Academic Commons

Tackling ‘bias’ and fake coverage in the Indian media

Charles B. Wang Center

In India, there are a vast number of vernacular newspapers and TV channels in addition to the standard English newspapers and channels. Their strategies for covering news differ from place to place, language to language as well as their political or business “affiliations”. Unfortunately, in recent times most of the media platforms in India have moved away from their ‘objective’ standpoint. To understand or decipher fact from fiction the first method would be to go for a comparative study of the news items and then try to source out their ‘affiliations’ ! both political and business – to place the coverage in perspective. The best time for that would be during an election. During the just concluded Uttar Pradesh elections (the largest state in India), for example, the news channels were allowed to publish their exit poll findings a day before the results. None of the exit poll results came anywhere near the actual results. A closer look at the exit poll findings gives an idea of the media affiliations. Hardly any of the exit polls mention details of the methodology of conducting the exit polls. Much of it is ‘fiction’ – created to please a political party. The news coverage during the election process – the campaigns, events, results – all seem ‘coloured’. Its credibility is at question. One can find the facts only after a careful comparison. This comparison needs to develop a new method – in terms of language idioms, customs of the locality. The memes, the cartoons are not ‘harmless’ – in fact, they are sometimes abusive. And in many cases they are ‘fake’, with a provocation to create communal disharmony. It is necessary for today’s media students and practitioners to sit down and reflect on the impact of social media on the credibility of news media as a whole. The frenzy of an election is a best case for study. New rules of analysis need to be developed. The context – the local language, custom – is also important. A straightforward comparison is not enough. Analysis of the language of coverage needs to be backed up by ‘focus group’ interviews. Why are the media houses becoming spokespersons of the political parties? It’s a serious question that needs to be addressed. Earlier there were papers that were specifically known as ‘political mouth pieces’. Now all the mainstream media seem to align themselves to one political party or the other. Why have they taken this suicidal step? One major media house decided to ‘defeat’ a state political party from coming back to power (in an earlier local election). The news coverage was ‘biased’. So was the analysis. The government stopped all ad revenue. When the political party came back to power, the editor!owner was forced to step down. The role of the Indian media needs a relook, for the sake of democracy.

https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/cnlglobalconference/cnl2017/one/7