We all know that journalism is the fourth pillar of democracy. It’s the duty of a journalist to act as a watchdog of the government. It is the duty of a journalist to keep a watch on the ruling government’s work and question the authority for matters of national importance.
But now a days there are so many fake websites run by people who don’t have any journalism background and their only aim is to polarize the society in favour of a certain ideology by posting fake, confusing and twisted articles or videos.So only consume informations from traditional medias whether websites of print newspapers or television news channels or radios.They are still known for their journalism excellence and repotorial talents.
But during this highly polarized society you can not expect journists are from the mars.Most of them specially from nations news channels behave like propagandist and to protect their ‘political masters’.They may be earn huge amounts of money.They might receive huge salaries and benefits from other parks.They might be popular by some audiences who are blatant supporters of the ruling party and who have their own ideological biases, leading them to prefer contents that reinforces their own biases.But they are not journalists at all.They are mere propagandists like anchors in state controled media in China,Russia and other countries ruled by autocratic regime.These propandist anchors, journalists often say we are talking true things and they openly comments on current affairs on social media platforms with their ideological or political preferences often promote and spread fake news specially in sensitive issues.
TV news specially national news channels in India sometimes promote disinfomations,conspiracy theories,fake news and misleading informations to defame opposition leaders or those opposes certainideology.It may be ideological bias or purely for commercial aspect.But there is no left or right In journalim.It’s all about people.
As famous American writer,reporter and political commentator Walter Lippmann once said,”there can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.” And obviously telling truth without any ideological preference or bias.According to International journalists’ network (Ijnet): Many U.S. news organizations have policies discouraging journalists from revealing political affiliations outside of work for the sake of safeguarding the organization’s impartiality. For instance, many U.S. newspapers do not allow reporters to voice their opinions publicly, march in demonstrations, volunteer in political campaigns, wear political buttons, or attach bumper stickers to their cars….On the other hand, at many other news organizations around the world, some journalists are essentially advocates for political parties, in many cases hired by a news organization because of their affiliation.
