I used to like TV. I remember playing with my toys while the entire family was in the room, huddled around that blinking screen, listening in rapt attention to what some strange man surrounded by some equally strange people was trying to say. When I grew a bit older, I learnt that that was news. Nowadays, the TV remains silent, save daily soaps that are somehow still going strong. The newspapers are just given a cursory glance, and are more often than not used to scribble grocery lists on.
So the question that arises here is: what actually caused the downfall of journalism? What happened that we suddenly don’t trust the strange man on the screen anymore? The answer lies right in front of our eyes: fake news.
If you got flashbacks of Donald Trump from the last two words, I’m sorry. But the epidemic exists. It started off as a whisper, snowballing on Facebook groups and WhatsApp forwards. Harmless misinformation at first, like, “the UNESCO has voted the Indian National Anthem the best in the world,” or “if you share this page a hundred times a sick child will get food,” etc. All this was being circulated by common folk, people who were spending two seconds of their life on that post and who couldn’t be bothered to question its veracity. The real problem arose when journalists thought that they were common folk too, and they forgot that they actually had to verify claims before sharing them.
That’s when we began reading gems like “Republic TV: Jama Masjid in dark due to non-repayment of electricity bills worth four crores,” a fact that they had “researched” from pro-Hindu websites and Postcard News, the poster boy for fake news; “Aaj Tak: Fatwa issued in Saudi Arabia where men can eat their wives if hungry,” a very well-researched piece, which unfortunately was sourced from a satirical column by a Moroccan blogger. There are several other instances like this, and a quick peek at the 24/7 news channels will fulfil your expectations.
But, that’s just news. Fabricated, but still news which doesn’t seem to affect day-to-day lives in the eyes of the majority. The dark part of this epidemic lies in what these news channels do with such stories. In a country of 1.37 billion, comprising half of the world’s cultures, it’s not hard to create a rift between communities. And that’s exactly what these esteemed channels are doing.
They are polarising news. They are taking literal stories to fit their narrative, and either supporting the government with extreme elan, or criticising it with whatever they can make up. It’s honestly like every party has its own propaganda channel, with the exception of the ruling government – which has many, because who would want to bite the hand that feeds it?
As a result, communal violence is on the rise. Politicians are pandering to their vote bank like never before, and the radical are getting a voice. The far left and the far right have become legitimate political influences, and closet phobics are coming out to take their place in the electorate.
Addressing only these news channels isn’t enough, however. We need to root out the source: those WhatsApp forwards being shared among people who are pro-X party or pro-Y party, constantly vilifying the opposition and trying to paint them to be inhumane. The sole reason why governments don’t have a minister of propaganda (like Goebbels was for the Nazi party) is because social media already does it for them. It’s become a game of Chinese Whispers, where even a hug can be positioned as a hate attack.
It’s not all bad, though. WhatsApp and Facebook realise their part in this attack on democracy, and have tried to educate people through television ads and whatnot. There are drives being conducted by enthusiastic volunteers with the aim to educate. But, it’s still a tiny droplet in this vast ocean of misinformation, and this problem, which attacks the very fundamentals of democratic freedom, must be eradicated with utmost urgency. For soon, we won’t be living in 2019, but in 1984.