SLOPPY MEDIA ROLE TRIGGERING THE EPIDEMIC IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LIKE PAKISTAN

In a true democratic state, media plays an essential role to educate, guide and provide meaningful knowledge in grooming the citizens. This role becomes more sensitive under the current global crisis of an invisible enemy of human beings. It is obvious that under anxiety and state of helplessness when instead of creating unity, understanding and a sense of belongingness in the citizens, the sloppy media is creating bias, confusion and misinformation about disintegration of central and provincial functions; in turn, this is creating bifurcation among the people, mishandling the national cause and discouraging the masses over their inability to face the leadership. In fact, all these factors add to the current panic, confusion and hopelessness, leading to depression among the disturbed minds by blocking their rich mental faculty to collectively handle the crisis under one leader. At this moment, political scoring and creating parallel streams makes the situation further difficult for the state to focus on the task and to encourage the front-line medical along administrative forces to handle the situation. The egoistic anchors while presenting concocted stories to disgrace the ruling head, being Muslim, never realize the verses like V-67:13-15,”And whether you keep your talk secret or disclose it, verily, He is the All-Knower of what is in the breasts (of men). Should not He Who has created know? And He is the Most Kind and Courteous (to His slaves) All-Aware (of everything). He it is, Who has made the earth subservient to you (i.e. easy for you to walk, to live and to do agriculture on it, etc.), so walk in the path thereof and eat of His provision, and to Him will be the Resurrection.”

Most of the anchors bring same-minded, sentimental guests who keep on criticizing the running government over its work and policies within its sources. They act with aggressive tone and gestures as if they are going to attack a rival country. It appears that every one sells his views as if he is the last Greek scholar left in this world. So, instead of providing valuable suggestions or goal-directed activities, it seems that they are bent upon to prove the worth of media as fifth pillar of a state through criticism as if they are pundits with more administrative skills than the existing government. Such TV talk shows just look for the ratings and to prove their loyalty to political oppositions to subdue the in-house parties. They do not realize the importance of boosting the national morale which is already at stake. The repeated negative slogans just keep on increasing the harassment level among the masses in semi-educated population who is already at the brim of exhaustion by rumors. In other words they are alike a media corona to demoralize the common person. It acts as enemy propaganda, fasad for disunity in the poor workers by the TV producers who are looking for cheap popularity by exaggerating inauthentic data. Through their aggressive tone and unethical remarks, the hosts appear as agents against the government, and indirectly push the viewers to pour out their stored anxiety against the ruling class.

Such anchors and hosts do not see that the psychological mechanism in a scared person’s autonomic and glandular systems are already over-charged and have an impact in over-thinking with anxiety and related fantasies. Such clients often lose self control by weakening self-resistance power against negative ideation or depressive flow of ideas. The elders, children, villagers, teenagers, women and people with personality impoverishment who are in isolation, being stuck at home under social distancing, etc., are already at a peak of confusion and uncertainty. Unfortunately, in developing countries with poor resources, poor civic senses with limited knowledge are further derailed with these choppy talk shows with annoying rumors. The anti-government slogans based on personal prejudice paint such a dark gloomy picture about the country’s future that extremely ill and derailed patients’ enclosed within themselves starts looking toward death’s door. On the other hand, these anchors believe that they have achieved victory after the presentation but it leaves pain and sufferings in a common person with depression, and disturbed dreams in the affected families.

Unfortunately, there is no law to seek penalties for such national trouble-makers or to check and control such irresponsible night talk-shows and the clowns who come daily to play with the mental health of the citizens. Uncontrolled TV hosts and column-writers are active under the name of democracy. They get benefit of the emergency state of the government which is already locked in fighting on numerable fronts like law and order situation, economy, poverty under limited sources, debts, health and unpredictable attacks of virus, and to educate the masses about civic awareness. There must be some law and enforcement agency or court of justice to control the above-narrated social-media, TV hosts, and writers who are the root cause of derailing the masses in an effective government.