That's what I like about the course. I learned a lot about third world countries, especially to look at another side of policies and programs like those of the United Nations or the World Bank, and the bias of the media. Talk to Sainath and you will be convinced by his enthusiasm as a critic of the multi-corporate control of the media. They are just like canned food. What is really interesting, fascinating are the small newspapers, not the corporate-owned ones.
American press has the biggest newspapers in the world, but the least informed public.
Unfortunately, he says, this common phenomenon of concentration of ownership in the media is happening not only in the Western world but has also started in third world countries like India. He says while new brands of automobiles and stories about weight-loss clinics are dominant in Indian newspapers, poverty remains largely invisible. The growing gap between the rich and the poor is rarely addressed, he says. His series of articles in the Times of India and his book, Everybody Loves a Good Drought, the result of his journey of discovery, have drawn an overwhelming response not only from readers and young journalists in India, but also from politicians and state governments. To Sainath's surprise, the book also has been used in 30 universities around the world in different disciplines including journalism, economics, political science, and development studies.