DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES,

NALSAR UNIVERSITY

SUBJECT NAME: Business Communication

ASSIGNMENT-1

BY,

Harshita Saraogi

MBA I,

ROLL NO: 2020-2MBA-15.

SUBMITTED TO:

Miss Akansha Singh

Communication can be termed as the very thread that binds us all together. Communication is
often termed to be the key for every problem, be it professional or personal. In today’s world,
where information is a person’s biggest asset, effective communication becomes even more
essential in order to be able to put forth the information possessed by us. In fact, we have an
entire industry now that works on communication, providing us with all the necessary
information on happenings around the globe. This industry broadly complies of Television news
channels, newspapers and even social media pages that provide news to their followers. These
sources of news run profitably on the basic concept of gathering and communicating information
to its consumers. While a widely debated topic is whether the information communicated by
them is relevant or not, the question here is, how committed are they to ethical communication?
So, my suggestion for a topic is “Indian Media: an example for unethical communication?”

While every individual is entitled have their own take on this, making this an interesting topic to
debate upon, let us evaluate this issue using some of the basic pointers of unethical
communication:

1. Omitting Essential Information: While the essentiality of any information is a very

subjective issue, there are certain topics that are of interest to the entire nation like the
economic situations of the country, grave crimes against humanity and the overall well-
being of nation in general. The absence of such information in the media reports has been
a frequent occurring in the Indian Media. The latest example being, during these COVID-
19 times, the media at large chose to ignore reporting of pressing issues such as the
number of Corona Virus cases touching a new high almost every day, the agony of the
poor who have lost their sources of income during these tough times, rapidly falling
economy of our nation , rapes and poor work conditions for essential workers but have
chosen to report every minute status of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan who were
affected by the virus and digging up dirt on the deceased public figures. It has become
clearly evident that majority of the news channels want to communicate to their viewers
the information they’d like to see, most often the information that is less terrifying as
opposed to the realities of our world. Pressing issues that should be brought to the notice
of public are being supressed by exaggerating issues that are of minor relevance.

2. Failing to respect privacy: The right to Privacy is considered as a right of every human
being. Every human is entitled to refuse from sharing any information that is very
personal in nature and have a private space for themselves which is to be respected by
everyone. Indian Media, in its attempt to “bring out the truth” often fails to respect an
individual’s privacy. Private affairs of an individual, sometimes without their consent are
broadcasted to the entire nation violating their basic right to privacy. The most recent
examples for this could be the Late Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged murder case and the
last rites of the deceased celebrities. Pictures of Sushant Singh Rajput’s dead body, his
personal conversations, anything that had to do with him is being shared nationally,
 leaving his privacy torn down to ruins. The last rites of many public figures are
broadcasted nationally leaving no private space for those at loss. The concepts of
respecting someone’s private space and giving them the same are being violated and
increasingly turning into a TRP attracting show business.

3. Selective Misquoting: Selective Misquoting refers to the act of willingly altering

statements to often display a different picture altogether. This is also a common practice
in the Indian Media wherein statements of individuals are picked up, turned and twisted
to form a whole other meaning of the statement. This is widely adopted in political news
reporting wherein words of ministers and others in authority are picked up, twisted and
presented as a whole new statement (mostly negative) altogether, most often working in
favour of a particular wing of the parliament. Channels favouring a particular wing of the
parliament misquote people of the other wing with the objective of creating a negative
impact of the concerned party in the minds of common public. This misquoting is also
used to sometimes cover up tracks of negative statements given out by individuals to
make it seem as if the original statement was misunderstood. This is yet another display
of unethical communication.

4. Plagiarism: Plagiarism can be termed as the act of copying the work of another person
without giving them due credit for the efforts invested by them to produce that piece of
work. Plagiarism is a largely seen phenomenon in the Indian media industry. Many press
writers have been accused of plagiarism and they get away with it without even having to
apologise for the mistake committed by them. This plagiarism is often seen in the small
articles presented in newspapers that not a lot of people pay attention to; hence the need
to mention the source is often not seen. Many television reporters have come forward to
say that when they found that the scripts provided to them were plagiarised and tried to
report it, they were ignored and sometimes even dismissed to have raised their voice.

5. Distorting Visuals: Distorting visuals refers to presentation of a particular subject in

such a light that it is glorified to such an extent that the information so stated is not true.
This can be seen in the case of the alleged COVID-19 remedy, Coronil. News channels
were seen glorifying Ayurveda and Patanjali to be able to find a natural cure to the deadly
virus, which was not true. The media did not bother to conduct a basic fact check before
publicising the “remedy”. This can also be seen in Media trials wherein the media
assumes someone guilty of a crime before even it is actually proved and publically insults
and humiliates the concerned individual.

However, there still exist a few examples of ethical communication in the Indian Media. It
largely depends on an individual how they decide to look at this issue. In the form of this
assignment, we will be able to draw a critical analysis of the very example of communication
in our country and learn a lot more about effective and ethical communication.