CRITICISM OF MEDIA

The media is part of our lives and has an enormous influence on our society. The
importance of media is growing every day due to the great connectivity that exists
around the globe. For this reason, it is necessary that each one of us becomes aware of
the power of the media. This allows us to be critical of all the information we receive
daily. Despite having such huge advantages in our lives, the mass media are often
criticized for the way they present risks. They are accused of either not warning their
readers or viewers enough, or of exaggerating and sensationalizing the risks, thus
undermining public acceptance of technologies and encouraging sub-optimal
individual and political decisions. Many journalists, scholars have criticized the
media due to these reasons. In which some are below:

DOCTOR JABBAR KHATAK:

(Former Secretary Jazal CPNE, Dr. Jabbar Khattak Media and National Agenda
Friday Special, December 3, Karachi).
Doctor Jabbar Khattak also criticized the media by saying,
“Today’s media is commercial. This media has also formed the basis of profiteering
here. Our media is also a part of it. I am the strongest critic of the current role of the
media. This maid or camel is unruly and also misinforms people for commercial
purposes only and diverts them in the right direction. Its goals are set by its owners
for the sole purpose of profit and self-interest. When you trade yourself, you save the
price you want to sell yourself. Let me give you an example. When Jamaat-e-Islami
launched a campaign against K-Electric and advertised in Jang newspaper, the
management of Jang newspaper refused to publish the advertisement and said that
K-Electric gives us strong advertisements. We cannot publish any news or
advertisement against it.”

SHAHNAWAZ FAROOQI:
(He gives lectures on television and at universities. He is a
member of the advisory boards of many Pakistani periodicals and
magazines)
“Our media has no national agenda at all. The situation has now reached such a level
that our beliefs are being challenged in the media. They are being challenged live on
the radio, on TV, in the newspapers, and they are trying to spread a thought that has
nothing to do with our religion, our experience of history, our concept of
civilization.”

KULDEEP NAIR:
“What worries me is that the media is also becoming a part of the establishment. The
biggest danger is that it is now taking the form of an industry and the ideas of the
corporate sector. There is no doubt that the scope for freedom of expression is
shrinking all over the world, but I have always felt that India would be an oasis of
freedom of expression in this regard, but religious fanatics and the weak government
have proved me wrong.”

DOCTOR NISAR ZUBAIRI:

(Former Editor of Akhbar-i-Jehan and Professor of Mass Communication),
“Our media has no national agenda at all. The situation has now reached such a level
that our beliefs are being challenged in the media. They are being challenged live on
the radio, on TV, in the newspapers, and they are trying to spread a thought that has
nothing to do with our religion, our experience of history, our concept of
civilization”

NOAM CHOMSKY AND EDWARD HERMAN:

“ powerful people in society determine the direction of ideas and serious
conversations through the media. They decide what kind of topics should be given
to the common people living in the society for consideration or what should be
shown and told. The big banks, commercial establishments, and advertising agencies
control the contents of the sub-media, as a result of which the public culture of the
society is also formed at their discretion.

KARL MARX:
“ the modern Marxist Neo-Marxist also criticized the media and even more harshly
on certain aspects of the media. He said that the media creates a culture that negates
the quality of high culture. Affects. He also says that the world has not changed the
way it thinks about the media, it has replaced it with the media, it suppresses the
opinion of the opposition or the media, it presents a particular type of culture as the
public culture which Is concerned with the benefit of the capitalist class. It promotes
ideas or thoughts that close the door to new ideas and thoughts.

Louis Yako:
(An independent Iraqi-American anthropologist, writer, poet and journalist. He has
written for a range of publications including Counter Punch, open Democracy,
Global Research and The Feminist Wire.) Mr. Louis criticized the mainstream media
in following way:
“This is precisely why the mainstream media’s language has failed us, it has not been
telling us what we really need to know, because their language marches in step with
that of the bankers, warmongers, oppressors, and executioners. We need a new
language of radical love not radical hate”

Conclusion:
There is no denying that with the passage of time the media is becoming a force to be
reckoned with. Apart from spreading awareness about the world's situation, the
media is not always “clean”. There is a reputation that many times the media
transforms the news into its own advantage, many times even spreading false news.