The 18th century is the advent age of media. Since then the work of Indian media is remarkable. As the days went by media industry took new contours and today India is globally recognized for its media power. In India, Media is considered as the Sight, Sound and Voice of People. In our country every day 100 million copies of newspapers are sold, from 690 satellite channels, more than 80 are news channels and apart from this p-media (print media) and b-media (broadcast media), the o-media (online media) works like wild-fire. Every Indian kid above 10 yrs of age has a glimpse of what is happening in times today. And all these numbers and statistics clearly portrays ‘how active media is in bringing all issues, big and small into limelight!’
Apart from the entire statistics, the call of media is ‘to bring the truth to the people”. Media stands for two things “TRUTH” and “PEOPLE”. The lifeline of the entire universe is also “Satyamev Jayate !”. Truth needs People to survive and People need Truth to survive ! But in this 21st Century media has mostly fallen down from its call. In this 16th year of 21st century Media is more concern to TRP (Television Rating Point); Money-making; Market Competition; Glamour; Yellow Journalism, Politics; so on and so forth. Censorship is more on “Truth” and “People” rather than all sort of fabricated stories. Every media agents ask for one thing – “MASALA”, not for the sake of Truth but for TRP. In the blockbuster film “PK” when Jaggu (Jagat Janani) introduces PK to “Jerry – the pictured News head”, she says if we will bring Tapaswi and PK front to front, our TRP will increase and that’s what most of our media story is today.
Now the big question is, “WHY MEDIA HAS DRIFTED AWAY FROM ITS CALL?” Today, every individual’s plea to media is, don’t ignore the 3 central truths of your call!
- Intent must be prior to Content:- Every word that we convey has an intention behind it. There is nothing called random ! Nowadays there is frequent divergence between Intent and Content in media stories. Which ought not to be ! Most of the media presentations are politicized with party politics, every statement that is flashed is in favor of some political party. Yes, every good work must be appreciated but that must not become the means of upliftment/buttering. Mostly media contents portray the promotional picture of the ruling party.
Every media agents must be PEOPLE intention and TRUTH contented !
- Stand for TRUTH:- Media agents name their programs/presentations with sellable words like “Sach Ka Samna”; “Aap ki Adalat” and much more but where is the change? Do we truly present “SACH (Truth)” for the cause of “AAP (People)”? or again some more well-dressed lies with flamboyant masala!
Today we bring censorship on Truth, let not that day appear when we will find censorship on our Rights !
- Remember, People trusts you:- While conveying some news to our friends we often quote “arre, you don’t know! This has come on media.” This simple line expresses the trust level we people have on media. People trust media because they consider media, “as their ears to listen to their plea; as their eyes to listen what is happening behind the curtains, and as their mouth to speak for them”. In short, if it is good enough to be on TV, it is good enough to be true.
My two questions for media is:-
- Does Media have the guts to say, ‘yes, we have obeyed our call (bringing the Truth, before the People)’?
- Can Media prove itself today, ‘yes, we are the Ears, Eyes and Mouth of People’?
Keep thinking!
Candles Online 