Instead of airing shows that promote a culture of respecting relations, channels are promoting hatred and anxiety
ISLAMABAD: For the last four to five years, the trend of TV shows airing investigations of crimes have been at its peak. Almost every news channel is airing one such show. These shows reveal every step of the crime, including the process employed by the criminals to carry out their nefarious activities.
Such shows are a threat to the public because they only result in increasing negativity in society. Recently, I observed that channels are airing shows about family members who kill their entire families because of frustration or poverty. These are dramatised versions. I cannot understand what TV channels want by showing all these things? Ratings? Or brutalising of society? Dramatising the entire crime scene, reducing it to a form of entertainment is never justified and the main reason behind the unethical approach of our media is lack of proper journalistic education and training. After watching such shows, people are becoming more distrustful of family relations. Instead of airing shows that promote a culture of respecting relations, channels are promoting hatred and anxiety. Such shows contribute to fostering anxiety and psychological disorders. People already experience enough crime on the streets — that is a given — but when they come home and sit before the television, there is more crime waiting for them. Stories of crime, dramas about crime, violence, mistrust, hatred — all of this is repackaged into a form of entertainment for the people of Pakistan.
I would like to see a strict code of ethics in this regard. Media regulatory bodies need to hire sensitive individuals who can judge this undesirable content effectively and chalk out sensible policies in this regard.
Abid Saeed
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2015.
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