Indian Satire And Humor Website Exposes Indian Television Journalism

Jan. 3, 2009 - PRLog -- Many events, like Cricket victories, Cash-for-vote in Parliament, Mumbai terror attacks, made news headlines last year in India, but consider these headlines –

“Manmohan Singh gets a six-pack abs”, “Rahul Gandhi rides a buffalo”, “Ekta Kapoor to make serial on saas-bahu live-in”, “Hrithik Roshan arrested for smuggling aliens”, “Lalu Yadav breaks Lara’s record”, “Al-Qaida to lay off 15000 people in India”, “Baby Marx born in West Bengal”, et al.

Surprised? Amused? Shocked? This is how many Indians reacted when they got a new taste of news – Faking News – a welcome break from the usual ‘breaking news’ on 24-hour news channels of India.

Faking News, a website containing sarcasm and satire on political and social life of India, has humored and stirred people by publishing sarcastic and humorous articles in shape of fake news reports. On a couple of occasions, the website also published serious articles with critical analysis of functioning Indian television media.

So apart from being a parody of a news organization, Faking News has also succeeded in exposing shallowness of Indian television journalism, where it is commonly believed that only ‘fake’ news is reported to attract TRPs with no element of constructive input like satire or sarcasm. Faking News completed 111 days on Sunday i.e. January 4, 2009.

Within this short span of time, Faking News attracted high reader response and involvement with over 1 lakh hits to the website already. The website climbed up the Alexa traffic ranking without any paid online or offline promotions, thanks only to the traffic generated through word of mouth promotion by the regular readers. The website surely has a way to go.

The website is updated in shape of a blog by a person with pseudonym “pagal patrakar”, which literally means ‘crazy journalist’. Pagal Patrakar, shown as a television news anchor with a Pinocchio style nose, has won many hearts and followers and has attracted hundreds of users to join ‘Faking News’ groups on social networking websites such as orkut and facebook.

"Our country is so diverse and our political and social life is so complex and remarkable. So much can be written over these aspects. And if these are written in shape of satire and humor, everyone seems to appreciate it. I have had good feedback till now and this is the only reason that keeps me going.” Pagal Patrakar, the author of Faking News told.

Faking News hopes to reach more and more readers along the length and breadth of India and convey meaningful messages through satire and humor. There are very few news satire websites in India while the rich and plural nature of Indian’s political and social fabric demands many more.

For example, in the USA, there are dozens of news satire website led by ‘The Onion’, whereas there are hardly any notable ones in India. Faking News is trying to fill in that space and become ‘The Onion’ of India. So should we expect fake news bulletins from Pagal Patrakar soon? Who knows!

For more information, please visit www.fakingnews.com or write to info@fakingnews.com

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Faking News is the leading Indian news satire and humor website. It contains cutting edge satire on political and social scenario of India. The website publishes fake news reports with incisive sarcasm, satire and humor.