The landscape in India for the media has changed by leaps and bounds in the past few years. Earlier the media in India was unbiased, they reported the facts as they were gathered. There was a tendency to lean towards the left and socialist causes mostly due to the socialist principles on which the country was founded and which formed the belief system of the then largest political party in the country. But even with this bias every side used to get at least a customary hearing.
Alas, with the emergence of capitalist conglomerates expanding their tentacles into global markets and the news being more and more focused on leading the viewer to a particular ideology, the narrative has shifted from being people and fact centric to being more ideology centric
Political parties have been very quick to cash into this phenomenon with the quid-pro-quo arrangements being established with different news channels. Earlier the country used to consume news at a fixed time in noon or at 7 or 8 PM at night, but now with the emergency of 24 X 7 news channels the appetite for new News is tremendous and it also feeds the frenzy as there is only so many ways the same headlines can be repeated throughout the day.
Media houses have started creating their own narratives, shaping the narrative is no longer enough, in order to feed the demand for new News every hour, there now exists a tendency to create news - it doesn't matter if it is right or wrong, true or fake.
The recently concluded General Elections in India were symbolic of this arrangement. The largest media houses in the country were clearly divided along political lines:
Alas, with the emergence of capitalist conglomerates expanding their tentacles into global markets and the news being more and more focused on leading the viewer to a particular ideology, the narrative has shifted from being people and fact centric to being more ideology centric
Political parties have been very quick to cash into this phenomenon with the quid-pro-quo arrangements being established with different news channels. Earlier the country used to consume news at a fixed time in noon or at 7 or 8 PM at night, but now with the emergency of 24 X 7 news channels the appetite for new News is tremendous and it also feeds the frenzy as there is only so many ways the same headlines can be repeated throughout the day.
Media houses have started creating their own narratives, shaping the narrative is no longer enough, in order to feed the demand for new News every hour, there now exists a tendency to create news - it doesn't matter if it is right or wrong, true or fake.
The recently concluded General Elections in India were symbolic of this arrangement. The largest media houses in the country were clearly divided along political lines:
- NDTV & Aaj Tak was in favor of the UPA supporting: Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress...
- Republic TV & India TV were in favor of the NDA supporting: Bhartiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (S), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena…
- Southern India has an even queerer case, the two leading parties in the Tamil Nadu run their own media conglomerates:
- Sun TV Network encompassing channels like: Sun TV, Surya TV, Kiran TV, Kalaignaar TV is run by the Maran family who are active members of the Dravida Munnatera Kazagham (DMK) political party
- Jaya TV is run by the incumbent TN government the AIADMK
- Similar story unfolds in Andra Pradesh as well with the YSRCP led by Jagan Mohan Reddy controls the Saskshi group which runs the Sakshi newspaper and Sakshi TV
With so much of the narrative controlled by the major political parties and the channels giving their own spin to every story to ensure that the right conclusion (favored by the party or the channel) is drawn by the viewer what is the next stop for honest unbiased news reporting in India? How much of the narrative provided by the Media today can be trusted?
The Media was supposed to be the 4th Estate or Pillar of democracy which does not take sides and which provides the facts based on which the people of the country can make a honest decision, but that is no longer the case.
The less said about how Social Media is spewing its toxicity through the anonymity the better.
Comments
Post a Comment