TRP or Journalism – “The duty of journalists is, to tell the truth. Journalism means you go back to actual facts, you look at the documents, you discover what the record is, you report it that way.“
-Noam Chomsky
With the emergence of citizen journalism, when having a camera can lead people reporting. It often blurred the lines between professional journalism and citizen journalism. Today we have multiple medium, various organisations, freelancers who are telling their opinions. But is it actually journalism? The question will make you rewind each second of your day when you get a piece of news information from the various site including social media.
If we trace the history of journalism, telling opinions without facts, shouting at people when we are supposed to interview them was not considered as journalistic traits. What is happening recently in news channels at primetime slot or in general is giving them TRP but degrading them on journalistic values. People who are watching it, criticizing it are forgetting the fact that they are also giving them much attention that will benefit them in terms of TRP but it is surely getting lower on what journalism stands for.
In the climate of Pro- BJP media and blatant reporting resulted in low on media standards. The regulation body can be tossed aside if they try to keep an ethical check on Arnab Goswami and his Republic TV. This is what happened last year when the National Broadcasting Standards Association (NBSA) tries to do that. In fact, it was reported that with the wide majority he was also elected as a president for News Broadcasters Federation (NBF). According to PTI, it is the country’s largest association of over 78 channels. It is surprising that even after getting criticism for the reporting style, abusive reporting, shouting instead of debating; defaming its guests is not enough to not reward a person. And since when the news business has become the profit-making business; which is high on TRP but too low on ethical standards.
It is said that the moment you choose News, your objectivity has gone. The journalism taught us reporting and not choosing which leads to The Agenda Setting Theory. It is done massively by various news channels. Instead of telling its viewers the news, the anchors are shouting and making sure to tell them “What the nation wants to know”. But having said that saying that journalism is dead is what lead us to the passive audiences. The news is not what we see on our electronic medium or on our social media platform. But we often forget to appreciate various freelancers and independent media organisations who are reporting fearlessly and ethically. And this is what reminds us of what Noam Chomsky has quoted- “How it is we have so much information but know so little?”
