Double Sided Reality of Journalism : From Knight Templar of News to Jokers

I write this post in at most disgust, which was building up inside me , ever since the day I choose a profession in Journalism. 5 years ago, successfully enrolled into my graduation program, the ambitions in the field was towering. But today, in midst of chaotic surroundings of war, failing democracy, social unrest, religious fanaticism, I believe the ethical role of being a journalist had fallen deeper into nadir. What ultimately is the role of journalist?, is it skipping through the disheartening and disillusion news stories that pop up in the screens in a regular basis and be such a journalist who scavenges and bring forth stories. Or is it about being a sponsored writer, one who is very well versed in the art of biased writing in such a manner that an average reader could liken individual journalist to a particular political or bureaucratic institution. Thus here the journalist attains the role of a modern day hybrid child of propaganda and a lobby-ism.

Being a journalist in 21st century it is true that compromise is something we should learn to adapt rather than going out on a rebellious run. Often following the tight schedule, we have to come up with stories, which should feeds on the interests of the editor and those at the top of the news organisation. It is also a regular habit of feeding the public with news that is of immediate effects and often following an agenda towards public that,” World has all gone wrong and here is what you need to know to survive” more than bringing forth the true nature of world. Thus heightened interest in controversy, crime and limitless entertainment, result in the multimedia users, losing the sense of realities of life. Today journalists barely scratch on the surface of reality and rather choose an altered consumer oriented fantasy. For example, news of a tragedy would be a big news for the readers in 1950’s compared to contemporary readers who are exposed to wide array of calamities, accidents, disasters and so on from across the world. Today numbers define our reality, often if two people died, it is a general occurrence and people neglect citing another incident which killed 100 people thus dismissing the news entirely. So, with abundant news,thanks to news agencies we are fed with all kinds of unwanted news ,thus forcing many of true news savvy to search for news that matters the most. It is not kind to say abundant news and its availability is a sin, but one could say a news organisation does something sinful, unethical if they choose to willfully conceal or redact a news from the public. It is very sad to say this since we all have grown into a world of educated citizenry and reasonable thinking. Sponsored and paid writers, yellow journalism, fake news, entertainment tabloids and so on have taken place of traditional journalism making us more of a joker than what we were supposed to behold. The credibility crisis has already done the damage enough to tarnish the image of journalist and thus redefining the meaning of being a journalist.

INDIAN CONTEXT

‘The fourth pillar of Indian Constitution’, the Indian Media in general has been in hostile grounds for sometime, ever since the infamous sting operations of the magazine Tehelka, ‘ the operation west end’ which brought scuffle in Indian politics, something I felt, which brought a new dawn in Indian Journalism. It is true that process they undertook clandestinely would be questionable in an ethical sense. But it revealed another sensibility that Indian Media is either ignorant or blatantly ignores what people in power does. Series of other investigative stories which were brought out, following the similar path by many news outlets were intended to save the face of many established media giants. But on the same time Journalism flourished in every medium, the unhealthy practice of biased writing had grown beyond the boundaries and established itself as a practice in contemporary news. It is plainly visible today how online fake news, paid writing brought Trump to power and favored many others in all around the world. It is highly debatable but in overview of the 2014 election victories of Modi, one could easily notice how Modi’s image was portrayed in media through paid writings, interviews and online news portals. Here media is busy serving the Bose, they have failed in bravely sticking with the news that need immediate attention, thus people are driven off many useful and informative things. As of 2018, I have no regret saying that nothing had changed or gotten better and all I could see is we all are turning out being better at being good servants.

We were supposed to be Knight Templar of Journalism, obliged to efficient delivery and protect news that matters than the contemporary Jokers of modern Journalism.

