YELLOW JOURNALISM

Sabse tez”- latest news from India,24 ghante 24 reporter,24/7 India news- this is what every news channels claim to broadcast.
Around n numbers of news channels watching every patch of area in the world round the clock. Any news creating sensation anywhere in the world is brought to us by these news channels in less than 30 minutes of the incident taken place.
Now a day we are connected to people living at any latitude or longitude on this earth just by a click of our television remote. Earlier people had to constrain themselves to watching a single news channel of a national level and that to for limited hours of the day. But at present, people can switch on to almost a dozen or more news channels, be it national,international,domestic. Local news channels with news reporters presenting news in the local language has become a very common thing now.
24 hours news channel is turning out to be a full fledged business. Every year almost 2-3 new news channels are launched claiming themselves to be the best and advanced than the others.
But due to this growing competition between so many news channels, the quality of news is slowly deteriorating. Earlier, events such as political speeches,meetings,international agendas, events creating social awareness, government policies etc. where conveyed through news channels. But now a days, events taking part in any remotest area which happen to influence only a few individuals of the society and which are far too irrelevant and unimportant become hard core breaking news.
India being a democratic country has constitutionally given every citizen or organization of Indian origin the right to express their feelings on a large platform using media. But these so called awareness creating news channel are misusing their biggest asset running behind competition and greed to be the best or the No.1.
For instance, news channel showing news on ban of A movies on television, highlighting their bad impact on children themselves tend to forget that while broadcasting such special issues, they themselves show vulgar or offensive clippings. Moreover such 1 hour special programmes are repeated the other day too.
Every news channel has a 1 hour special programme dedicated to Crime.
But while broadcasting such episodes they show rape,murder,theft,slaughter scenes. They forget to take into consideration the threatening impact on the citizens caused by televising such unnerving scenes. They might create awareness among the citizens, but showing such unhealthy scenes might also trigger the minds of the individuals causing psychological disorders, mental trauma etc.
People attempting suicides are captured ‘Live’ on TV by the channels, but no news channel reporter or cameramen present at that place takes the initiative to save him from committing such a blunder. They watch heartlessly every single move of the person till he looses his last breath in order to not to miss any single bit of the so called Breaking News of the day. And at the end of such an adventurous day they blame the Police or Government for not preventing him from doing so. They themselves forget their duties of being responsible citizens, running behind capturing such so called ‘epoch making’ news so that the TRPs of their channels increase.
An 80 year old villager getting married to a 17 year old girl becomes the NEWS OF THE DAY which is telecasted for almost 4-5 hours of the day. The repeat telecast taking another 3 hours of the left 19 hours. A prominent politician’s son or daughter’s marriage is broadcasted live from sangeet to mehndi to the D day showing every minutest details as to what dinner is served, the guest list, which colour dress the bride and the bridegroom would wear, where would they go for honey moon etc. Such irrational news sidelines the political or international issues.
This irrelevant and apathetic information should be stopped from being screened. A code of conduct or a rule book should be brought into action where rules and regulations of the form of news, duration of the news to be presented, depth upto which the reporter should go to get the necessary information can be decided.
Moreover, the news channel should be active just for 14-15 hours a day, so that they give maximum importance and exposure to social,political,economic issues.
The modi operandi of the news channels should be changed completely giving them a new touch, so that more weight is given to the people, their feelings and their development.
The problems faced by the people living in the remotest areas should be brought out in public so that the concerned authorities take the essential steps in solving the problems. Moreover the channels should keep a track of the progress taking place in that direction. Career counseling programmes should also be given more magnitude for the betterment of the future generation.
Documentaries or programmes showing success stories of prominent personalities or great leaders should be aired so that the future generation gets educated and cognizant of our past. As news channels are watched by every family member such 1 hour programmes can turn out to be a hit. Such contents should be shown which all family members could be able to see without feeling tongue-tied. News channel if take appropriate steps in the interests of the society can create a lot of awareness in the society making the future as well as the present generation responsible, indirectly leading India to a developed country. News channels having a lot of potential in them if used in a proper and responsible manner can change the position of India on the global chart. As per the old saying “PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN SWORD”, these news channels can go on the same path and bring about a better and mightier India.