"Steep downturn" in media: Pro-RSS journal

In the aftermath of reports that AgustaWestland allegedly 'managed' journalists to do favourable reporting on the tainted chopper deal, a pro-RSS journal has said it highlighted the "steep downturn" in the media.
It suggested that the media should exercise self-control to escape losing credibility.
The 'Organiser', in an editorial titled 'Crisis of media credibility', quoted Mahatma Gandhi as having said in the 1920s that media's "uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy".
"The allegations that around 20 journalists were 'managed' by the AugustaWestland for favourable reporting on the Chopper deal has merely brought the steep downturn in the media industry of Bharat to the forefront," the editorial said.

It said with the media losing its credibility people were relying more on the social media.
"People are already making their choices clear. It is up to us, all responsible media actors in democracy, to whether we just want to remain as another 'industry' that got subdued by the system and lose our credibility forever or be ready to 'exercise control from within' to regain the rigour and respect media used to have for its service motive," it said.

The RSS-inclined journal said the trend was more serious as 'celebrity journalists' were managed with foreign money and influence.
"The subversion tendencies in media are so blatant that people hardly believe in the message of the messenger and social media narratives define the larger perceptions.

"It leads to hooting of certain individuals from open platforms like twitter who do not follow the rules of the game. The question here is not of an individual or just a media group, what is under scanner is the 'credibility' of fourth pillar of democracy," the editorial said.
The editorial said while service to the nation through presentation of news and views on various facets of life was the key motto of journalism in the past, profit and co-option by political forces has become its sole purpose today.
"Media became a profit making industry and co-option by political forces became a common trend. The most important divergence from the conventional understanding of an objective and fact-based journalism was the advent of electronic media," it said.

"The 'breaking news' syndrome also broke the conventional wisdom and trade became the sole driving force of media houses," it said, adding if the so-called mainstream media or journalists continue to submit themselves to the "co-option, compromise, connivance and corruption" the whole purpose of having media as key messenger would be defeated.