Politicians are not the only villains now. Journalists too have become villains

The last decade and a half has seen an unprecedented explosion in the growth of the media, specially audiovisual. Media has come to occupy centrestage, a platform on which political and other actors perform. If the world is a stage, showing on the closest screen near you is the television set.

For the privilege of capturing the theatrical happenings around the world and using one's power of discretion on what shall be showcased, the messengers and the medium gained an aura and a mystery that tickled public imagination and curiosity. No wonder then that journalists and the roles they play quite often became the subject films were inspired and influenced by.

From the idealistic, jhola-wala, stereotype who invariably was eliminated for daring to tell the truth to a cameraperson who becomes chief minister and brings in a political revolution (Mudhalvan in Tamil, Nayak in Hindi), the shades of the screen persona have evolved.

Politicians are not the only villains now. Journalists find themselves soaked in blood too big time, on the big screen. Time for some introspection and self-correction before `journalist' becomes a bad word just the way `politician' already has.

T S Sudhir in The Hoot. More Here