Crumbling Pillar of Indian Democracy

A couple of years back, Facebook launched a new feature titled “See First” which basically meant that if you interact with certain people more than others on Facebook, these ‘preferred’ people would get a precedence. Couple this with the change in Facebook’s algorithms wherein this change was internalized making your ‘interactive’ contacts appear first, the entire social media experience was polarized. I have about 350 friends but after these features were implemented my interaction was limited with a selected group of 5-7 people basically turning Facebook into a Stalking Machine.
Moving on from Facebook, this feature was rapidly embraced by other platforms as well including many news outlets and apps which show you the tailor made news feed, specially customized for you. The drawbacks of this system were soon realized as people found – just as in the case of Facebook – that this had led to shrinking of their online reach and they were now getting a lot of stories related to a same topic while other topics took a backside affecting the parity of news.
Now while the computer algorithms are beyond my reach (or that of my outrage), I recently came across a new form of this dangerous feedback mechanism – The 24x7 news Channels.
With the advent of twitter, these news channels got a chance to interact with their viewers and get a feedback on what mattered to the audience and what they were not reacting to, giving rise to the competitive world of #TwitterTrends.
Most of the channels now focuss entirely on the twitter trends with some innovative leaders (like Times Now and Republic) showing a live count of the number of tweets to gauge the impact of their stories. However a dangerous trend that has now emerged is that the twitter janta now dictates what the nation shall watch tonight. This has curbed the independence of media greatly as the popular view often gets highlighted and the rest take a backseat.
News Anchors are the new age twitter celebrities and this has in turn led to the famous journos getting their own news shows to host. So a lot of times these shows are dedicated to the twitter audience with anchors openly saying, “I have people asking me on twitter, so here’s my view/viewpoint” (yes, I’m pointing fingers at people whose names rhyme with Supender Dubey and Sajdeep RarDesai), totally destroying the impartiality with which they are supposed to present the views to the people.
If you’re not satisfied with my view and feel that TV anchors should present their view (which I agree mostly are correct), imagine a Judge. Just like Media, Judiciary is also a pillar of democracy. Then why does a judge give a patient hearing to each and every accused, even in the cases that are decided from the start. Because in a democracy, everyone deserves a chance to speak, even the wrong guy. Now think about the news program that you just saw where the anchor shouted at the participant (Doorknob Noiseswami) or the moderate ones who won’t shout but would either interrupt out rightly (Supender Dubey) or promote a certain view/idea/party (Sajdeep RarDesai).
The only respite in all this mayhem seems the dear old ‘Anti-National’ (pun intended) NDTV which would despite all odds, not pander to the elitist twitter populace with its maharajas of democracy sitting in Delhi/Mumbai mansions talking about situation in Kashmir or Rohtak or Gorakhpur.
But to blame news outlets for everything wrong would be unfair too. If they are producing substandard content, we as consumers should take corrective measures. TwitterTrends and TRPs should not dictate what makes news in this country. 24x7 news channels focusing just on breaking news is not a sustainable model for news. When a news moves from 10 minute segment to day long programs, it’s not news, it’s entertainment; and one can’t be the substitute for the other.

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