Mainstream media pre-occupies with 'lifestyles': Somnath

Hyderabad, May 11 (UNI) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today said the media, especially the mainstream one, was more pre-occupied with urban issue and lifestyles of the rich and the affluent.

Addressing a function to present the best Telugu Rural Journalist awards, organised by the Foundation for People's Journalism here, he said, 'the urban bias manifest itself varied, whether it was in the print or in electronic media, depending upon their owners and managers.' Suggesting the leading newspapers to set up a 'rural affairs' section exclusively to cover the problems faced by the underprivilaged to get proper attention, he said the media has to play a key role by highlighting the deficiencies in the welfare schemes, maladministration and corruption by acting as a watchdog over the implementing agencies.

'For such a market-driven media world, problems of the common man of the rural poor were not matters of serious concern which do not find space in many newspapers,' the Speaker said.

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