Role of media and its lethargy

I stumbled upon a report by a renowned media man arguing that we get the government that we as a polity deserve. In the same way we get the media reporting that we as a society deserve. He has to sell his product at the end of the day to remain in business, thus justifying the maddening reportage of Page 3 Celebrities, instant celebrities and general degradation of the news reports and news presentation.

If in a free-society the general perception is that the governing community is doing exceptionally well and people are so charmed by the leaders that they do not see their follies, then it is the duty of the media to - using a cliche - 'wake up the masses'.

Media cannot keep churning out gossips and ignore the misgovernance citing the excuse, that the people like the leaders, since they do not know they are corrupt and hence we show gossip or else we will have to shut shop.

Media is selling ideas, thoughts and future of the nation. It is not dealing with peanuts here. When an author writes rubbish and is successful in diverting the attention of the nation from the priority issues, then he is doing disservice to the nation and his profession. Media is not without reason called the fourth estate or the fifth pillar of democracy.

If making money is the reason why journalists are here, then better start hawking chaats or sell balloons at the traffic signal.

If a nation is losing its focus and media is unable to direct the focus on the important issues then it is the failure of the media.

Media, which is supposed to be unbiased, if goes on singing paeans after paeans of one party and ignoring their failures keeps influencing its readers favourably towards a select bunch of corrupts, is no longer fulfilling its duty. Readers can see through it and if they skip the front page due to this, then they land up on the Page 3. Media then cannot blame their readers of having an inferior taste of prose.

As we get a government we deserve and media reports what we deserve to read. The FDI-bought media also gets readers that it deserves. The mirror would show the media men their true face

Viewers might soon find Doordarshan news more interesting - although it churns out sarkari farmaans - rather than the breathless, nonsensical and pure sensationalised news channels.