INTRODUCTION 

"Independent journalism is the Backbone of democracy, and the journalists are eyes and ears of the public." ~ Former Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana

Journalism is a powerful element in the democracy. It is the element that always proves helpful in awaking the country from its great slumber to make all the people aware of the incidents that are taking place in their surroundings. Journalism is the bridge of communication between the policies of the government and the acceptance and rejection of the feedback of the public on the same. If there is no newspaper then it would be extremely difficult to connect the incidents that are taking place at the local, national, and international levels. If the newspapers are not present people will feel disconnected with the society and the world. Journalism before the 1950s was full of aggression against the policies of the Britishers and was acting as the representative of the voice of the people directly. Moreover, the people who were acting as freedom fighters, despite being involved in the movement were indulged in writing by aligning with the newspaper or launching their newspaper. The situation, however, never remains the same, times changes and the form of democracy too, i.e., the leaders who were coming and participating in democracy, were inclined towards their interest and not of the nation, and when I'm saying this it means that I'm talking about MPs, MLAs and MLC. In addition to those leaders who participated in the local elections. When all these things were taking place then there was one thing which was having the greatest responsibility to take care of the thoughts of the people by seeking appropriate questions from the government and that was none other than the Media that is the reason why it is deemed as the fourth pillar of democracy. As we know, however, everyone looks for their interests, and media houses could maintain distance from it, especially after the mid-1990s90ss.

WHAT IS MEDIA AND ITS TYPES

As per the website of education.nationalgeographic.org,

"Media is the plural form of the word medium, which is a means of conveying something—in this case, information. Media serves many purposes, including communicating information about a subject or providing entertainment. There are many forms of media in the modern world. Television, newspapers, websites, and magazines are all forms of media." 

In my opinion, Media is the medium to transmit essential and relevant information to people and the government at local, national, and international levels so that people and government can be aware of their respective rights, duties, and responsibilities. It is responsible for telling the people about the policies and governance-related subjects to the population so that the full intention to make the policies can be fulfilled and in turn, the feedback or the grievances of the public can be fetched to the government so that the modification can be brought. 

Types of media and communication 

Based on traditional and contemporary types, we can broadly categorize the media into three types: 

1. Print Media: It is a form of media concerned with printing information on paper and then distributing it at a very low cost with the support of the government.  For instance: Newspapers, Magazines, Journals, etc.
2. Electronic Media: In this, the information is disseminated through Television or Radio.  It can be also called Broadcasting media.  For instance: News channels on Television etc. 
3. Social Media: This information is not only dispatched from a source but also the people can share it and attach their views to it immediately. And it can be done by the media houses, by the government directly, or by the people. It is now emerging as the most powerful form of media because of its transparency and open platform for anyone in this world. For instance: Social media handles like Instagram, Meta(earlier Facebook), Twitter, Internet websites on search engines like Google and Mozilla Firefox, and finally YouTube which has become another universe of information of a divergent world. 

WHAT ARE ALL THOSE CAUSES THAT MAKE IT ROTTEN? 

As per the words of Gandhiji, "The sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges the whole countryside and devastates crops, even so, an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy." The remarks of Mahatma Gandhi pertinently tell about the importance of journalism and its demerits too. Media is considered as the communication link between the government and the people. It tells the current policies of the government and the grievances of the people against the government. It is the Media that acts as the supporter of opposition parties to raise questions against the government loopholes of the government policies and governance. 

Journalism before independence was different than today. Before the 1950s it was different, it was inclined towards freedom struggle and full of nationalist ideas, which proved quite helpful in agitating the views of the general masses against the oppressive policies of the British government. Editors of the newspapers went to jail for a time. But gradually the role of media started becoming commercial and money-minded. Despite that, the media was playing quite a good role in revealing the loopholes or the evil terms and clauses of the policies of the government. Probably this was the reason why the government of Indira Gandhi imposed stern imposition on the media and opposition during the time of emergency under the pretext of internal disturbances by using Article 352. 

