Indian media is Lazy, fake and dramebaaz

Indians have been standing in long queues since the last few days to exchange 500 and 1000 rupee currency notes. Social media is flooded with news, debates, arguments and even jokes. Some political parties are on the streets giving very generalised statements, ‘garib mar raha hai’, ‘ garibo aur Kisano ke halat bure hai’. Those in favour too are giving generalised statements ‘esase garibo ko hi fayda hoga’. Have you noticed one thing in this, these statements that are being said are for approximately 70% of 1.25 billion Indian people. But people who are saying this probably only have access to a minuscule fraction of these 800 million people. I mean what does Arvind Kejriwal know about farmers in Belgaum  or Dharmasthal? Forget that, what does he know about Delhi? I have seen atleast two videos floating around facebook where he has been chased away by people standing outside the bank saying we support the government’s decision.

It is understandable that social media users or even politicians(!) are making general statements. Laymen are only expressing their opinion and for politicians it works in their favour. But frustratingly, media too is not an exception to this. Being analytical, I can’t stop thinking how true this is to the reality? Or is it so easy to generalise any situation? Can you actually generalise anything in India?

Try expalining this to a non-Indian. What do people in India wear? What food do people eat in India? What is the weather like in India? Can you choose who to marry in India? I have tried to answer these questions and have struggled every time. There are no generalised answers to these questions. To provide a reasonably true answer you will have to explain by categorising people based on economic class, different states, different religions, different casts and even then the answer will be incomplete as there will be quite a few exceptions to this. So if we struggle to answer such simple questions, how can media, whose job is to provide an answer that represents reality, can casually provide a general statement on something so complicated like this? And that too without any supporting data! I confess I only have access to 3 news channels but they are one of the most popular ones- Aaj Tak, NDTV and ABP news. But so far I have only seen people like Rajdeep Sardesai talking to a handful of people standing in a couple of bank queues. He tried desperately to get negative sentiment out of them but failed miserably. He said to the bank manager ‘poor are suffering’. The basis for his statement in his own words is, ‘I send my office assistant to bank so he has to stand in a queue and that’s why I say ‘poor are suffering’. Is this a good enough basis for a conclusion from one of the popular TV journalists? How statistically relevant is this? How true is this? 

I will agree if media provides us survey results like they do in exit polls of statistcally relevant numbers from not just 1st tier cities but also from villages and talukas. Divide the data into salaried population, farmers, low wage labourers and then tell us what people think based on this data. Tell us their real problems. I am sure government will take steps to solve it just like they started ‘micro ATMs that are mobile’. But generating such data is not an easy thing to do. A journalistic endeavour like this will need some level of sincerity, hard work, efforts and logistical planning, all traits which I believe are synonymous with good journalism!

One thing has hit me hard – when Anil Bokil of Arthakranti said if over 50% people are earning less than 200 rupees a day then why is 80% of the total cash circulating in the economy in the form of higher denomination notes?

I ask the media to give us a counter argument supported with evidence. We will agree then. I want to tell journalists, with the way you are reporting things presently, your opinion is as good as a layman’s opinion and although some people may value it, it is not a proof that this is actually happening. 

I want to tell the media that don’t fool people with fake journalism, like you did with the infant death story linking it to demonetisation. Such shameless acts do not go unnoticed. Don’t misguide people by saying, ‘a man died of heart attack while standing in a queue’,attributing the death to note ban. I know someone who died last year while watching TV sitting on a sofa. Should I atttribute the death to the sofa or to the TV or to the show they were watching? Give us facts and not made up stories. Did he die with exhaustion, panic, dehydration and hence it is attributable to note ban? Would he have lived a long life if there wasn’t a note ban? Why no family members or any other related aspects shown about that man? There is a proverb ‘dusro ki chitah pai roti sekna acchi baat nahi’. Atleast be considerate to the man who died. I tell you what, file an FIR against the government for the deaths you think are due to note ban. Let each one be investigated. We will get to know the truth only then and if it turns out that only the government is to blame for their deaths, let’s make them accountable for that. But please don’t just to it for the TRPs.
Show some sincerity towards the job you are supposed to do. Stop being lazy and fake. So until we get a paradigm shift in how media works, this is one more generalised statement from a frustrated indian,’Indian media is lazy, fake and dramebaaz’. Hope you know how it feels now to get painted in one colour.

https://youtu.be/o4sIY9ootOk