Media Manipulating Minds
Human beings are blessed with the charisma of thinking and pondering. In our lives, learning through interpretation and personal experience matters a lot. Media is the most powerful of these communication sources. Nowadays, information spreads like wild fire on social media, news channels are treated as cash cows and moral responsibility has disappeared behind the greed for TRP (Television Point Rating) and advertising revenue.
Media is now proudly independent; they only air paid shows filled with talk about necessary topics. Television has become the main storytelling vehicle and the journalists have become the key players in legend making and identity building. On a Pakistani TV channels, you can constantly witness a stream of irresponsible talk shows filled with political debates that regularly cross behavioral boundaries. Our media has forgotten its true purpose and instead of embracing a positive national attitude, is always portraying a climate of doom and gloom.
People seem to have various opinions regarding the Pakistani media and how it is manipulating minds with its constant political commentary.
Ali Hamza-Mechanical Engineering student at COMSATS said, “Media airs such programs which depict the ongoing acts of terrors, which not only the criminals use to learn police tactics and avoid them but also evoke a sense of fear in the general public. They also invade people’s privacy and use fake incidents to increase their ratings and fool the viewers. Pakistani media have, on numerous occasions, not only targeted the political, judicial system but also the Army, which is considered to be the most important and well functioning system of Pakistan, thus promoting fear and feeling of untrustworthiness in the local viewers”.
Shiza Imran, a Mass Communication student at NUST, believes,” The tones of news anchor about every matter is so intense whether it is that kind of news or not, they put in too much sensation. Then they attract people’s attention through dramas and create confusion in the minds of the people by using manipulative dialogue related to religion and culture“.
Media is supposed to be a watchdog for the present society, a symbol of trends, norms, values also culture. People believe and think in a way they are told to. Professional journalists are responsible to create a sense of belonging with Pakistan and encourage the youth to behave like a responsible citizens.
Aisha Iqbal, an Economics student at NUST, believes that everyone should research news before believing, spreading or criticizing it.
The media has become a mouth piece of the downtrodden. It is supposed to be the most vigilant institution that keeps an eye on every segment of the society. It is a cut throat industry and the stakeholders are clearly doing everything they can, legal or illegal, to attract more eyeballs. It should play the binding and informative role of the society and should come up with positive awareness programs and news with proper facts and figure, not sensationalism.
Edited by Fakhir Munir.
