Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Trust

Almost every news these days seems to have a different outcome based on who reports. Be it war, politics, or even a simple altercation between two individuals the way it is reported can be poles apart based on where and from whom you are reading.

Never in my life have I questioned and not believed a news article the way I do now. We as a society have become extremely cynical and have lost complete trust in all media and in other people. Though social media has give people power (in general) it has also caused a lot of unnecessary noise and it is  becoming increasingly difficult (if not impossible) to distinguish the truth from the lie. Any person with a twitter handle, a blog or a Facebook post can change the course of history. What is a lie and what is the truth is left to the gullible readers to decide.

This also means a lot of what we have read in the past as news from distinguished media outlets, and as history has been manipulated to a great extend to satisfy a person’s or a political party’s agenda. Our world view as we know it today, is just a “view” that was built based on who brainwashed you. The “reality” could be far from what you think you know.

In the last week there have been a series of events that were reported in totally different ways based on where you read them:

  1. A protest against a government policy went wrong in Singapore. Based on whether you read the news as told by the protestors, by the bystanders or by the media you get a completely different picture of what happened.
  2. A news reporter got into an altercation outside Indian Prime Minister’s speech in New York. Again, despite all the conflicting evidence (with those YouTube videos floating around) it is very difficult to decipher what actually happened chronologically.
  3. And any action taken by any political party (however noble it might be), there will always be a counter argument on how bad the consequences are going to be.

Never in my life has news been so complicated and stressful. I miss my good old days when I could blindly trust anyone.

4 comments:

  1. :) the social media has changed the way I consume the news... Cannot take anything on "face" value of the news reporters..

    There is a blog which I follow mediacrooks.com.. He takes the so called national media to the cleaners...

    -Vaibhav

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    1. I agree. But Social Media has led to a lot of "noise" as well. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and based on who can shout (influence/ retweet) the loudest -- wins.

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  2. Sadly the media today is all about "Manufacturing Consent".

    One must watch the documentary "Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media"

    Try watching videos and reading articles on newslaundry.com. I look at it as an alternate Media.

    Nira Radia tapes have helped us learn so much about how media works...

    I believe P. Sainath's views and articles against the media are fantastic.

    The concept of Private Treaties pioneered by Jokers (Jain brothers) from Times Group is horrible.

    _ Sandeep Kulkarni


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    1. Wow. That was a treasure trove :) I have bookmarked them. And "Manufacturing Consent" is added to my to-watch list. But the problem as I see it is -- we are always fed opinions (manufactured or otherwise!). Very difficult to get the "truth".

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