Money-driven news coverage is affecting media's credibility
A sense of balance is missing in news coverage by Indian media outlets. Latching onto one or couple of stories for the whole day, sometimes weeks - ignoring news coverage from 28 states and union territories - adding fire to raging yellow journalism.
ALTHOUGH THE media is regarded as the fourth estate of a country, the current circumstances don’t really support this statement. Blame it on the current demands of liberalisation and modernisation, media has tried to evolve its roles and functions over a period of time, and thus, it caters to a mass audienc
Since the mass media reaches out to such a huge audience, it has to constantly balance its content. While on one hand, the media reports about Dolly Bindra’s fight in Big Boss to feed an “entertainment hungry” audience, it has to show equal interest in reporting the financial budget, which concerns the comman man. Perhaps it is this balance between soft news and hard news, which the media is finding hard to maintain, and trends like yellow journalism dominate news reporting. Yellow journalism can be defined as sensationalisation, exaggration and trivilisation of news stories to attract eye balls and generate maximum human interest. Catchy headlines, glossy pictures, colourful bylines, and sometimes, ear-shattering music, are some of the tools used in yellow journalism. It is the style of reporting, where the manner of presentation of a news story rules over the content. What kind of news story reaches the audience first, for how long it is telecast, and which news item ranks first on the priority list - such decisions are taken by the editors of a news organisation, who today, are dominated by major powerholders and bureaucrats. Indulging in image breaking and making mechanisms, citing allegations against any political party or supporting the views and beliefs of a powerful leader, are some of the different techniques through which media becomes a mere puppet in the hands of the powerful. When the Nira Radiia case broke out, there wasn’t much attention being given to it. It was only when the big names involved in it came up, and various renowned reputations were at stake, that media broke its long-drawn silence, and started covering the news with some interest. Today such is the scenario, that the defination of news has undergone drastic changes. There is no control, no well-defined limits of news broadcast. From goddess idols drinking milk to bhootiya havelis, salman-shahrukh fiasco to the blown out of proporton the Sania-Shoaib wedding drama, literally, ANYTHING makes news. State-owned media is just an attempt to cut down the current ongoing trivilisation in media. It may be better than private ownership of media, but in no ways can we one be assured that the state government will not use it to their advantage, when necessary. Instead of constantly fiddling with the ownership of media, there should be self regulatory organisations, that would individually monitor the content and data to be telecast by the media. This would not only ensure unbiased news reporting, but also, the real and actual news that concerns the masses in reality, would reach them.
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