Paid News In The Indian Media

Paid News In The Indian Media The emergence of Media Corporation, through growing cross media ownership is having their impact on medias public service commitments. In recent times, the Indian media and its journalistic practices have been criticised for breaking the trust of the public. Indian media have successfully succeeded in growing their economy through cross-ownership and advertorials. Under the influence of profit making, commercial interests which are controlling the news content, as editorial contents are being sold like other commodities. This commercialization of the media content is evident in phenomena like paid news. News is meant to be objective, fair and unbiased. This is the only difference between news and opinions. But, recently, the lines between news and advertisements are blurring because paid advertisements are deceived as news which favours a particular organization or a person by selling editorial spaces. The media organizations misguide the readers by providing no true information to them. By doing this, the media questions its own credibility and is fast losing the trust of the society. The readers/viewers cannot distinguish the difference between a news report and advertorials. This paper argues that the media is no longer the fourth estate of journalism and has become like any other marketable product with reference to paid news. The face of journalism in India has changed. The press is mostly owned and controlled by the capitalist class (i.e. the rich and powerful in society; opinion leaders; gatekeepers), who can use the press to report facts which are convenient to them. Over years, the ownership pattern, organizational structure and the content of the newspapers have changed. They are on sale for paid news and private treaties. In addition, this paper also tires to observe the impacts and analyse the responses of the media, civil society and the state on paid news. Paid News and the Private Treaties Phenomenon 1Paid news is run to pass off an advertisement, apiece of propaganda and advertisementpass that as news, pretend that it is news that is paid news P. Sainath. It is a deal signed by the media organizations with an individual especially corporate houses and the candidate standing for elections, assuring them a fixed amount of coverage through advertisements and news reports in favour of them. In addition, additional fee can be charged to run negative campaign against their rivals. The paid news operation is done secretly and no disclosure is made before such news printed or broadcasted. Journalists willing or otherwise practice this phenomenon on a large scale. Journalists who do not wish to practice this phenomenon are either sacked from their organizations or the individuals are denied coverage and also suffer media blackouts. 2The advertisers, who are ever anxious to catch consumers off guard, believe that simply there cannot be a better way of breaking into consumer mind space than disguising the brand messages as news, which is more credible and convincing than raw advertising, says Santosh Desai, managing director and CEO, Future Brands. Such content is priced more than the regular advertising rates. Private Treaties Private treaties are signed with corporate organizations because media owners want to grow their organizations. In 2002, Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL) launched this phenomenon of private treaties by singing deals with potential advertisers who could not afford mainstream advertising in return for equity shares in their companies. Many corporate leaders say that when the news space is available for sale, there are many buyers for it, especially when it meets their needs. Example: In The Times of India, Delhi Edition, Olay brand articles were a part of paid marketing campaign by Proctor and Gamble, India. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) reported that media organizations are entering into agreements called private treaties with corporate organizations whose equity shares are listed on the stock exchanges that come out with public offer of their shares. The media organizations are picking up stakes in such companies and in return are providing favourable coverage through advertisements, news reports and editorials. Repercussions of Selling Editorial Space Most media organizations are interested in making profits for which they sacrifice the ethical norms of journalistic practice in favour of paid news. The first paid news phenomenon was broken down by P. Sainath. Paid news is common in Lok Sabha and state assemblies elections especially in states like Maharashtra and Haryana.  [3]  As per media reports, the size of the paid news market in Andhra Pradesh in the elections in 2009 alone, was said to be over Rs 1,000 crore. In Maharashtra, it is said to be in multi thousand crores. A lot of evidence is available of the malpractice. Example: Ashok Chavan used the print media effectively during the Maharashtra state elections in 2009. Identical articles with photographs and headlines having appeared in competing publications carrying by-lines of different authors around the same time praising candidates claiming that both are likely to win the election hints at some unholy dealings. Nowhere, is there any indication that the publication of such news reports has entailed financial transaction or has been sponsored by certain individuals or political parties. Press Council of Indias draft report of enquiry titled Paid News: How corruption in the Indian Media Undermines Indian Democracy points out that the deception that paid news involves takes place at three distinct levels (Sainath, 2010a): 4The reader or the viewer is deceived into believing that what is essentially an advertisement is in fact, independently produced news content. Moreover, candidates contesting elections do not disclose the true expenditure incurred on campaigning thereby violating the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which have been framed by, and are meant to be enforced by, the Election Commission of India under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The newspapers and television channels concerned usually receive funds for paid news in cash and do not disclose such earnings in their company balance sheets or official statements of accounts. Thus, by not accounting for the money received from candidates, the concerned media company or its representatives are violating the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 as well as the Income Tax Act, 1961, among other laws. Edelman, an independent public relations firm, in its 2010 Trust Barometer Survey states that the Indian news media have been losing their credibility and trust among the people.  [5]  Over the past two years, trust on television news dropped sharply from 61 per cent to just 36 per cent, that of business magazines has gone down from 72 per cent to 47 per cent, and that of newspapers has gone down from 61 per cent to 40 per cent. Trust in the media in India as a whole declined by 7 per cent (from 65 per cent in 2009 to 58 per cent in 2010). This decline in trust speaks volumes about the future role of the media in India and the threats to its hard earned freedom. According to the 2nd Press Commission report, the role of press should be constructive critic. It must oppose an official policy when needed; support it when it can at most of the times, bring out instructive opinions on important issues covering all aspects/ angles to provide knowledge to people. Journalists are accepted as moral guides in the Indian society. They are accepted because of the foundation on which the concept of media freedom was built. India guaranteed freedom of speech and expression to its citizens. It is a fundamental right under Article 19(1) (A) of the Indian Constitution, which allows everyone to express their views as well as allows the right to print matters which are borrowed from someone or printed under the direction of that person. Paid News Syndrome and Need for Greater Accountability The paid news syndrome has become a debateable topic for various platforms. When the credibility of the media is lost, its freedom gets restricted. Hamid Ansari, the Vice President of India said that the explosive growth in the media had highlighted the fact that the Fourth Estate is only one among the pillars of democracy that has an identifiable commercial and profit facade. Disapproving paid news in any form, Sitaram Yechury says that paid news is not merely a serious matter influencing the functioning of a free press, but it is an issue that also concerns the future of parliamentary democracy in India. Providing access to unbiased, unfiltered and objective news or information is the role that media are supposed to play in a parliamentary democracy. This comes under very severe strain with the emergence of the paid news syndrome. Strongly arguing against paid news, Arun Jaitley claims that those who are in a position to pay more for information expressed as paid news shape the human minds in this country accordingly. This cannot be free speech. At best, it could be trade, it could be business, and, therefore, the government has to take this out of the arena of free speech and put it in the arena of business or trade, all in public interest. Favouring deterrent penalty against those who indulge in such practices he suggests that in the case of (a) candidate, it has to be an offence under election law (The phrase) corrupt practice must be amended in the Representation of the People Act and this should be a ground for setting aside the election and disqualifying the candidate, and if parties indulge in thisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦there must be action against this.

