Indian Media On Fire

In India we have extremely large
scale to choose what to see on the television
or what to read. We have more
that 500 satellite channels and 70,000
newspapers in different languages.
India–biggest newspaper market in
world, where 100 million copies sold
each day. From last 20 years we moved
from state owned broadcaster Durdarshan to 500
different channels, of which more than 80 are
news channels.
But this growth may come at the cost of perfection,
ethics of journalism and honour
The media has taken some flanks in recent
months for being shallow, inaccurate and sometimes
damagingly obstructive. Markandeya Katju
(former Supreme Court judge), fired the first
broadside, exhorting journalists to educate themselves
more. It provoked a sharp reaction from
Media.
Dr. Amartya Sen wrote in his recent articles that
there are mainly two barriers in the main stream
media.
One – professional laxity, which leads to inaccuracies
and mistakes.
Two – class bias, in the choice of what news to
cover and what to ignore. He offers unexceptional
solution to ensure accuracy, newspapers should
publish corrections and journalists should be
given more training. Reporter should recheck his
data before publishing and broadcasting. There
should be some gaps in story or fake names and
numbering. It helps you to develop the accuracy.
There are serious concerns about the trivialisation
of content and increasing concentration
of media ownership in large corporate
groups. There is the nonstop breaking
news culture.
Most seriously, there is curse of what is
called paid news. This involves influential
people. Many politicians, paying
newspapers and news channels for positive
coverage.
How do we stop this?
Journalists like Mr. Guha, who was one of the
investigation team’s members for investigation
against paid news. He argues for increased transparency,
self regulation and competition regulation.
Why are India’s media under fire?