“The guy who reads nothing at all is more educated than the guy who reads newspaper” Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of US.
For millions media is the sole source of information “which directs the thoughts of most of the world”. Majority of the countries across the globe has given media the right to freedom of speech and expression entrusting them to guide the common man. It won’t be wrong if v put up like “public is the sheep and media is the shepherd”
Thus we can say, media enjoy the status of supremacy. “It is the most powerful entity on earth. It has the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” However as we all know “with great power come great responsibilities”
Some important responsibilities which fall on the media are:
Give authentic information, follow harm limitation principal and avoid yellow journalism & being biased.
However are all these things taken care of?
Certainly not,
Today “We are so cleverly manipulated and influenced by the media and establishments on both the right and left, that the truth has become hopelessly lost in dark.”
“The most truthful part of newspapers is advertisements”
Thanks to yellow page journalism that “Everything is so amplified that we can hear nothing.”
Now a days the political parties sponcer their own news channels due to which public receives biased information from everywhere which deviates the common man from truth.
As per journalism ethics a journalist is not suppose to publish or broadcast anything that could affect the minds of people in a negative way like dead bodies, violence, blood etc, however today this is followed in the least .
Eg: child killed his teacher due to access homework he received, murder idea was taken from a crime story he saw on television.
Media has become a money minting business, irrespective of what they sever. This strongly calls for the need of media regulation. Need of the hour is “take out view from new” and serve it plain.
-Neha Buddhadev
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