By Ranjona Banerji
A number of discussions on toxic work atmospheres for women in journalism has caused immense distress to all of us who have been party to them. Perhaps I am too old, perhaps I have been out of newsrooms for too long, maybe everything I remember is covered in that rosy glow of nostalgia. Even worse, is the constant guilt that maybe I never did enough to stop toxicity wherever I worked or maybe I contributed to it.
Even if I’m just overthinking everything and egoistically putting myself in the centre of someone else’s pain, the stories of unpleasant to downright unbearable workspaces has to be tackled.
There is one viewpoint that goes: some bosses are just awful and we all have to learn to cope with that, men or women.
This is true to some extent. But it just deflects from the real problem on the ground. That media newsrooms have learnt nothing from the #MeToo movement. That media organisations are unwilling to tackle the issue of work atmospheres. And that newsrooms are not inclusive of women, Dalits, people who do not speak English or any language that the newsroom bosses prefer, the LGBT community and so forth, in spite of the increasing media coverage on inclusivity.
Some of these problems are true of all workspaces. But our focus is on the media, which takes it upon itself to school others on how to run their lives. These stories of bullying, of privilege, of demeaning and harassing certain targets emphasise just how little senior staff in newsrooms do to improve the atmosphere. Or indeed, how they and the coterie they are surrounded by, are responsible for making life impossible for others.
The most difficult part of being a boss is people management. And this is where the greatest minds stumble. The rush of the work atmosphere is often cited as the reason for harsh behaviour. Is that an acceptable excuse?
To have to constantly prove yourself because you are not an upper caste male cannot be the future of Indian newsrooms. We thought we had been through all that, but the situation appears to have become worse. All the battles fought have brought us to the point where young people are quitting journalism in droves, because the work atmosphere is impossible, because journalism is no longer practised, because salaries have shrunk. In addition to this, freelance writers are not paid. Media owners have used the excuse of the pandemic to limit themselves rather than work out strategies to ride out a global crisis. Sadly, they appear to have been helped by senior editorial staff who have abandoned all pretence of solidarity with their colleagues.
Many years ago, in at least two newsrooms in which I worked, just about everyone disliked the top boss. This created a sort of familial togetherness. The newsrooms were small. We were mainly young. So we treated the persons involved like difficult parents who had to be managed. It created a safe space for all of us, to have a “common” enemy.
But this is not possible in large newsrooms. It is also not possible where the editor moves with a vicious posse which adds to his or her unacceptable behaviour. It is not possible when the media does not wake up to its own faults.
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To add to the most toxic amongst us, is this additional problem for Modi propagandists in the media. Whom to obliterate and cancel for this story? The entire United Nations or just the Daily Mail?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10153615/Indias-PM-Narendra-Modi-gets-close-comfort-gives-Antonio-Guterres-big-hug-COP26.html
And on that note, Happy Diwali. Do a bit of thinking.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is also Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. Her views here are personal