Our country is undergoing various situations, namely economic slope down, flooding of cities and villages, complete chaos in universities and not to forget- the negative influence of media. Today’s blog is focused on how media houses are busy influencing citizens as to who’s the ‘rock star’ and who’s the ‘pappu’ of the nation. Yes, we are going to discuss about how the news channels these days, knowingly or unknowingly surpass the ethics of journalism and fill our brain with propagandas.
In past four to five years Indian media saw a dramatic change in news building and news presenting. There was a time when newspapers provided authentic piece of information, before television came into being. With the call of Doordarshan, the country’s news focused only on the good work that the running government was doing. Doordarshan enjoyed almost three decades of monopoly in Indian television. 90s saw launch of foreign and domestic channels such as STAR TV, Zee TV, Sony TV, MTV, and many more. News channels such as NDTV (New Delhi Television), TV18 (Television Eighteen India Limited), CNBC Asia and India, Sahara Samay, and Channel 7 (later came to be known as IBN 7) saw the rise in Indian television. Many veteran television journalists such as Rajat Sharma, Ravish Kumar, Vinod Dua, and many other presented news in an unfiltered and unadulterated way.
With internet intensification and craze to go ‘exclusive’ and ‘viral’, news channels are showing anything and everything to viewers. People depend upon news channels to gain quick information and believe them easily because they get to ‘see’ the events and incidents. These days we can only ask ourselves why we choose to spend our money and time on numerous news channels that only air fake and immaterial news.
For example, prior to the landing of Chandrayaan-2, Indian media created a hoax of how India is above Pakistan in taking this measure. Some news channels even invited Pakistani journalists, only to shame them for no reasons. Taglines like “Chaand Par Hindustan, Pataal Mein Pakistan” (Hindustan is at cloud nine, Pakistan is at its hell); “Jinke Mazhab Aur Imaan Mein Chaand Hain, Who Chaand Se Dur Hain” (Who’s religion and pride circulates around the moon, why is he far away from it?) and other unflattering and demeaning jingles were played by almost every Indian news channel with exceptions of few. It would have been informative for children as well as for adults to watch news on ISRO or Chandrayaan-1 and 2 rather than consume made-up, distressful news on Pakistan.
The new trend that almost every national and regional news channel has adopted is the debate hour, which most of the time is spent on illogical, superfluous lines or remarks made by somebody. Indian viewers are so glued to the television at the 9-11 P.M. slot that we wish to know which debate participant wins the argument without taking any message home.
With rise in pro-party favours and favoritism towards political parties, it is very confusing for viewers to believe which news is trustworthy and which is fake. If Indian news channel continue to show YouTube animal videos, Prime Minister’s birthday bash, winking of some actress or present a news castor in aluminium foil costume for Chandrayaan news, it is better to switch to entertainment channels and not waste one’s time.
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