All around the world, if we pick any news channel, we see that journalism has lost its true essence. News are not merely reported or transferred with the objective of informing only, but also with the purpose of attaining viewer ship. And a channel attains viewer ship when it adds its own opinions to it. Adding opinion means holding a cause.
Talking about Pakistan, we see that our journalists working for the media are more of activists. It gets really frustrating to see shows on news channels by the name of “mere mutabiq” etc. It is criminal for a journalist to present a news/information according to what he/she thinks about the news/information. More and more current affair and talk shows are based on what the host thinks about a particular event or news or information. It is not the job of a journalist!! His/her job is to present the news in a truthful manner and let the receiver/audience make his/her own perception. Providing audience with the news coupled with own views on it kills the perceptual ability of the receiver.
Eventually, when we compare both, we get to a conclusion that journalism is strictly confined to informing the audience thru the use of credible information sources. Whereas, activism is related to achieving results and its main purpose is to attain a particular outcome(s).
Regards,
Anas Kamdar
AOA
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with you.I recently came across a publication titled FIRM : Free Independent Responsible Media , by the Friedrich-Naumann foundation, don't know if you're familiar with them or not but what I liked about their publication was that they highlighted various characteristics of journalists particularly their penchant for creating sensationalism.Nowadays it's very hard to come across news that is bias free.
I do believe that sometimes even journalism ethics are undermined when delivering news which has elevated into becoming a habitual practice in Pakistan.
One wonders what will be the future of Pakistani media if they continue to add their own spice to burning issues?