With the easy availability of 24-hours television news, the term ‘media’ is familiar to everyone.  For a democratic nation, media is regarded as the ‘fourth pillar’ of democracy. For a successful democratic set-up, media has to play a very significant role – a watchdog of the government’s style of working.

But, is the present-day media not losing its sheen? Today, slowly and gradually, the media is losing its credibility. The Indian media has seen this rapid fall as many of times they are even criticized for being ‘biased’ or are termed ‘the supari media’.

It’s also true that the Indian media has never achieved its golden era. Just before Independence, the Indian media was targeted as ‘Nehruvian media’ and later, the same media was tagged to various policies and government.

The media’s role during the 2014 general election was questionable as they could only report about ‘waves’. One of my friend very nicely stated that today the Indian media is a ‘gun-gaan mandali’.

It’s true that the media has given power to the people to react in real time. The media covers news throughout the day, keeping us updated to the happenings. But, sometimes – or many of times – the Indian media, especially television news channels, forget that they are covering news. Suddenly, the turn it in to a war zone and starts targeting people whom they dislike without going through the facts. They also become jury members and before the court’s verdict they announce their verdict in the name of ‘super prime time’ or ‘big breaking news’.  They believe they got the right to ask any questions by terming them as ‘nation wants to know’ or ‘nation is hearing you’.  They make headlines, but they will never take responsibilities if something goes wrong.

Shouting in the name of prime time news, isn’t news. The biased trumpets are boring and fabricated stories. During demonetization, a leading news channel said that the new Rs 2000 note carries a GPS chip! Amazing!

In fine, its true the media is doing its job and there are many who deserve respect. But the numbers are decreasing day by day. The challenges are increasing and as a television news consumer, I just hope that the television media will be able to maintain their standard in times to come. For a successful democratic setup, we should have a strong media that not just blows the trumpet for the government but also questions the same for their policies to actually help the common people.

Subscribe to our Newsletter


Basanta Nirola
About Basanta Nirola

-

Basanta Nirola is a postgraduate in political science from Bodoland University, Kokrajhar. He loves to read and write about politics, besides writing short stories.