Thursday, June 17, 2010

The electronic media-Why we need regulation!!

Its the second monsoon that I am not in Mumbai. I happened to catch the first heavy showers on television ensconed in a warm room at Akola.The proliferation of news channels made it difficult for me to escape their coverage on the Mumbai monsoons. The coverage of all news channels made it seem like Mumbai was hit by a cyclone. Certain points that stood out are given below
1.All news channels played the same footage again and again. They showed us Khar Subway and Milan Subway. For all Mumbaikars, it is not news that these subways get flooded every year.But it was made out to be a big incident by the news channels.
2.All areas covered by the news channels, Sion, Andheri, Wadala are known to be rain sensitive areas.They are a bad sample for the population i.e. Mumbai
Such news coverage is something that we have become used to. Making a mountain out of a molehill is now a core competency enjoyed by these news channels. Lambasting administrators and playing judge on a variety of issues is a skill that is a must for every news anchor. We need some serious regulation on these guys. They distort and influence the news to their liking. That their 26/11 coverage put security forces in danger is a well documented fact.
Free press should not be the excuse given by these TV channels to disseminate information which is biased and is intended to shock and create panic among its viewers. Its high time that the government looked into this matter and stepped in to control the hyper TV anchors and their producers!

No comments:

Post a Comment