Threat to the fourth estate

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Riyaz Arshad Nazish

07 January, 2009

The burgeoning news channels have eroded the meaning of journalism. The mushrooming media institutes are cheating the students in the name of training. All these lead to pathetic contents of TV news channels.

IN THE wake of television news channels mushrooming, it was believed that the era of newspapers is over. It was envisaged that people would certainly opt for the medium as it serves audio-visual report of the events. This theory lead to the mushrooming of myriad news channels in the country. The doctrine of TV news revolution also paved the way for great employment opportunities. Therefore, after IT, and management, it is the media institutes that flourished overnight all over the country. The concept of ’mass communication’ that was first coined by Anwar Jamal Kidwai in 1984, became a byword in the country. Now every state, every city and every street of the country seems to have a number of ’mass communication’ institutes. The number of such institutes is far more than the professionals to teach in the institutes. As a result, today the industry is full of half baked professionals.

The number of TV news channels is growing. These semi professionals, who graduated from these mediocre institutes get easily absorbed in these news channels. The industry is so lucrative that the so called professionals get attractive salaries. What they do in the channels is witnessed by all. Of late, the content of TV news channels has gone down abysmally and so has its language. It goes without saying that the TRP rat race reigns supreme in the channels. Everything else, including news content is secondary.

One more reason for the deteriorating contents of news channels is the entry of capitalists (read money bags) with no journalism background. Anyone with enough money backup can get a license for a news channel. To become an owner of news channel gives power and strengthens the clouts of a capitalist. Apparently some TV channels are financed by politicians too. This certainly is a ploy to promote his or her prospects in the political arena.

With things as they are, it seems that the condition will only worsen as around 200 channels are waiting to hit the satellite. There are channels on every subject. The regionalisation of electronic media, on the one hand creating job opportunities on local basis, but on the other hand it also threatens the regional unity of the country. The regional hatred, in the past few years has only grown.

Media is also known as the ’fourth estate’ but it is loosing its authenticity and dignity. The Google box is filled with cheap stories filed by ignorant reporters. With a check on the mediocre media institutes, the government should draw criteria for licensing these.