The Ideal Society!

The print media was called the Fourth Estate by Thomas Carlyle in the 19th century. Today, the media has evolved and branched into different audio and visual mediums – the latest development in the field being the emergence of social media. The term Fourth Estate today, therefore, can be said to refer to all these different branches, and it is a fact that all these mediums are  playing a pivotal role in transforming the society today.

Media, in any form, is a reflection of the society to which it belongs. Its role can be defined using the three E’s – to Enlighten, to Educate, and to Entertain. The role of media in spreading awareness is appreciable at times, but when things like TRP ratings come into the picture, the media resorts to an overdose of spreading awareness, creating havoc and panic as a result.

With the exceptions of a few channels, all the other major channels played a negative role when it came to spreading news about Swine flu, and this is just one example. The news originally meant to spread awareness, actually turns into a dog-fight with each channel coming up with its own version of the Breaking News. In this sensationalisation of the news, the real news gets buried deep down somewhere.

Media has also been referred to as the watchdog of any democratic society. But, rather than being a watch dog, they have either become the pet dogs of few leaders, or they have become stray dogs that bark just to see who can bark the loudest. Some shows instead of being informative, and offering guidance to the citizens, have resorted to vendetta against public figures. There also seems to be an attempt to prove how one is tactically better than the other in articulating a word into a sentence, a sentence into a phrase, a phrase into a paragraph. It does not matter if at the end of it all the truth has taken a backseat.

It is not just television that has been affected by this malady. Radio, newspapers, or online journals, all have fallen prey to it, and information is being pushed on to us through any mean possible. Having information pushed to the citizen is not all bad, if the people doing the pushing – the 4th Pillar of democracy – do what they are supposed to do. However, rather than reporting the news, newspapers and channels have become mere mouthpieces for their political masters. We, the people, are left to our own resources to sift through the noise and come to the right conclusions.

There are times, when some news, of little or no significance, is given importance only for the sake of increasing the numbers. Here lies the fault of the viewers. A common excuse resorted to by media companies when they are asked to explain their behavior is, “We produce what sells. If people want to buy it, we will sell it.”

This reasoning has some merit. If we want to see a news item sensationalized, then there will be more than enough people who would be glad to do so, and make s quick buck in the process. The recent instance on Twitter where people took to Chetan Bhagat bashing in an instant, highlights the fact that we, in general, look forward more to gossip than hardcore news.

The power of the citizen is more than he can imagine, and if he exercises it many of the ills of the society can be done away with, once and for all. Wouldn’t you agree?

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