Indian Media: A Sinking Ship?
Independent journalism, a key to rescuing the fourth pillar of Indian democracy
Neither the falling GDP, nor the COVID crisis could move Indian media to report the failures of the current government. Unbiased reporting seems to be distant dream in India’s journey of journalism. Being the fourth pillar of world’s largest democracy, Indian media holds a large responsibility to sustain the civic literacy by serving factual reportage and neutral editorial philosophy. However, in recent times, such an independent and empowered pillar has succumbed to become subservient to another pillar i.e., the executive, basically the government. This has put into doubt the inter-accountability function of both these pillars, which should have kept in check the operations of the other and help them function well. The growing interference and influence of the government, essentially the ruling party (Bhartiya Janta Party, BJP) on the media has crippled its objective of disseminating true and fair information. In turn, a significant portion of the media has been reduced to be a conduit of political popularity and propaganda by abusing its power to shape public opinion. BJP’s sweeping victory in the recent election of 2019 and the preceding one, enabled significantly by the media (especially by social media), has only confirmed this position and showcased media’s undoubted influence over people. A big chunk of journalism is effectively used as a promotional platform for the ruling party’s ideology and antagonizing the dissenters or the opposition (Chakravartty 320). The probable cure to this disabled media system can be found in its regularization by autonomous authorities to enable transparency and employing external bodies as watchdogs to ensure the credibility of the news produced by them.
It is essential first to study the structural aspect of Indian media, which works like any other corporation in the country, maximizing returns for the shareholders. The ownership of these shares is open to any entity, including corporates or individuals, and thereby also to politicians. The business model swiftly changes when the shareholders transform from mere businessmen to politicians who want their return not only in the form of profits but also in increased public support through biased reporting. An initiative named Media Ownership Monitor(MOM) by an independent NGO in Paris, Reporters Without Borders(RSF), concluded through research that there is a high concentration of readership and viewership with few newspapers and media houses in India, and in turn, these major media houses are owned by political leaders or their affiliates most of which belong to the BJP. Referring to the figure below, ranging from national media houses like Republic TV Zee, IndiaTV, Dainik group, etc. to regional papers that have a good market share in their respective regions, many are owned by people associated with BJP (india.mom-rsf.org). Some of the other influential media houses like India TV, News Nation, Network18, etc. are under the financial influence of corporate giants like Mr. Mukesh Ambani, who have political allegiance to BJP. Other parties like INC and DMK also control some media houses, but their share in the media ownership is relatively small (The Caravan). To add to this direct control, the government also places ‘soft pressure’ by controlling the distribution of the advertisement revenue from the public sector. Some Kashmir media houses have complained explicitly about their menial chances to survive as the government has stopped allocating them the revenue adequately due to their content. This pressure binds the journalists and editors to follow the instructions of the owners and give in to their narratives. (india.mom-rsf.org)
The current transformation in the world of journalism brought on by the social media wave has also been aptly capitalized by the political parties and their candidates. This can be seen in the drastic shift of promotion techniques employed by BJP during the 2014 elections as compared to the methods adopted in the past elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coined as a populist leader, who has built his fame and support through social media. Being the most followed political leader on social media of the world in 2017, Mr. Modi has deliberately chosen social media as a platform to combat the mainstream elite media during 2014 elections to suppress their narrative around him as an enabler of 2002 Gujarat riots (Chakravartty 312). Twitter and Facebook, gave him the platform of unmediated and one-way communication with the public by effectively nullifying any scope of criticism possible by having a negligent appearance on the mainstream media (Rodrigues 154). His tweets became the news for the media houses, which made his campaigning even more effective by transforming media into echo chambers of his monologues. The continued public support has been sustained by their self-owned media houses chanting the party’s ideology in the general public and by internet bots (automated multiplying software applications) that re-share the party’s posts to crowd the social media (155).
In this vast sea of duress, the only visible shore seems to be of a new set of laws saving the raft of media from drowning by losing its transparency and credibility. Restricting and mandating disclosures on the ownership, and putting a cap on the market share exercised by these media houses can emerge out to be an effective way. On 12th August, 2014 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) has proposed recommendations to the government to tackle this issue by prohibiting any political body to directly or indirectly hold any control on any media house, regulating their cross-ownership, making both the publishing house and the politician liable for passing any ‘paid news’ as ‘news’ and asking them to mention in bold, ‘paid news’, if so, etc. It also suggests the establishment of an autonomous and independent body to monitor the activities of any press or publishing house (TRAI 83–85). This body could also function as a certifying authority as a mark of credibility that would encourage media houses to be more conscious of the correctness of their news, along with ensuring the compliance of the above-mentioned laws. These recommendations, if implemented, would reduce the current deficit in the regulations governing media houses in India (india.mom-rsf.org). However, even after all these measures, letting the social media to operate unchecked would make the effort of regularizing mainstream media inefficient. Therefore, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc., should be strictly advised to undertake preventive actions like banning bots, keeping track of accounts spreading fake information, being proactive in removing any objectionable content, etc.
But this transformation shall fail without an equal contribution stemming out from the people who bear the responsibility of civic literacy and vigilant participation in a democracy. As citizens, it is high time we prioritize rescuing the fourth pillar of democracy from being thus corrupted by political agendas and ensure strong and independent reporting.
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Works Cited
- “Media and Political Affiliation in India: Media Monitor India.” Media Ownership Monitor, Lime Flavour, Berlin, india.mom-rsf.org/en/findings/politicalaffiliations/
- India, “Recommendations on Issues Relating to Media Ownership.” Recommendations on Issues Relating to Media Ownership, TRAI, 2014, pp. 1–111. https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Recommendations_on_Media_Ownership.pdf.
- “Media Ownership Monitor: Who Owns the Media in India?: Reporters without Borders.” RSF, 31 May 2019, https://rsf.org/en/news/media-ownership-monitor-who-owns-media-india
- Morgan, Susan. “Fake News, Disinformation, Manipulation and Online Tactics to Undermine Democracy.” Journal of Cyber Policy, vol. 3, no. 1, Feb. 2018, pp. 39–43., doi:10.1080/23738871.2018.1462395.
- “Media Laws in India: Media Monitor India.” Media Ownership Monitor, Lime Flavour, Berlin, india.mom-rsf.org/en/context/law/.
- Chakravartty, Paula, and Srirupa Roy. “Mr. Modi Goes to Delhi.” Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 4, 2015, pp. 311–322., doi:10.1177/1527476415573957.
- Rodrigues, Usha M. “Can Indian Journalism Survive the Onslaught of Social Media?” Global Media and Communication, vol. 15, no. 2, June 2019, pp. 151–157., doi:10.1177/1742766519848266.
- Kaushik, Krishn. “The Big Five: The Media Companies That the Modi Government Must Scrutinise To Fulfill Its Promise of Ending Crony Capitalism.” The Caravan, 19 Jan. 2016, https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/the-big-five-the-media-companies-that-the-modi-government-must-scrutinise-to-fulfill-its-promise-of-ending-crony-capitalism.
About the Author
Maria Rangwala is a Chartered Accountant who is a literature enthusiast and deeply engaged in liberal arts. She aims to learn as much and as diverse as possible which helps her broaden her perspective to be able to know the world in its entirety. As a Young India Fellow in Ashoka University she believes in taking life as it comes.
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