the light will also guide those who are not our own. As humans traversed the living space around them, the sea was an enigma. There was always the promise of adventure and possible riches, but primed with the understanding of frequent death and destruction. Travelogues, tales of adventure and fantasy and poetry revolving around sea voyages seem to dominate tomes and tomes of library stacks in the medieval sections. The lighthouse features in many of those, but the sharing of light is not so explicit, and yet it has always been there. The closest I recall is the Hindi language poem “Dehri ka Deep” (“The lamp at the doorstep”) by the Indian poet Harivansh Rai Bacchan, where he talks about the benefit of lighting a lamp outside one’s doorstep as a principle of common good rather than being selfish and imprisoning the light inside our homes. As time went by, I grew up and that light seem to be getting dimmer by the day. The lightouse that I see now is more of a history, a part of lost era in books meant for tourist guides historical justifications. The building now seem to be a fascination for each passerby to capture it as memory or nostalgia in their camera lenses.

The same seem to happen with emotions. So are the similarities with idea of help and kindness! It now looks that such feelings have climbed a conscious step towards philanthropy. Something that we desperately need our future generation to acquire. A quality they need because it is to be kept on a pedestal. An act out of habit, an action that used to come so naturally to us all, just like the air we breathe is no more the same. It is that part of being that I considered to be as natural as my organic instict to exist and not something that has to be the developed and nutured consciously. The lighthouse that by instinct is there to show the way to anyone and everone who happen to fall in its line of sight. Similarly the instinct to empathise and just simply feel for that other soul which is not us is no more a regular act. This thought is as random as the feeling but the hurt and fear of it being lost for good is as specific and real as life. The scarcity of empathy is so visible that I feel with passing of time this word will enter the dictionary of loss…

Opinion Shack

She is the Gaze!

September 30, 2021September 30, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

There have been so much written and theories hammered upon about the gaze, male gaze, female gaze and various angles attached. It may be another cookie in the jar however each bite counts as does the flavour! As have my comforting sip of lukewarm English breakfast tea at the Starbucks around the corner, I took my gaze towards my watch, It was almost afternoon! God know for how long I have been sitting around the window and gazing at the nullity! My specks are literally fogging with the mist in my eye and I start pomdering! My mind wandered at my own gaze and started a random comparizon beteen my gaze and that of others coming in. I suddenly realized that how fast our gaze roam about with a mind of its own. Ans we categorise it according to the mood and situation we are in. When a handsome guy sitting next to me with a cofee and laptop lookig dapper to the’D’, looks at me and smile, I unconsciously start basking in the glory of being the chosen one! After I look up from my work, the same seat is occupied with an man in his 60s having the similar coffee. However this time when he smiles at me and looks me up and down I cringe within and shuts myself behind the walls of my loose hair. the next 40 mins pass by as I continue on my writing journey. Now when I look towards my left, The seat has a beautiful young girl, dressed in her office-gear, ready to conquer the world! She happened to look on her left and perhaps she saw a middle-aged struggling writer trying to work her life out! Her gaze held so much of scorn the likes of me who might give her an unconscious impression of careless feminist trying to make it! I lowered my gaze and self-consciously shrivelled in my seat for I really have not made it like the likes of her! With my depressed soul and determination that has by now gone down the drain, I turned my attention to my laptop and started typing with an agression that has become my friend for current life! Sulking in my own distress, I unwillingly looked up and all i could see was those see-blue eyes with gold specks that were so that looked happy yet tired. They were curious yet conscious. I just loved them! I could not look away. A cry distracted me from my own chain of thoughts and I looked beside her. a beautiful baby girls was fighting for her attention. She gave a little embarrassed laugh and I smiled in comfort. Nothing was said but it was as if we both understood our struggles and each other’s in a way. I seeme to find a sudden solace in her look of sympathy for me. It was a sif she knew how I was feeling. With this realization I just jolted myself suddenly. I was amazed the wisdom her gaze showed. I looked her for a few more minutes before going back to my sudden actively running thoughts. I was energised again. Felt like writing more. her gaze comforted me, touched me, encouraged me calmed me, all in just 5 minutes of silent exchange. I kept on moving my fingers and words just kept on pouring. Ideas just kept on flowing. It was as if I was on a high! High on ger gaze! Suddenly i felt a light tap on my right shoulder. I froze and looked slowly in those sea-blue globes. She just wave me a goodbye, bent down and whispered those simple words with smile ” I understood because I understand”. At that moment I understood another aspect of Lacan’s gaze because form me at that moment she was the gaze and she left the gaze behind!

