Media is often referred to as the fourth pillar of democracy, the other three being the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary. In my opinion, it is THE strongest of the four. It’s through the media’s coverage of events around us that we formulate an opinion on not only the workings of the Legislative, which in turn effects our voting pattern, but other events affecting our country as well.
So how powerful the media really is in a democratic setup like India? To put things in perspective, look at it this way: how do we know who the Prime Minister of India is? Where do we get information on the dates regarding the next state/general elections? Who kept us up to date on the flood situation in Chennai? It’s the media! Each and every bit of information related to happenings around the world reaches us via some form of print or digital media.
Isn’t it scary to know the enormous power the media wields over our opinion making? Of the thousands of incidents/crimes that take place in our country every single day, the decision on choosing the stories that we get to see and the ones that are filtered out is entirely the prerogative of the respective media house. An important question to ask here is, what forms the basis of this decision making? Ethics dictate that a journalist must maintain complete objectivity while reporting, but given the fact that all media houses in India are for-profit business entities with an aim of profit maximization, have economic considerations trumped neutrality? What bearing does political leanings of the sponsors pumping money into these media houses have on the quality and quantity (explained later) of the content being covered? Moreover, what about the media-politician nexus? On the other hand, crony capitalism is a reality and if the same businesses that favor a particular political party also sponsor news debates, doesn’t this set-up wreak of a conflict of interest?
In that regard, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that out of the 365/366 odd days in a year, not a single day passes wherein the media doesn’t have a scandalous story worth discussing during their profitable 9-11 P.M. slots. Will they find sponsors for these prime time shows if all they report is mundane news like India’s improved economic climate, Hyundai’s decision to use the sea route to transport cars within India for the first time ever, etc.?
Hence, a society on the boil translates into our journalists having a hot topic for discussion every single night. If a petty crime occurs somewhere, adding the caste/religion angle to it will make it ‘newsworthy’. Take for example the recent attacks on people by these self-appointed cow vigilantes. If a person is assaulted for whatever reason, the perpetrator(s) must be arrested and the law should take its course. However, if you choose to report the story as Dalits (lower caste) being attacked by non-Dalits, then you’ve just added the ‘Breaking News’ component to an otherwise simple story. Adding the Dalit angle will get you sound bytes from the likes of Arvind Kejriwal and Mayawati, and heated discussions with an elaborate panel on late night shows will rake in the much needed moolah! The actual intent behind the crime itself is put on the back burner. A local law and order problem, which would otherwise have been ignored had the victims been non-Dalits, becomes a national calamity. Suddenly the intelligentsia are in the limelight again for wondering if intolerance is on the rise. In all this noise, the voice of the Home Minister giving numbers in the Lok Sabha (the lower house) pointing to the fact that crimes against Dalits have not increased since NDA came to power in 2014 is lost.
Problem with this approach is, out of 100 crimes taking place in India on a given day, if 10 are against Dalits and that’s all that the media chooses to report (the quantity aspect as discussed above), we all will be under the impression that crimes against minorities are on the rise. Add to this the fact that not only does the media pick and choose what we see, it also decides on HOW we should interpret what they show us. So, an assault by someone under the garb of protecting animals is reported as an atrocity based on the social standing of the victim, and that’s exactly how we understand the situation. This is followed by the social media erupting with left and right supporters trading barbs and defending their respective political parties, and it all dies down in a few days until the next controversy is ‘discovered’.
The effects of such negative reporting has other consequences as well. How we perceive ourselves depends on where we come from. This perception translates into how we interact with non-Indians. If all that the media reports is atrocities by the cow vigilantes and sexual violence against women, not only do we start buying into this narrative (that this is all that’s going on our country), but even the foreign media, who sees what our media chooses to show, starts buying into this false narrative. It’s often said that one must respect oneself in order to get respect from others. Given the colonial mindset that the majority of our citizens suffer from even after 69 years of independence from the Britishers, combined with the shame that our media puts us through, we’ve become this self-deprecating group who sully our own image over and over again due to our supposed insecurities.
Therefore, it’ll be prudent for us to take what is shown to us with a pinch of salt, and not limit ourselves to just one source of information. All media houses have different affiliations and agendas, though not necessarily the same ones. As stated earlier, our view of the Indian society is limited to what we are shown, and this is something that’s beyond our control. However, when we put two and two together, for instance, the Dalit controversy with the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh next year, things will make a lot more sense, and this extrapolation is very much in our control. If the media acts irresponsibly with the power that it commands, it is very much in our hands to mitigate its regressive impact on our psyche.
This post is a prelude to a series of such posts, in which I’ll be exploring the unnecessary noise that the media generates, which often clouds our view of the topic at hand.