New Bourgeois mutants are in town

According to Karl Marx, Bourgeoisie are those social class that happened to exist in all society, who creates, control and have access over all the materialistic and consumerist aspects of a society. Meanwhile the downtrodden and poor Proletariat, work their ass out in all grounds of life to barely survive to see the end of the day. Now generally speaking, those who are rich can here be somewhat classified under this very French term. I was never a real fan of Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ after all, but to an extent was a believer of some of his ideas which shed light upon certain realities of contemporary world as well. Marx’s ideas were generally obscure Utopian fantasies to an extend which killed more people than it was supposed to save them. But on one particular aspect of ideals I always felt he was right, that is about the eternal presence of Bourgeoisie in the society. The presence of those people in power, those who have money to buy anything could actually fill into the category. But by filtering and generalizing further on the list of suitors under the tag Bourgeoisie, the modern day Bourgeoisie is rather disguised like a mutant who shows their true colors only when somebody pesters around them. In truth, the newfangled bourgeoisie’s of modern age are pretty much straightforward and different from their predecessors which Karl Marx enlightened us with.

Modern day globalization had made things pretty hard to explain Marxism in presence of various social gradations of everyday life. It is simply hard because of the numerous illegal properties and counterfeit currencies all across the world which made people act poor in eyes of the authority. But the mutant bourgeoisie I was speaking here about was moreover different, the ones that does not fit in the category of those with flesh and blood. For example, a powerful bourgeoisie I was speaking is “Social Media”.

It is actually a confusing, the way I have actually ended the last paragraph. It is true after all, to those who could read between the lines, and who could actually understand where I was actually heading into. Social media, a powerful tool these days is something we all couldn’t live without, it is also something we couldn’t argue upon. The intrusion of social media in life brought tremendous changes which we couldn’t even imagine 20 years ago. Today social media dictates our life, it shows what we are and we do. It generates celebrities, it generates revolution( Arab spring) , it generates controversies, it destroys careers and built new ones everyday. Today generally speaking nothing is offline. It had revolutionizes what we call reality and also replaced it with a dangerous ultra-reality . The ultra reality here is so powerful that it makes us a superhero or a doctor, or a fisherman or an investigative scientist in no matter of time. The abundant of your private information, your behavior pattern and private life all are thus online and is said to be ‘safe with us’, guarantees all social media service providers. But how much that is true after all as even US presidential election seems to shudder upon cyber allegations and hoaxes. Here the mutant, cyber world can be good or bad depending upon on the user. Now moving away from it let us speak more about Bourgeoisie in here. The Bourgeoisie here is none other than those who are in the helm of controlling these cyber worlds where the laws of nature or laws of physical world means nothing. They manage to attract people, learn their behavioral pattern and feed them with what they want. It is like the materialistic exploitation on working class by the capitalists so that they are kept at a distance from acknowledging the true realities of life. The social media feed us with through processes like behavioral advertising, thus making us addictive to the needs of modern day Bourgeoisie. Thus we could see the core idea of Bourgeoisie and Proletariat in 21st century, where it doesn’t actually matters whether you are living in a democratic country or in a dictatorship. We may find a way to deal with it in time and also hope that we won’t completely lost the sense of what is real.

LIFE OF A CLOCK: a look into our life

LIFE OF A CLOCK: a look into our life

 

We are living with a life that is defined by the time we have left. Here time is a valuable entity that fill in without our slightest knowledge and keep on driving our life forward with no magical buttons to turn backwards. We are thus constantly in struggle with the time, trying to move ahead of time with little success in most cases since we are out of breath long before we actually realize that one could not outrun the time. Time is limitless and would possibly be the most exquisite gift god may have possibly showered upon us. To every living creature, there is a particular life span that is genetically encoded to them. Be an insect, be an elephant or be a human, time here varies constantly depending on many physical factors, which I won’t we discussing but moreover be discussed upon similarity in, “Birth, Life, Death”. While the lifespan of a human being is around 70 years, it is 12-15 years for a dog and for a butterfly, it may span between several weeks to months depending on the species. Here the lifespan may differ as well as their characteristics but the underlying rule of birth, life and death governs all of them. Now consider the human beings itself as an example upon which we could discuss more.

