Comparative Analysis of Zee News and NDTV

1.    Abstract

Through the course of operation, no matter the core fundamental beliefs and modus operandi they start out with, organizations find themselves influenced by a lot of external factors which reshape the way certain activities are carried out within the establishment. A major one of these factors being politics.

Politics, as defined by the internet is the activity associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power; and by power, we also mean the power of swaying certain media houses that run in their sphere of influence with any means necessary. Here, a lot of reasons to be influenced can be traced back to personal connections, favors or simply money.

2.    Introduction

In countries in the West, labelled as liberal democracies where conservatism still runs rampant, posing as a threat to progressive societies, we find certain political ideologies being parroted by media houses, where they take a hard stance in the existing political norm and are determined on slandering the other side’s views and opinions. For example: we have Fox News in USA, a media house that leans more towards a conservative ideology and because of this, their so-called rival, CNN, was forced to share similar fields and now their news lean more towards liberal ideologies, or so is their image painted by Fox News and in reality it actually may not be so.

2.1 Main Concept of Study

We cite the above example because when analyzing the news content and operations of NDTV and Zee News, we come across a similar situation. Here, we find Zee News to be comparably more right wing, meanwhile painting NDTV to be left wing which might not necessarily be the case but it has been built that way because we’ve frequently come across the mentality that rivals must always be on clear opposing sides, it cannot be the case that one is right and the other is neutral; and as a wise man once said, “There is either left or right, I don’t believe in centrist attitude.” So, in order to come across clearer understanding of the ethics behind someone’s work, instead of analyzing news stories and the headlines that these media houses come up with, we analyze the ‘mistakes’ or controversies that they have committed so far, that is how we come across the basic principles they employ in their work as well as we reach to a slightly greater level of understanding their ideologies as we question their intentions or reasons.

3.    Review

3.1 Zee News:

Jindal Group Incident: Basically this entire incident was centered on corruption and attempt of extortion of money from Jindal Group. This allows plenty questions to be raised on the ethics of Zee News as a media house since the basic foundation of journalism is to provide news that is to not be wavered by bribes since that increases the quantity of fabricated information provided to the public.

JNU Controversy: During this time, Zee News was hit pretty hard with backlash for their exaggerated content where the footage they aired was tampered with and some slogans were added in which were of ‘anti-nationalistic’ sentiments. Much analysis for this controversy isn’t required as it points to clear fabrication of news content in order to serve their bias and increase TRP.

                     3.2 NDTV:

Scam Scandal: It was reported that NDTV, in league with the previous finance minister, P. Chidambaram were involved in a partnership in laundering money as well as tax evasions which accumulated to an amount of nine thousand crores. This gives us an understanding that the media house in question had (and maybe still has) strong connections with higher authorities else this scam wouldn’t have gone that long.

One Day Ban: The most famous controversy that NDTV went through was the one day ban they were slammed with by the Government on allegations of reporting of sensitive information while covering the Pathankot air base issue. This ban was highly debated with several prominent figures speaking against the decision. No one can, however judge the importance or secrecy of the information provided.

4.    Conclusion:

The conclusion to the analysis above is that we find both media houses prone to influence from politics, not only through personal connection but favors as well as money. The other debate for ethics centered on Zee News might also be pointed on the case of their prime time journalist being a known felon, released on bail. (We shall not go through that at the moment.)
A very basic comparison, in the context of Zee News, when one tends to recollect the imagery of the channel, they always find it to be more colorful than compared to the classic black and white that NDTV portrays and that itself speaks a lot on the gist of the news they offer.

5.    References:

Which news channel is more dangerous for India NDTV or Zee News? (n.d.). Retrieved February 01, 2017, from https://www.quora.com/Which-news-channel-is-more-dangerous-for-India-NDTV-or-Zee-News

Fox News (cable news network) Bias Liberalism (politics) Is it true that Fox News has a conservative bias and CNN has a liberal bias? (2016, July 18). Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-Fox-News-has-a-conservative-bias-and-CNN-has-a-liberal-bias

Manushi. (n.d.). Retrieved February 03, 2017, from http://www.manushi.in?articles.php?articleId= 1749#.WJXk96BX7qA