Problems With Indian Media

ABP news conducted a poll on Twitter a day after India lost to semifinals. The question was that who is responsible for India's semifinal loss to New Zealand. The options were Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and M.S. Dhoni. The Twitterati were fuming after this poll was posted. They trolled the channel after this. This tweet precisely shows the quality of Indian Media.

This world cup highlighted all that's wrong with our media. Aaj Tak, a leading news channel, had called two music personalities during the semifinal show. They couldn't find in a country, with cricket flowing through its veins, two cricketing experts. Similarly, ABP news, who had a decent lineup of experts, didn't take full advantage of them. The breaking news they showed after India's win against Sri Lanka was that according to Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli is a better ODI batsman than Rohit Sharma. Seriously, is that breaking news?

Cricket is not the only thing in which they failed. Politics is also another. It was easily seen that the channels were biased. Some channels supported one party, some another. The headlines and the news they broadcasted showed that. An unbiased media is democracy's greatest strength, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. The debates on politics are the worst. Each news channel gets around 6-7 political pundits. These people then keep shouting for about one hour. People watch these to make up their minds but end up getting more confused.

The issue with Indian media is their urge to get high TRP's. To achieve that they sometimes show rubbish things. The headlines can make a normal person laugh. For example, do aliens drink milk, love story between tigers etc. The worst part is that people watch this stuff. That's why they keep showing it. Also, they keep scandalising everything. They try to find conspiracy theories. They make a storm in a teacup. Every little thing is extravagated and then shown.

Satyamev Jayate, one issue that highlighted the problems in Indian society wasn't telecasted on a news channel. It was telecasted on an entertainment channel. The show was a huge success. Such is the quality of Indian media that a Bollywood superstar was showing the journalists and TV reporters, how to do their job. It's not that only Indian media is like this. On Netflix, Patriot Act by Hasan Minhaj is also like Satyamev Jayate. It shows delicate international issues with a nice bit of comedy. If our news channels have to innovate, they can start something like that. It would be better for everyone.