Negative Impacts of Media and Journalism on our Minds

Journalism is said to be a noble profession with utmost dignity and respect. Our country has a free press independent from the influence of the oligarchs. The job of the journalist is to provide unbiased first-hand information on the events that had occurred during the day. Journalism is a very important profession because a journalist also has the duty to give an unbiased report on the policies laid out by the government. A journalist has to carefully scrutinize each and every piece of information, and provide a report that does not favour any set of individuals.

(Courtesy:freepik.com)

The situation with journalism nowadays is the complete opposite of what it is supposed to be. Journalists nowadays rampantly talk hours and hours on issues that are trivial, only to brush off the major issues that affect our country as ‘unimportant’. Sometimes, news that is not verified is broadcasted on the television or newspapers. People usually do not cross-verify the news they receive, and hence they believe all the fallacies, the channels broadcast to them.

The news channels do not care about the authenticity of the news, nor do they care about their audience. They only want to garner more and more TRP for their news program. These Journalists can stoop very low just to achieve their objectives. And on days, when there isn’t any breath-taking news to show, these channels either exaggerate trivial news content or make up their own content. News platform also gets paid to glorify one side of the story, while hiding the other side, which causes conflicts and disputes. All this leads to a divided and disjoint society.

The fake news spread has exponentially increased with the advent of social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Again, people do not cross-verify the news they receive, and hence they forward the fake news to their friends and family. This has let to a lot of unwanted incidents and blunders.

(Courtesy:medium.com)

Watching such biased news content has led to the rise of ‘mob mentality’ among the people. People believe whatever news they are fed. News platforms take a big advantage of this ‘mob mentality’ to achieve their goals. Hence it is necessary to verify whatever news content one receives and check for discrepancies if any. This will prevent any unwanted situations, and will also equip you with unbiased knowledge of both the sides of the incident.

Sadly, the state of Journalism in our country is affecting the Mental Health of the people in a rather negative way. The constant overflow of negative news and information makes one anxious and stressed. Studies have shown that Mental Health of a person is directly related to the content one consumes, and by watching such hateful and negative news, we pollute our mind. We must be really careful in choosing the right media channels to receive news from. Also, watch different news channels and then form your opinions based on the information you receive. Forming an independent opinion of your own is very important, so that you may not be influenced by any external agent. Thoroughly researching news and news articles also give one, a holistic view of the society, with which he/she can take future life decisions.