Media Should Be Like!

MEDIA
The word ‘media’ is derived from the word medium,signifying mode or carrier. Media is intended to reach and address a large target group or audience. The word was first used in respect of books and newspapers.

ISSUES OF RESPONSIBILITY
Media is the arm of democracy. Media acts as to protect public interest against malpractice and create public awareness. Today when politicians are taking full advantage of their positions, an evil nexus of mafia and crime syndicate is making the life of the common man miserable, taxpayer’s money is siphoned out for the personal gain of the influential and ordinary people are a mere spectator-media has a greater responsibility As the fourth pillar of democracy along with judiciary

The Indian media display certain defects. These should ideally be addressed and corrected in a democratic manner.

Where is the line when reporting on religion? Media should not target a particularreligiouscommunity speciallyIslamicissue are too much exaggerated and presented. Bomb blasts have taken place near the Delhi High Court, in Mumbai, Bangalore and so on. Within a few hours of such a bomb blast, many TV channels started showing news items that said that the Indian Mujahideen or the Jaish-e-Mohammed or the Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islam had sent e-mails or text messages claiming responsibility. The names of such alleged organizations will always be Muslim ones. Now, an e-mail can be sent by any mischievous person, but by showing this on TV channels and the next day in the newspapers, the tendency is to brand all Muslims as terrorists and bomb-throwers.

The truth is that 99%of the people of all communities, whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh, and of whatever caste or region, are good. But the manner in which such news is shown on TV screens and published in newspapers tends to create the impression that all Muslims are terrorists and evil — which is totally false.

Twisting facts
One of the defects is that the media often twist facts. A source is not source when story is based on rumorsit is one of the ethics of media but wear it is Today?

Paid news
A defect concerns the issue of paid news that has become prominent of late. In the 2009 elections, it was a scandal. How this vicious practice could be stopped needs to be discussed.

Non-issues as real issues
The real issues in India are economic,which 80% of our people are living, inthe poverty, unemployment,Instead of addressing these real issues, the media often try to divert the attention of people to non-issues.Such asAt a Lakme India Fashion Week event, there were 512 accredited journalists covering the event in which models were displaying cotton garments, while the men and women who grew that cotton were killing themselves at a distance of an hour’s flight from Nagpur, in the Vidharbha region. Nobody told that story, except one or two journalists, locally.