Commercialisation, Sensationalisation, Politicisation of Indian Media

Shedding light on the present situation of Indian media and journalists, prominent senior journalist Sagarika Ghose lamented on the plight of journalists and media in India.
“I have not seen the kind of pressure on journalists today. This is the first time when a journalist is being called traitor. Anyone who questions the government is being termed anti-national,” said Ghose while addressing on ‘Indian Media: deeply polarised on national issues’ at a fortnight programme, Guftgu, in Delhi on 27 August.
Elaborating the pitiful condition of the media, Ghose, who is currently working as consulting editor of English daily Times of India, said there is a lot of commercialisation, sensationalisation and politicisation of the media. Therefore, media is deeply polarised. There is no scope for even a human interest issue in the media.
Explaining the commercialisation of the media, she said that mostly news channels are run by business tycoons. They run TV channels for their vested interests. So they pressurise journalists to work for their interest and interfere into the channel functioning. Journalists also come under pressure because of the advertisement. There is a lot of competition among media houses because of corporatisation. There is an issue of TRP (Television Rating Point). Programmes are being judged on the base of TRP, which is the most inaccurate way of judging a programme. So, this corporate media model is completely broken. We will have to find way to repair it. There is a need for purely public-funded media. Then only it may work in the right way.
Talking on the sensationalisation of the issue, the learned journalist said that everyday news channels come with such news items as are deeply rooted in the politics of hate and violence. Apart from serious discussion, it tries to find a villain and hero of every issue. There is hardly any discussion on positive issues like education and health. That is why there is no scope even for human interest stories.
Speaking on the politicisation of the media, Ghose criticised the present government for narrowing the space of questioning, dissent, different views and dialogue. She said that a journalist is bound to question government policies. It is the duty of the journalist to question them. But today one who questions the government is called anti-national and traitor. This is the situation of undeclared emergency. She also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who praises himself for reaching out to the people, has not held any open press conference till date.