Journalism in India of-late has become the scapegoat of every major controversy knocking out of the gutter; if not the reason alone. Television media is becoming the best topic for a evening chai-session at the dhaba nearby. It isn’t necessary to be friends to start up a debate on News Channels as every lame listener is enticed by the sensationalism and featurific (Read Gabbar Singh style) style of news reporting and news presentation. But, what about the cyber media?

People blame news reporters that their main motto is to shoot stories rather than news. The best effort is not put in the newsroom but in the editing desk so that the news can be spiced up! The same old formula (read new found IndiaTV inspired formula); arrange the news, get some bites – package ready! Enough, says all who wants journalism to take a few steps ahead in shaping up India-2020 dream.

But, we all fail to tame it! The discussion over chai doesn’t reach millions; although another million doing the same regularly. The television & print are the most monitored form of media – and the mess continues! So, what about cyber journalism?

Obama visited Afghanistan on Friday night (India time) and the news was taken by surprise as he was not slated to visit the terror-torn country. I got the information through Twitter as I ‘playing’ with tweets then. I tweeted “#Obama in Afghanistan; taken by surprise” and checked in Google, “Obama in Afghanistan?”. I was shocked to see the result! In the real-time news section, my tweet appeared!

!Its such easy to ‘spread’ news these days! The one thing that a search engine optimization expert suggest to note is the importance of headline. A headline is an advertisement to the story. Seems, the notion is taken to tough by the news websites.

The use of semi-fact headlines and unrelated thumbnails makes for the best advertisement of the news piece and website visiotrs do fall prey to such inquisitive tactics. But, is it ethical?

Indian news websites, be it of any ‘big’ media group, lacks hugely in reporting entertainment, fashion, health and sex related stories. The prime aim in these sections is to gather hits – the content? Rather uninformative and not matching with the headline for sure!

Maybe this is the reason that the country has seen some news satire websites coming up in recent times. They are generating good traffic. They are fake and they admit that! Faking News, News that Matters Not and The Scoop Times are a few from this genre.

The state of cyber security in India is very weak. We may boost of being a software giant or a nation of intellectual youths, but out cyber security is at mess. So there goes our cyber journalism. Its needed now that the Government come up with tough cyber laws, that can stop crimes. Its time now that before cyber world goes beyond control, lets have some set of rules…. till then enjoy all your Facebook & Orkut accounts in the name of Sita… Geeta…. Bobita….