There is a recent upsurge regarding amendment of the RTI Act. People are not very satisfied with the way the government is responding to their query. Also the latter wants a more analytical and descriptive reply to their inquisition. The beaurocrats claim that people are flooding their mailboxes with illegitimate demands and questions most of which are baseless. There can be a number of ways in which this problem can be viewed. The mails can be senseless and baseless on account of the fact that the masses are completely ignorant of certain details which they should be aware of. Secondly, the large number of mails may be due to common doubt among a huge group of people. But the question here is that how does the common man become aware and who should represent the common man so that there is a representative who can question the beaurocracy on their behalf. Well, if I am not mistaken, few years back both these responsibilities lied on the shoulders of media. The power of pen was the power of common man. The voice of a journalist behind a mike was that of a common man’s.
On the contrary, today when we recite the very word, Journalism, the only picture that comes to our mind is that of innumerable television news channels telecasting a village boy coming out of a kilometer deep pit after staying there for x number of hours or probably a celebrity’s wife trying to defend him even when stooped low enough to molest his house maid. Is this all what media means to us today. Journalism, as a whole, has indeed come a long way from the times when bulletin appeared on tv only thrice a day. Today, on the contrary, the report gets updated every minute. Thanks to the technology and the people behind this revolution, we are blessed with the 24 hour concept of news channels because of which we cannot imagine to overlook a single piece of information in case we missed the newscast when it appeared on TV.
But there is one more thing where in media has portrayed immense transformation. It is in the area of quality of news which is televised these days. The common man may not be aware how the latest budget is going to affect their expenses but he will be extremely sure of the minutest details of a family dispute going on in a celebrity’s house. All kudos to our well equipped and hard working journalists who stand hours in front of a cricketer’s house to get a word from his father about the former’s second consecutive century in a test match.
A regular update of cricket match scores and temperatures of different cities across the world are also accompanied by a string of advertisements which only serve as an obstruction to an ongoing important discussion.
A full page cover story on nation’s budget has been replaced by a detailed analysis of a young girl’s murder mystery.
A pen or a mike gives power, but that power is of no use if it can’t be regulated in the right direction. If this ongoing malfunctioning of the entire system of media continues, then journalism which has turned only yellow from white , so far, is soon going to turn black and vanish eventually. In that era, probably media person will also need a representative to speak on their behalf .Will the common man do the honours?
An Eye Opening article...must read by everyone...
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