It was exactly a year ago that I started to realise how journalism works in the times we live in. The mainstream media skews perspectives and tries to limit our thoughts to a box of conservative opinions that are nothing but hollow glasses filled to the brim with hatred. With news channels like Republic TV and websites like OpIndia.com using whataboutery to favour one political party over another, it is extensively difficult for one to form one’s views without actually cutting oneself off from media.
After countless debates on various socio-political topics with my dad, I decided to write my opinions on a blog. As of now, I have written 12 articles on that blog. But somewhere down the line, I felt that no matter how accurate my writings are, it’s only with the help of an established platform with a dedicated reader base that I could see clearly how people respond to my writing. As a result, I started to look for online platforms that could provide me with this attribute along with the freedom to choose what I write on.
Around the same time, I started to interact extensively with my friends who were interested in politics on and off social media, and that’s how I happened to find Youth Ki Awaaz and The Wire turn up on my Facebook suggestions. I subscribed to the latter’s newsletter, and although I had never written on YKA, the internship opportunity for the same was quite a boon. It was only after I had applied for this chance that I started to research extensively. I realised how it was built keeping in mind the exact problems that I felt when I started writing and how it was something every young politically-curious mind needed.
YKA turned out to be a highly safe space for talking about topics which were considered taboos. For example, the Cake segment on YKA is quite a revelation in today’s times when being a feminist and talking about all genders is portrayed quite negatively in mainstream media. The discussion on sexual orientations is also a necessary one especially in a society that constantly reiterates and maintains patriarchy and heterosexuality. Moreover, I think it was the staggering number of young and aware mates on the platform that proved to be a cherry on the top of this cake for me.
While going through numerous pieces on the website, and on Facebook, I must confess that I was slightly appalled by the kind of responses in the comments section of the posts. Although it was a mixture of both good and bad, yet the latter seemed to be firmly dominant over the former. It was a bit discouraging, to be honest, but I soon realised how that was just a price to be paid for voicing strong opinions in a country like ours where intolerance has steadily been on the rise.
All in all, Youth Ki Awaaz provided me with a platform to expatiate my take on issues that seem to be illicit in the eyes of most of our country’s population, while giving me a chance to shape my thoughts for the better too.