The Indian Media

The media, and all it represents, carries an undeniably significant role in the formation of public opinion in a large democratic state such as India. So when all the headlines, TV commentaries and blogs, for days, have been dedicated to solving the titillating mystery of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, one must wonder if this is an ethical choice made by news channels, guided by the values of ‘newsworthiness’ to determine what topic is socially significant and interesting enough to appeal to its audience, or is simply a tactic to earn more views, acquire higher ratings whilst throwing all bounds and limitations of what is construed as media integrity out their camera frames.

As the focus of the story shifted from the deceased actor to Rhea Chakraborty, the public forgot about the awareness they were trying to create while media members persistently persecuted her for the sake of a story. Not only does this showcase their blatant misogyny with titles like “Sushant par Rhea ka kaala jadu,” it evidently crosses a line between reporting and sensationalising, to the extent where this story stopped being a criminal case but gossip at dinner tables. The media began to act as judge, jury and executioner, unearthing ‘evidence’ out of context instead of straightforwardly delivering facts or having any accountability of truth. Many hours of primetime coverage have been diverted from other issues of prevalence, and this can definitely be labelled as one of the vilest, most regressive moments for Indian broadcast journalism.