My Words

Be it the coverage of the terror attack, a business scandal or the ups and downs in political circuit, every media house is on the run to be the first. But in this run are they compromising with their ethics?? There has been a lot of talk lately on the role of media while covering the “breaking news”. Is it fair for the audiences to be served with an over-dramatized version of news just to gain the eyeballs?? Should there not be an extent to what is being presented in the name of facts?? Does the privacy of individuals, especially celebrities hold any importance in the race of TRP’s??
It is only the media organizations which can replace these question marks with full stops. They are the only ones which can find an answer to these questions. It has been experienced that the coverage of news sometimes arouses fear in the minds of the people. For e.g., a few days back there was a report in the media which it was forecasted that earth would perish in the hours to come. This had such a huge impact on the minds of the audience that some of them went to the extent of committing suicides.
Another fresh example of the coverage to gain eyeballs was the one during the Mumbai terror attack. A few irresponsible channels, in the name of facts gave and in the run to give exclusive news, even gave away the secrets like the positions of the NSG forces.
News organizations have a huge audience and they are the only ones who can regulate their content and serve the audiences with the news which have an aim to inform, educate and entertain them and not to traumatize, scare and discourage them. It is considered as the fourth pillar of our democracy and thus should be responsible enough while catering to the needs of its audiences.