Post by moline31 on Jul 28, 2009 2:03:59 GMT -5
Most of the time, the gossip papers and the sensational media used to dwell upon the negative stereotypes. This process of emphasizing the negative aspects of a culture and civilization merely for the sake of amusing the reading public seriously impairs the efforts of Stirling Hotels to relay well-balanced messages of invitation to travel to the UK. The efforts undertaken by almost all the prominent hotels in Stirling to promote the destinations as the best place for tourists with any budget is laudable. Even then, there are problems in the UK, but the whole of the UK is not a facing the same problem. Unfortunately the mass media has succeeded in conveying only the negative aspects.
The picture of England that reaches westerners is largely presented by press correspondents from the UK, Western Europe and the US. The media involved in mass communication in the advanced western countries are primarily those belonging to the entertainment agencies. They, therefore, tend to emphasize the sensational, crude and outlandish aspects of English life. The stress is either on triviality or on disasters. The press correspondents serving the western press, unfortunately, fit into this scheme. A major image makeover exercise is needed to set right the anomaly.
The foreigners who would like to know more about the UK are likely to read fiction, written in English by some of the famous authors. Consider the negative image of India that got popularized. Perhaps the Indian fiction writers in English, like V.S.Naipaul, Mirad Chaudhary, Bhabhani Bhattacharya, etc, have also contributed greatly towards this negative image of the Asian nation.
For example, one cannot forget the picture portrayed by V.S.Naipaul about India in the ‘Area of Darkness’, a semi-autobiographical work, which reads as follows, “India is the poorest country, in the world. . . . with beggars, the gutters, the starved bodies, the weeping swollen bellied child, black with flies in the fifth of human excrement of a bazaar lane. . . .Indians defecate everywhere. They defecate, mostly beside the railway tracks. But they also defecate on the beaches. If this literature reaches the hands of a probable visitor to India, then he or she will certainly consider some other destination.
The picture of England that reaches westerners is largely presented by press correspondents from the UK, Western Europe and the US. The media involved in mass communication in the advanced western countries are primarily those belonging to the entertainment agencies. They, therefore, tend to emphasize the sensational, crude and outlandish aspects of English life. The stress is either on triviality or on disasters. The press correspondents serving the western press, unfortunately, fit into this scheme. A major image makeover exercise is needed to set right the anomaly.
The foreigners who would like to know more about the UK are likely to read fiction, written in English by some of the famous authors. Consider the negative image of India that got popularized. Perhaps the Indian fiction writers in English, like V.S.Naipaul, Mirad Chaudhary, Bhabhani Bhattacharya, etc, have also contributed greatly towards this negative image of the Asian nation.
For example, one cannot forget the picture portrayed by V.S.Naipaul about India in the ‘Area of Darkness’, a semi-autobiographical work, which reads as follows, “India is the poorest country, in the world. . . . with beggars, the gutters, the starved bodies, the weeping swollen bellied child, black with flies in the fifth of human excrement of a bazaar lane. . . .Indians defecate everywhere. They defecate, mostly beside the railway tracks. But they also defecate on the beaches. If this literature reaches the hands of a probable visitor to India, then he or she will certainly consider some other destination.