Thoughts on making news

Politicians and men and women of the filmdom usually know the art of making news more than any other professionals. Consider yourself, for instance, as one such ambitious news-maker. Can you do something to hit the headlines of the Dailies - even the ones with the minimum circulation? Not by a long shot. Save, perhaps, by, God forbid, committing suicide. That is not enough. The usual types of suicides would not entitle you to front page or even back page coverage. Ending your invaluable life by taking of poison may, at best, get you a page-3, single column treatment. That, too, if you happen to be resident of the Metropolis. If you happen to reside in the countryside, your place would be the 'country page'.

Your ambition for becoming the talk of the town via newspaper coverage can easily be nipped in the bud, unless you can think of a noble way of doing things. Consider the possibilities of the politicians, as against yours. Anyone worth his salt in politics, can hit the headlines by saying things, he or she is not supposed to say, about the party chief, for instance. More important ones among the party activists, on the other hand, can ensure adequate press coverage for himself or herself by deserting the rank, file and the leadership of the party and joining the opponents. A filmstar, who enjoy a great deal of limelight or spotlight, as a matter of profession, can have more of that by marrying somebody he or she is most unlikely to do. They can also steal all the limelight by retiring from the filmdom and becoming, say, a soothsayer or a professional wrestler of the WWF or some such organisation!

It is not easy to achieve all these by men or women of ordinary caliber. One has to be much too well-known, if not popular, to be able to attract public attention by doing such out-of-the-ordinary things. You have to be a noted one, to begin with. Unless you are a noted something, you go unnoticed by doing anything notable.

If you happen to be a head of the government, you get as much publicity by piloting a bill through the floor of the parliament, as by just 'moving like a commoner along the streets of the old part of the city'. You cannot hope to get one-tenth of that kind of publicity by doing any such thing, if you happen to be a poor, unimportant journalist. Not even if you happen to be a noted Editor. All that your admirers would say, in all probability, is: "His car must have broken down somewhere in the neighbourhood", or "The guy is trying to reduce his weight" or words to that effect.

All these, if you are discerning enough, are negative ways of stealing the limelight. Positive ways of getting noted by the members of the public are far more difficult. One example may be getting imprisoned by taking part in a mass movement for the cause of the suffering humanity or the fellow countrymen. It is, as you may see, not really difficult to become a noted personality in society, if you are determined to be one. What is difficult is to hold on to all the importance you achieve for the days to come. Even during the days of your retired life. The job is as difficult for the politician as for the film industry men. Not for the newsmen, anyway. His or her writings keep doing the job for him or for many, many years.