Films

One Thing that we do Every Day!

September 27, 2021October 2, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

The dawn of today was like any other. With my tired being after last night’s slumber, I woke up after innumerable failed attempts of shutting off my phone alarm. I dragged my drooped soul towards my morning rituals and like a repetitive mechanism I did what all I had to do. While I was trying to tie the threads of my life with a monotonous cup of honey-lemon warm water, cradled in my hand, it suddenly dawned upon me, how many things I have been doing the same way, every day. They have been my ‘one thing’ that I do each time every 24 hours. The lukewarm darkness coated its pain upon me and once again. Here I am writing about so many ‘one thing’ that we women do every day of our unique life given to us.

We wake up with the baggage of responsibilities that we so-readily mistake to be our duty (the sense of duty has been so well-engraved in our x chromosomes even before we are born!) Work, home, kids, husband/partner/better half/another half and many more. For once there is weak-dying and dependent wish to do away with these titles, then we are awake again! Then we move ahead through the day checking the tick-boxes so that our stupid self-massaging ego gets satiated and those ever-so powerful so-called invisible others can open that ‘acceptability door’ that is almost like an ever-sucking suction hole. It drains away every possible ego from us. As we move forward there are droplets of smooth moments that if or when trickles towards us, have our utmost gratitude that we guise under the garb of gratification of being a woman and identifying it with our essence of existence. What we forget to ask is why we, why us? If women are categorised still as ‘weaker sex’ by quite a few according to their convenience, then why the double standards? It is as if we are bestowed upon with the title of carer, and someone who can do it all, at the same time our invisibly visible demons in various shapes and genders unconsciously or subconsciously are pulling us down to that rock bottom where the value of women is nothing more than that figment of imagination which totally downsizes their presence. According to “wise men” women are genetically made physically weak yet they are made in a way that they are emotionally strong. It is such a narcissistic declaration! We are being empowered by keeping a strict check on our list of do’s and don’ts! We are supporters for all the possible people who are in a different capacity than us provided we stay in our unimaginably complex boundaries drawn by so-called significant others.

Why not take ‘her’ out on a merry-go-round of our glamorised and idolized world of cinema that claims to give a panoramic canvas to the representation of women. Be it the role of mother, wife, lover, vamp, sister and many more, there is always a justification for her reserved representation.

We see her in one role or the other in almost all the movies, still it feels that her representation is like just another projection of any minority. We applaud the strong roles that have come up today for her and feel so proud that at least those roles have strength to earn the moolah or critical acclaim at the box office. However, if we look deeper, we will realize that the underline bed of truth speaks the same old tone, maybe a little sugar-coated but still the same. The opportunities have increased but are there enough of them to give a justifiable representation? According to Judith Mayne in her article ‘feminist film theory and women at the movies’, pub. (1987), there is no easy fit between ‘real’ women and their cinematic representation. In fact, sometimes it does not fit only. This fit is what brings about the point of contradictions that hover over her reality. The line almost always blurs when we realise that what we see on the screen, the ideal or could-have been ideal woman is what we are wanting in our daily life. Someone who must fall under a certain parameter of societal acceptability. Onscreen if a woman is been shown as a strong character that has human traits of being capable of negative personality of having a downward graph, then either she meets her negative end or she returns to her true hypothetical identity of goodness and purity. The yardstick is so fictional in itself that when women in real life look at ourselves or like our own, we start justifying our doings or otherwise we are considered the rebellious few with no real respect or self-worth on others’ or our own eyes!

The concepts of morality, duty, happiness, selflessness, and everything that is respectful according to the social norms and constructs, has a concentration of muddy puddle in the core of their construction. The never-ending expectations and trickling down of women empowerment as charity to her, need to be realised that it is not something that is or should be given to her, even as support. The right to own her own being is like her skin that has its own blemishes and scars. She needs to be proud of herself as a separate entity and must be alright if and when she does not confirm to the rules of society because in the end it is ok! It is ok to be wrong, it is ok to flunk, it is ok to not just care and not to keep on giving and giving. It is perfect to not feel the guilt of being that idolised perfection of figment of human reality. It is ok to be just a human!

Opinion Shack

How deep has Depp dug his grave?

