Today's Media: A Biased Breech?

Today's Media: A Biased Breech? 

( By Suhana Ahmed  )

Image By:- Graphics (LDL)

Journalism is defined as an activity or profession of preparing news to be broadcasted and reporting the actual events. The job of a journalist is to act as a commenting link between the government and the citizens (source and the receiver).

The function of the media is to create awareness and educate the masses about the ongoing events; they're supposed to report the news and not manipulate it in their own words. They're supposed to be one of the pillars of the national integrity system that are entrusted to expose the acts of corruption and the harm caused to the public.

Media is supposed to act as an opposition to the government, making sure it doesn't err anywhere and do its job loyally and properly. 

But has the current media lived up to the expectations? Is the current media giving the right news? Are the current journalists working in favour of the common masses of the country? 

While speaking at “Ramnath Goenka Awards”, the Editor-in-Chief of the 'Indian Express' newspaper Raj Kamal Jha said, “Criticism from the government is a badge of honour”. He said it where the present Prime Minister of India was a guest of honour. There can’t be anything more apt than this.

Out of 180 countries, India stands at 142nd position on world press freedom according to Reporters Without Border (RWB).

Journalism has changed a lot, from providing facts and actual situations on the grounds to shouting unintellectual debates between people from different backgrounds with no actual knowledge about the situation.

There was a time when journalism was considered to be a challenging job as it required courage to question the power. Now, journalists come with an agenda to propagate and try to satisfy their political bosses. 

What journalism is supposed to be like?

All of us have some prejudices and presumptions on any particular topic but when one studies journalism, they are to keep their thoughts aside and just try to stick with the information. The journalists are just required to collect the information and present it to the world without fear and sycophancy. It would be the safest and the most proper way of giving justice to journalism. 

The safest and proper way might not be the righteous one. It is called the fourth pillar of democracy for a reason. Bhagat Singh said to keep this country democratic with the need to brutally criticize the governments. 

The other name of the government is ‘power' for a reason. It holds the power, it has the ability to bring amends and changes as it is the ruling body. We need to keep challenging the power otherwise it can end up destroying the whole nation.

Reasons why journalism died in India.

No journalistic ethos: Now people have already taken it as a job with no morality and ethics. 

Advertising: The advertisers from the private firm pay the news firms heavily to show their ads. There are times when a particular media house gives you fake news by covering something irrelevant or of less importance.

How to make media free?

It is a challenge to make media free and make it remain free. Below are a few ways which can help in liberalism of the media.

Ad-free media: The first step to make the media an independent body would be to remove the concept of advertising by the media houses. Eventually all of the news we are getting is paid news. Imagine how someone can speak against their clients who pay them.

We need to bring a system where a separate tax is collected and it will directly go to the media houses and to control these activities we can have an independent body.

No pressure from the government: When their salary will come from the people without any influence from the government they will do journalism for the people. 

We are well aware that nowadays the government is not the one that is directly concerned with the issues but it’s the one handling all the media houses and plays through them. This has led to a point where those who speak against them are labelled as anti-nationals who try to wage war against the establishment. 

Government also tries to use the CBI, ED, and other puppet agencies against the ones who oppose them to get favourable reporting. 

The problem is that this unusual and dangerous system is becoming the new normal.

Media has to be accountable: Nowadays we see that a lot of fake news is spreading on television and the print media nearly every minute, and journalists don’t even consider apologising as even an option.

There is some fake news full of agendas presented daily and there is nobody who can question them, not even other news outlets, and if someone does that, the rich owners of those media houses will file a 50 million defamation suit against them. And then the court will ruin their life for asking questions to the government. Ultimately, after so much of torture they will have to apologize to the media house and take their words back.

The defamation suits have crippled the freedom of speech a lot. When media houses in the country are not free to report, what can be expected from the common masses?

There is a need for everyone to take responsibility and hold them accountable. A journalist is supposed to be a social worker. They are to be brave and responsible, and not fall for the temptation of materialistic wealth. The media cells are to be honest, raw and legitimate. They are to cover the news that is important to deal with. 

Television rating points shouldn't be the major concern of them, because the country whose journalists are biased and not well aware and responsible is the country that's doomed. 

It is high time that the current journalism corrects itself and becomes a medium people can rely on and respect, and most of all trust. If there's no trust in the media, it is a tragic situation.

A country whose people cannot trust its journalists is a country that has lost.

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.