Biased Media increasing Frantic Activity from Indian Netizens?

Posted by on Feb 15, 2009 in Miscellaneous

A lot of young Indians have taken upto Blogging in the recent times. There is frantic activity going on from the netizens of the country to make their voices counted. For every action there is an opposite reaction, every view gets a counter view and the fun continues with the battles restricted to the keyboards and largely remaining innocuous. One of the main reasons for some of the netizens to begin their own blogs is because of the bias shown by most of the Television Channels. Bloggers who have been frustrated by the one-sided stories emerging from the media want to share their thoughts and come up with the untold versions of the story. The constant rise in the terrorist incidents has certainly added more fuel to their anger and anxiousness in giving out their thoughts.

The Media plays a huge role in changing perceptions about any incident. Take for example ‘the Pub incident in Mangalore’ which was shown repeatedly to enforce a single viewpoint. Various English TV Channels are ready to pounce on their judgment on Saffron brigade equating them with the real terrorists. A Minister comes out to take advantage of the situation and shoots off saying stylishly that ‘Talibanisation is happening in Mangalore’ and thus influencing thousands of youngsters to believe that it was right. The entire focus now shifts on a ‘small for some, big for some’ incident that had happened in Mangalore while the other issues get diverted in the background.

This is where the Bloggers come in handy presenting their independent views about various situations arising in the country. It is not just them, but also the readers of online Newspapers, Orkut, Facebook users who chip in with their viewpoints. It gives satisfaction when another netizen thinks the same way as you do and vice-versa. Some of the young minds get deeply influenced by the Media judgments and they go all out in believing that and try to push that forward as their views on the net. They think whatever comes in the TV Channels has got to be right! But that is not the same with every netizen of the country, some of them might have well understood or imagined that there must be some conspiracy theories behind everything! I think the second type of netizens, ones who think that the media has become biased must have increased in numbers after the ATS Mumbai revealing of the Malegaon blast case using which the Media wasted no time in creating a fancy term – ‘Saffron Terror’.

The increase in the number of News Channels in both English and Hindi (and ofcourse regional languages) has kept the viewers glued and hungry for more News round the clock more than the unrealistic serials and movies. ‘Breaking News’ is what the News Channels look to push through with stories coming out first and leaving the verification of those to a later stage. Here is one take of the abduction incident in Mangalore where a Kerala MLA’s daughter along with her friend (who incidentally is a Muslim) was dragged out by some activists. The News Channels give breaking news saying that they were from ‘Shri Ram Sene’ and they scream at the top of their voices on the saffron brigade in general. The Karnataka Police however come with the theory that the arrested are related to the Communist Party in Kerala. The third bad incident that has happened in Karnataka was the suicide of a Hindu minor girl, the Media presses that it was because of ‘moral policing’ while the Karnataka Government and many people say that it was a case of rape (or sexual assault) by a 26-year-old youth (who happens to be to a Muslim). Now who do you believe – the Media or the Karnataka Police on both the abduction and the suicide? One reason you could believe the Media to be saying the truth is because most of the channels say the same thing. But you will not believe them and instead think that the Karnataka Government or the Police are right if you happen to understand the agenda of some of the channels.

Again here blogs or any pieces of information on the net come to the rescue of the confused netizens. A piece of info found on the net reads that some of the news channels are funded by strong business parties in the Middle East, Christian Organizations based in Spain, USA etc. Take NDTV for instance, the CEO of the Channel is related to Brinda Karat and Prakash Karat, who are both CPI MPs. So may be you expect the NDTV to be friendly to the Communists and the Congress. Each and every News Channel has its own background stories to leave more unanswered questions about their credibility.

In general most of the News Channels tend to stick with the Ruling Party to avoid any trouble. So that leaves the bloggers to come up with the second side of the coin most often. They are the ones who keep on reminding about the past and present blunders or the scams of Politicians, etc to remind other netizens that all is not the same as shown in the Media! Infact the Media kind of uses the Blogs to fill up their stories; their online editions get tremendous amounts of comments which at times completely make mockery of the journalist’s story. So keep Blogging and keep on expressing yourself without fear so that nobody takes us for granted!

Other posts from B.V.Swagath:

Random Posts