The face of Indian media has been fast changing with the growth
of the Internet, the phenomenal rise of satellite and cable networks, the
continuing growth of regional press, despite various challenges and the
blurring of lines between news and entertainment. But there is a sort
of ‘crises in the present media due to processes of commercialization,
mercerization and commoditization. This has led some to present
a pessimistic view of the media, to emphasize the ascendancy of
‘infotainment’ over ‘serious’ reportage and analysis of politics. It is
also often remarked that the quality of ‘serious’ political journalism is
steadily declining, with a dilution in its substantive political content
to the detriment of the democratic process. An opposite view asserts
not that there is too little serious politics in the media, but too much.
This is seen as a kind of information overload that bores audiences and
diminishes public interest. Still others have argued that media is an
elitist bourgeois construct, reflecting essentially bourgeois interests and
values and conditions of existence and can thus never serve the genuine
interests of the people as a whole. Despite its democratic façade, it is
said that the media remains exclusive, and people as a whole feel no
real involvement in a process which appears to give them power but in
reality does not.