Journalism has enough problems, politicians needn't add to them

The conventional media in all formats is facing various problems which are being compounded by actions of politicians, as seen in the recent cases.

The last couple of days witnessed peculiar kinds of advice and actions, related to journalists, by politicians in India as well as US President Donald Trump's White House.

In India, Karnataka State Assembly decided to sentence two journalists to jail for what have been labelled as defamatory reports about certain members of the house, while the speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, advised reporters to avoid telling "unpleasant truth."

While all the way in America, the country considered the beacon of light when it comes to free speech and the rights enjoyed by the press, in what can be seen as nothing but anger towards its coverage, the President's White House administration apparently decided to bar cameras from recording a regular press briefing.

Though such acts might not seem too hostile to journalists working under dictatorial regimes, the trouble with the current development is that the first two occurred in the world's largest democracy and third in the most powerful.

If there is something that political leaders around the world need to learn from the happenings of the recent US elections and the rise of social media as a source of unverified news and its implications, it's that though it may be fairly easy to blame the mainstream media and not be happy with its reporting of uncomfortable facts, leaders and the general population need real journalism to survive as much as it needs their support.

The problems in these three cases

While surprising in their nature, these cases are just a continuation of the tussle between political leaders and journalists, that has existed since press became the source of information based on which people judged their representatives. But the authoritarian nature of the latest advice and actions by leaders in the two countries just goes to show the fight, between those in power and those who are supposed to hold them accountable, is not going to end anytime soon and that all tools available will be used in it.

The order to jail journalists was a clear case of proper legal recourse being bypassed. As instead of the courts of the country deciding on the matter, the group to which the alleged victims belong decided on the conviction and the punishment itself.

Such steps even if the allegations are true, by no means follow the principles of justice. And can easily be seen as another step in the direction of putting fear in the minds of journalists by lawmakers, whose actions media is duty bound to report on, as they dealt their own brand of 'justice.'

As for the suggestion by Mahajan that journalist should not be reporting "unpleasant truth," it goes against the very nature and the need for the profession in the first place. Speaking truth to power is one of the most important parts of journalism and it involves telling all the relevant facts in a fair and transparent manner. The reliability of the public in the press to do so is the reason that it is called the "fourth pillar" in a democracy, which will help make the other three pillars- Executive (Government), Legislature (Parliament) and the Judiciary- uphold their duties.

If the journalists of the country were to follow her advice, it would be a blatant dereliction of their duties and turn them into PR managers.

Away from India, the final one of the three acts which came directly from the centre of US government and should have been the most surprising was the least so, given the nature of the Trump presidency so far where he has regularly criticised the media's coverage of him as too critical and unfair. He has even publicly taking names of channels whose coverage of he did not agree with.

Though certain problems like these were assumed to be possible before he took office, the level which they have reached have probably never been seen before. Such actions are attempts at making the media toe the official line. The repercussions of not doing so being actions like the latest one or being branded 'fake news.'

'Fake News' is a threat to both politicians and journalists

Politicians and the press have always been at loggerheads and the tussle has been understood to be a logical conclusion of their work. While both of them have viewed each other as a threat to their survival, they now seem to be under attack from a new development, which can undermine both.

This comes from the rise of social media as a part of modern day life and the circulation of 'fake news' on it. And the incidents that have been reported from around the world, especially in India and the US, showcase how real this new threat is.

The recent US elections and the spread of fake news on a scale never seen before by a foreign power like Russia should help realise the serious nature of such a problem. Top US investigative officers such as the former head of the US Federal Bureau Of Investigation, James Comey, have confirmed Russian interference. This came not only in the form of interference in the process of the election but also through wide circulation of propaganda and false news which in all probability had a very serious impact on the election results.

This along with reports of lynchings and attacks by mobs in India taking place following the spread false information on social media platforms such as Whatsapp among others in the form of news just help bring the realisation of this new threat home for Indians.

And politicians, particularly in India, need to realise that if the mainstream media stops reporting verified fact, it leaves a vacuum for alternatives with ulterior motives to step in and spread lies which are deemed beneficial to them. While today these might be helpful to a particular party or ideology, there is nothing stopping them from becoming the victims of it tomorrow.

For the media, such a rise is an even bigger threat since it leads to its loss of reputation as the public finds it difficult to differentiate between the two. In addition, journalists will find it difficult to make a genuine piece of journalism heard and read with it getting swamped in a wave of unverified and malicious news.

The spread of such news also makes the jobs of those reporting more difficult as the narrative that forms on a topic makes it hard for them to understand it and leads to chances of unverified facts getting integrated into authentic reports and hence delegitimising journalists.

Such factors have also made them the target of attacks from those who are not happy with the coverage done by journalists and getting labelled under the bracket of fake news.

This proves that the rise of fake news on alternate platforms is a threat to both politicians and conventional media, as while the latter is becoming obsolete and drowned by it, the former just need to realise that in a world without hardcore and proper journalism, the leaders will have the most problems as propaganda on social media will define their chances of winning elections, and a single fake story could ruin years of hard work as it is said 'In politics perception is reality.'

Journalism has enough problems already

The fact which makes the latest attack on it by political leaders and the spread of fake news even more serious is that media houses all over the world and the profession as a whole is going through testing times as it is. These include those forced on it from the outside as well as those of their own creation.

The profession which is mostly described as a 'calling,' rather than a job, and the conventional media as a whole has been under pressure given the changing of how news is read, where it is read and by who.

While the newspapers have seen a fall in readership in most countries across the globe, a growing dependence on advertisements for revenue generation has added a change in the attitude of those responsible for the news. From readers becoming less of a focus of attention, with it moving towards getting more advertisers. In turn creating cases of conflict of interest as to which reports can be published in their original form or not, depending on who it is about. A problem seen across newspapers. possible

In TV journalism, the rise of hundreds of 24-hour news channels has brought with it intense competition for grabbing viewership. This is especially the case when it comes to the English medium channels in India, which have a limited number of viewers. This has led to a drastic fall in standards, from the expected in-depth works of journalism to more sensationalization of the news in order to grab the highest TRP ratings. This has not only led to falling of standards and non-issues becoming news, but also made the profession more vulnerable to attacks from critics.

Points related to both the print and broadcast journalism hold true for the multimedia world of online journalism too. And maybe more so as they face the combined problems of the other two along with being the main medium used for spreading fake news. The one benefit that this medium has is of growing viewership as more and more people are choosing to get their news online.

As for the journalist reporting from the ground, cases of them getting killed, harassed, court cases filed against by them by the rich and powerful including governments who are not happy with critical reporting, are getting more prevalent in present times.

This has not been helped by journalists themselves, especially those influential, becoming agents and middlemen in the corridors of power. As was seen in the 'Radia tapes' scandal.

All these and many more problems faced by the those in the field of journalism prove that conventional media have enough problems already and don't need fresh ones added by politicians.

OneIndia News