THE FOURTH ESTATE OF INDIA: Its Fall From The Glory Days

Majority of mainstream Indian media has lost the plot, long time back. Especially with the arrival of countless news channels, the quality of journalism has slipped to a horrendous level.

The only thing they are interested in is to increase their ratings, provide 'breaking news' and rant and rave like absolute lunatics. Nobody is interested in honest journalism anymore.

There is case after case to prove this ridiculous trend followed by this country's media houses. I, as a viewer, have stopped watching news channels altogether. Below I have enlisted some of the problems that are plaguing our media.

1.Sensationalism: 

This is a vicious disease that has eaten away our journalistic integrity like cancer. Take the case of disaster news reporting: they put background music which is supposed to arouse pathos while showing the extent of the loss. Not just with such cases even while showing victims of rape, murder, suicide, riots, they do this. When the Indian Armed Forces, NGO's, religious institutions alongside international communities, made exemplary contributions to help Nepal earthquake victims, our media shamed us in front of the world by being an overall pain in the backside. Our media team went up to victims and asked ridiculous questions like 'How do you feel about losing a dear one'! The case of an open letter written by a Nepal citizen to the Indian media during Nepal earthquake was widely circulated in social media circles. Another insensitive trend is Shocking or graphic images are shown without warning. The news reporters even lack basic intelligence; this became evident in the 26/11 terrorist attack that rocked Mumbai. The geniuses went in to give "live coverage" and ended up telecasting the police and Special Forces formation and their moves to tackle the terrorists holed up in the buildings. As a result, the terrorists, alongside the viewers, also got to know all the moves made by security forces!  Indian media jingoism was trigger for backlash in Nepal by Jayant Sriram

2.Collective Amnesia:

Another annoying feature exhibits inability or lack of interest to follow a story till its conclusion. This is true in all cases since the year late 90's. Take the case of Tsunami or any other disaster or even a corruption scandal. The channels and newspapers compete with each other, when the incident first comes to light, to provide "developments" and most of the time completely fictitious ones. They will only provide details on the particular subject for up to a week and then they completely forget it. In the end, the news channel viewers never get to know what the judgement by the Court really was. For people who are interested to know what is happening in the real world, often end up depending on independent news sources on the internet.

3.Media Conviction:

A rather recent phenomenon, in Kerala, is media convictions of individuals who are not even remotely related to a particular crime. Our news reporters seem to think that besides news reporting & presentation, they should take up additional jobs like lining up the names of possible criminals (mostly innocent ones), conducting armchair investigations, bullying those who does not agree with their propaganda (includes shouting, turning microphones off, cutting audio etc), creating an "expert panel" which consist of all those who will support their biased views. Every night at nine, the media judges accumulate on various news channels and start the skinning of the victim of that particular day. Then the so-called "debates" begin which is basically shouting and screaming in front of the camera. The recent Aarushi Talwar Murder Case is a clear-cut example where justice was denied due to media's bashing of victim's parents. Columnist Shobhaa De with the help of her strange thought process (if any) had passed the judgement that the criminals were Aarushi's parents themselves as they appeared "steely" and the mother did not 'cried' during interviews! This moronic statement came even before the dubious report submitted by the second CBI team who hurriedly wanted to close the case. The first CBI team head who investigated the case suggest that justice was actually denied and the Talwars are innocent. First On Record, CBI’s Arun Kumar: We had no Proof Against Talwars by Rishika Baruah So thanks to our media, an innocent couple and their daughter, is denied justice.

4.News Anchor Megalomania:

Most of the Indian news anchors now behaves like megalomaniacs who believe they can conduct character assassination, bully or humiliate anyone or any institutions, without any consequences. In India accountability is never thought about. So these arrogant men and women go about bashing and bullying individuals whom they have opposing views with. The person at the receiving end is never given a chance to speak up their mind. No one, not even the Supreme Court of India, is spared from this loony gangs' strange antics. Sensitivity or empathy while speaking to victims is non-existent in these so-called journalists. The news items are never read in a proper manner with adequate pauses but screamed at the viewers at a frantic pace. Some of the well known Malayali news anchors' reading and diction is so difficult to understand due to the crazy speed with which it is delivered to us.

5.Biased views:

All news channels and news publishing houses claim to be neutral. But during an election reporting, i saw a leading Malayalam news anchor laughing gleefully when a candidate he supports obviously, lead the race! If this is how they promote neutrality in journalism, well what can us ordinary citizens expect? Every small issue is blown out of proportion to bash the ruling Parties (whoever it may be) both at State and Central level, and creates opportunities to hold another round of farcical 'debate'. No good deeds done by the government is addressed. New policies or new facilities announced by authorities are never mentioned. Those issues that affect ordinary citizens are never addressed.

6.Sowing Communal hatred:

Most of the Indians, including myself, are proud of this country's unity amongst multiple faiths and languages. It is something that has surprised even developed nations. But our media is on a mission to destroy this proud trait by promotion communal disharmony.

Recently the Indian media stooped to the level where a convicted terrorist, involved in the mass murder of Indian citizens, was portrayed as a hero of some kind. This, I believe, is the lowest point to which Indian media has collectively fallen. Recently, it was widely reported by Indian media that a Dalit was burnt alive for entering a Hindu temple. But later the truth came out that the victim was murdered as a result of a drunken argument. Thanks to this biased and seditious reporting, people have started fighting even with neighbours, all due to religious differences. The slogan of "divide and control" is what the press is following nowadays.

News media, the supposed "Fourth Estate" of democracy, has been failing us citizens continuously for the past decade or two and in reality has become a curse to all of us. Media or press which should be the strength of this democratic nation has now been reduced to the level of a circus, on which the public has absolute scorn.

I do not think me writing about this will change anything. But felt I should, as it is my duty as an Indian to project this. I know the current media moguls will do anything for higher television ratings. But once this country had a brilliant press and fearless journalists who even showed courage to write the truth during the darkest phase of Indian democracy, that is, the Emergency, declared by a dictatorial Indira Gandhi. But the sad truth is that the essential courage, civic sense and patriotism is missing in the current crop of journalists. Well, for that matter, these qualities are missing in all of us Indians as well. If it was otherwise, this country would have gone places already.


Screaming on Indian News : Standup Comedy by Sorabh Pant

References and credits:

1. THE HOUSE WE BLEW DOWN by Gaurav Jain

2.Why are India's media under fire? by Soutik Biswas

3.Time to Hold India’s Media Legally Accountable

4. Image Credit: The Quint