Sensationalizing content and entertainment- two factors a consumer wouldn’t really take under preference while opting for a traditional informative news channel, two aspects which effectively rule and constitute the “meat” of the news broadcasting industry today. Gone are days of relevant reportage bringing forth the immediate knowledge of important occurrences from around the world, the days of content-driven exceptional documentaries and debates that went beyond incensed gainsaying. There used to be a time when news broadcasts centred upon journalists, well versed in their work, passionately bringing to the forefront, as editors, in a crisp and thought-provoking manner, every detail of subjects at hand without compromising on editorial and news-gathering credibility. What could be of paramount disappointment is that the channels today give up their prime-time slots to show-business stories that circulate around actors and sets of television shows and movies, with the purpose of increasing viewership at the cost of promised content. Are we, as a consequence, being forced into ignorance that denies us of the knowledge that we wish to seek, and therefore pay for? Coming to the matter of payment, what plays behind the degradation of these channels, is the desperation to increase the gain received such that it surpasses the investment significantly. It has turned into an industry running hay-wire after cash inflow.

“…there is a credibility crisis, in that television news media, in particular, is driven by a tendency to put sensation above sense in the search for ratings” -Rajdeep Sardesai (Celebrity anchor and journalist)

What goes by the argument to somewhat reason with the growing inclination towards commercialization and consumerism is the fact that the media body of a country inevitably, to sustain itself, looks to invest on subjects that interest the audience of that specific country. Now, it goes without saying, that the Indian entertainment industry enjoys much of, if not all, the attention of the Indian citizens as, if we go by statistics, the entertainment channels earn the greatest number of subscriptions, yearly even though, the price bracket levied on news media is much less than that levied on entertainment media. The kind of media that proliferates does mirror the society, after all. Back in the day, during the very onset of the news broadcasting bodies, the audience it attracted was much larger and print media which had enjoyed much popularity began to lose its primacy. It was a competitive field, however, the conflict existed for the right reasons with a shared aim of producing refined content for the viewers and the readers, most precisely, news-seekers. The field, in the recent times, has been corrupted with weak reasoning that oils the incompatible competition that has bloomed, rather for the worse, obsessive use of advertisements to make as much as the other, only ending up with one losing more to the advertisers. If I was to offer a ground that would serve as a justification to such a complexity marked more by loss than gain, I’d blame a greater fraction of the issue to the “price cap trap” levied on the specific kind of broadcasting services by the decisive body of TRAI (Telegram Regulatory Authority of India), that places news channel subscriptions at half the subscription prices of the entertainment ecosystem which brings us to the difficulty faced by the channels as they have to invest unendingly towards creating new content on a “per-day” basis while the entertainment channels enjoy greater revenue by mostly playing re-runs of already over-exaggerated shows with exhausted plotlines which somehow still manage to entice the audience crowd. It’s a given that the entertainment channels earn their investments back while the news bodies struggle as a result of which most of them have given up on the fight and taken up the road to exhaustive media management that does not spend on effective information delivery, concentrating more of their money on popular figures of the television industry or political bodies who have a face value and would contribute towards revenue generation without much of a personal effort.

Also Read: The Journalism Industry: A Work Field Where The Struggle Is Real

Journalism, in India, has lost its independent voice, with media houses signing themselves up to political bodies, thereby sanctioning only prejudiced stories favouring an utmost impossibility of revealing or investigating any tweaked data that could put the ruling government under question. India is home to about 400 news broadcasting channels but they lack in quality. As recorded by Reporters without Borders which is an NGO, in an index calculation, India ranks 136th among countries as many as 180, in terms of their media quality. Important stories about Dalit disputes, killing of journalists, brutal rapes around the country, and the situation in Kashmir go without much mention in media coverage, which on the other hand focuses more on debates on issues as minuscule as whether prominent cricketers wear black bands in honour of the dead soldiers during a cricket tournament, to name one among many. One could appreciate the thought but it’s an exaggeration in the least to have prolonged discussions on it.

The advent of the millennium which centers upon the functioning of social media that today plays the strongest hand in the dissemination of information as even news bodies refer to it in search of reportable content such that information is already available across the country before they make their appearance under media coverage, does play a prominent part at protecting the audience from forming biased opinions and absorbing the agenda directly as served by the news channels. Agenda is cancerous and moulding facts to serve agenda; a principle media has succumbed to, to earn favourable positions and support from powerful structures of the society, deserves public avoidance.

The questions we really need to ask ourselves: Are we naïve enough to take hoax videos as evidences of news and pay for shows that center around horoscope and television shows? Is today’s television media a mirror to what we really are? Are we keeping ourselves from the right to consume true information? Isn’t the crippling of media voice also a testament to the strangling of our own opinions? Shouldn’t we stand up for changes in the field and seek away from obsessive search for entertainment? Should we go back to the time when print media served as the most reliable source, and perhaps does so today as well but acquires fewer people’s attention?: questions we really need to find answers to and fast.