State of Media

Open any news site and you can see very predictable polarised platitudinal news items. Few Sunny Leone and Sonam Kapoor news items, some on political boxing happening between heavyweights like BJP and Congress,  news on rape, theft and crime and some oft-repeated opinion mouthpiece. News has boring to the degree of predictability of traditionaBollywoodod movies that one may feel exhausted and irritated reading the same news item again and again. And as this was not enough, the poison of fake news acts as an icing on the cake. 

State of media in our country and around the world has become so abysmal that it would be unjust to call it the fourth pillar of democracy any more. The news anchors have become representatives of political parties. Rather than news presenters, they have become opinion makers and opinion feeders. They feed the ideology in the minds of people who remain glued to television channels in the hope of some good news. In fact, this hope is a euphemism for their hidden anger due to their inability to find my purpose in the life. The news opinion markers and feeders who were hitherto only presenters are tapping into this turbulence generated in the minds of people due to anxiety, tension, and fight for survival. In the process, most of them seem to have taken sides with one or other political party or ideology. They characterize the presstitute in the true sense. The sadness takes the toll when we see that even those who try to be neutral, become so sarcastic and caustic in their remarks that they are seen as anti-establishment. 

To make the matter worse, social media has emerged as the biggest factory of fake news, instant justice, trolls and negative commentary. Everyone seems to have an opinion and eager to express and defend it without having a thorough political economic and cultural understanding and least of it the knowledge of the subject being discussed. Seems like people have taken the 'Chai par churcha' bit too seriously just like the 15 lakh jumla of BJP and 'Garibi hatao' slogans of Congress. 

The problem lies in our narrowing vision. From a polychromatic multi-colored thinking, we seem to have degenerated to a binary vision where only the grammar of either-or, yes-no, for-against and national-anti-national find space. Rest all is brushed aside in one stroke under the carpet or on the fringes where it is left to be rotten just like people who live on the fringe channels. Sometimes it feels like society as a whole is going through a phase of depression. It has developed delusional thinking about people killing each other, one section trying to harm other and one destructive thought overpowering all other thoughts. The worst part is this depression is manufactured and media is playing a big role in it. The question we ought to ask ourselves is what is the remedy? 

Just like the best antidote to depression is activity, the best remedy for societal depression is the debate, discussion and free exchange of ideas. The word free assumes a huge importance here. It can not be manufactured. News readers and presenters should come back to their original role. Our education system should promote critical thinking and questioning so that people can form an opinion of their own instead of borrowing other's thoughts or speaking like parrots. But a big question which remains unanswered is can this really happen? 

Let us understand this with the analogy of an animal with four legs whose all four legs are tied with each other. Can he really walk? The answer is obviously no. Similar is the situation of present-day media. It is tied with the leg of economy and politics. Today businessmen are the politicians and they are the media moguls. In such a state of affair, does democracy really stands any chance?