Role Of Media In Democracy

Media is called the fourth pillar of democracy.But,is it so? Do media play it's role in good spirit? During the entire course of general election 2019 we have seen media houses setting narratives in quite biased ways. For critically analysis of media we will have to understand it's role first. Ironically, most of media houses either have forgotten it's role or have been pushed to forget it's role.

The major role of media is to inform, to educate and to entertain. However ,our media have learnt not to inform but to set narrative as they wish. Media should not refrain asking questions to authority or the government. What do we see? Do they ask questions to government? Answer is quite devastating. In fact, some media houses seem to advocate government decisions. It's unfortunate that they have forgotten the basic role or duty to ask questions rather than advocating government decisions.

During 2019 general election coverage, media houses kept on asking questions to oppositions over it's manifestos, policies, leadership etc but they didn't show the same guts before the party in power. I ain't saying they did right or wrong but at least they could have asked questions to the major authority at the centre. There are some handfull of journalists who did they jobs quite well but most of them failed to do justice with their occupation.

Very often, we heard debates going on over communal issues rather than policies of the political parties. TRP is important but what is the meaning of being the fourth pillar of democracy if you forget the basic duty just for the sake of TRP. People are equally responsible for the downfall of this institutions as we prefer to watch things that are spicy. Demand and supply the basic principle of economics applies here as well. So we must refrain watching such useless debates in prime time. Due to emergence of Social media, print and electronic media do have challenges but we can't supply anything to our viewers to cater cut throat competition.

It's better to have social media but print and electronic media have their own credibilities .Even today print media does play the major role in rural India where people are not used to social media .Smart phones have occupied the place of TV and newspapers which gave birth to MOJO mobile journalism. Change is the law of nature and this industry have changed significantly. Independent journalism taking shape all over the country which threatens the main stream media.

But, whatever the medium is the journalists and media houses should not forget their basic role in democracy.