Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://englishdev.theprint.in/subscribe/
In the late 1950s, in my small one horse town in North Malabar, the vernacular newspapers arrived before dawn. The English language dailies, just two The Hindu, which my family read, and one another (I forget the name), arrived only by noon. The valve operated Murphy radio was the other source of world and domestic news. Those were the days when people just accepted what the media said. With the proliferation of digital media in all its forms, now it is either that biases in the media shape viewer attitudes or Indians are viewing outlets that align with their pre-existing views. Meanwhile, political parties capitalize on this bias to influence public attitudes and further their own power. The media exploit these failings and laugh all the way to the bank.
Indians’ confidence in the mainstream media, both print and TV, has been anemic for nearly two decades, and Gallup’s latest findings further document that distrust. The current level of public trust in the media’s full, fair and accurate reporting of the news is the second lowest on record. This 2022 confidence reading follows Gallup’s historically low confidence in both TV news and newspapers in June and a new low in December’s annual rating of the honesty and ethics of television reporters. Newspaper reporters received similarly low ratings in the same poll. Indications from social media and other contact sources are that confidence has diminished further. These feelings now seem entrenched and show no signs of abating.
The other day, I was listening to an interview of CNN anchor, journalist and author Fareed Zakaria by British journalist, James Paul Harding, (formerly director BBC), founder of Tortoise Media. In the interview two views expressed by Fareed seemed profound.
- Journalists should shed light and not generate heat
- There is an unserved market for intelligent television… (and by extension intelligent social media)
The internet has changed in infinite ways as to how we live on line and off it. This includes how news is funded, produced, consumed and shared. Also, anyone and everyone in social media is either a content creator or a content forwarder aiding in the proliferation of “news”. These creators and forwarders are least interested in checking whether the contents are true or false and/or are either intent in furthering their respective agenda and/or making money. This paradigm shift in the media industry has resulted in massive dissemination of disinformation, propaganda and weaponization of media to influence the masses. The harms of disinformation are proliferating around the globe—threatening our elections, our health, and our shared sense of facts. Disinformation has created an infodemic undermining public health, safety and government responses. It is shaping the minds of a whole generation to unreal forms. No country or media market is immune from these threats.
News consumption all over the world is increasingly dominated by the internet. India is no exception. The print media is dwindling in size and relevance. It is estimated that more than 300 million online users in India will consume their news digitally in the country’s eight top languages, a figure which has nearly tripled since 2016 (up from 100 odd million).
This menace of disinformation has to be nipped in the bud to save future generations from a make believe world. Choking the funding of the sources is surely one way to combat disinformation. An independent, trusted and neutral risk rating of news sites’ disinformation risks is needed. This is a problem in all democracies which advocate free speech without defining how free is free. For this very reason people in the Western democracies are becoming less enchanted by democracy itself. Democratic nations have to unambiguously define the degree of free speech. Only then risk mitigation strategies for disinformation will work.
Media houses and self styled journalists in the social media could start by adopting journalistic and operational standards like those set out by the Journalism Trust Initiative that make information about overall policies of the site transparent and discuss all aspects of the matter from all angles. Media houses should also publish sources of funding on their respective websites to build trust. While implementing and clearly displaying a policy for correction practices in case of errors in reporting, media houses must also display bylines to ensure transparency and accountability, by mentioning the identity of the author.
Tailpiece: Unchecked information proliferates in the form of agenda-based presentations and forwards. Those with an agenda will forward anything just to make an unjust point. They will ignore other aspects. This is done by all and the opposing sides are “compelled” to retaliate from the hip. This is the ecosystem of social media all over the world.
(The author is an Indian Army veteran and a contemporary affairs commentator. The views are personal. He can be reached at kl.viswanathan@gmail.com )
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.