The declining state of Indian media

Yesterday I was surfing through the news channels; saw a report on headlines today about a man in an accident. A rod had passed through the man and he was still alive and breathing. I have seen a similar story in Replies believe it or not. Even though I d not have much of an impression about headlines today, I thought that showing it was not such a bad idea. Most of the other channels did not feature this report and to an extend it was an interesting piece of news. Then on every time when I stopped at headlines today while I was surfing the channels I found that they were showing this report. At night they even went to the extend of reenacting the whole incident.

You could forgive the fact that this particular news channel has amateur reporters if they at least tried to report something sensible. A main stream news channel should be clear about its purpose of being a news channel. Its job is to keep the public informed about important matters that affects the public. It should bring to light issues that require the attention of the government and the general public. Other than the main stream news channels we have sports news channels, entertainment news channels, various entertainment channels and the job of these channels is to entertain the general public. News channels should not try and take the place of these channels. I remember Cyrus Broacha's comment when he was asked about the various innovations that cricket channels are bringing in during its match analysis, the idea of adding spic into cricket. What he said was when he watches the analysis he wants to know about the technical details about the match said by some cricketer, not what a beautiful 20 year old woman has to say. Channels like MTV are there to give the viewers beautiful women and spice. Cricket channels shouldn’t try and do that. I agree with every word that he says.

Similarly news channels try and dilute its content. The content that headlines today present is appalling. The 50 odd days in which Mr Rajesh Talwar was in jail, each day they used to enact the murder and do all kinds of non sense. Rakhi Savent is another of their favorites. Every day when you switch the channel one ridiculous thing or the other will be there. The madness is endless, breaking news about Saif and Kareena fighting, controversy about Bipasha and Ronaldo kissing, the ridiculous stunts that they pulled when Harry Potter was released. The list goes on and on. Not to mention their ridiculous "sting" operations. One could argue that if I have that much problem with a channel I should stop watching it. But that’s not the point here. I do agree that news channels should do what it takes to get more TRP, but to steep to this level is not acceptable. Showing such news reports once in a while is nice, but to over do it and make that the only thing that is shown in the channel is quite a waste.

I am quite sad that channels like headlines today are forgetting why they came into the news business on the first place. Each channel will have a set of audience and the channel should ensure that it keeps its viewers well informed about relevant matters. Channels like headlines today are failing to do the duties of a news channel. Labeling them as news channels is a disgrace. I really hope that the channel goes bankrupt. Their reporters are worse than teenagers amateur reporters, the content nothing but distasteful and their ad which takes a hit on most news channels is quite unethical and immoral. All journalists belong to the same group and should have mutual respect. I really pray to god that it goes off air sooner rather than later. I do admit that it has many viewers; even my parents sit and watch it. The question you go to ask yourself is that, are they really showing the news?