What to do when you don't trust the news media
On the aftermath of the organised violence in New Delhi
Dear reader,
I have an unwritten rule for this newsletter, which is to stay clear of current events. I do so due to the following assumption: when we read about current events, we respond with emotion. And when we have an emotional response to anything, our ability to think rationally is impaired.
I’m trying a different approach today. As I write this, the victims of the organised violence in New Delhi continue to reel. Officially 48 people have died, scores others have been wounded and sexually abused, homes have been destroyed and an entire community’s sense of safety in their neighbourhood has been demolished.
Terrifying as these events have been, what, to me has been equally terrifying has been the utter and complete breakdown of consensus on social media about the basic facts of the case.
We will get into why this happens in future issues, but for now it’s simply worth acknowledging one point: people, no matter what their view on the violence, are genuinely confused about whom to trust.
A friend of mine, Ravi Bajpai, said to me:
There’s so much polarized coverage that I don’t know whom to believe. I don’t have the basic facts.
Another friend said NDTV is his most trusted source of news but even so, he only trusts it “about 75 percent of the time”.
A relative on WhatsApp had this to say:
We need a reliable channel/newspaper that will give the correct picture and convincing explanation.
In other words, my relative and most other intelligent people want a source of facts like this one:
The fact though is this: we do have several reliable sources of information. What we don’t have anymore however is the trust we used to repose in them. This is partly because the media has made many missteps in the search for revenues, and partly because the media has been under sustained attack for at least six or seven years by political forces.
When you manipulate people into questioning every fact, the end result is chaos. And so we are now reduced to a ridiculous game of ‘my fact’ versus ‘your fact’. Everything truly is maya. Even when it shouldn’t have to be.
So what to do?
The first thing to realise about the media is that it is not a single organism. Describing the media as a single entity is a bit like referring to Africa as a single country.
I propose that we group the media into three types:
‘Fake news’ media
The ‘godi’ news media
Independent media
‘Fake news’ media:
This refers to all the thousands of websites and publications that have no regard for the facts. They make up stuff, or twist the facts—either because they’re paid to do so by political actors, or because they’ve figured out that they can make money.
For the most part, these websites and their Facebook pages don’t look very convincing. But they don’t have to be. Their only job is to make you, the reader, feel anger or hatred. When your emotions are aroused, you’re not going to think “hey, I’ve never heard of this website.” They are dangerous because the stuff they publish is designed to go viral on social media, WhatsApp and other messaging platforms.
The ‘godi’ news media:
This refers to all the media organizations that are willingly or unwillingly controlled by the government. ‘Godi’ is a play on Prime Minister Modi’s name, but it also means ‘lap’ in Hindi. So the godi news media is quite literally the news media that is in the lap of the government.
This is an obvious point but it bears repeating: in a democracy, the news media should not be a PR machine for the government. The news media’s job is quite literally the opposite, which is to question the government. We all know this, but we forget this all the same.
Independent media:
In India, these are an endangered species. Of course, these organizations make mistakes. Sometimes they take questionable editorial decisions. But they are, at their core, journalistic organizations. They are independent and accountable. They take pains to verify the news before putting it out.
Because independent media is often critical of the government and against the ‘godi’ media (which are both politically to the right), they are often considered to be ‘left’.
One thing to keep in mind here is that ‘left’ and ‘right’ are subjective descriptions.
As the ‘right’ becomes more and more mainstream, independent media houses, who were earlier seen as objective and centrist are increasingly referred to as belonging to the ‘left’.
I once asked a prominent editor of a ‘left’ publication what his politics were. Pat came his response, “my politics are about maintaining the letter and spirit of the constitution.”
So next time you find yourself questioning the facts, ask yourself whether you’re being manipulated by the ‘fake news media’ or the ‘godi media’. Seek out and support independent media.
One final point. Because our constitution believes in equality, fraternity and liberty for all, media houses that support these values are ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’. In other words, they have liberal values…but not necessarily liberal bias. When they report the news, they do so through the filter of these values. That does not mean they are slanted towards one particular way of viewing the world.
This is such an important point that I will tackle it separately in a different post but those wishing to understand this can read Matthew Pressman’s book On Press: The Liberal Values that Shaped the Press [Amazon].
Two questions you might have
I’m aware that I haven’t explicitly told you “what to do when you don’t trust the news media.” My honest answer to this is that this is an ongoing process even for me. Stick with me and a year down the line, you’ll be super aware.
I also haven’t deliberately named any independent news organizations for you to read. I wanted to focus on getting us to think about these issues first. Treat the framework of ‘fake news’ media, ‘godi’ media and independent media as a good starting point.
Image credit: From the artist and writer Oliver Jeffers’ book The Working Mind and Drawing Hand. His books for children will restore your faith in the world.
How does one counter the journalist’s own biases. While you have clarified that the fake news media and ‘godi’ media have an agenda to push, are we assuming that independent media only state the facts and don’t let their biases come in the way of their reporting? How can we be sure they’re not doing the same as the other sections of the media?