Watching TV news channels is fast becoming similar to watching melodramatic Hindi movies.The anchor needs to build interest and hence create conflict if there is none. Just like art movies don't do well at the box office , dignified debates are at risk of getting low TRPs. So there must be a fight and shrill voices must be heard . While the viewer can see points being distorted and comments taken out of context , the participants begin to act their parts- as if they were actors not debaters. You see everyone stands to benefit by publicity. Soon climax is reached and time runs out and the audience wonders what was it all about !!

Clearly , this is the age of the media and none can do without it. Watching Baba Ramdev 's agitation at Ram lila grounds , one could sense the almost blatant attempt to piggyback on Anna Hazare and milk the public sentiment with massive media coverage.

Media gets its juicy news bites ( read spicy TRP lifters ) and the actor-politician -socialite etc etc their publicity . The truth .. the honest truth seems to get lost in the process and no one gives a damn.

Earlier there was lack of information and opaqueness .. now its too much information much of which is manufactured and hence is worse than little information.

The power of media can be sense by the unheralded demise of Swami Nigamananda who died after fasting for months for the cause of saving the Ganga river. He was in the same hospital where Baba Ramdev was admitted and broke his fast amidst media fan fare after 6 days of fasting...


Media freedom is important but it is time to think about media regulation .