The news is bad.

Admittedly, the media have great influence in shaping people's ideas.

The media have a powerful influence in shaping our lives. We have to depend on them for information and entertainment, and so we let them affect important aspects of our lives. The undeniable usefulness of the media in providing information about events around the world is taken for granted. But we have allowed them to mould our notions and opinions of events, places and people. 

We are similarly swayed by coverage of news.

Recently, I've read an article about the life behind the bar of a cold blood murder in my country who killed a family including a couple, 18-months-baby, and mutilated 8 years old girl. And it continues to grab the headlines in electronic media. Why is a murder promoted as some kinds of new trendy phenomenon? Or celebrities misbehave, divorce. Why do we need to know about that? why should we care? Or do we really need to see the video footage of an intimate moments of tragedy?

The question is why is there so much coverage of such news items, which otherwise, have little relevance and doesn't also address the basic issues involved in them? Is it because people like to read such news or is it because its all media driven and people get what comes their way? May be we are all voyeuristic, satisfying our little pleasures by watching voyeuristically in details of such cases. Gradually, the ethical and journalistic standards have come down and so is the overall credibility of media. They are willing to trade an decent piece of information for an crappy hot news.

But can we blame the media alone? It seems like the world never get bored of celebrity mayhem or shocking crime scene. The problem is serious policy issues of social relevance are getting neglected as a result of media and general public's obsession with voyeurism and it has to stop.