Re: Auto Magazines - Commercially biased Journalism Im just reviving this thread for a bit because I feel like a bit of a Monday Morning RANT!!!
I am getting a number of email based automobile journals like Cartrade india and ZigWheels and so on. Apart from this I religiously buy all the myriad car mags from the news stands each month. I dont subscribe though I know it is cheaper, because I like the ritual of waiting for the mag to hit the shelves and buying it from the market.
All of these e-mags and regular mags seem to have a brand of journalism which smacks a bit of "re-hashed" stuff from each other and indeed, the mainline auto mags.
Also, all these mags seem to somehow tout the extremely "reasonable" prices being charged for cars and such, by International Auto majors. For example, they say the Q3 is at a shockingly good price OR the Volvo is with its D3 engine, suddenly very affordable and that the Toyota Altis is very good value etc etc etc! Now, given that many of us travel and have access to great information on the net etc, just who are they trying to fool, with these statements?
Then they speak about how some particular vehicle is tops and so on - examples are the Aria and the XUV in particular and others like the Koleos and Santa Fe etc. What are they actually benchmarking against? Read reviews of these same vehicles in the international editions of the same car mags and one can see some rather interesting diversities in opinions!
It makes me wonder - do they genuinely feel that these prices are reasonable, given our peculiar circumstances of high duties and taxes OR are they just making empty statements so as to remain in the "good books" of the said Auto majors and perhaps cadge the regular invites to the various first drives, international trips and such as a reward for being good "PR" partners to the auto mags? Is there a sanctity left in Automobile Journalism or has it, like everything else, succumbed to the lure of wealth and greed for commercial success?
Any opinions?
I feel somewhere deep inside that there is a bit of bias happening.
Another criticism - I find even first class mags such as Top Gear and Auto Car India just blindly substitute the Rs. sign in all the articles, instead of the Pound or other currency - regardless of the context.
While this is useful and helps as a benchmark etc, there are times when the substitution is out of context completely! My point is that a little more rigour in the editorial process needs to come out strongly!
I am extremely unhappy without exception - with the New vehicle buyers guide section across every single one of the car magazines. Not only is their list of newly available cars not updated properly, there are several instances of glaring and un-corrected errors in pricing, available features, specifications and so on. These are no longer reliable guides and this takes away to an extent from the sanctity of a proper auto magazine! It is almost as if the same excel sheet template is being used, month after month after month, with minor tweaks being made occasionally, but with no proper rigour and diligence being placed on this activity. The same goes for the visuals alongside the car descriptions and indeed, the descriptive notes as well!
Indeed, one can do far better research on prospective purchases on the web - on TBHP and many other different info sites!
What particularly irks me is the extremely contrived and feeble attempts at blatantly plagiarized humour - I greatly appreciate that they are trying damned hard to make the reader enjoy the magazines, but I dont appreciate every single auto journalist trying his damnedest to be a Clarkson, May or Hammond or anyone else from the International fraternity.
They say imitation is the best form of flattery, but for me, these contrived attempts at humour fall flat most of the time. Having said this, some of the few original writing styles Ive seen and enjoyed are those of Bertrand D Souza, Bijoy, Girish, Subhabrata and Abhishek Mishra of Top Gear India.
Last edited by shankar.balan : 11th June 2012 at 07:03.
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