Media: Ideological eunuchs?

Media is a huge shaping factor on the fabric of any society. It shapes the public perception on a plethora of issues thus influencing the very dogma of society. As even a comic caper can tell you, with great power came great responsibility. But the mass media has exploited the fore said powers left, right and centre. News deliverance from the media houses is based on trust. It is supposed to be unbiased, objective, fair etc. and it should help the subscribers form their opinion based on content. In these days with sensationalism the difference between fact and opinion seems quite blurry. The pioneer of the sensationalism, commercialization and the birth of lobbyists like Nira Radia has been the Times of India (TOI) in our country.

This biased based reporting is rampant in India especially; but the very first company to plunge into this dark phase has been TOI. The TOI kicked off the trend with its eyeball garnering supplement called ‘page 3’. With the advent of this phenomenon people desperately wanted be in on this. More so the celebrities as their livelihood depended on garnering these eyeballs. So, to accommodate the needful TOI began milking this cash cow and page 3 space began to be auctioned. The evolution had just begun; soon TOI began to actually receive equity shares of companies in exchange for redundant barrages of advertisement in their papers. Today the Bennett Coleman group stands to be one of the largest private equity investors in India. Then came the actual conflict of interest. As a major chunk of their revenues depended on these companies it only made sense for TOI and Economic times to publish favorable reports of these companies in their paper. Only when SEBI saw a dangerous pattern emerging it was guide lined.

But in doing so the revenue model was transgressed onto another feasible platform. A platform that was proven and productive for any earnings through corruption. The Indian political sphere. Today, as I experienced even a common man sipping chai in a tea stall can tell you, which news channel is affiliated to which party. What better ways for these political parties to advertise than to have the disguised ‘ideological eunuchs’ on their payroll.

The political parties pay the newspapers to print glowing articles about the party in exchange for money and the reader is duped to believe the article as a fact when in reality it is just another paid advertisement thus influencing the proletariat. The Radia tapes have actually broken the credence of our business trust spectrum as well. We thought the Ambanis and the Tata’s were on two different ends of the spectrum but only to know that they were actually quite close. It shows how well the media has toyed with its reporting to form public opinion. Not since the days of emergency (at least to public knowledge) do the media have such a compromised poise.

And now with the political connections of the media being exposed, the TOI has evolved into a new avenue; it has sold its masthead, the paper jacket too to companies. Can’t wait to see what is next. While the rape is underway, I will stick to DD News as it seems like the only boulevard where facts are not compromised for opinions.