A Delicate Handshake

This section discusses the plight of Indian news channel/news media in India and how we
as a consumer are falling victim to their bait. Let's discuss the much-talked agenda,
propaganda, TRPs, fake news and ownership of these channels. Can we really trust these
channel? Do they have any liability to their consumers? Are they biased? Can they be
biased? Who controls them. Let's find out why, how and who runs the show.

Media Ownership - Politics of Convenience

“Free press is essential to free society”

Media is one of the potent tools to launch a robust political narrative in any society. The
information that is relayed and then consumed by the audience has a direct bearing on the
public opinion. This information is critical for a democracy to survive and dissent to thrive.
However, in India, there has been a worrying trend in recent times, when media has, more
often than not, come under scrutiny for drifting away from its purpose to relay information
and refrain from catering to any specific interests.
The association of power with media goes back a long way. Control of media has been
instrumental in manufacturing public consent and controlling dissent. This control of the
information space can happen through a variety of channels. Direct control by imposing strict
laws and legislation that limit the scope of what can be reported, influence through state
funding such as for advertisement or covertly by the way of owning the media. The latter is a
subtle and innocuous way of controlling the political discourse and limiting critical reportage.
Additionally urging media outlets to perform self-censorship through several pressure
strategies happens to be a tool for control.

Mahatma Gandhi didn't went from door to door to express his views during the time of
independence, even when he was in jail he expressed through the newspapers that's why media is
called the fourth pillar of democracy because if media of today's time would be in that time then
britishers for sure would bought it and through it ensures people that how beneficial is East India
Company for our country. Out of 180 countries Indian media is at 142nd all over the world. Even
Labanon and Afghanistan where there is no proper implementation of law and orders are above
India.

Whenever there's an incident ,a work of a journalist is to provide all the true information to the
people without giving his/her opinion and after that people should decide what they want to believe
and understand and they don't. But the problem here is that, here people are being explained and
understand that with this particular incident you should believe and understand this. A journalist
who is giving you information about the country , on the basis of that information many policies are
effected so it’s the responsibility of a journalist that every word utter by him/her should be
thoughtfully spoken .

People usually have a delusion that they are voting their favourite party or a candidate , but what if
that information or knowledge on the basis of which you have decided to vote that particular
candidate or party, is wrong? If people understand this carefully, that their voting is influenced by
the false information and is all done after a proper planning but people have illusion that they are
voting by their own choice.

** Steve Banon in Rome , Italy on March,25,2019. In an earlier interview with the journalist Michael
Lewis , Banon said ,” The democrats don’t matter, The real opposition is media . And the way to deal
with them is to flood the zone with shit.” **

Everyone is saying that Indian media is sold , and if it is so there are many buyers in the market to
buy it. Now this is not the case that only the winning party has money, but every party has a
sufficient amount to buy media and if it is so then different propaganda should be running on every
channel, but if you will notice then every channel has the common propaganda . Now, there is a
reason behind this. It is not as simple as it is looking. It includes

1) Media Consolidation: Concentration of media ownership (also known as media

consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer
individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media which
means giant corporations own more and more of our news media . Focused only on
the bottom line, they’re cutting journalists and gutting newrooms nationwide.
** Reporters Without Borders (French: Reporters sans frontières (RSF)) is an
international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of
safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as founded
on the belief that everyone requires access to the news and information, regardless
of frontiers, along with other international rights charters. It researches for many years
and reveal the nakes of takeovers of different media houses in different countries.**

2) A TV Channel (broadcast and/or cable) can generate revenue from subscriber fees
and advertising. However, most channels only command advertising revenue. And if a
channel has to excel it’s their helplessness to depend upon advertisements. In 2019
elections , more than 25000 crores was spent only on social media and
advertisements. So , in a way government is also a customer of them, and if someone
goes against their customer then it is sure that their shop is set to close. The
corporate countries also avoid those new channels that shows information against
the government because it effect their policies also. This has been figured out by
news channels that they don’t have to spoke against the ruling government but there
is a competition in it also that all channels are doing so. So , all the matter now
comes to Trp.
TRP stands for Television Rating Point, is a tool provided to judge which programmes
are viewed the most. This gives us an index of the choice of the people and also the
popularity of a particular channel. For calculation purpose, a device is attached to the
TV set in a few thousand viewers' houses for judging purpose.
 If we see the statistics we can conclude that Trp of an entertainment’s channel is
comparitively 4 times more than that of a new s channel . so, news channels has
understood this that they have to shift their content towars entertainment. Fake news
has spices and entertainment in it for which people stops and wants to listen . In
other countries lies are flodded on social media which is cleared by main stream
media but in our country there are lies on main stream media and people clear those
on social media. Earlier newspapers were sold after printing but in today’s time these
are sold and then printed.
Earlier people manages political parties only but now along with that they are
managing the media houses as well .
3) The third most bigger problem is there is no monitoring over Indian media i.e.
Regulatory flaws: The high level of concentration comes as a result of considerable
gaps in the regulatory framework to safeguard media pluralism and prevent media
concentration . Neither specific means to measure nor thresholds to limit ownership
concentration in print, television and the online sector are in place . The patches of
regulation that exist do not seem to be properly implemented with the excepton of
radio market where however , India’s state controlled broadcaster has a nationwide
monopoly on radio news. Law in India do not regulate cross-media concentration
either.
If we talk about UK there is Ofcom( office of communication), in US there is
FCC(Federal Communications Commission). But India don’t have such system, thanks
to TRAI(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) who in every 3-6 months tries to
bring complaint commission of press but, this can’t happen since our independence.
And this isn’t a coincidence, but purposely no government wants that this
commission will arrive.
There’s only a News Broadcasters Association ( it  is a private association of
different current affairs and news television broadcasters in India.[1] It was established
by leading Indian news broadcasters in 3 July 2007. The Association was set up to
deal with ethical, operational, regulatory, technical and legal issues affecting news
and current-affairs channels.) It’s higher authority is amongst the news channels only
means if someone is making mistake you are complaining about this to themselves
only . it’s like a joke…no?

