The House the Media Built

kulharee, you said ``Being Pakistani is not being inert. Pakistani identity, like other identities is dynamic and ever changing``. i have no doubt that it is dyanmic and ever-changing but what is it changing into? a better version of itself or a morphed version of a bhujia of other cultures?there is no harm in assimiliating and imbibing good qualities from others, but what specific thing in our lifestyle, our attire or our language portrayed through the media is inherently pakistani?please ask as many people as you know who watch a lot of pakistani television and tell them to discern between an indian soap or a pakistani one running on say HUM TV or for that matter GEO - the same sarees, the same makeup, the same jewellery and the same freeze frame and zooming in camera shots with dramatic sound effects.
whatever happened to developing a bigger better modernised verison of ourselves, not of someone elses culture and ideals.
masadi....i think your offenseive remark towards kulharee is uncalled for..whats the use in personal attacks when we`re discussing how the media is brainwashing us?

Zainab sahiba
very true. We do need standard tv programms. We just don`t want to feel that we waste our time by watching thired rated dramas, mostly copies of Indian dramas.

#1 Kulharee writes <<< (nonsense)....(more nonsense)...TV networks are only accountable to their sponsors and stakeholders, and not the viewing public, for whom there is always a remote control. >>>

Really and the remote will take them where? To programs being sponsored by the same advertisers, same corporations and probably being telecast by the same corporate media. That is why TV is the most undemocratic of forces, leading to mediocrity as it molds people`s aspirations to what the corpoartions want them to desire, hence the effectiveness of advertising and the billions spent on it annually. Never before in the history of the world has so much effort, directed effort, gone into changing social consciousness as goes into advertising by the corporations, that would make Joseph Goebbels look like a novice. We see the effects of that in the form of mass consumerism in the US and the image of the US overseas and at home as ``freedom heaven``, whereas no genuine freedom exists for the vast majority in the US trapped within a bureaucratic maze, chasing a dream they will never attain, over 40% have negative net worth, being in debt). So what quality are you talking about Mr. Kulharee? that you say the Pakistani`s are too ``illiterate`` to demand? God save us from this ``literacy`` as is portrayed on the US media if such be the literacy you hope we will attain.

Kulharee writes <<< I call them Camelized Brainwashed Pakis >>>>

People like yourself and tahmed, I call ``Khota-ized Morons`` that are happily ignorant of the world they live in.

Zainab Ji. You are all over the place with this one. Being Pakistani is not being inert. Pakistani identity, like other identities is dynamic and ever changing. I have hard time dealing with Pakistanis who grew up in the Persian Gulf countries (they are an identity unto themselves – I call them Camelized Brainwashed Pakis). I today’s world, no one is insular, like it used to be. You make a good point that viewers should demand quality, but it is too early for a society with only about 30% literacy rate. In terms of accountability. TV networks are only accountable to their sponsors and stakeholders, and not the viewing public, for whom there is always a remote control.

However, good job. It is worth exploring.