Consider a clock and focus upon 24-hour time period which we agree without argument makes a day of our life. Now in here if we consider each hour as one particular segment of a lifetime we may come across some impressive findings. For example, consider 12:00AM as the moment a child is born, when sun has not yet shown up itself and all you could see is darkness. Now as the clock kept on moving forward things began to take shape as odd shadows began to appear as sunlight started to slowly penetrate into the world. Now here in the life of a child would be somewhere when he/she started to recognize all the characters around him even though the conscious mind has not taken shape. Now as the clocks strikes 6:00AM, the world seemed refreshed, warmer and moreover all ready to accept the new day forthcoming. Now at this juncture, a child’s growth can be easily drawn parallel to his/her conscious awakening. Here the child learns all about the realities of life but not yet ready to accept it. Now here child realizes the value of family and become closer with the family. At 8:00AM, the child is further exposed to the world outside her family and at this part the formal education commences. Now as the sunlight is shining beautifully exhibiting all colors of life, a child experiences all comforts and care of the world without anything to worry out as we call this childhood. Here the world is rather small, may be cartoonish filled with imaginable characters and fantasies of life. Now as time moves forward, realities of life slowly started to create distractions in life as the urge for more materialistic love superseded many noble thoughts. This very instant in life, teenage can be very similar to the harsh sunlight that troubles us during mid hours of a day, say 10:00 making us uneasy and restless. Now as the teenager grows up, ready to face the challenges of the world he/she is confronted by teenage sensibilities which are governed by many rational and irrational thoughts. This part in life when the puberty is in its own development can be equated to mid noon hours of a day when sun is right above one’s head. At this hour the heat is at its most and in a person’s life it would be the most chaotic but also brightest in nature. It is also the part in life when he/she will be passing through late 20s and 30s, when responsibilities of life started to carve much of the energy and time. Now as noon slowly paves way and as age crosses itself into 30s, the responsibilities of a family life started to take a toll on with the life. Now at 4:00PM, the golden rays of sunlight started to fill our life with two different sensibilities, one being the memory of a muddled past and other being that of the very thought which bring forth the priority of family. Now at this part in life, the person has many solemn duties to full fill such as fulfilling the aspirations of family relationships, society norms and so on. As clock ticks on further the person is slowly sliding into the part of life where old age defines things. Now here as the sun slowly started to disappear upon the horizon leaving deep shadows, the person would soon have started experiencing everything he had gone through in his childhood like memories and positive aspects of past life. Here his/her vision converge with fading memories and in time when darkness starts to converge people often is forced to a confined space with a need for care. Here all these phenomena are quite similar in case of a child who in his/her childhood is often put under watch by others and is confined to a particular space in life. Now at 12:00, it is finally the hour we can call the death when no more light is left for the person in the world.

Thus like a clock, the human life is parallel to many such symbolic elements that we could feel all around us. The natural pattern here exist is quiet common for all living species and many things human created had such a similar pattern to follow. Consider you bought a car and after years of active use one day it started to show problems and eventually it turns out into a state which there is no going back just as similar to the way a human life moves on from childhood to old age. Thus lifetime is a system or a mechanical phenomena with a definite beginning and definite ending to the system we call lifespan.

 

END OF AN ERA : KALAIGNAR KARUNANIDHI ; Whats next ?

