Is the Media Going Increasingly Corrupt?

As we all must know by now, no media in the world operates without an agenda. the product or rather expression that is famously known as the 'fourth estate' is slowly dissolving and losing its credibility as an independent medium that voices the issues in the world. 

In India's history, the media has been seen as important, patriotic, and trustworthy in the country's socioeconomic and political milieu. However, with the rise of TRP and the bought news environment in recent years, public faith in the media has plummeted, and the Indian democracy has become the biggest casualty. The media's embrace of crony capitalism is eroding journalism's profession and ethics. The heinous practice of accepting money or favors from corporations, governments, political parties, or large organizations in exchange for reporting good news about them is becoming increasingly frequent in journalism. As a result, the truth is not revealed, causing people to suffer and, ultimately, democracy to fail. In exchange for ad space and favorable coverage disguised as "news," the media has been obtaining secret treaties involving share transfers between media corporations and non-media companies. The 'paid news syndrome' is a term used to describe this situation.

The situation is not that different in other parts of the world as well. Let's take the United States of America, for example. In a vicious spiral of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and self-interest, the news media and the government in the US are interwoven. Crises are necessary for journalists to dramatize news, and government leaders must appear to be responding to crises. Too often, crises are cooperative fabrications rather than genuine crises. The news media and the government have become so entangled in a symbiotic web of lies that neither can tell the people what is true, and neither can govern efficiently. The government and the news media have concocted a charade that suits their own interests while deceiving the people. Officials feed the media's desire for drama by inventing crises and staging their answers, so strengthening their own prestige and influence. Journalists are obligated to report on these lies. Both parties are aware that the articles are self-serving ruses that fail to inform the public about the more complicated but dull topics of government policy and activities.

As far as citizens are concerned, media is supposed to be independent. It is supposed to be a platform or medium that conveys only the truth and nothing but the truth to the public. Unfortunately, that is not what we get to experience now. Government and business houses that are financially influential have now taken media under their wing, helping them to influence and control the information the media puts out.