Mental Diet

The geo-political and cultural circumstances around a society make the necessary fabric, in which we dwell. This was especially so until the modern media had not sprung up dishing out its plethora of    colourful subjects. News did not travel so fast, the local situations remained isolated and people were not as well connected as they are today.

Television and more recently Internet media is a discovery of power and communication, we are in general aware about how the news is created, released, broadcast and distributed.  So far it has been a time of experimentation with regard to coverage, narration, presentation, and so on. It has been exciting to listen to varied viewpoints, interesting to share news items, compare news from various sources and channels, get the detailed coverage and gossip on the juicy topics.

But Do We Know

That media subtly helps in forming our opinions and attitudes, which greatly affect every aspect of our life. We need to be extremely cautious about our intake and its quality as it influences our perception and understanding of daily situations. Under the garb of ‘Free Media’ we are made to watch violence, overhyped sensation, continuous dose of emotions, criticism and non-evaluated heavy advertising.   

New Era

Now that the media and its scope has been widely and fairly understood. There is a need to study ‘News’ and ‘News making’ in a systematic way. The effect of News on various segments of the society and its objective; what we want to achieve by releasing a particular piece of news? Is the news item constructive, meaningful and helpful or just spicy?

Media should work on generating news which would help in motivating people to build up moral, work on values and create awareness towards individual responsibilities. A wrong belief which most of us carry is that by doing so, programs would become less interesting, monotonous, dull and boring but that need not be the case if a fair balance is maintained. 

What should we focus on?

To start with:

• Instead of harping on the bad examples of our politicians, we can look for cases where a politician has set a good example, we can broadcast and distribute this news over and again till masses have heard.
• People who are clean and honest in their business deals, should be publicized and interviewed often. Focus should be given on how and why these people, operate the way they do. Special news bulletins should be broadcasted about such people.
• Information regarding products can be provided in a more balanced and impartial manner, which can help the consumer decide for himself what he wants to choose.  
• Brave and courageous should be provided encouragement and extra security to speak openly. People should be awarded if they provide good and authentic news.

The Benefit

Things can be achieved with least effort, if such positive broadcasting, distribution and programming were to replace the current scenario, people and society at large could become more peaceful, tolerant, and accepting. There would then be no need to make special effort to instill values in newer generations.