Every morning, I see my father sipping a cup of tea and simultaneously reading daily newspaper very thoroughly. Inspired by him, I try to do the same thing; I get tiresome because all I acquire is the same old stories. Which makes me wonder why he wastes his valuable time and money on such a monotonous thing. I wanted my query to be answered so I asked him about this. In response, he told that money doesn’t count, all that counts is the style of presentation i.e. critical analysis of the news by the reporters. But I show my disagreement towards his opinion.
Every time you go through the newspaper available in the market what will you find? From the very first page to the end all we can read is the news about, which political parties organized what program, which political officers attended which inauguration ceremony and so forth. Similarly, the same news can be found in different newspapers with different headlines. Moreover, the same news is broadcasted by different television channels every hour. So, all I want to say is, why the format of presentation is same with every paper? Can’t we bring the change of wind in this tradition?
However, most of the newspaper use their front page for the main issue that can sell larger volume in the market. Issues relating to political parties, war against terrorism, attacks and photographs of dead people, destruction of infrastructure and many more are the usual contents of any newspaper. These spicy news either entertain us or depress us. The cover page hardly covers the present scenario of our country but when you try to turn over to the next page all you find is the infinite commercial advertisements. So, even if the total number of a newspaper is 12 you can hardly find 3 pages filled with the genuine news. Yes, I agree that advertisements are essential from the business point of view but have the concerned persons taken a considerable time to think that the consumers get benefit by those advertisements? Why don’t they publish classified section instead of publishing a whole lot of advertisements haphazardly?
As we all agree that journalism is a sensitive job to carry on so special care should be taken in this matter since the news printed in the newspaper can affect the mentality of general public. We find the highlighted topic ? WORLD CANCER DAY: SAY NO TO SMOKING? at possible larger font. And later at the next page we can find a whole lot of advertisement s promoting the varieties of cigarettes. Doesn’t the media owner need to think about this? In every newspaper we find a section for horoscope but all you can find is different prediction for the same sun sign at different newspaper. Why is it so? It’s simple because they are different newspaper. The recent scenario of media world has made us realize that there must be a clear criteria relating to what a journalist ought to do and ought not to do. The articles published must be backed up by adequate evidence to justify it. The issues related to Lord Buddha’s birth to Iraq’s incident are some examples related to them. If those news were properly conveyed to the mass it would have created a different meaning to the mass. In the same way, they should think about the reaction of the general public before publishing a news, its the social obligation of the media to think about it even if the news is a scoop and will increase their popularity. So the media must take special care since they are responsible for both the positive and negative response from the general people. If they intend, they can raise the nation to the apex of prosperity and advancement as well as can drown the nation to the surface of the sea.
– Pravin Khadka
