Have you ever been to a magic show? Or watched it on television? Even after knowing the truth, you become illusioned and see only what the magician wants you to see. Well, you must be thinking why I'm telling you about magic in an article about journalism, right? You were expecting a more punchy opening, I know. But magic shows are what we see on television everyday, don't we? And we also get taken away by the things told to us, even after knowing the truth. Everyday the news channel show us things in the exact way how they want us to react to it or feel about it. We get carried away by the news and react to it without checking the facts, thus becoming part of the illusion.
Journalism is defined as the activity or profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites or preparing news to be broadcasted. We have been idolizing the wrong persons for a very long time. I'll explain this statement later on. If you're a regular watcher of Prime Time and debates, you must be aware that the only thing that is of concern is politics. Who will be the MLA, MP, Chief Minister, Prime Minister (and yes, now-a-days news channels cover Panchayat elections also), which Minister spent how much money on tours, which minister gave controversial statements, which minister resigned, which minister slept/watched porn in Parliament, and so on. Needless to say, Politics and Religion turn Indians on like nothing else can. So that's what the television and news channel cover the most.
Take an example: X was raped. The news of the rape was kept away from the people until the time when it could be beneficial to the politicians; and it was also broadcasted in such a manner that people will blame a particular politician or a particular political party for that. So, basically even after knowing the rapists, and thus the truth, still we got trapped by the created illusion and believed exactly what they wanted us to believe and how they wanted us to believe. The hashtag JusticeForX remained just in words, and the narrative was shifted to another "important" political issue beautifully and we forgot how we'd cursed and condemned the rapists, who didn't get punishment. The same persons who were demanding hanging of the rapists and threatening to kill the rapists themselves were now debating who will win the state elections and why, while the rapists were still roaming freely. The illusion in which we are in, are shifted so fastly that we don't even realize it. And I guess that's how we really are. Very few people will watch a good sensible debate, but the majority will watch politicised and senseless debates with needless shoutings and warnings.
You say good news channel don't exist. What if I say that you are the main reason for it's almost non-existent state. There's a dialogue in the movie Sanju(I'm just quoting a dialogue, that's doesn't mean I've believed everything in the movie), "Audience go there where they find news mixed with 'masala." Let's take an example, Will you support a news channel which will call for creating jobs for the youth or which proves why a particular party is towering over another one? We've elected a particular bunch of people to provide service to us. But what they are doing is, taking control of everything and ruling over us, not providing the service they had promised. If you will not eat veg biriyani, the shopkeeper's money will be wasted and he will not make it again. But, if you eat veg biriyani first and complain about it's taste later, even after knowing about it later, then you'll termed as a fool, my dear; the shopkeeper will make the profit and you'll just be left blabbering. You know there are good food stalls than those, but you go only to that food stall, consume that particular thing and then criticise it. That's exactly what we are doing with news channels also. Even after knowing which news channel is what, we still prefer the worst, politicised ones for 'entertainment', and then blame them later.
Now, coming to fake news. In the recent years, there has been a growth in the number of fake news due to the advancement of social media. Now you too can 'create a news'. Now, the consumers have become the creators. You don't believe you can create news? Try this: Type a long message praising our National flag or our Prime Minister and write at the end, "SHARE THIS IF YOU'RE A TRUE INDIAN!" and if in the next half an hour the same message hasn't returned from multiple sources to you, then tell. It will be forwarded by a lot of INDIANS, who without checking it's authenticity, decided to just forward it for patriotism. Fake news has also become a new way of spreading hatred among the people. Type something against a particular politician or a particular religion and then share it by questioning the faith or patriotism of the people. And then just see the spark being turned into a wildfire. Giving a big example of fake news: I'm sure you all must have come across the message which claimed that our national anthem has been selected as the best national anthem by UNESCO. Many of you must have shared it too. But, if you'd taken some time and Googled it, you'd have known that it was a hoax. Fake news spread only because we let it to spread. If checked at initial levels, fake news can't spread. Even though some of us have became sensible now and check authenticity of the news before sharing anything, we don't say or do anything to stop spreading fake news. Instead, we just ignore the message and return back to our favourite meme page. The fight against fake news will be fruitful if we try to stop spreading them, not just ignoring them. If you will look around you, you'll find that fake news now has got even greater power to wage wars between people, sects, societies and religions. The solution for fake news is not censoring the news, but censoring and checking our news. Until and unless we check the truth of a typed and sourceless message, we can't stop fake news. There are good news apps which can provide real news at your fingertips. Apps like InShorts, NewsByte provide handy news with catchy graphics. These are the things that need to be supported and shared if you're a 'true Indian's and not your neighbourhood uncle's forwarded fake-patriotic news.
"The media is completely biased!" We all say/hear the statement. A single day glimpse at the Prime Time would prove which channel is supporting which political party. I say journalism is ought to be biased. Surprised? Astonished as to why Arnab Goswami would support BJP over a Victim? Here's the thing. It's not easy building a media house. The funds for building and running the house, comes from big politicians and businessmen. They own large numbers of shares of the companies. And will they want that a negative news of their political party or their company to be shown on the channel? Obviously no, because who would want to be thrown out or be bankrupt? Yes, Arnab supports BJP. Why? Because if you've ever Googled about Republic TV, it was founded by Arnab as well as Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is a BJP MP. So, will Rajeev allow Arnab to say things against his party? Of course not. You've got your answer now, right? We have also a large numbers of independent media houses, which operate on YouTube, like The Quint and The Wire and in print too like The Scroll. Many people watch their videos, read their stories, like and share them too. But to support these, you also need to donate some of your money. Are you willing to do so? Many will not! Still we sulk about biased media.
We prefer watching things/news on TV which usually are needless to watch and ignore the actual news; and that's why news in India is how it is today. "Maut ki bathtub" and "Padmavaat (i)" got more coverage than farmers protesting in Maharashtra and how they crossed the city at night so that the board exams of the children will not be stopped. We still see the real heroism of Anushka Sharma, scolding a man throwing garbage out of his car window on the road. And then we go and blame journalism.
