"Breaking News"! Advent Of Yellow Journalism In India

Media is considered as the fourth pillar of any democratic nation along with Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Journalism is the most powerful tool to fight against the socio-political evils as it brings into the light any instance of misuse of power by the authorities or any miscarriage of Justice. All Media persons have some core principles which they have to follow in practising their profession. Some of the most important principles are Truth, accuracy, impartiality, humanity, fairness and accountability. However, most of the news reporting that we are seeing today cannot be considered as Journalism but it is something called as “Yellow Journalism”. Yellow Journalism does not focus on making people aware of the ongoings around the world but it focuses on presenting an exaggerated, falsified and twisted version of the most ridiculous and insignificant events.

The amount of Soft news (news that is usually centred on the lives of individuals or celebrities and has little or no urgency) in media is increasing day by day than the Hard news ( news relating to the circumstances of a recent event or incident considered to be of general regional, national, or international significance and other issues regarding politics, economics,international relations, welfare, and scientific developments). The most deplorable issue with the Indian media is the Sensationalism. Sensationalism refers to presenting stories in such a way which incites the public and leaves the audience in shock.

Celebrities’ personal lives or other Non-issues are discussed for hours together with great sensation than the problems of the farmers or labourers in the country. There are other issues that we need to genuinely know about and learn what our national machinery is doing to resolve them. Other than twisting the facts, the worst thing any media can do is not verifying the facts or evidence. For instance, The whole nation was aware of the issue involving the 3 JNU students where there were accused of chanting Anti-Indian slogans. The news channels have shown the videos of the students chanting the slogans again and again which created immense public hatred for those students. Public considered them as terrorists due to the media sensation and attacked them when the students were being taken to the court. The news channels did not even leave their families and the students even received death threats in the social media. At the end, the students were proven innocent and it was found that the videos were tampered. Who is responsible for all the physical and mental sufferings faced by the students and their families?

The credibility of the present Indian media sendsshivers down our spines. Increase in Yellow Journalism can have a dangerous impact on the public as the media has the ability to mould the mindsets of the people and can actually influence their opinions. As this is the time of elections, the highly relevant issue which we all should be careful about is “PAID NEWS”. Media today is a puppet in the hands of that political party which pays to it. Therefore, we need to be much more cautious in choosing our leaders today, and making informed choices, without being swayed away by this irresponsible Indian media.