State of Media

While going through the news channels and the anchors in it,i feel bad at the quality of media and am concerned about the effects that this kind of media activism can bring in to the country. Other than a handful of journalists (and probably no mainstream press or TV channels) are there in our country who exists in the true spirit of journalism. Rather than bringing in the facts on an issue to the audience, they bring in their particular opinions also in to these and thus affecting the public's thoughts on such a matter. What is more annoying is the purposeful efforts from these entities to create a public opinion in favor or disfavor of a particular person or organisation (paid news scandal is an annoying example to depict this fact). PTI cheif Justice Markandey Katju, in an interview with Karan Thapar has argued that the intellectual level of the Indian media is very poor and it deliberately creates divide among the people. He says that this part of history, where India is moving out from feudal system to a more liberal system, media has a powerful role to play. He is also concerned about the illiteracy among media activists on economics, politics,literature, sociology etc.Well,these concerns on media has been highlighted by many people in recent years and there is no great meaning in repeating those arguments here. What we have to muse upon is a solution to this problem.

I thought on superimposing a different story to this state of media in our country. The story of the growth of quality of movies in our country. It has widely been accepted that the quality of our main stream movies has increased in the past couple of years. Though we have a long way ahead before getting at par with the Hollywood and French movies,the future of the film industry in terms of quality seems to be hopeful. What has been the factors contributing to this change? The film makers who used to take those "masala" movies with stereotype dialogues and songs are still out there. What has changed is the quality of audience. The demand for "masala" has decreased and the demand for better quality movies has increased. The exposure that the Indian audience got to the Hollywood and other industries,especially after the liberalization policies of 1991 have heightened the standard of audience of the country. The efforts by some channels to bring in more 'film-literacy' to the audience through subtitles and translation of foreign movies needs to be appreciated. This has kept film makers on toes and has forced them to come out of their 'formula' films. 

Similarly, a decrease in the demand for the less quality news and analysis is probably the only way through which we can reduce the negative media- activism. This can arise only through educating the masses on good journalism and exposing them to the quality programmes available elsewhere. Such an educated mass can keep the media on toes and to bring in contents which are really helpful for the masses. It also has lot of backward and forward linkages. It can also affect the quality of politics and political institutions in our country and lead us to a better democracy.