Scepticism Inc :: essays research papers

Edgar Malroy would be considered a hero to readers of Scepticism Inc. Edgar literally took money from the rich churches and gave to the poor. This Robin Hood image brings Edgar to the spotlight as a champion of sorts and the reader ends up rooting for him throughout the story. The means by which Edgar took the money was, on the surface, legitimate. However, the bet could never be won and the emotions of the betters influenced their decision-making abilities. Can a person taking a wager, in good conscience, accept this bet when no definitive outcome can be reached? Is it allowable for Edgar to take this money, knowing that it could never be won back, and then use it for good purposes? The churches that are placing the bets appear to be the foolish victims. The reader does not necessarily feel sorry for them though. Through our own experiences, the churches take tithing from its congregation supposedly to support the routine maintenance of the building, pay the salaries of the office staff, and support the meager lifestyle of the priest, reverend, father or head-guy-in-charge. Most Congregationalist do not ask where the excess goes, they do not have to ask, announcements are made weekly about the church’s good deeds and how they were able to feed and clothe the needy. Yet, these religious bodies are some of the wealthiest institutions in the world. Third world countries are thought to have the highest percentages of believers, and in the story they are. These people are also among the world’s poorest and uneducated. These masses of struggling people weekly buy the lotto ticket that the church is selling. This lotto, salvation and heaven, can not ever be won, nor can the jackpot be proven to exist. Nor can the church prove that they are authorized lotto ticket distributors. They rely on the emotions and acceptance of their followers, and routinely ask them to give money to support their cause. They are taxing the poor and becoming more wealthy and powerful because of it. They even ask their Congregationalists to give them more money in order to place higher bets. Both Edgar and the religions of the world would fall under the same criticism from Clifford. Although the churches are giving their money to Edgar in proof of their unverifiable beliefs, and the churches sell redemption to their parishioners by convincing them that it is advantageous to give their money to the church.

