From information to influence

There has been a huge uproar across the country and also in some parts of the world over a derogatory remark made by a senior politician about the religion followed by the majority population living in India. Immediately after his speech, there were millions of reactions on various social media platforms, tv channels and so on.

Such scenes or shots have now become a staple food dished out in the sitcoms and serials aired by most of the TV channels in India. Just imagine the state of the minds that feed upon this sordid fare day in and day out. In fact, most of the tv channels through their crime-based shows plant seeds of crime in the tender impressionable minds of youth by showing them various kinds of criminal and sinful activities explicitly.

The simple family values, the fear of God and sin, the codes of conduct that once demarcated the line between sin and morality have been swept away forcefully by the strong winds of glamour, consumerism, pleasure and modernity which have been aggressively glorified by shows on television and social media platforms. As a result of this, today we have a generation of humans who have been totally desensitised towards immorality and corruption.

One can hence imagine as to what would be the output of the minds bred on such a fetid fodder? So, who is actually accountable for this decadence? Parents? Teachers? Or Media? Usually, the media sidetracks the issue of moral accountability by saying that they are simply catering to the demands of the public and hence the supply is made to fulfil the demands.

Every country has a code of punishment for those who incite others towards crime. But how to punish someone for directly or subtly inciting millions of viewers to imbibe negative behaviour traits and criminal tendencies? One wonders how would the makers of such programmes or content as it is popularly known today, react if their reel life episodes were to happen in their real life too.

Earlier, sin and crime were limited to certain locations, which were normally out of bounds for youngsters and ordinary folks, but television & internet has changed all that by bringing the whole world at our fingertips in the privacy of our homes as a result of which all the limits of morality have been blown away.

There is big money at stake for producers, advertisers, promoters, actors and broadcasters of mega shows that glorify glamour, vulgarity and crime in the garb of entertainment and thrill. Therefore, it is high time that the media should wake up to its role of being an agent of positive change rather than just mirroring and glossing over the negative side of life.

Realising its magnitude of influence over the masses, the media must adopt self-regulatory measures to curb the increasing use of sex and violence as means of entertainment and direct its resources for renewing a culture based on the noble spiritual and social values that once marked our glorious civilisation, for it is the only hope for society that can bring the real transformation.

(Writer is a spiritual educator & popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal & UK. Till Date 8500+ Published Columns have been written by Him)