The issue of Media trying to poke their nose deep into the personal lives of celebrities and page-3 personalities made big news after Princess Daina's car crash, which was caused due to high speed reckless driving to avoid paparazzi who were chasing her vehicle. There was a recent incident where a reporter was assaulted. The actor Woody Harrelson claims that he was still not completely "OUT" of the character he was playing in the movie ("Zombieland") and mistook the reporter for a zombie (WTF!!).
I am not saying Mr.Harrelson was right. However, I am not sure if i would agree fully with what the reporter did.
The question one needs to answer is How much of independence is OK for the media? Unfortunately, this there is a very thin line between independence and over independence. In recent times, the ugly face of media came out. I am pointing at the 26/11 terrorist attack episode which took place in Mumbai. Most of the news channels had their cameramen trying to capture scenes which could add to their TRP, while they couldn't use their common sense to grasp the fact that the terrorists where using the media as their eyes outside the Taj and Oberio hotels where there were holed. In the melee to gain more viewers the news channels go to any extent, which includes causing damage to the whole crime scene. Another notable fact was that the coverage provided to the people killed at CST was minimal compared to the repetitive news that kept of coming for the whole 5 days during the encounter.
While media independence is a must for free flow of information, It is up to the journalists and TV-reporters to refrain themselves from crossing the thin line beyond which their reporting becomes a quest for providing sensational news rather than the truth. More often than not what we get a a version of the news that is supposed to cause maximum impact rather than provide us with maximum truth.
With changing times the way journalism has evolved has also changed. This is the reason we see News channels like aaj-tak talking about winners of dance shows or TV soaps in their main stream news...( That is of course when they dont have some spicy news like 26/11). All I can wish is that before it is too late for the mess to be cleaned up...there is some self realisation...
I am not saying Mr.Harrelson was right. However, I am not sure if i would agree fully with what the reporter did.
The question one needs to answer is How much of independence is OK for the media? Unfortunately, this there is a very thin line between independence and over independence. In recent times, the ugly face of media came out. I am pointing at the 26/11 terrorist attack episode which took place in Mumbai. Most of the news channels had their cameramen trying to capture scenes which could add to their TRP, while they couldn't use their common sense to grasp the fact that the terrorists where using the media as their eyes outside the Taj and Oberio hotels where there were holed. In the melee to gain more viewers the news channels go to any extent, which includes causing damage to the whole crime scene. Another notable fact was that the coverage provided to the people killed at CST was minimal compared to the repetitive news that kept of coming for the whole 5 days during the encounter.
While media independence is a must for free flow of information, It is up to the journalists and TV-reporters to refrain themselves from crossing the thin line beyond which their reporting becomes a quest for providing sensational news rather than the truth. More often than not what we get a a version of the news that is supposed to cause maximum impact rather than provide us with maximum truth.
With changing times the way journalism has evolved has also changed. This is the reason we see News channels like aaj-tak talking about winners of dance shows or TV soaps in their main stream news...( That is of course when they dont have some spicy news like 26/11). All I can wish is that before it is too late for the mess to be cleaned up...there is some self realisation...
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