Selectively hearing 'bad news'
Has the booming economy turned Indians into selective listeners? At least that's what Anil Dharker feels. According to the media critic, "Psychologically, Indians are on such a high with the economy booming. They are in no mood to hear bad news."Explains why Indians have shied away from reading Tehelka. The magazine that is struggling as it sells 'bad news'.
Selective hearing is a nice way of saying that someone only listens to what they want to hear, or, worse, masks everything they hear with what they expect the other person is really saying. Regardless of what the true expression of the other person is, the selective hearer only ever hears within their own frame of reference.
According to Lowri Turner, 'Selective hearing is an exclusively male domain'. Selective hearing is a remarkable and exclusively male phenomenon that allows chaps to sleep straight through a baby's bawling, no matter how loud or insistent.
Cartoon : http://www.wittyfish.com
Comments
I have picked up the Tehelka on a number of occasions. Their reporting is crisp, detailed and really drives home the point that India really is not shining.
But then, recently I came across another colorful issue of the magazine,tempted but then I din't pick it up as I knew its going to be more of bad and sad news.
So I think there are 2 questions here- No1- Selective hearing is a reality. No2- Will a harbinger of bad news see no light at all?