It is no doubt that the media is one of the most(if not the most) powerful institutions in shaping public opinoin and even Govt. decisions. But whether we really get a true and neutral story from the press or media these days is of concern. The media needs to earn revenues and may tend to over publicise stories that will sell. Well, that’s acceptable as far as I’m concerned, we all have to make profits. But if the media portrays situations in a different light that it actuall is, or chooses to cover some events at all, then it would be of a great concern to a democratic country like India.
Let us look at the bigger picture. There are countless TV stations, magazines and news papers which claim to present a true, un-biased story of events. And usually we do not see much contradiction from the different news channels and papers, so it is easy to assume that what they are telling must be true. But it would be of interest to note that most of these numerous media companies are controlled by a very few parent companies. In the US, 90% the thousands of TV Channels and Newspapers and media companies belong to only about 5 Corporations. In situations like this, who needs censorship? And these Corporations are major industry players. How can you expect a newspaper to report the wrongdoings of a particular company, an unfair Govt. contract etc, it they belong to the same people. Like, if General Electrics was involved in some illegal activity there is no way NBC would be investigating on it because they belong to the same poeple. And there are reports that this is actually the kind of thing that is happening.
And the Govt. is still trying to make sure that these Corporations do whatever they want by ensuring that any law that is in thier way is repealed. Well, I believe there are people out there who are much better informed than me. Kindly add whatever you have to however insignificant it maybe. It does not look like we are gonna get anything from those who know a significant amount.