By Ranjona Banerji
Am going out on a limb here. Please bear with me.
Every good idea has its time. Then much as it’s “the more things change the more they stay the same”, it is also that things change, people’s needs and wants change and times change.
If you look around you, democracy as the 20th century foresaw it, has changed in ways that were not foreseen. The world over, electoral democracy is now dominant. As if the act of being chosen by a majority of those who set out to choose is a licence to do whatever you want. We have exchanged one set of monarchs for another.
Public accountability, freedom to question those in power, individual liberties and freedoms, the responsibility of the state to the people, all take a back seat to the narrow, sectarian political needs of the chosen few.
And if this is how democracy has deteriorated, it is no wonder that journalism, that “pillar” which is supposed to keep the elected in check, has become an unashamed cheerleader of the chosen.
This problem is not limited to India. By varying degrees, the pattern is being repeated the same world over. And is particularly stark and dismal in these once-admired western democracies.
The Israel-Palestinian situation is one harsh reminder of how low western journalism has fallen. Together with western democracy, hand in hand to the bottom.
Propaganda as journalism is now a given. It is the rule not the exception. It has crept up on us slowly and effectively. Where did we go wrong? Let us be honest. The long, glorious history of free and fair journalism is not long and it is not glorious. For the few years we have existed, because of the nature of our profession – to probe, to muckrake, to look at the worst side – has meant that we have unearthed as much rubbish as we have life-changing, hold-to-account, important material.
And don’t fool yourself that the love of money is the root of all evil in journalism. We need money to live, and survive as a profession. Nothing wrong in that. It is how we get the money and how we bow down to the money is where the evil lies. In the early days, the front pages of newspapers were all advertisements. The same people who moan about the pressures of advertisers on media houses are the same people who will proudly share sepia-toned photos of old newspapers covered in advertisements. These people are not journalists. They belong to that large group of social media experts who may personally know a journalist and most likely don’t.
It is the reach and stranglehold of money, not money itself, which has taken its toll. We handed over our territory one by one. Business journalism fell first. It became a PR party in the 1990s. And if you wanted to know which business house was breaking which law, it was the general reporter who told you. Not pink papers full of press releases and stock market tips. Then fell sports and glamour, both to the altar of celebrity worship. Fans became journalists. And public relations spread its manure thick. Those of you old enough will remember Stardust, which was a film magazine full of gossip that ripped through the film industry. Stardust could not function in today’s world.
The reader lapped it up, not knowing that the reader’s own right to know was being compromised. And now political reporting is at its lowest. Together with analysis and the great hindsight commentator
Let’s not forget TV and its own series of mistakes. Nightly debates. No institutional memory. No newsroom checks. No beat training so one person had to cover everything from murder to film stars, and thus was unable to build domain knowledge. Anchors ruling the roost and viewers’ mind. Remember citizen journalists? This was one of the first means of undermining the work of actual trained journalists. And media houses jumped on the bandwagon with gusto. Little knowing it was their own doom they were happily supporting.
The citizen journalist idea died.
But it gave everyone with access to cyber space a voice. And why not? Citizens must use their voices. We see now as Israel bombards Gaza, it is the people of Gaza who are our sources for news. The reporters present are either propagandists or they are targets for Israeli fire. How many international TV channels tell you how many journalists have died in Gaza? Close to 100. And definitely at least 100 employees of the United Nations. All from Israeli fire. This is not a war which journalists can be proud of.
Sooner rather than later social media “influencers” will steal the thunder from nightly guests who do the rounds of TV studios. Those 30 second clips on Insta reels and TikTok provide the dopamine hits that the human brain craves. You get news, information, fun, lies all tied into a quick access package.
On the dark side, as money dries up for big TV studios hundreds of Youtubers now dictate how information is disseminated. They have no checks and balances. They take their cues from the TV debate template, where people scream as much propaganda as they can and here I include the anchor.
So the end of 2023 lays out a dim picture for the media, globally. Of course, there are always shades and humankind is resourceful. We may do a hard reset or AI may do it for us. These are all our own creations for our own doom.
Meanwhile, congratulations to the winners of the RedInk awards this year. The Mumbai Press Club as ever does a great job of rewarding the few people left who actually practise that “truth to power” sort of journalism which is on its last legs!
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.