media and social responsibility

The Fourth Estate: Media and the moral


The information dissemination has become business to earn money by other wrong means of yellow journalism. The content of the media is corrupt. It reminds Fresh Becker theory which says media content deviates and confuses the people. The media content bewilder people and unable to disseminate reliable information. The common reader has to make out three to four newspapers to obtain facts; each paper presents its version
With acceleration of globalization, this fourth estate has been stripped of its potential, and has gradually ceased to function as a counter power. This is shockingly apparent when you look closely at the realities of globalization. A new type of capitalism is on the rise, not just industrial, but financial, based on speculation. We are witnessing a clash between the market society, the personal and the collective, egoism and solidarity



Can there be a totally bias-free handling of an amorphous commodity like news? As Nicholas D.Kristoff wrote in the New York Times (reproduced in The Hindu on March 20 2009) “There was little interest in encountering solid arguments that might undermine one’s own position’. He says he himself is guilty of selective truth seeking in looking for views with he agrees. “The effect is to insulate us further in our own hermetically sealed political chambers. The danger is that this self selected news acts as narcotic, lulling us into a self confident stupor
A report appeared in a kerala edition months ago with heading “Sweet news for diabetic patients”. The report said a team of college students had prepared a tuber extract with anti-diabetic properties after “rigorous research “for two and half years: its medicinal qualities had been “proved through a series of tests at the college laboratories.” The report accepted the claims made. It did not note that various phases of rigorous tests had to be done by qualified agencies before the pharmacological properties of any drug could be proved. Encouraging students is one thing: to make or swallow untested claims another.
It began as routine crime report. Actor had been charged with raping his domestic help and had been taken into custody. But within a day it became front page news. Because the actor, Shiney Ahuja. Was reasonably well known and the domestic help had registered the complaint within hours of the alleged rape. The predictable feeding frenzy of the media led to regular updates from the police, even as the case was being investigated, being published. At the same time, the denials and certificates of good character for the actor were also faithfully reported
The Supreme Court judgment in the R.K.Anand case has thrown new light on the sting operations undertaken over the past decade by sections of the news media as a form of investigative journalism. It contains some significant statements on the functioning of the media, their responsibility to maintain professional standards by evolving a self regulatory mechanism, and the larger issue of freedom of the press.
The Supreme Court full-throatedly expressed itself against curbing sting operations. It also rejected a suggestion that the media take prior permission for conducting such operation on the ground that it would amount to pre censorship
International Scenario
The media tycoon Murdoch‘s news papers was allegedly carried out operation to expose Britain top brass private activities. It was allegedly trap private SMS of top officials and published in their newspapers. It intrudes into privacy of officials .for that the court asked show cause notice and case was filed against the newspaper
If you ask Mir why Pakistan’s army is clearing the Taliban out of Sat and pushing deep into Waziristan, he will say that the media did it. Perplexed politicians and reluctant generals needed an outraged press and TV to spur them into action at last and thus in some small way, avenge the death of Mosa Khankhel from GEO TV , shot three times in February as he tried to cover the Swat peace negotiations that failed. Khankhel’s murderers tried to hack off his head as well. Now: where’s the duty to defend them?
The Bangladesh Government has not given freedom to press as its head Sheikh Hasina promised to bring back press freedom during elections.
Laura Ling And Euna Lee Arrest and release by North Korea
The two women were arrested March 17 2009 near the North Korean border with china while reporting for Current TV, a San Francisco based channel Cofounder by former Vice president Al Gore. In June, the women were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour for illegally entering the country, but they were released on 4th August 2009 after Mr. Clinton negotiated their release.
During a July call Ling and lee told their families that the North Koreans had told them they would be willing to grant them amnesty if an envoy in the person of President Clinton would agree to come to Pyongyang and seek their release, according to a senior Obama administration official who briefed reporters. The proposal was then reported to Gore, who passed it on.

And there are cases that some journalist denied visa to United States on the basis of religion as two journalist accompanying PM delegation.
The Assembly elections saw the culture of “coverage” Packages explodes across the State. In many cases, a candidate just had to pay for almost any coverage at all. Issues didn’t come into it. No money, no news. This effectively shut out smaller parties and independent voices with low assets and resources. It also misled viewers and readers by denying them any mention of the real issues some of these forces raised. During the :Lok Sabha elections, where sections of the media were offering low end “coverage packages” for Rs. 15 lakh to Rs.20 lakh. “High end “ones cost a lot more. The State polls saw this go much further.
The demands of the media force them to communicate morning, noon and night. Speech too often precedes action, and action precedes thought.
What is happening here has already happened in the food industry. For a long time food was scarce commodity and it still is in many parts of the world. But when countryside began to produce in abundance, particularly in western Europe and North America , thanks to the revolution in agricultural technology., we found many our foods were contaminated, poisoned by pesticide, which then caused illnesses, infections, cancers and other health problems.
News was once a scarce commodity and there is still, in countries run by dictatorships, an absence of reliable, comprehensive and quality news. But in democratic countries news and information overflow on all sides. They are suffocating us. The Greek Philosopher Empedocles said that the world was made up of four elements, water, earth, and fire. Information has become so abundant in our globalised world that is now almost a fifth element.
There is no consensus about some guide lines which direct them to indulge in positive side of the society .
In my view journalist profession is sacred one, has obliged with social responsibility to provide right information and motivate people for the right cause. I am not blaming entire media fraternity but few media houses knowingly or unknowingly support such new stories. The competition forcing media to act on that, if one media ignore such news, another gives priority to that particular item.