It has been a while since we last saw the mastery of Muthuvel Karunanidhi in active politics which always out shined his contemporaries of Tamil Nadu politics. The kind of politics that had taken its own shape during his tenure can be read alone with the likes of Annadurai, MGR and Jayalalitha. Even though he flight toe to toe, teeth to teeth with Jayalalitha till the end there was nobody else apart from her that threatened him in politics.  Today when he finally bid farewell to an illustrious political career, he left behind a vacuum of uncertainty over Tamil Nadu politics which seems to look vague and unclear. Stalin who could be the next possible successor in line seems to be a shadow of his father and Kanimozhi seems not to hold the charm her father held. The Kalaignar’s root runs further deeper into life of Dravidian politics for decades which he successfully defended even when MGR and Jayalalitha stole majority of the heart of an average ‘Tamizhmakkal’ through their own version. This particular identity Kalaignar established in the hearts of people as a writer and a excellent orator is undeniable.  When Jayalalitha finally bid farewell in 2016 Kalaignar was left alone as the sole survivor for an era of Dravidian politics of Tamil Nadu which saw rise and fall of many. The 5 times chief minister of Tamil Nadu, 10 times as DMK supremo spanning 50 years, Kalaignar had embodied a charismatic image of a special leader. His political career was often accompanied with likes of being a script writer, novelist, lyricist and so on which could be read alongside his deep roots in Dravidian ideology. One of his major achievement was able to implement English and Tamil as major mode of communication in state while keeping distance from Hindi which many disliked from the start. What makes Karunanidhi special among his compatriots were his overall ambition for his fellow Tamizhans and his contributions to the state during his tenure at office and at opposition. Even when he shifted away from truth and fall prey to corruption and various other misconducts he continued to hold onto his faith and single handily drive the party forward.  One can’t forget those political moves like the one which welcomed both Indira and later her daughter Sonia into politics in two different decades and any political moves to stop AIDMK coming into power. Even during long 10 years, sitting in opposition against MGR’s AIDMK and later under Jayalalitha the patience Kalaingnar showed was something unique which we couldn’t see anymore in the contemporary politics. Even though in-spite of the hardships, his deep rooted Dravidian philosophy had already stolen heart of many people in time as he was their only immortal Kalaignar. Inspired by Periyar and later when he came to Madras to join E.V Ramaswamy’s Justice Party nothing was quite sure until his caliber as a talented script writer proved vital source of the Dravidian movement. It was through the movie Parasakti, starring Sivaji Ganeshan wherein dialogues that was against anti- Brahmanism came to limelight which quickly caught attention of people. Kalaignar, was first noticed in the eyes of people was during his protest against changing the name of a railway station Kallukady to Dalmiapuram in Tamil Nadu. Four years later he was elected to state assembly from Kulithalai constituency. It was the beginning  of the era of Muthuvel Karunanadhi as well as a new politics. During the same time a  friendship was born with  Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandra(MGR) following the huge success of his 1950 movie ‘Manthri Kumaran’ for which Karunanidhi wrote the script and MGR did the lead role. The friendship shifted into a rivalry following a split later with MGR starting his own party AIDMK.

Now as the tale of Karunanidhi ends in Tamil Nadu politics what lies ahead is the uncertainty over the future of the state’s political spectrum. Just like Palani Swami’s AIDMK which struggled to create a new image after the demise of Jayalalitha, DMK would also have to go through the same phase in order to gain people’s faith once again. Unlike 60’s the cause today is different, society has changed considerably and the need to represent Dravidian ideology is less significant compared to likes of communal cards played by BJP and Congress who is fast tracking ways to finally enter the politics of the state. Now as 2019 Lok Sabha election is close by Stalin is leftover with a decision to make which seems to affect the internal politics of both state as well the party. Also considering the odds surrounding the possible entry of Rajinikanth and Kamalahassan into politics will also play a key part in deciding  the future of Tamil Nadu. The recent turmoil in politics can further churn a possible heir to to the changing mindset of people after demise of Jayalalaitha. Not only did people started to think out of box, unlike their predecessors their demand for better governance and stability increased drastically. Therefore it seems to be a real test for DMK in absence of Kalaignar to entrust Stalin with all responsibilities and aspirations. The real question that prevails is whether Stalin could follow the steps and create a colossus figure his father Karunanithi had carved out for him in Tamizhakam.

