News Media in Our Democratic Country

What is News Media?

The News Media or News Industry is a form of mass media that focuses on delivering news to the general public or a target public. Through this, we get to know about the latest affairs going on all across the globe. News Media is very useful and important for oneself as one should always remain updated. But, nowadays the objective of news media has changed. Now they just want that they should be popular and have the highest TRP (Television Rating Points). For this, they can twist and turn news in any way.

Importance of Media in a Democracy

Freedom to news media/press is a very important feature of a Democracy. Media is known to be the FOURTH PILLAR OF DEMOCRACY. In India, we have an independent press i.e. it is not under the government's control. The strength of a democracy can be measured by the freedom given to the news media in that country. In a democracy, media tells the citizens about what is going all across the globe and tell unbiased views of different politicians and citizens. Independent press/news media is the EYES AND EARS OF THE CITIZENS OF THE COUNTRY.

According to Amartya Sen:

“There has never been a famine in a functioning multiparty democracy .A free press and the practice of democracy contribute greatly to bringing out information that can have an enormous impact on policies for famine prevention… a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early-warning system a country threatened by famine could have.”

What was the objective of News Media in The Past?

The first printed news media called newspaper came to India in 1780 and its name was "HICKY'S BENGAL GAZETTE". 

A copy of weekly Hicky's Bengal Gazette

The first television news channel named "DOORDARSHAN" was introduced in India in 1965 with a 5-Minute News Bulletin Telecast. 

A Bulletin Telecast on Doordarshan on their 50th Anniversary.

The motive of all this was to make the transfer of news faster, reliable and easily accessible to all. If we take the example of India during the war of Independence, these mediums helped those people giving their passive participation in the war to get the latest updates regarding progress in the war. We can take any of the examples like this, everywhere its motive was the same and that was to deliver important news faster and reliably.

What is the Objective of News Media in Current Scenario?

Now let's take a look at the current scenario. There are hundreds of newspapers and television news channels. Today also the objective of news is the same which is providing credible and raw news. We get to know about the current affairs going on, the current economy or GDP (Gross Domestic Production) of our country and nowadays entertainment news is also there. The news channels are under the supervision of and authority named NBSA (News Broadcasting Standards Authority). This authority has set some standards which all news channels have to follow. Most of the news channels in India are following these standards and thus we can say that Indian press/news media is credible and authorized. Let's take an example of the COVID-19 pandemic going on, the news reporters are providing us right news by keeping their lives at risk. But some of the news channels are having a race that "WHO IS THE MOST POPULAR NEWS CHANNEL/PAPER". They show news but now it has become their secondary task. Their primary task has become, gaining more popularity and TRP. They can modulate the news in any manner, which can even change the meaning of the news just to gain TRP and people would be like, WOW! WHAT A NEWS. Some News Channels even broadcast bogus news about any interesting topic which they think people would like.

A Fake News Broadcasted By a News Channel which was later proved to be wrong. 

By doing this they are only cheating with themselves, not with the people. By doing this they can gain TRP for a short period of time but when people will get to know the reality no one will trust them any more even if they will show authentic news. Some news channels also do not show news against some powerful entities due to the fear of getting banned by the government. These news channels are known as biased. And a biased news channel can never be trusted. Once the trustworthiness is lost it can not be regained easily. So, understand it one way or another way, the MAIN OBJECTIVE of some news channels has become gaining TRP. 

My Stand on The Current Behaviour of News Medias.

If I tell about my views on the current behaviour of news media, I don't like those news channels or newspapers who show fabricated news. We should prefer those channels who provide authentic, unbiased, raw and trustworthy news. If a news channel is showing news which is not happening in reality it means that that news channel is neither trustworthy nor can it be trusted in future. As I have written previously, Trustworthiness once lost can not be regained easily. Though there are many news channels which show authentic and unbiased news, still there are some news channels who just run for popularity and can even keep their trustworthiness on stake. If we feel that someone is spreading news which is fake or they are spreading wrong news about someone then we can complain to NBSA and they will check whether it is true or fake. Many times due to these news channels the credibility of authentic news channels is also gets questioned. These news channels harm the democratic value of our country. As I have told before the best way to identify a trustworthy news channel is that there must not be any difference between their doing and being. The motive of news channels should be spreading positivity across the globe not spreading false news and generating fear among people. 

So, at last, I hope you all agree with my thoughts and enjoyed my blog and if not then do comment down and tell. Also please tell me what improvements should I make in my future blogs posts. Please do share it to as many people as you can so that they can also get to know about it.

THANK YOU ALL!!!

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