Journalism in the 21st Century: Indian Context

Abstract

Journalism or media is the collecting, editing, and delivering the news to the people.  It is the fourth pillar of our democracy. It is the ultimate platform where our freedom of speech and expression is exercised. It plays an important role as a bridge between the government and the people. The importance of journalism in creating awareness among the masses can be traced back to the Indian national movements in the 20^th century. Today the concept of TRP which determines the scale of the amount that is paid by the companies for the advertisement has led to competition between the news channels which encourages them to create sensationalism and exaggerate simple news. Journalism has such a great power that it can make a wrong right and vice versa. Due to this, we see a lot of issues that pass away unfocused. In the 21^st century, journalism has itself become evil by triggering controversies, provoking communal violence, pleasing the political parties, and sidelining corruption. Media is supposed to be the voice of the voiceless but, unfortunately, it has become blind and deaf for those people who are away from the limelight. Journalism has a huge role in societal behavior and attitude. It can build up society and destroy it at the same time. Therefore, it should be brought into an ethical boundary to be transparent, accurate, unbiased, and truthful. Indian journalism is also facing threats from dominating political and religious ideologies which is against the very fundamental ideas of our constitution.