Youth and Media

In, developing nation like India, youth are the backbone of the country and contribute in the progress of the economy. We’re living in the age where media affects our lives more than anything else. Also, there is this constant need of being in touch with everything that is happening around the world and at this point, the media plays an integral part in the lives of the youth. Emerging fields in mass communication such as digital media with several social networking platforms such as facebook, instagram and many more are affecting their thinking and living process.

Affecting opinions – The media has capability of affecting an individual’s opinion about the happenings in the world. Most of the times, it is more about the way a story is told that makes it worse than the actual mishap, and this where the Indian media has gone wrong the most. They tend to blow things totally out of proportion to get their share of profits, oblivious to the fact that this very act is making the country poorer in their ability of decision making.

Selected news – Not everything that happens in a day is broadcasted or written about. Every single day, a hundred of events take place, most of which don’t even make it to the news. The problem with this is that the country gets to know only what the news channels wish to or choose to show. This decision is based solely on TRP prediction and this leaves the country or the youth half informed.

Sensationalism – Since the era of sensationalism has started, the entire country has been engulfed by it and this has made people’s appetite for masala news grow. The youth and the nation want to see or hear things that are controversial, which will result in a heated discussion and something that quenches the thirst of the news channels for more drama and hence, more TRPs. This sort of news telling leaves very little space for ethical journalism which is now almost extinct.

Viewer’s Discretion – The only good thing, however, that has come out of this sort of media functioning is that a few sensible viewers have started exercising their discretion while watching the news and hence, not agreeing with whatever is being shown. They know that not everything told by the media is the absolute truth and that if one wants to lead a normal, unbiased life, they will have to choose from the ocean of news which is out there only to make the situation a lot worse. This has made the youth more sensible as to what should be accepted and what should be ignored.

The youth for that matter, depends largely on the media to show them the true picture of whatever has been happening around the world. Lately, the media shows everything but that and this is why it has influenced the people’s lives in a more negative way than positive. It is because of this that the media is losing its credibility and is now being detested by most of the people. The competition for higher TRP is leading to bad quality news and has made journalism seem like a bad profession. People have started looking down upon the media due to a few people and this can very easily be changed if the youth is willing to do so. Let’s see how far does the youth go to change what they don’t like about the Indian media.

HIMCOM