The Future of Journalism

I am now pondering about the future of Journalism in the world. This is all because of a film that i recently saw. Titled 'Page 3', the film explores the length to which Serious Journalism has been compromised for commercial purposes. The film concludes by symbolizing Entertainment and Advertising as the future. If this is the future, then we should be scared, really scared.

"Infortainment" is the new age style of Journalism. It follows the concept that celebrity figures and their actions will constitute News. Any serious issue is sidelined due to vested interests or Advertiser fear of putting off Consumer buying mood. When there are more pressing issues to cover like Corruption, Crime and serious hard and bad news, the media may not want to cover it in this age.

Reasons may range from People not understanding, people just not wanting to watch, lack of Advertising resulting in Budget cuts and scrapping of the program. The other way out is for Media houses to say that Celebrities Sell well, and that Infotainment gives us more money. They may point out to a mission statement that says the Job of the Media is to make profit.

The Left leaning theorists might only speculate that the Capitalist dominated press is indeed the death knell for Democracy. But, the solutions that they provide may lack clarity or it could be even worse. What's more depressing is the fact that People have now accepted Infotainment, and so they do not give serious thought about problems persisting in their socio-economic setup.

If Democracy and Freedom are indeed taken for granted, then it may sound a little off track for democracies to critique Authoritarianism. People will have to subject to Dictatorship to understand the importance of Democracy and Freedom. Democracies revolve around Citizens, but media of this age seems to dumb them down and perplex them. This results in Apathy and stagnation in the democratic process.

The future of Journalism is of conflict between serious and infotainment Journalism. The victor seems to be infotainment, and because it comes under the garb of Freedom and Audience choice, one can only see it getting consolidated in the near future.