I am a student of journalism and what I see around me is failure. Failure in getting the job done. The world today is highly reliant on the media. We watch the news channels all day long to find out all about current affairs. The newer generation that’s always on the go, visits news websites online to get their daily dose of information. As journalists or newspaper editors, it is our responsibility to make sure that the news we put out is authentic and from reliable sources, but sadly, I believe the popular media today has compromised all its morals.
Many a time, the news that is reported is not the complete truth and based on assumptions. It misleads the public and can even go to extreme lengths. There are many instances where an article in the newspaper has created riots. Many lives were lost and people have been misled. Biased or radical news reporting has also led to an increase in the crime rates against certain ethnicities and even religion.
The media acts as an opinion builder for people, if you have a biased take on a certain event, then it’s best that you do not report on as a responsible journalist. If you write a news story about an event that focuses on the differences between two groups, for example, political and religious and are biased towards one of them; you will be able to shape the public opinion and make them believe the same thing you do. This can lead to extreme behaviour as the public is volatile and reacts to such news pieces aggressively. They might go against the other group and create havoc. As a responsible journalist, it is very important that you keep all the biases away from your profession. It is essential for you to report on authentic grounds with complete information and highly reliable sources.
As a student of journalism, I have been reading different news websites to see how the media in India is reporting events. I have been let down multiple times. The news reporting in most cases is highly biased and accusing, it does not tell the complete details and blows things out of proportion! However, not all news websites are like that. There are some of them who are doing justice to the profession of journalism. One of which is TNBC live. It is an increasingly popular website that caters to both local and international news. The very reason why I found it to be the most authentic one is that it offers people like us who are very concerned with the nation’s affairs to engage in a dialogue on their site.
We can comment on each news story posted, the comment can be critical feedback or a platform for further discussions. Furthermore, the biggest attraction of this news website is that it also allows you to get in touch with the stuff that’s available in their newsroom. That means you can communicate directly with the person who has written the news. This is a gateway for responsible and concerned citizens to keep in check whether the news story is misleading or biased.
I hope to see more news websites in the future that follow the example set by TNBC live’s responsible reporting.