News Channels and over dramatization

News channels mostly take extra efforts to over dramatize whatever the news or current scenario is. It portrays so much of negativity that people living abroad get a very bad impression of Pakistan. All you can see on the news channels is how many people have been killed, how expensive gas, petrol or sugar has become, if schools and businesses are going to be open the next day or not. If not such stories, the content would be revolving around trivial human stories like a celebrity getting married or a celebrity who has done a nude photoshoot. And these stories will be dragged so much that the viewer gets fed up of hearing the same thing again and again, which does not even interests him.

Breaking news are the most irritating specially when they make no sense at all and also the tickers that keeping running with statements like ‘Shoaib aur Sania ki shaddi, ab honeymoon kahan hoga’ are so annoying that you just want to switch off the tv. Does anybody really care where a certain celebrity is going for his honeymoon? Do any of us actually have the time to think about someone’s life whom we don’t even know personally? Another breaking news that I came across was ‘Bili ne kese maara shair ko, dikhiye 9 baje ki bulletin mien’. Seriously, the content of news channels should be sensible.

Besides the content, another issue that news channels have is authenticity. If there’s a bomb blast and many people have lost their lives, one news channel will be reporting the death rate to be 20 whereas some other news channel, at the same time will be reporting 30 people dead. Which channel do we rely on?

There should be a set standard for all news channels. The information they share should be authentic and well researched instead of just trying to be the first channel to give out that particular news. The sole purpose of the channels should not be the ratings but the relevant content. There should be an authorized company like PEMRA whose responsibilities would include making sure all the content on news channels in authentic and there is relevant news instead of sensationalism and over dramatization.

They should have open forums where people can lodge their complaints about news channels and actions should be taken about them. Unlike PEMRA, where hundreds of complaints are lodged but no particular actions are taken to fix those issues. This authorized company should be a well-functioning body which helps to maintain a standard among the various news channels.