State-controlled media will check yellow journalism
News has become a commodity and news stories are considered more of products than dispassionate output of public service. News is being sensationalized. Control of media by the government will address this but then news can become propaganda.
ACCORDING TO Oscar Wilde, “public have an unsuitable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism conscious of this habit supplies their demands”.According to some scholars yellow journalism is against journalistic ethics. The main question behind the reason for the widespread use of yellow journalism is the freedom given to press. In countries like India where journalism has always touched the hearts and soul of people and helped in gaining freedom from British rule, freedom of press is widely accepted.
This means media is free to influence masses without any authority acting on them. In such cases power can be misused and is misused in the form of sensationalized stories, making every other news – “The Breaking News!”
Today Journalism has become a business to generate more revenue by selling stories. But if the media is state-owned, meaning controlled by some government authority, which is the case in countries such as Belarus, Burma, China, and Iran, the media can be used as propaganda by ruling party.
It can act as a mouth piece to advocate a party's ideology. It has been seen that state media usually enjoys increased funding but in China where state control of media is quiet high, the level of funding have been reduced with time.
State-owned media will obviously lower yellow journalism but lack of media transparency may also lead to increase in corruption, restriction on freedom of speech and censorship in some issues. Studies have shown that in countries with less state control, news media is more independent as compared to countries having full authority on media.
Whereas in countries such as North Korea and Laos that have a total state monopoly in media, have experienced “Castro effect" where no journalistic harassment is required as state control is so powerful.
Yes, it is true that state-owned media will be able to curb the problem of yellow journalism but other problems will go hand in hand. Journalism, the fourth estate of India, stands at a vital crossroad, and things can be improved by changing the attitudes of journalists and media houses who have forgotten their ethics and morals to lead the society in a good direction and who are initiating yellow journalism instead of mainstream journalism that has impact on lives of common man.
We have developed yellow journalism and we are the only ones who can stop it, and the time to stop is now or never.
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