Dear Jeyamohan,
While watching the television coverage of the recent by-election in Dharapuram, I noticed something disturbing. The news anchor was dancing and presenting the news as though she were a contemporary pop star. Some people explained that this was intended to attract the younger generation.
I am deeply concerned about the future of our news media. The responsibility of the news media is to distinguish itself from social media and offer a meaningful alternative through serious journalism, informed analysis, and responsible presentation. Instead, television news channels seem increasingly eager to imitate social media, turning news into entertainment and themselves into extensions of the very platforms they ought to offer an alternative to.
When news presentation becomes a performance designed primarily to attract attention, the distinction between journalism and entertainment begins to disappear. The younger generation deserves serious journalism just as much as any other generation. To assume that young people can be reached only through spectacle is to underestimate their intelligence and their capacity to engage with serious issues.
The danger is not simply that news is becoming entertaining. It is that the news media is gradually abandoning its own identity in the pursuit of attention. Journalism has a responsibility to inform the public, encourage critical thinking, and help people understand the social and political realities around them. These responsibilities cannot be fulfilled if the presentation of news becomes more important than the news itself.
If television channels merely reproduce the culture of social media, what purpose do they serve that social media cannot? The news media should offer a different experience—one grounded in credibility, depth, and a sense of public responsibility. By abandoning this distinction, it risks undermining the very reason for its existence.
I fear that what we are witnessing is not merely a change in the style of news presentation, but the beginning of the decline of our news media itself.
With regards,
Rajaraman