The Swirls Of Emotions :: essays research papers

Emotions can be classified, according to your personal experience, into three different categories: happiness, sadness, and anger. First of all, there is happiness. Happiness has no limits, for it can be felt at any time, any place and to any person. It cannot be hunted for; it is not obvious, but inscrutable. Happiness is realized by understanding one's self, which is completely a personal experience. For instance, a person may find happiness in one thing, whereas someone else may in another. Happiness is what we let it be, and even though carry the abilty to let ourselves be happy, we rarely do. The second catagory that emotions can be fall into is sadness. Why is the quest for happiness left us more vulnerable and sad? Are we a society of people who are all looking for happiness and disappinted with what we find? In most cases, sadness leaves us in a state of depression and unstableness. When you become sad you feel as though you hate life at the present time and in most instance s you cry, become depressed and feel like your sadness will be everlasting. If we were always happy and never expressed our sadness, it would eventually build up and one day we would just explode, and mabye go into a form of deep depression. The last but not least of the catagories of emotion is anger. Quick to rise, and even quicker to lash out, the simple emotion of anger has the power to destroy and create. Anger is not always a bad emotion. Without anger lives would be lost, tyranny would go unopposed, and inhumanities would be quietly accepted. Anger, the most powerful and feared emotion of the soul's repertoire, destroys and created in the same breath. Moving from one person to the next anger is an every present force in

Peters and Waterman’s Eight Attributes of Excellence Essay

Some things can be learned about leadership by studying organizations directly. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman drew on their experience at Mckinsey and Company, a well-known consulting firm, and on further study of a number of businesses they identified as exceptional. Their message is that traditional methods of managing and leading need to be replaced with new methods and new modes of thought. They provide a provocative perspective on the history and practice of management and leadership and identify eight attributes associates with excellence and innovation: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, hands-on value driven, stick to the knitting, simple form-lean staff, and simultaneous loose-tight properties. The Peters and waterman study used a fairly large sample of sixty-two financially successful firms across six industries that were considered to be excellent but did not attempt any comparison with unsuccessful firms. The Pride in Excellence team slowly transformed the three Peters and Waterman attributes into Toro values. They worked to translate the values into specific behaviors. They were pioneers, and they found few ready-made answers to their questions. Personal and company values systems became jumbled. More than once, team members wondered how they could talk about this stuff at work and still be taken seriously. From the start, they concentrated on ways to get the values down to the level of individual jobs. This was relatively easy when talking about values such as Service or Quality. However, Toro wanted to adopt Peters and Waterman’s productivity through people attribute as well. That led to values such as Respect and Trust. Their final statement even uses the word â€Å"compassion. †

