Today, the media has started exploiting its rights and has forgotten its duties. It has become a business of selling the news to the highest bidder. It has made a total mockery of the right to freedom and right to expression.
A few examples of misuse of its power are the unnecessary sting operations and coverage of superstitious beliefs. Today we have news channels that show irrelevant presentations on “when is the world coming to an end?” Instead of concentrating on the terror attacks in Mumbai or Pune, they are more interested in showing whether a certain man is an incarnation of god. Another important aspect is the ‘breaking news’. Even if a cat dies, they call it breaking news. When we turn our eyes blind to these chapters, there is more agony in form of News programmes who manipulate small events to a much bigger “Breaking News” segments to capture attention of innocent viewers. What is more painful to see is when media covers certain incidents which need not be covered as they possess serious human violations and need more humane approach than just show live to a billion people across the nation.
A 6 year old baby getting trapped in a small bore well hole needs as much helping hand as required than just a TV coverage. When there are true events that need coverage, like a responsible government servant refusing his core responsibility, it requires a huge cost and planned approach called “Sting Operation” to visualize through these media.
I strongly agree with the fact that the media pays too much attention to the lives of the celebrities. But the careers of the celebrities are dependent on the media too. If the media stops noting and publicizing small personal facts about the stars, then they would be the friends of the personalities.
Princess Diana is amongst the most affected people by the media. She was a simple School teacher who became the princess; the media encouraged this act of this great woman. They also helped her in telling the world about her philanthropic heart for the not so lucky fellow beings. But they were the reason for her death too. Even President Clinton was impeached in a rather ugly fashion by the media, which cooked stories about him.
Even rape victims are not spared. They tend to show the faces of the victim of her family leaving her as a lifelong social shame. Be it the Jessica lal or aarushi talwar murder case, the media went about ruining their reputation at any cost possible. At times they provoke communal hatred. There is a lot of unnecessary coverage of particular news and they keep showing obscene scandals. Another thing is the wrong selection of cricket over other sports which harm the interests of other sportsmen.
In all the media continues to play with the interests of common man and hinders development and national integration.
The writer is a correspondent of Youth Ki Awaaz