MEDIA : A BOON OR A MEDIA : A BOON OR A CURSE?CURSE?

The phrase "the media" began to be used in the 1920s. Newspapers

developed from about 1612, with the first example in English in

1620 but they took until the 19th century to reach a mass-audience

directly.

The limited-effects theory, which was originally tested in the 1940s

and 1950s, states that "because people usually choose what media to

interact with based on what they already believe, media exerts a

negligible influence“

The class-dominant theory states that "the media reflects and

projects the view of minority elite, which controls it".

The culturalist theory, which was developed in the 1980s and

1990s, combines the other two theories and claims that "people interact

with media to create their own meanings out of the images and

messages they receive“

IS MEDIA A BLESSING OR IS IS MEDIA A BLESSING OR IS IT A DISGUISEIT A DISGUISE

BETTER SIDE OF A COINBETTER SIDE OF A COIN

“There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.”-mark twain

Media is that part for a government that can lead to

construction and at times to destruction.

EYE OPENEREYE OPENERThe media as a watch dog of the democratic system has unearthed its various shortcomings. Investigative reporting in print and television media has helped in exposing large scale corruptions which have robbed the nation. The Commonwealth Games Scam, the Adarsh Housing Society Scam, Cash for Vote Scam, 2g scams, coal gate scam and the Bofors Scam are the highpoints of the Indian media

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIEDDENIED

AWARENESSAWARENESS

STRING OPERATIONSSTRING OPERATIONS

A NEW BEGINNINGA NEW BEGINNING

THE FLIP SIDE OF THE THE FLIP SIDE OF THE COINCOIN

Indian media doesn’t do introspection. They recommend it to

others—MPs, political parties, militants, judges, scientists. They

are all advised to look deep inside their own trade and clean up

the rot. Meanwhile, the rot creeping into the fourth estate is

studiously ignored or airbrushed.

Following are the problems which have plagued media in the

contemporary times:

CORRUPTION

BIASED INTERPRETATION

PHONE TAPPING SCANDAL

RADIA-GATE

26/11 COVERAGE

CORRUPTION IN MEDIACORRUPTION IN MEDIACorruption in media has reached such a level where it is being

described as “Fourth estate on sale”.

The former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, had paid

money to various newspapers to get publicity, and not submitted

proper accounts for the expenditure made in this regard.

BIASED INTERPRETATIONBIASED INTERPRETATION

Mass media play a significant role in shaping public

perceptions on a variety of important issues, both through the

information that is dispensed through them, and through the

interpretations they place upon this information.

The media focus on African-American in the contexts of

crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social

behavior has resulted in a distorted and harmful public

perception of African-Americans.

African-Americans have been subjected to oppression and

discrimination for the past few hundred years.

PHONE TAPPING SCANDALPHONE TAPPING SCANDALThe News International phone-hacking scandal is an ongoing

controversy involving the defunct News of the World and other British

newspapers published by News International, a subsidiary of News

Corporation.

Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone

hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the

pursuit of publishing stories.

RADIA-GATERADIA-GATE

The Radia tapes controversy relates to the telephonic

conversations between Nira Radia, a political lobbyist and an

acquaintance of the (then) Indian telecom minister A. Raja, and

with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, taped by

the Indian Income Tax Department in 2008–09.

The famour personalities caught in this tapes were : A. Raja,

Kanimozhi, Barkha dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vir Sanghvi, Prabhu

Chawla, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Ranjan Bhattacharya, Suhel

Seth.

This tapes exhibited the dangerous nexus of politician-journalist-

lobbyist- corporates.

26/11 COVERAGE26/11 COVERAGEFrom the transcripts, especially those from hotel Taj and

Nariman House, it is evident that the terrorists who were

entrenched at those places, and more than them, their

collaborators across the border were watching the show on

television.”

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

•The right to protest is fundamental but media is a ‘safety valve’

not an alternative to representative democracy . Whilst

protesters might agree on ends, they will inevitably differ on the

means to achieve them.

•. Media is simply a way of bringing issues to their attention not

a way of replacing the system altogether.

•Thus the role of media is of utmost importance in any form of

government but it is necessary to exercise certain restraints

while utilizing this power because

“WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY”