Politics — Indian media — Is it up for sale?
Media plays an important role in our day to day life. We stay up to date with the news and the events that happen in the world with the help of it.
It is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy. Its main role is to inform people about the affairs that are happening around the globe. They also act as the bridge between the government and the people, as they can spread the government agenda and various schemes to spread awareness in the common masses.
In today’s world, where most of the parties are looking for profit, the media has found an ingenious way. They’ve started adulterating the news by deviating from facts. Not only that, but they have also started to mould and sensationalize the headlines. People used to believe what was shown to them on their screens but their recent tracks insist their viewers to be careful before consuming.
There are many instances where we can observe the misleading media and their biased reporting. They don’t always focus on basic issues like unemployment, pollution, corruption and many more. They are always looking for TRP(Television rating point). As data states, in October’2019 four major Hindi news channels were having a tornado of debates on topics like attacking Pakistan, Ram Mandir and praising the government but not a single debate was being dedicated to topics like education, healthcare, economy, farmers’ distress, and other common problems. They are now acting as a political firm to form a public opinion as guided by the political leaders, they are working to shape the image of the leaders in front of common masses. As we can take an example of Arnab Goswami, when he was the Editor-in-Chief for Times Now he used to disagree with Yogi Adityanath’s point of view but in his recent interviews on Republic TV, he praises it to a great extent. This is how paid promotion works. We can have many examples like that, as we remember the decision of demonetization, many reporters claimed that 2000 note has the technology like Nano GPS. This instance is an example of misguided reporting.
Now look at the Murshidabad murder case, in this media misguided a whole stream of viewers to believe that the murder was for political reasons, but when the case was investigated it was found that there was an altogether different scenario in place. The condition is such that now the media is acknowledged as Modi Media or Modia (Modi + media), the ruling government has immense power and they aim at influencing the news reaching the audiences at every turn. They are getting paid for their reporting heavily, not by their organization but from the leaders they work for.
Media is not for what they are doing, they have the enormous responsibility to showcase the problems of common people and highlight them for the government so that they can understand the needs of the country and resolve them accordingly. They don’t show how the growth of the country is in danger. They don’t have the time to shed light on issues like unemployment and how it affects the future of the nation but they will perform a full analysis and promotion for our prime minister’s world tour and his harsh life during Man vs Wild shooting. They have a time slot for episodes on topics like “Aliens in Dholakpur to play cricket” but they can’t focus on the degrowth of our manufacturing industry. They can’t make a report on poverty and the underprivileged part of society, but they have a discussion panel for “Mandir kahan banega?”.
This is not just the case of India. In many countries, there is a lack of responsible journalism. A journalist should take an oath to be responsible and understand their importance in society. They should report based on facts and consider the consequences.
They must know what is the need of the society and try to show the real issues without any bias. In fact, reporters are intellectuals but they must not be greedy; they have to be brave.
Written by Rishav Garg of The Phonetic House
