Decades have passed but even today media is seen as the fourth pillar of democracy . There is no doubt that media acts as a democracy supporting system but what raises doubt on the idea of media as fourth pillar is the whole manner in which news is crafted by the sellers of news and how the buyers of the news consume the content .
Whatever is served to the audiences , they just consume it passively . They find it interesting and engaging only if the content involves something scandalous or sensational. The number of dedicated news consumers is declining gradually due to increase interest of people in entertainment content .
On the other hand , the news channels and mediums have acquired a role of news manufacturers. They now create news rather than gather and analyse real life issues . The idea of news worthiness has shifted from people concerning news to advertisers and owners interests. Whatever the owners believe to be good for their buisness and personal interests is published and whatever deals with serious issues concerning different groups of society is ignored .
This whole process works on the dual business economy of the media houses where advertisement revenue is a major influence over the editorial content .
This all leads to a journalism of sensationalism and crafted stories and this has diluted the journalism of reality . The reality that speaks of those people who are unseen in general landscape. The reality of underprivileged and marginalized groups , the reality of discarded issues and the reality of ideas burred in Indian soil .
Journalism as a professor had its genesis in the idea to tell truth and represent reality . But now it is no more working on showing the world the reality of areas and people but rather it is focusing on selling their content by any means that can gather them buyers .
Now readers are consumers , so whatever they consume from media has a monetary motive behind it , a motive to increase the same of the targetted product , service or ideas and to make a monopoly of these .
Whatever is served to the audiences , they just consume it passively . They find it interesting and engaging only if the content involves something scandalous or sensational. The number of dedicated news consumers is declining gradually due to increase interest of people in entertainment content .
On the other hand , the news channels and mediums have acquired a role of news manufacturers. They now create news rather than gather and analyse real life issues . The idea of news worthiness has shifted from people concerning news to advertisers and owners interests. Whatever the owners believe to be good for their buisness and personal interests is published and whatever deals with serious issues concerning different groups of society is ignored .
This whole process works on the dual business economy of the media houses where advertisement revenue is a major influence over the editorial content .
This all leads to a journalism of sensationalism and crafted stories and this has diluted the journalism of reality . The reality that speaks of those people who are unseen in general landscape. The reality of underprivileged and marginalized groups , the reality of discarded issues and the reality of ideas burred in Indian soil .
Journalism as a professor had its genesis in the idea to tell truth and represent reality . But now it is no more working on showing the world the reality of areas and people but rather it is focusing on selling their content by any means that can gather them buyers .
Now readers are consumers , so whatever they consume from media has a monetary motive behind it , a motive to increase the same of the targetted product , service or ideas and to make a monopoly of these .