September 20, 2021September 27, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

How deep can be the love of our fans for our ideal idols? Can we forgive? Can we forget? Just because there is respect for talent and creativity, can we turn a blind eye towards the bigger picture? Are legends like Sean Connery, Charlie Sheen, Bobby Brown, Johnny Depp and many others justified in their physical capability to push someone in a corner and name it as one off moment of passion? Are we as their fans ready to forgo their suppressive instinct to opress like an act of God!

It is as if we, who still support these talents are ready to remain in two minds. Those of us who justify that we should be concerned with talent and not venture into their personal space are hopefully not forgetful of this thought that the act is outright wrong. There can be no if our but to it. There is no space for them to move on. The image they project on screen is not something that will influence many. The moment we say that physical and mental abuse is ok in any hypothetical context, is the moment we start normalising its gravity. It is here we literally lose the battle to fight for those who at that time are unable to defend themselves. The actual seriousness of this issue comes forward when many times, it is ok for ‘n’ number of followers and fans because of the simple reason, that if their idols can get away, so can they. It then in one way or the other becomes fine or they believe that it all will be fine.

The verdict as a wife-beater for Johnny Depp may be harsh for many still; but we need to see and feel a vast ocean of emotions behind it! The lesson needs be given for many that you cannot simply get away with it. Whatever you are, whoever you are and whereever you may be it will come to an end. There might be many who are still free, but it gives hope to those who everyday and night, physically and mentally, squirm under someone’s abusive demeanour, and are just daring to hope against their week hope for things to go their way.

It is this hope that makes us realise that even if it is one in many who pay this price, still that one may have the power to turn into many more in future. They may or may not have given this verdict to maintain this hope that things and consequences have still got power to change the course of brutality, however minor it may be, even if it takes its own sweet time.

Depp can still remain great icon and legend for many but the cause and effect platform needs to draw a line somewhere. We just cannot hide our demons of abuse, drugs and pervertism, behind the facade of glamorous drapes and personal depression! Such flesh-eating ants wait for their curtain call to be applauded over and above the monstrosity, hidden behind the camera.

Such misconduct and physical abuse towards another person is as worthy to be publicly shamed as that of any random passerby. The verdict seems to remind that no one should be above law Any person who is physically, emotionally, sexually and psychologically weak can in no way be declared unworthy to get justice. When people in general and celebrities like Depp in particular do wrong, they just should not get away with it. It is true that everyday many more get scott free from their crime of humiliation, however, if a single damaged soul can be healed a little by putting cap on this isanity of abuse, it is all the more worth it. It is not about advocating for feminism. But any person who has faced abuse today, tomorrow or even decades back, has a right to be given justice anytime possible. Time is of importance, however it is not the only end that justifies the whole.

Jhonny Depp dug his grave long time back but the time thankfully only deepened it. The abuse towards oneself and one’s body is bad, however the moment you cross that line and step over someone else’s territory to continue the same, you have to know that this ball is in someone else’s court. Now all that can be done is to wait for that particular moment where the game gets so deep that you cannot get out of it. We must remember and believe that if we have not yet got it than it does not mean we can never get it – Both the abuse and verdict!

One prevailing theory of why men batter, till 1970’s, was based on psychopathology. According to this theory the men who abuse their wives were mentally ill and could be cured through medication or psychoanalytic treatment. However this was against the findings of researchers. Mentally ill do not sbuse only their intimate. They go far beyond. Initially it was also characteristics that women who are battered are mentally ill or weak however, there was no sanity in the claim and many of those who are institutionalised, were misdiagnosed. The reason being the failure to recognise the “the physical and psychological effects” of domestic violence. (Joan Zorza, ed. 2002, Batterer Manipulation and Retaliation in the courts: A largely unrecognized Phenomenon Sometimes encouraged by Court Practices; Violence against women 47-48). Another theory of Researchers was that violence was learned. They argued that men who were violent had witnessed the same as children because they once saw their mothers abused. This was “learned behaviour” theory of violence. Even though these show relevant numbers in support still, it cannot be justified to be the only reason. It was more about the control of someone through violence.

From the above snippets of theories and beliefs, whatever may the logics be, we seem to try to pacify the damage, it is never an excuse and it can never be given a clean chit for someone to hold any sort of physical, emotional, or psychological abusive power over the other. The end does not justifies the means. And no one, how important, popular or legendary the personality may be can go scott free, and same should be the case with celebrities like Depp, if found true as per the accusations. We can and should no more endorse the behaviour because in simple plain words it is just on OK!