Boundaries Of Life : A Philosophical Barrier?

Once in a while we had to welcome some unknown guests from our past who may be a distant cousin or a long lost friend. Such meetings  generally end up as an unscripted drama wherein you tumble over the words as in most cases eventuality turned out be melodramatic in nature. You may be placed in an awkward situation that actually juxtaposes your likes and interests and often compels one to have disheartened chitchats. In such cases you may often started thinking about your lack of ability to deal with people. But it is not so.

Human beings are thus bound to cross boundaries in certain uncanny occasion that brings us into the boundaries of our life. Here the boundaries are not of the physical nature but are of the ones that are being nurtured out of education, society, social situations, interests, profession and so on. For example if you are a hardcore fan of football and in an instance when you are placed opposite to somebody who generally dislikes such sports it is quite common for you to not accept the actualities he/she lays in front of you and often silence prevails such talks. Here your beliefs are questioned which  is the most basic aspect of human consciousness and any form of contradictory beliefs always creates strife’s whatsoever.

It is actually quite confusing and questionable in a way on how we drew boundaries in our life. It is not something that personally we writes,dictates and recites. When you consider oneself then your opinions and beliefs are shaped out of your interactions with the society you am dealing with. It will be different to somebody else and thereby the off springs of these actualities can be denoted as the basic identity that defines our life. For example if you are born post second world war then you may have a different opinion about the war. But to the ones who had experienced the brutalities and bloodshed war offers the opinions would be different. Thus you create a world consciously in and around you thereby filtering all those ideas, ideals,thoughts, people and so on. In such a case you have a predetermined stand on most of the issues and thereupon you just hate all ideas that alter those beliefs. This is where the difficulty to adapt to a new system arises.

A system is a mixture of multiple realities that coincide at certain situations like one of the basic human emotions, fear. The fear that emanate from various occurrences in life happen to create similarities among us.People with fear of heights, fear of insects ,fear of darkness are bound to hold these similarities. So sometimes boundaries do coincide in certain aspects of life in everybody’s life. So don’t worry about the next time that you may feel you are out of the bounds.

Who Kills Who : Tale Of Indian News Stories

I write this post in the context of an event that happened less than 72 hours ago. A 23 year old man was murdered by group of criminals which include the brother of the victim’s wife. The reason was his sister went onto defy her family and married the victim who was unfortunately a lower caste man. The victim was found lying dead in a canal miles away from his home after being abducted from his home a day before by the gang says his father, who the very day lodged a complaint at police station. The police on the hand failed to take an decisive action on time stating silly reason as chief minister was visiting the district.

Now as the media converge over the story it is sure that people will soon reach out for more similar incidents and politicians will pay a visit to the victim’s house. While on the public front the online mourners will foul cry over the incidents, investigation and hastag their posts as likes, comments as shares pour in. There will also be people out there who may or may not have any idea about the incident but will try to politicalise the situation. This is not any form of my personal agenda to insult anyone but because of reason that of being a citizen I am also sick and tired of these dramas. The drama as I have mentioned occurs round the clock as something news worthy take place and gets enough interest. Now it is bound to occupy the front page of newspaper or through a break-in in a news channel. The following days will eventually be filled with follow up stories and sub stories. Eventually one day it will all disappear all of a sudden when the story loses its signifanace and may luckily for the sake occupies a corner in the local newspapers and channels. I can’t call it an intentional act or personal decision but more of a act of how system runs these days.

In a decade of page 3 syndrome and tablodisation it is quite common for someone to be famous for couple of minutes but it is also a truth that often for such silly stories some valuable stories are destined to be sacrificed. When TRP rating says more masala more time for entertainment and gossips is given the priority.

The priority here is born out of a system that demands sensationalized news for a large target audience who occups a converged media platform with a demand for more and more. When you ask for more and others starts to feed on your demands it is hard to turn your face against it.