OUR PRINT MEDIA IS DEVIATING FROM PRIORITIES




"Bad news travels at the speed of light; good news travels like molasses." - Tracy Morgan.

If we look back and think a little we can find that our print media has started deviating from certain principles that they followed yesterday. The title news that appears on the front page today might have preferred to have put on the inner page in a small column a few years ago. The paper may say that they are placing each news according to the taste and need of the readers. If that is so today's newspaper cannot say that they are reforming the society as they were doing yesterday, rather they are reforming themselves according to the society. What is the society today and who rules it is not at all hidden from a news media. However some leading newspapers keep themselves away from some significant speeches by the top leaders of as if they have not come across those or there is nothing wrong for them in such speeches. Some others keep things up down for their sake. For instance sometimes back it so happened in Kerala. It was a significant political news. (I am changing it into like a sports news) The whole state was looking for a wrestling competition held in the northern region of Kerala between A and B. A defeated B in 3 mts and 3 secs. Almost all newspapers of the state reported it as title news like "A defeats B in 3.3 mts." However one newspaper which is an open supporter of B reported it like: "B improves defeat time - in the last meeting between the two B was defeated by 3.2 mts, and now it improved to 3.3 mts.

Udbodhna (1899) founded by Swami Vivekananda, Indian Opinion (1903) by MK Gandhi, Bande Mataram (1905) by Aurobindo Ghosh etc were the newspapers that were creatively involved in the freedom struggle of our country. These news papers had made tremendous impact among the people of the country. However the arrival of television in the USA and the following years in other countries of the world, people started getting fresh news from all around the world. And now the social media too is providing faster news, that too from different angles. Despite all these, even now newspaper holds the power of opinion formation. People still depend heavily on newspapers formation.

Despite having a positive response from the readers,  the print media is restricting itself to a commercial establishment in news selection and the preference of publishing. There are many occasions that a commercial contributor commits a serious crime but goes unreported. In another instance, when a lowly placed one commits a crime all his identity is revealed. On the other hand when similar crime is committed by a politician, much about him is not get printed. In the case of powerful politicians, serious offences like avoiding facts, causing loss to the people, hiding necessary information etc are ignored by the print media.

A newspaper should always stand for the people of the country.

K V George 

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