An investigation into the theory of resistance Essay

My results support this as the graph of length against resistance shows that relationship is directly proportional. As the points on the graph are very close to the line of best fit, this supports my prediction. Also as I repeated my experiment 3 times and obtained very similar results, it shows that this experiment is repeatable and reliable. So, I conclude that as the length of wire increases, so does the resistance. I have realised also that double the length means double the atoms, which doubles the collisions and in turn, as explained in my prediction, doubles the resistance. This leads me also to believe that resistance would be less in smaller wires, this is due to higher current and increased heat. During the investigation three major changes were brought to my attention, these changes were: -> As I increased the length of wire, a. ) The potential difference increased b. ) The flowing current decreased c. ) The resistance in the wire also increased. I also found that when doubling the length of wire the resistance will more or less double also. E. g. when the length was 50cm the resistance was 4. 00Ohm, and when the length was 100cm theresi e was 8. 00Ohm. Evaluation The experiment I carried out was completed by means of very basic school laboratory equipment. Although reliable and trustworthy evidence was collected, proved by the similar 3 times repeated results and matching line of best fit to my prediction, I believe my results could have been far more accurate with a greater time span and some far more enhanced technical equipment, such as a digital multimeter. Although during my experiment there were no major anomalies there were a few variations within my repeats of the experiment. These minor variations truthfully had no major effect on the overall experiment due to the diminutive extremity of them. Nevertheless these small variations may have many similar reasons for appearance of which that the major anomaly would have on occurrence. These reasons could consist of such things as: – Loose connectivity and/or faulty equipment – Human error (inaccurate readings and/or checks) – Temperature (collision speed alterations) To improve the accuracy of my experiment It would have been helpful if: – The wire was in a temperature controlled environment, this is because resistance is affected by temperature. – The voltmeter and ammeter were difficult to take a reading off, this is due to the unsettling of the actual readings, they flicker and change several times before stopping on a final reading. If you move slightly however, the results will flicker again and become distorted. To prevent this, a better quality analogue meter with a built in mirror to prevent parallax could be used to my advantage. – Also, if I had more time I could have extended my experiment and repeated it with shorter intervals of wire. I could have taken readings every 5cm instead of every 10cm, this way I could gather more information and add a set of supplementary details to my results. If I changed all of the above, in theory I should come across far superior accuracy in my readings. If this theory is correct my results graphs should show a stronger correlation. If I were to present extra evidence I could make the following changes for further experiment. – Increase length of wire – Increase the thickness of the wire, – Change the material of the wire. If the above three changes were investigated for further experiment, I would hope that they would only validate my predictions and basically back up my evidence. Â  

Conventions of the Gothic Horror †The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe Essay

Tick, tick, tick, the heart ticks on. The Tell-Tale Heart is another spooky Gothic Horror story written in the 19th century by Edgar Allen Poe. Written entirely in first person, we follow the account of a young man driven to insanity by his mad actions. The person we hear the tale from tells us of his emotions and his feelings along the way. The young man lives with an older man who has never harmed him or never done anything wrong to him, but he decides to kill the older man. The old man’s eye drives him to this terrible deed as it looks like a ‘vulture’s eye’ and makes his blood run cold every time it sets upon him. The young man slowly but surely progresses into a state of madness and plots the murder of the old man by spying upon him sleeping at midnight every night. We come to the night of the murder, and the young man is almost caught spying on him as the old man wakes from his sleep terrified, the time comes and the young man leaps into the room, throws the man to the floor and pulls the bed over him. He dies. Chopping the body into pieces and carefully hiding them under the floor boards the police call round about a scream they were informed of, the man is not afraid, but as he sits there chatting away to them calmly a ticking fills his ears and no matter what he tries it gets worse and worse until he finally goes mad and confesses to the police of his crime. We define different stories by genres, how we find out what genre the book fits in is by determining if the story has the correct conventions within it. Within the Tell-Tale Heart we are frequently shown conventions of the Gothic Horror genre, reversal of common norms is one convention shown to us: â€Å"He had the eye of a vulture†¦Ã¢â‚¬  From this quotation we can see the narrator describes the old man to have ‘the eye of a vulture’. As we know full well this is not very possible for some one to have the eye of a vulture and a normal human doesn’t have an eye of a vulture. This shows us the reversal of common norms and the irregularity of the characters in this story. The eye is compared to a vulture’s and this creates a sense of fear and unknown as the character is afraid of this eye even though he is not afraid of the owner. Abandoned isolated setting is another convention in the Gothic Horror genre and is shown in the Tell-Tale Heart: â€Å"Amid the dreadful silence of that old house† An abandoned setting is frequently used as a setting in the Gothic Horror genre as it easy to use this setting to create an atmosphere of danger, fear and concern. The Victorians are reflected in this convention as they were feeling abandoned and isolated after their beliefs and religion had been purposely ripped to shreds by science proving them wrong. Another convention is high emotion: â€Å"Very, very dreadfully nervous† We see that the narrator here is very nervous showing us his high emotions within the story and giving an atmosphere of fear. As it is told in first person we, the readers, are affected by the nervousness of the main character and in the story it creates an atmosphere of fear, nervousness and anxiousness. The Victorians were very nervous at the time of the crisis and were probably in a state of high emotion. Sense of mystery and suspense is yet another convention found within the Gothic Horror genre and the Tell-Tale Heart: â€Å"†¦ a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it — you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Mystery and suspense is a convention that increases the Gothic Horror genre intensely as it builds up the emotions of the characters and leaves the readers wanting to read on to find out what happens, the atmosphere created by this convention is an agonizing heightened sense of anticipation. The Victorians would have been in suspense and most of it would have been mystery as well as they were waiting for some sign of their beliefs to be confirmed as still true. The use of darkness and gloom in the Tell-Tale Heart is shown often too: â€Å"†¦black as pitch with thick darkness†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Darkness and gloom creates an atmosphere of derangement and confusion as you feel something could jump out at you anytime. To the Victorians this would have scared them a lot as their loneliness and the darkness surrounding them could mask anything hiding and could scare them even more. â€Å"†¦It is the beating of his hideous heart!† This quotation shows us the convention of supernatural occurrences, we get from this quote that the narrator can hear the beating of his heart even though he is dead already. The atmosphere here is of fear and terror as the thought of a dead mans heart still beating is very scary and could drive even the sanest person into madness. For my last convention it will be dangerous omens: â€Å"All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked him with his black shadow before him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  From this quotation we can feel a sense of someone being hunted or stalked, in this case it would be the man being hunted down by death and taken from the world. Atmospherically it would create fear and paranoia, as the feeling of getting pursued by an unknown person or being would be chilling and creepy. The Victorians could be represented as the people being stalked and science would be the stalker or hunter, as they were pursuing religion of the people and destroying it with their logical theories. The Tell-Tale Heart truly is a Gothic Horror story. With the conventions of Gothic Horror found within the story nearly every line you read, Edgar Allen Poe wrote an amazing, gripping and scary story in the 19th century, this story was called the Tell-Tale Heart.

