Media, journalism and the social media boom in India have made news and current affairs update inconsumable and heavily biased. Let me walk you through how the Indian media standards have plummeted over the last decade.
In the early 2000s number of news channel were limited. After the technology boom, this dynamic changed significantly. The rating and view game in the industry started to heat up.
Within a couple of years, this started affecting the integrity of the news. From being informative, the priority of news changed to being engaging. The channels went from being a source of broadcasting news to being annoying and ridiculous with losing integrity at every turn. After the passing of famous Bollywood celebrity Sridevi, channels broadcasted horrifying headlines such as Maut ka Bathtub (since she was in a bathtub) scenes were enacted on national television on how she may or may not have died. In more recent times, after the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput, photos of his dead body were shared on national television after a few journalists managed to get a picture of him. In a time for grieving, cameras were shoved in his father’s face asking, "How are you feeling?", after they breached into his house. Since he died by suicide, they questioned his integrity and managed to taint his memory in minds of many people. This was before the actors were put in the ground or cremated. Influencers, in order to promote their agendas, used the death of these actors and media let themselves serve as platforms.
As these channels and papers hugely influenced people, political parties used this to bias the news. If I had a penny every time I heard “Bik gayi hai media!”, I would certainly be a millionaire. Every party uses a set of channels and newspapers to criticize or advertise the smallest of issues and blowing it out of proportions. Even if a channel or paper is not affiliated by political parties, the news is still tainted. It is affected by at least 3-4 biases before it reaches the audience. The writer, the editor and the host, all have set perspectives to a bit of news and what you receive is more of a conspiracy theory rather than facts. Some channels also host debate shows, where the host bullies anyone who has a slightly different point of view. The quality of debate is of 5th-grade class where immature people shout their lungs out with constant questioning of patriotism and nationalism. This leaves us in a dilemma of how to consume our news.
I believe in the old-school ideology of using newspapers. The internet and google algorithms overwhelm you with articles after articles where you read about the news you want to be true, instead of what actually is true. With a newspaper, your intake of news is relatively limited. Some might argue this is bad as that one source may be faulty. However, this can be overcome by reading papers fro three publishers of newspapers. Newspapers also have biases but since they don’t have the power of voice modulation and speech they are relatively less swaying. To remove issues about misinformed facts and biases each individual should use three newspapers from different publishers, which are established. In this day and age, there is no perfect way of keeping tab of the world. We have to find the way that is the most efficient but doesn’t take a toll over the mental health of individuals.
