Manish Pachouly
Journalism, the word once translated into passion and dedication. Though it provided a livelihood, most old-timers were satisfied with the little wages they took home every month. The struggle was compensated by the satisfaction of the work that provided justice to the community, especially the underprivileged and the oppressed strata of society.
Over the years there was a revolution in the profession with the arrival and soon flooding of 24-hour news channels. It helped many journalists who sustained in the profession despite low wages, with a certain level of pay upgrade. The revolution continued with the launch of multiple newspapers in Mumbai and the salaries improved further for those in the print media.
As it is generally believed that development has its flip side, the new era journalism soon started to show an insensitive face and as feared it continued to take an ugly turn. The TRP war led to an open battlefield with no respect for rules and regulations causing a big dent in the sanctity of the profession.
Insensitivity began to take over the rightfulness and justice, that the profession was supposed to provide to the helpless. The industry, mainly the electronic, began to leverage the situations to have an edge over others in the TRP war, without caring for the emotions of the masses and their rights.
The recent reporting on the Meghalaya murder case has once again brought the disturbing trend of the TRP fight leading to the crushing of emotions of the already suffering family. Debates, pitching the victim’s and the accused’s family against each other, brought a new low for the industry.
Journalists have always been approaching the victim’s family to get their side of the story, however, in old school, it was done with sensitivity and without coercion. There was competition and pressure, and there was fear of being reprimanded by the Editor for missing an angle, but the feeling of responsibility prevailed over coerciveness to get the story by leveraging the emotions of the victims and their families. Maybe what helped then was no familiarity with the concept of the 24-hour news channels.
The current situation has put what was once a noble profession, into jeopardy. Journalism is on the ventilator, hoping for its revival before it’s too late.
Crime Alert 