They say that a pen is such a powerful tool which can change
the lives of millions in a single move. Here I am referring to pen as a symbol
for media. If we go back in past by a decade, we have seen that media has
played such an eminent role in shaping the framework of Indian society. There
have been numerous instances where media has exposed scams, has reported hidden
crimes and has also helped in galvanizing the Indian society to come forward
and show some restraint to all the undesirable things existing in our society,
hence gaining the faith of billions of Indians. We have seen in past that how
media helped people to come out of their shells and fight for their rights,
fight for the justice. Jessica Lal murder case, Anna Hazare’s movement, and
Delhi Gang rape protests: all these movements have received unprecedented
support from media. We believe in what we watch and what we read but every now
and then we are made to think that whether if what we watch and what we read is
the actual truth or it is something that’s being shown to us as per the part of
an agenda. There is no denying that with great powers come great
responsibilities and there has always been a question mark whether if media is
using their powers for putting forward the truth or like in so many superhero
movies, their powers are being mis-utilized by the media themselves or a group
of powerful people. And yes, unfortunately here too there have been so many
examples of media messing up with the issues and thus creating a false story or
diverting the story from the truth. Every now and then media has been
questioned on the grounds of favoring a group of people or intentionally
downgrading some story or the other. Let’s take example of recent spot fixing
fiasco in IPL. Right from the day 1 of this news being exposed, media in a
quest to be sensational has created false impressions in the minds of people,
thus diverting from their responsibility which comes in coordination with their
power of mass appeal. They forget that in this quest to be sensational and different, they
are putting the reputation of people on stake, completely forgetting that in
case of their guesses proving to be false, the damage that will be done to
those individuals will be beyond any repair. Not just this, this spot fixing
thing has once again showed that how media can be biased towards a group of
people. I am a die-hard fan of a leading website for cricket fans but one of
their recent efforts at being responsible on this sensitive issue of spot
fixing has really raised a question mark on them. Recently they blocked fans’
comments on some of their posts related to team Rajasthan and spot fixing in
IPL because they wanted to discourage the improper comments but hey wait, where
were they when whole world was shouting and cursing Pakistani players when
Butt, Asif and Amir were exposed. Just because PCB doesn’t hold the same power
in cricketing world as BCCI does makes PCB susceptible to criticism and a less
sensitive subject?! This is one of those countless instances where media has
made fun of trust of people and of their influence on the minds of their
audience. I wish someday some news channel or newspaper will expose the
ill-practices of Indian media. Amen!
