The decay of Journalism

“Should Khushboo leave her husband and return to her lover?” No, this isn’t some stupid saas-bahu soap’s promotion. This is the question asked on a news channel (claiming to be Sabse Tez!!), asking people to SMS in and dial in to give their opinions. 

Interesting news, right? Its not a particular news channel which shows this weird stuff, it seems every channel is in a race, “Who is the most useless of the lot?”. They do not leave any stone unturned in their race to this coveted position. They show live coverage of the rescue attempts of a boy who fell in a pit (nobody notices that the increasing frequency of such accidents). They cover the wedding of two film-stars with such zeal that it seems the entire country will forget their hunger and problems in this happiness. They show a trivial news so many times and with so much enthusiasm as if it’s the news of India and
Pakistan going to war. They all have a dedicated hour in which some terrorist looking presenter frightens the audience, alarming them of the possible goondas hiding somewhere in their family itself. Worse, they also tell fortunes these days. I am not even counting the endless discussions with experts on Indian cricket team’s dismal performance in the world cup. 

Now is this what news channels are supposed to show? Is this what news is supposed to be? Is this what people really want to see at 11 after reaching home from office? Isn’t there anything to show which is even 1% consequential to the common man? What has caused this decay of journalism? If we can have dedicated magazines and newspapers covering gossip and filmy romances, why can’t we have dedicated news channels doing the same? 

There are more than 1 reasons for this downfall. The primary being the excess of 24-7 news channels. Excess of everything is bad and in this case it gets worse since you don’t expect things to happen every hour which require minute to minute coverage. Result, you are shown live coverage of anything which is happening somewhere out there. The other reason, the shift from journalism to consumerism. It’s a market, and news channels are here to sell. And what better thing to sell than this masala. No channel shows the atrocities being perpetrated on refugees in Kashmir or
Gujarat. Reason, most of the people don’t want to see this. So they are served with the wedding and honeymoon details of a star couple. 

I don’t know when and how will this massacre of news stop. I am not interested in getting to know about my fortunes on a news channel neither am I interested in knowing the honeymoon itinerary of someone I don’t give a damn to. Pappu falling in a 30 feet well or Reshma running away with her neighbour are things I don’t care. I am not interested in knowing every hour as to why somebody kissed somebody. What I want to see is something which is sane. Something which matters, something which affects my surroundings, something which is of a slight consequence to me.  

I guess till the time channels like these continue to be voted as the best news channel, there is nothing which can be done. So tune into our favorite news channel and vote for the poor and helpless girl. Afterall, your vote counts!!