Media should focus on ethics first
THIS refers to a media report which caught my attention. It was a video on the electronic media in which a wild boar was seen killing a man and breaking a boy’s arm. It shocked me and I was actually frightened.
If I, who was in no way connected to those people involved in the incident, could be so moved, imagine the feelings of the parents of the dead man and the injured one. Death of one’s loved one is a shock in itself and grief beyond words. But to actually watch it happening is inexplicable trauma. Psychologists need to give their views on the repercussions of such actions.
After days of thinking, I still cannot find the answer to my question: why did they show it in the first place? After all, those other shameful, painful videos of human torture with all those gory details, when they finally could not dig up another one, they brought forth this pathetic animal story. And now what’s next? Would they now want the Chief Justice to take suo motu action and order to arrest the wild boar in 24 hours?
For God’s sake what do these news channels want? Healthy competition is good. But showing such gory incidents is repulsive. Correct me if I am wrong but I feel the job of a news channel is to inform people. But it seems as if the only job of these TV channels is to shock people. We are already living in a troubled and sad world. Please spare us and our innocent kids.
AYESHA SAYED
Peshawar
Hasty work
A HOAX research about the IQ of Internet Explorer users has brought into light the media’s susceptibility to ‘pick and report’ wrong information out of haste from websites which do not offer credible information.
Leading news channels and newspapers carried the story without verifying the credibility of the source. After finding out that the research was a hoax by a deviant individual who made AptiQuant website just a month ago, much damage has been done to the image of the explorer, though the media carried rebuttals.
Just days after the hoax research was reported by the global media, searching for ‘IQ of users of Internet Explorer’ on Google generates over 100 million records in search, which is mindboggling.
To take a further perspective, this irresponsible behaviour in reporting raises questions on the credibility of the global media in today’s world which is characterised by bipolarisation of ideologies with high potential to affect the global peace in no time.
It is about time the media traded off the ‘truth’ for ‘haste’ in reporting to create a harmonious world.
MUHAMMAD SHAHID DAYO
Seoul, South Korea
Source: Dawn
Date:8/15/2011
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