Changing Face of News Media: Implications on Democracy and Governance

In India the liberalisation and expansion of the economy combined with increased education resources has led to the rapidity of expanding markets for the news media. With this the profession of journalism is witnessing drastic and dramatic changes in recent years. A cursory look at the history of media technology indicates that with the advent of every media technology some sort of changes had been taking place in the way journalism was practiced, but the basics of journalism remained more or less the same; the profession was under the full control of the professional journalists. However, the recent developments in the new media technology made profound influences in the way journalism was practiced and conceived. It is not to say that the new media technology is the sole reason for all of this. There were several factors and forces that influenced this upheaval, including the process of globalization. But the major force in this direction of change is the advent of new media technology and its affinity towards democratization. Now even the critics of technological determinism cannot disagree with the fact that the new media technology has been making a tremendous influence on the profession of journalism. Now the profession is undergoing a change towards: deinstitutionalization, democratization, decentralization, to name a few of the changes that we are witnessing in the field. Due to rapid changes in the field of new media technology new forms of journalism are increasingly visible. These new developments and their effects on the journalism raise many professional questions including the conception of news, ethical practices, etc. The consequence may be that there will be new opportunities for plurality of viewpoints. Keeping in view of the above facts, the present paper critically examines the changing face of the news media and their implications on democracy and governance from the post modernist perspective.