Media Watch

Pitabas Pradhan ¹

Affiliations
1 Dept. of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh, IN

Abstract

Media freedom, in a liberal democracy, is linked to its social obligations of keeping the people informed and educated on events and issues in a fair, objective and unbiased way. But,changes in the media environment sometimes disturb the balance between the media's goals as an industry and its social obligations as a profession. When the media ignore its social obligations of fulfilling the public trust, especially under the driving influence of its business goals of profit prioritisation or partisan interests, national governments find opportunities to cross the threshold of the media's domain and attempt to create mechanisms to regulate their functioning. Such interventions are often viewed as attempts to negate the protection of l , and potential threats to media freedom. The Indian government's attempts to create a 'Broadcast Regulatory Authority, ostensibly to protect the public from the negatives impacts of, what it calls the debasing media content, has induced apprehension among the media and guardians of its freedom. The Indian media's campaign against the proposed regulatory authority, seen as an expression of their genuine concern for media freedom, is termed by the government as the media's over-reaction on the issue. It is alleged that the differing interpretations of the provisions of the propose bill, leaves much scope for their misuse to curtail the hard earned media freedom, a liberal democracy cannot afford do without. In view of the existing law in India including the constitutional provisions, the landmark legal judgments, research studies, and views of experts, this paper makes an attempt to find out the rationale for any regulatory framework, both from legal and moral perspectives. This article argues that even if it is legally tenable, in no case a regulatory framework should be allowed to infringe on media freedom to an extent beyond what is reasonable under the circumstances in question. But,the onus is on the media to honor its social obligations, failing which it may face the risk of weakening its legitimate claim for freedom.

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Pitabas Pradhan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202 002, IN

Abstract

The practice of paid news by public media in a democracy betrays the deep-seated ethical canon of journalism, which assumes that 'news is meant to be objective, fair and unbiased' as differentiated from advertisements that are paid for by those who sponsor. The blurring of lines between news and advertisements and attempts to present advertisements as news or advertorials, or news published grossly favouring private interests by selling the editorial space certainly constitutes betrayal of the trust of the reader, for such acts deceive the readers or viewers to believe the doctored reports to be true and unbiased. The practice, not only forces the media audiences to compromise on their right to unbiased news and fair comments, but also weaken the foundations of the fourth estate by lowering its own credibility and societal approval, which are the basic arguments legitimizing media freedom. While seeking to decode the phenomenon of paid news in terms of its operational, legal, and moral aspects, in the context of the changing dynamics of the Indian media market, this paper also attempts to examine the impacts and analyse the responses of the media, civil society and the state to the malaise of paid content.

Keywords

Paid News, Private Treaties, Public Trust, Accountability, Ethical Frame Work

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Pitabas Pradhan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202 002, IN

Abstract

The new information and communication technologies have transformed social life more than any of the previous waves of technology innovations that amazed humanity. Mobile telephone as the most ubiquitous of this revolution has become so important a tool for the modern human being that he frightens to think life without it. With a mobile phone subscriber base of 563.73 million, India has already emerged as the second largest wireless connection network in the world only next to China, and efforts are being made from both governmental and non-governmental platforms to further expand the mobile communication infrastructure in the country. The widespread access to mobile phones and the expanding value added services they provide has changed the dynamics of social interaction to the extent of exerting a driving influence on the information economy in India. With rapid mobile phone penetration even in the remotest parts of the country and growing network coverage, mobile phone is playing crucial role in finding solutions to a host of social problems and helping improve lives in underdeveloped parts of the country. Be it, connecting families separated by disaster, help in emergency relief work, empower farmers to ask for better prices in markets, mobile technology has emerged as the catalyst. With very high potential to drive change in the areas of health, humanitarian assistance, and environmental conservation, mobile telephone has emerged as a powerful tool for positive social change.

Keywords

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Pitabas Pradhan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202 002, IN

Abstract

The Arab spring of 2011, the Indian Civil Society campaign for Lokpal 2012, and the ongoing campaign for capital punishment to the Delhi gang rape accused, are among a thousands of events, worldwide, which have demonstrated the power of new media in galvanising the masses for a cause. The advent of high speed communication channels like broadband, optical fiber, and Web 2.0 services coupled with the ubiquitous multitasking devices like smart phones and other handhelds available in multitudes of forms have tremendously increased the scale of messages output and sharing. The pull of modern technology, push of business, and most importantly the search for new ways to satisfy the self expression needs and ambitions of the new generation have made the domain of new media grow beyond expectation. The technology savvy new generations, have learnt to explore constantly expanding opportunities for communication and self expression presented by the Internet and the Web. The interactive nature of the new media technologies have significantly altered the dynamics of journalism in the cyber space to an extent of blurring the distinction between producers and consumers of messages and transformed them into pro-sumers. This paper analyses the impacts of new media technology on professional journalism and the responses of the old media.

Keywords

New Media, Online Journalism, Cyber Space, Citizen Journalism, Blogging, Social Media

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