The major change in the mindset and the real fall of media had started after the mid of 1990s when liberation was brought into the economy and owing to that various private TV channels and News channels came into existence There is a report which is published by France based on the report of Reporters Without Borders or Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) on 3rd of May which is celebrated as World Press Freedom Day; in which the media ranking of all the countries of the world are shown. The consistent fall has been seen in Indian Media. In 2016 its rank was 133, in 2017 it was 136, in 2018 it was 138, in 2019 it was 140, in 2020 it was 142, in 2021 again it was 142, in 2022 it was 150, in 2023 it fell with 50% increment rate and thus it is 161 out of 180 countries which were enlisted in the rank. The rank in 2023 is so poor that nations like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are above in rank than India. Now here all of you must be thinking about why such poor results are coming out with every passing year in terms of the rank and trust of Indian Media. When the economic growth of the country is increasing rapidly, as per the words of Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the economy of India is 5th in the world and it is looking forward to reaching the 3rd rank soon, then what are those causes which are underlyingly responsible for the drastic fall of media ranking and the trust within the country and worldwide? So let's move to plunge into the world of information, facts, and unbiased opinions to find the answers to the above question. As all of you know there are always some factors or reasons behind the occurrence of any phenomenon, similarly There are factors that are responsible for the fall of media too so just try to find the answer through the following two questions: 

1. What kind of performance is being given by the media? 

"People are sheep. TV is the shepherd." ~ Jess C. Scott

• Commercializing the media, making it a job from a service. Concentrated on getting more ads than to provide relevant news. Desperately running behind TRP and can do anything irrelevant and obnoxious just to remain in the race of TRP. News is provided for more TRP not for information delivery. 
• Always show catchy headlines to provoke the mind of the reader or viewers against one side. 
• Media pay 80% attention to political parties and 20%. Political activities had become the center point and all other relevant issues became side points. Whenever any political meeting takes place, media houses show them on television but when any civil servant works with honesty they don't follow them, When any honest NGO worker or reporter dies they don't cover them, when any corruption goes on in any construction they don't do so. 
• Anchors have become actors rather than News anchors. Thoroughly biased Anchors and often try to prove the ruling party correct. Often ask feeble or just formality-like questions in the studios. 
• More interested in becoming an entertainment channel than a News Channel. They will show the news that people want to see but not the news that must be seen related to their deep interest. Habitual of picking up those topics which are irrelevant and detested but full of 'Masala News' such as Pakistan-related news, Love stories related news, Entertainment news like Bigboss and Serials of different channels, irrelevant political news only.
• Never take matters related to relevant subjects such as falling in Hunger Index where India stands at 107th place out of 120 nations (2022), Economic Freedom Index stands at 121st place out of 180 countries (2023), Happiness Index stands at 126st place out of 136 nations, Unsolved flood issue, Suicide of farmers, Women atrocities, Child malnutrition, Closing Mills in different states, no questions on high unemployment rate to the ruling government, no questions on mob lynching, no relevant question on increasing petroleum rates, no relevant discussion on inflation, no counter questions to ruling party national public speakers, no questions on the poor condition of primary schools, no questions or nexus of bureaucracy and politics, no questions are asked to compete with the technology of China and Europe but only talk about Pakistan's poor condition. 
• Media houses summon provocative speakers from different political parties and religious groups. Whenever they speak, they speak in such a manner that will catch the attention of the viewers and they talk on irrelevant points and within a very limited time. 
• The sting operation of Cobrapost in 2008 revealed that the media houses are ready to publish any sort of fake news just for the sake of getting money. It showed the venality of media houses.  
• Digital media houses have also held their pillars of ideology and thus thrive on them in their own manner instead of holding the pillars of impartiality.
• Hindi newspapers do not provide quality news. 

