Lurid Headlines, Blatant Falsehoods, Media Trials, Sensation Sans Sensitivity, Manipulation of Mind, Propagating Psychological Warfare, Fomenting Communal Tension rather than Communal Amity, Creating Outrage rather than Awareness as well as Spreading Biased News rather than Objectivity have become the everydayness of routine in mainstream media in all over the world.
BY: Md Irshad Ayub
The media and journalism should imbibe the five core tasks viz. identify verification, sense making, bearing witness, putting facts and events and investigation. These core tasks will be the foundation as well as bottom line on which whole press in the modern and digital age is going to be rebuilt completely. The work of media is to have been digging deep, truth seeking, placing facts and events in context and in historical perspective, profound insight into the events and adhering to wisdom-oriented as well. They should not have lack of credible and trustworthy information, sequestered discipline and prejudiced manner in making and reporting news. They should have right to analysing and commenting independently and freely, acting justly, humanely and ethically. These rights should become an integral part of journalism. The duty of journalism has to be imbued with freedom, humanity, bias-free, norms and ethics in addition to justice.
I am deeply saddened by the on-going debate of nationalism, especially by the certain elements of media in which they have been repeatedly saying and giving certificate of nationalist. This is out and out terrifying. Recently in the case of the surgical strike in which some sections of media and TV news have been deliberately fomenting and inflaming jingoism. That would result in ultra-nationalism, further which in turn fascist idea. The time has come when this blatant hypocrisy of media should come to an end. They should respect different and divergent view of people. Some groups of TV are obsessed with national security concerns, as a result of this, they always indulging in reporting of false news and creating panic among people. Nowadays it became very common that media is about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover and keeping them in a uproar.
The work of media should be to expose scandals, conduct campaigns against those who are desperately and deliberately trying to subvert the constitutions of a nation, to coerce the Government to conform to what it asserts and promises made during election campaigns to be the will of the people and to create awareness about Government’s policies and programmes. I always remember the quote of Turkish Novelist Mehmet Murat, very nicely said about media that “Unless you have a free press in your country, there is no need to buy newspapers and there is no need to watch the news because there is no need to listen to the lies! And you already have one real information: You are being deceived by the people you are governed! This is an enough information for you!”
Email Id: irshadayub5@gmail.com
