On a serious note

I think that working in media is for the tough ones because one is very much exposed to the negativity and not to mention life threatening situations. This happens not just with the jobs related to the media, any job that promises a good salary package comes with many risks. However, people who work for media become a public property such as actors, politicians, journalists, writers etc and they are far more exposed to the outside world than any other profession because media can instantly give popularity to someone or an issue.

Media either print or electronic is basically a platform for those who are professionals as well as general public to share whatever they know or whatever they find out by reporting or researching, sometimes though, some information can never be given out such as the JFK case which can be further explained by Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK closed with the following message:

“A Congressional Investigation from 1976-1979 found a "probable conspiracy" in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and recommended the Justice Department investigate further. As of 1991, the Justice Department has done nothing. The files of the House Select Committee on Assassinations are locked away until the year 2029.”

An example from Pakistan which can be Zia-Ul-Haq’s plane crash or Benazir Bhutto assassination, there are still a few mysteries, remnants of information that prove that still media has to stop at one point or another.

Then sometimes media bombs away with the most controversial taboos and truths that shock their audience and in return cause higher ratings for a show. Why is this rating such a huge deal anyway? Here is why:

The more a show is watched, the more advertisement is pumped into that show. It does not matter what content is shown on the show, anything that attracts a specific audience such as audience from a specific age group, gender, race etc, whatever causes more people to watch a show is big money for advertisers.

There are many shows and movies that are watched for the purpose of entertainment and not to follow the content that is shown on the show (excluding the Indian sagas and daughter-in-law, mother-in-law cat fights which some take literally) which is essential to mention in this blog hoping that I do not become a killjoy.

Every profession has a discipline that sticks to it like a fly to a fly paper and it should be taken into account especially when a huge audience is involved. Anyone can talk about ethics and principles but what is important is how the credo is maintained, how the set principles have been taken into consideration so talking about something is different and easy while doing something about it is a formidable act.

Any channel can come up with a Jerry Springer show which has a specific target audience and high ratings, which not to mention also come with a warning. What is different is when a channel sends its employees on serious missions that also pose risk to life such as what journalists do when they are sent to embed a war struck country such as Anthony Shadid died of asthma in Syria reporting the Arab Spring or Joao Silva who died when he stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan.

There are not so many local heroes like the journalists above who died embedding the conflict zones of the world, very few are brave to do so, to go out in the field and die for a purpose. Or what about the refugees such as the Children who make chocolate out of cocoa in Africa, they do not get to eat the chocolate that they make rather they get paid with little amount of money. Or those refugees who, in search for their identities, end up getting killed and their organs getting sold for thousands of dollars, they do not even get a proper burial in a graveyard rather, they get buried outside across the walls.

The point is without the audience, without the viewers, there is not a single show on earth that can pass in order to be showed on regular bases. The people are the ones who take one show from an unsuccessful point to a successful one. Basically, it is us who choose the content of the show and become buyers of the product that is shown in the ads.  We are the money generators and it is up to us whether to choose a saga based on domestic (self-generated) problems, or a CNN Freedom Project etc. No matter what happens, wars, killings or the Oscars, the people will be the one that would want to know about all of the aforementioned which as a result will automatically cause the big owners to make shows with such content. This is just one side of the story, a biased opinion of an ignorant reader of news and not a viewer of Television or me.

http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Freeing_the_JFK_Files

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/insidelocalnews/ratings.html

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/conflict-reporting-in-the-post-embed-era/?ref=world