2. Why is the media compelled or interested to perform in such an abhor manner?

"Whoever controls the media, controls the mind." ~ Jim Morrison

• Nexus of Corporate and Political Parties: The industrialists have arrested huge sharing in the ownership of media houses and thus they run according to their nexus with the political parties. This is called Cross Media Holding or Corporatisation of Media. Danny Glover rightly observed through these words, "Today, the media dictatorship is becoming a substitute for military dictatorship. The big economic groups are using the media and decide who can speak, who the good guy is, and who the bad guy is."
• Political Pressure: Due to the pressure of the government to do that which is in the favor of the ruling government. Ask questions to the opposition parties instead of asking questions to the ruling party at the central and state level. Why so? If they ask questions against the government or to the government then the government can misuse investigating agencies against the true media houses to impose pressure to shut down its coverage against the government.
• Print Media: Print media write headlines in such a manner that it will make sense that the government has not done anything wrong either against the public or any other opposition party. They want to get advertisements in newspapers from the government for more revenue generation.
• Not interested in doing ground reporting which is more hardworking and full of responsibility and every news channel wants to come first in the race of providing Masala news to get more TRP. And more TRP will provide more ads and more ads will generate revenue.
• People are not interested in listening to or watching news they are more inclined towards watching Masla News which is the reason why Electronic Media is competing with entertainment channels. And try to bring the same kind of Entertainment type features in the news. 
• When an individual tries to follow the ethical parameters of journalism, they are oppressed to not do so by intimidation about their job and also by life-threatening messages. 

IMPACT OF IRRESPONSIBLE MEDIA IN INDIA

In a democracy, a frightened journalist induces half-dead citizens. ~ Ravish Kumar (Senior Journalist) 

The detrimental impact of corrupt behaviour and business-mindedness of media houses can be seen in the following manner

• Spreading the propaganda: Hitler could fit his ideology into the kinds of the people of Germany by using the propaganda of lies. Jacques Ellul has remarked about this issue, with the aid of words like, "It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale." 
• Induce hatred in the public against each other: Provocative speakers of different religions come and speak anything by using abusive words then the view belonged longing to other religion will consider this religion teaches these things. How bad this religion is? On account of this, the feeling of communalism increases, and hatred and polarization increase amongst the Politicisation proves successful in religion-related conflicts and riots. While doing political parties take advantage of that. 
• Not ensuring accountability and responsibility: Whenever they talk about burning issues they often do not ask hard questions to the responsible ruling government and this to why the accountability and responsibility of the ruling government are not ensured. 
• Government becomes autocratic: When media doesn't perform its job, it gives chance to the ruling government to become more autocratic. As the ruling party knows no one can ask questions to us plus there is no one to support the opposition the against government's activities. 
• Tussle with Opposition governments: When there is no one to oppose the Central Government then the central government will try to create some sort of chaos in state governments where ruling government is of opposition parties. 
• Questions remain undissolved: When no relevant questions are asked to the government then the grievances of the public will remain suspended. Relevant issues will be resolved.
• Unethical Journalism: There is a code of ethics and code of conduct which are supposed to be followed by civil servants. Similarly, there are some undeclared ethics which need to be followed by journalists like impartiality, honesty, responsibility, etc. 

WAY FORWARD 

"The quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined." ~ Bill Moyers 

Facing challenges is the comman part of the life of human beings. But the important point we must not bow down before the hardships. We have to find the solutions and try to solve that problem as soon as possible. In the same manner, there are some way forwards to dissolve the major issue of making dead media alive. Those are given in the following manner: 

• In India, people should move towards the system of Paid system in which the news channels will be paid by the viewers to watch unbiased news. 

• Corporatisation of Media houses should not be there. Industrialists should not get involved in the ownership of media. It is unethical to exercise control over the Free media. 
• An Independent regulatory body should be established to check control over the arbitrariness of doing jobs, to ensure the fulfillment of the objective of being a true media. 
• Article 19 of the Constitution talks about Freedom of Media, which should be allowed by media houses to use properly without the interference of government and corporate owners.
• Regular press conferences should be conducted from the side of the ruling government, to ensure accountability and responsibility of government.
• People's awareness and participation is extremely important. And that is the proof of live citizens instead of unconscious  

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REFERENCE:

• www.goodreads.com
• www.azquotes.com 
• education.nationalgeographic.org