Stating the same fact in an altered manner changes its impression on the listener. This principle is applied by the international propaganda machinery of super powers and media is used to do the brain washing of the people – especially of the third world countries.
Today when we have hundreds of TV and radio channels, newspapers and magazines and all of them portraying news in their dissimilar manner the common man is confused and does not arrive to the conclusion. It’s a dilemma of the third world that western media is considered to be the standard and trustworthy. And the local media is either conquered by the authorities or mostly such people are managing them that have no vision of national interest. In this scenario if the local media initiates campaign for their selfish interests it can make the situation worse for the government. This goes perfectly for the Pakistani Government as well.
To get rid of such situations it is essential that the young generation must be politically conscious, they must know the national interest and they must have the power of analysis of news. To understand the role of media and how to set apart facts and rumors, it is necessary that one must know how media works, how it is financed and what factors influence it. Some channels are sponsored by the government like PTV of Pakistan. Mainly these organizations are given funds by collecting license fee from the public. But private media is mainly run by advertisements.
As most of these private media groups are run on commercial basis so there are always chances of conflict between national interest and their vested interests. These incentives are not given directly but in shape of ads of multinational companies.
Half truth is even more dangerous than a lie. To mold public opinion some times media highlights only some aspects of the news while some are kept hidden. Sometimes the statements of certain political leader is given preference and published on main pages or broadcasted repeatedly. And the idea is injected in the people that particular leader is popular and most of the people support him.
Keeping in view all these aspects of media the western governments have taken preventive measures. For example there are laws that keep check on media’s foreign relations and its political affiliations. News that is conflicting with the national interests is not published. Scenes of violence and injuries are avoided to broadcast. But over here in
Our people are illiterate and those who are literate, are not politically aware of the consequences of uncontrolled media. As our political parties are not organized and they don’t have strong roots in the people so public can be very easily misguided by the media.
Instead of unbound media
Written by: Mohsin Saeed Khan
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