Important Court Cases - 20th century american history Research Paper

Important Court Cases - 20th century american history - Research Paper Example History tells us about the things we should never forget. How civil rights in America were properly respected and enforced by both the courts and the government is something we need to understand fully. It is the cornerstone of America's greatness today and into the future. The legal history of civil rights goes back many decades, but the most important cases appear after the Second World War when increased urbanization was reshaping American demography and social situation (Marable 1984, 14). The first and most significant landmark case was Brown vs. Board of Education. Few can dispute the historical role played by this case which almost certainly is the most famous American court case of the 20th century. This case effectively ended segregation in the United States and proved very controversial at the time (Kluger 1975, 12). The case involved parents in Kansas and elsewhere who wanted to send their children to the schools closest to them, but because of their race were forced to se nd their children to black schools a great distance away. They launched a suit arguing that having separate schools for different races was unconstitutional and a violation of their rights. The Supreme Court agreed with them 9-0. A book by Myrdal showed the court that the state of black schools was inferior (Myrdal 1944). The court realized that schools were separate but not equal. A second case involving similar issues, often referred to as Brown II, led to the Court declaring that the desegregation of American schools should be done soon and quickly (Ogletree 2004, 8). This gave impetus to changes that began to happen across the country. But that was not the end of the consequences of this decision. This was not a court case decided in a vacuum. In its wake, the governor of Arkansas used the national guard to try to block black students from entering white schools (Kluger 1975, 90). He refused to accept the ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States. Instead, he wanted to pl ay to his racist base. President Eisenhower was forced to send in the army to ensure the rule of law. He nationalized the Arkansas guard and saw that the law was enforced. In Alabama, a similar event occurred involving the governor there. These dramatic confrontation set the stage for much of the civil rights movement and the rise of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Civil rights leaders saw that the Constitution could protect them even if local sheriffs and lawmakers did everything they could to prevent changes from being made. Inspired by these cases, they pressed their issues by using non-violent protests. Education was just one legal battle fought during the civil war movement. People wanted to have less government control over their personal lives. Who was the government to say who a person could marry in a free country? And yet racist laws in much of the South prevented blacks and whites from marrying. Another significant case in the history of the civil rights movement was Loving vs. Virginia (1967). This was a case involving the marriage between a black woman and a white man, which the state of Virginia held to be illegal under their anti-miscegenation laws. These laws were in place based on a biblical conception of creation and marriage. Many people at the time believed that God had placed the races on