It is said that News Media is the 4th pillar of democracy in India and nowadays, it is an integral part of all countries. Earlier news channels were the finest source for authentic news. As day by day the media industry increases and evolves, many issues with the channels come simultaneously.
Now, when we see these channels broadcasting the news all day, We find how badly we have been affected. Running a country without media is next to impossible and it is crucial what they are representing to their audience. We just want to make the audience aware of the negative sides of news media by mentioning the Top 10 reasons for which news or media should be banned.
List of 10 reasons for which media or news should be banned
Before going through the reasons, we want to make clear that all news media are not bad. But there are certain news channels of certain countries who are responsible for the under-mentioned reasons. And those media channels should definitely be banned because they have the most influencing power than anyone. Bad journalism can harm a country in a number of ways.
1. Biased Media Channels
In a country, the general people follow news channels as an authentic source of information where they expect genuine and unbiased news. But most of the big news channels nowadays are influenced or affiliated by any particular political power. As a result, they show biased and manipulated stories in favor of them.
Often these channels drive trends of paid news as well and, the sad part is a major part of our society blindly follows and believes in that news. Also, individuals are influenced by these things, and they form an opinion in their minds without knowing the actual ground reality.
2. Psychological Effects of Bad news
Whenever we open a news channel, there must be sad news of murder, starvation, war, cases of coronavirus, bad impacts of a pandemic, or anything that could against humanity. The quote is famous among folks as well that if you want to be sad about life, then open any news channel.
The problem is the media spreads a large number of negative news repeatedly than positive information. So, people like me who want to be updated with whatever is happening in the world often face anxiety and panic caused by the excessive sad news.
The balance is necessary for the viewers but they ignore this fact. These media channels continuously work on the same strategy of ‘Negative news spreads quickly. It is a valid reason for which media or news should be banned.
3. Spreads Hate speech and Racism
In the name of ‘freedom of speech’, they broadcast hateful, racist speeches delivered by political leaders. These political faces spread discrimination between two communities for purpose of their advantage. They target a few communities before the election in the promotional speeches of the parties.
When general people listen to them on TV news channels, it hurts their emotions and triggers them against other communities. As a result, tension creates in the country, that causes violence, riot, and sometimes situations get worse where people kill each other. You can imagine how bad the impacts of violent and vulgar speeches could be and these speeches are often shown in the media.
4. Ugly Debate/ Arguments
Every news channel conducts sessions of debate between 3-4 persons who are the experts of debate topics. But on most days, they choose their topic of discussion as ‘which political party is more superior’, ‘religion’, or other countries’ issues. In very few days they talk about the serious problems of their own country like economic crisis, or educational development.
Their most seasons are full of futile and heated arguments between political faces. Furthermore, the participants in these debates do not follow the guidelines, and as a result, the debate develops into an unpleasant brawl. In a few cases, the situation gets worse when in-studio the debate persons got into manhandling, and you can see those awful pictures in live-telecast.
5. Diverts from the critical issues of the country
News Media is the responsible industry for making any country more developed. If the present government fails in any project or in controlling some critical situation their responsibility is to criticize them. They should spread awareness of how any wrong decision taken by the government can influence our lives.
But instead of doing that, many big channels are corrupted and every time the government fails, they telecast different issues to divert us. For example, if the government fails to make a solid decision for economic development, the news media may focus on the failures of other parties or nations in order to distract the audience’s attention from the current situation.
6. Panic of Breaking News
Day by day the number of news and media channels is increasing. With the increased competition their focus is to gain high TRP. They compete with each other in the number of breaking News per day they are presenting. The channel head often pressurizes the journalists for bringing breaking News.
To meet this higher demand, journalists often manipulate information to add spices to the news. They represent very basic news creating the hype of big breaking headlines. Even for TRP on these channels, we found celebrities’ personal life ups and downs as breaking news.
7. Spreading of Conspiracy Theory
People usually make conspiracy theories when they don’t have practical analysis about rare events. As there are no clear causes behind those events, commoners believe in theories easily. Especially when News channels start promoting conspiracy theories, it spreads like a fireball.
In recent times about the generation of the Coronavirus, many news channels promote different theories. Like some say it’s a man-made virus by the Chinese government, whether some directly claim Bill Gates had this strategy of spreading the virus. But they are all theories without any proof.
According to the study, political powers built these types of hypotheses for opposition communities and parties.
8. Indirectly Increase Crime Rates
When the media arrives first at a crime scene in the race of who can cover the most minute details, they often forget what they should show or not show. They started their own investigation before the police and showed all the details on TV.
It helps the actual criminal to escape. Media broadcast different crime strategies in-depth, so criminals got new ideas to do the crime. Too much showing the crime news instead of spreading awareness in general people gives birth to fear. Nowadays even people hesitate to build relations with new neighbors. It causes gaps in society.
9. Killing of Democracy
Secularism appears with democracy and in a democratic nation with people of various religions, it is critical not to harm any community’s emotions. But News media are now entirely separated in favor of different communities. In this way, the industry murders secularism.
They are presenting what they want to show, not what is happening in the country. That is totally against democracy, where they are trying to hide actual news.
10. Adult Advertisements
Can you remember, how many times at dinner with our family we watch a news channel to satisfy the thirst for knowledge from every corner of the world? It seems like there is nothing wrong with viewing these channels for any age group. So children and teenagers often watch the channels to increase their library of information.
The problem is the irrelevant and adult advertisement that generates awful curiosity among children. Children often reach out to nasty resources due to the enthusiasm generated by the adult ads. It impacts their mind badly. Some vulgar ads create awkward situations on the dinner table as well.
Conclusion:
We rely on the media to interact with the rest of the world, and we value each member’s contribution to the industry. But, how the quality of News channels decreases day after day is a serious concern for the country. That’s why we have tried to illustrate a few ugly points about some channels. On the above mentioned Top 10 reasons for which media or news should be banned one must take a look. Moreover, we need to boycott the channels that are practicing these things regularly.
