The prognosis of 24-hour syndrome

After 3 failed attempts to write something substantial, I am finally posting something. The idea for this post came up during a discussion with a friend about the Indian media. The emergence of India as a secular, democratic republic coincided with the rise of an independent media or the so-called Fourth Estate in democracy. This does not mean that there was no press/media before the independence but it simply meant that now they will not be subjected to whimsical orders from the establishment, which led to crack-down on vernacular press before independence. So, the press/media became a watchdog for the infant Indian democracy and since then it has developed a lot, both in a good and bad sense. The liberalization of the economy and the country in 1991 opened the floodgates for the opening up of the media. The monopoly of Doordarshan, the state television channel, was challenged by a whole slew of channels- both from western media empires and homegrown channels. This development led to extensive exposure of the Indian public to various foreign cultures which had their own pros and cons. Without getting into this debate of the "bad western influences", we should look at the condition/ influence of Indian media in today's times. In my personal opinion, the media, in general, and news media, in particular, has undergone massive levels of deterioration in quality. The "24-hour syndrome" has led to the demise of serious journalism and the emergence of frivolous news reporting. Not one day passes when a channel does not claim that somebody in a remote Indian village has had the "fortune of having a divine meeting" or some toddler falling into an open manhole or a ditch. The frequency of such events occurring has increased manifold. Another particularly troubling sign in Indian media is that it has started its own "judiciary" by convicting "alleged criminals" outside of courts. The basic premise of justice is "innocent till proven otherwise" which the media has twisted into "guilty till proven otherwise". This is true not just for the electronic media but also for print media. Although there are some upsides of this "media activism", if you will. One of them is the fact that now the powerful cannot necessarily get away with any shit. In the last few years, we have seen several examples where "media activism" coupled with middle-class ire and concerted public opinions have led to expedited hearings and convictions in cases where the accused belonged to the high and mighty of Indian society. What is exceedingly horrific in all of this is the manner in which a great majority of television channels aim at "scandalous reporting" which can increase TRPs. A case in point is a teenager's death just outside Delhi where several TV channels pronounced the girl's father to be guilty and the "Sherlock Holmes of Indian TV" showed us how the case was an ensemble of various sexual misconduct like incest, wife-swapping, rape, etc. This was done in complete negligence of the privacy of the family, emotional trauma of the people involved and above all, it proved to be a mockery of the justice system. The entertainment channels are worse off. The series which are being shown on Indian television is idiotic at best and has various superstitions and false beliefs. The directive principles of state policy of the Indian constitution suggest that the state shall strive to weed out superstitions from the society but in 21st century India, it is the massive penetrance of cable TV which is a threat to the fulfillment of this aim by the Indian state. Being an opponent of state censorship, I don't believe that the government should censor them but I do believe that there should be some "self-regulation" by the media with minimal government oversight to see that the programs do not promote obsolete ideas. Lastly, I think the Indian media is currently filled with sub-standard journalists who lack incisive abilities, intelligence, and requisite knowledge to investigate and analyze any news. This is because of the simple fact that journalism was never glamorous until now and hence not many smart people become journalists. With the money and glamor coming into the media, I hope that some institutions of excellence for journalism should be established which can harbinger an age of mature journalism in India which can enable the media to act as the genuine"fourth estate of democracy" and be the watchdog for the citizen's rights.