And if you think that now if the government changes then all the things all of a sudden will
change…then it’s a myth. Whether it’s the old government or the current government or the
future government , all of them manages the media in the same way. There’s a proof
available to prove all this :
Operation 136: paid news
In March 2018, Cobrapost.com alleged that its undercover operation had uncovered the
widespread continuing practice of journalistic corruption through paid news in India. The
allegations charged that numerous major Indian media groups were willing to accept money
to plug polarizing Hindu nationalism ideas as news in exchange for money. In its sting
operation, Cobrapost stated that it approached the Times Group – the publisher of The
Times of India, the India Today group, the Hindustan Times group, the Zee group, the New
Indian Express group and other media houses – where it offered a payment of up to ₹500
crore (US$70 million) in cash to publish stories on Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita to first
indirectly and later directly promote Hindutva ideology, communal and political gains. All
three media houses agreed to the offer to plug paid news, alleged Cobrapost, but mentioned
that they may editorially criticize the activities. The groups discussed ways to make large
cash payments, alleged Cobrapost.
According to Cobrapost, the owners, as well as the senior executives, of major Indian media
houses consented to engage in campaigns to induce communal discord and polarize the
Indian electorate. The twenty seven media houses and organizations alleged to be corrupt
by Cobrapost included the [[Times] Group, Lokmat, Radio One, Suvarna News, Indigo
91.9FM, Bharat Samachar, Swaraj Express News, Sun Group, ABN Andhrajyothi, TV5
News, Dinamalar, Big FM, K News, India Voice, MVTV News, Open Media Network and
others. The Cobrapost sting alleged, reports The Indian Express, that senior executives
involved in paid news included Kalli Purie, Vinnet Jain, Ajay Shekhar Sharma, Brijesh
Mishra, Anil Dua, Purushottam Vaishnava, Rajiv Hegde from various major media groups in
India. According to Cobrapost, the Bartaman Patrika and Dainik Sambad declined to
distribute advertisement with religious overtones.
After the release of the Cobrapost.com sting report on "paid news", the Times Group in a
May 26 2018 response called the report as "false, malicious, dishonest", a manufactured
"fictitious scandal" presented with doctored quotes, and that the allegations do not reflect
what actually happened. The Times Group alleged that its journalists were involved in a sting
on the Cobrapost team to uncover "imposters" and "criminals on bail with a past record of
fraud and forgery" they suspected were posing as businessmen and organization trying to
push a political ideology. No cash or payment was ever exchanged during this operation to
or from Cobrapost, stated the Times Group. The India Group similarly denied Cobrapost
claims, stated that its editorial team never met the Cobrapost personnel, its advertisement
group listens to all those who approach them, they condemn paid news, and consider
Cobrapost's claim of paid news at India Today to be malicious.[42] The Suvarna News group
with a regional presence in south India stated that Cobrapost maliciously altered the
recordings and that its allegations are baseless. It further stated that they had alerted the
state police officials of Cobrapost staff when he first contacted them to publish religious
content.
The New Indian Express Group denied the Cobrapost allegations, stated that they only met
with the advertisement team who never promised "news" coverage and only discussed
"advertisements", and alleged that their report had "conveniently buried" the cautionary
statements about "legal vetting", checks and approval told to Cobrapost. The Zee group
similarly stated that the Cobrapost report presents a "deliberate and fraudulent
misinterpretation and concoction of actual facts", by "craftily editing the video clips, the
essence of the conversation has been distorted in a manner that the truth is compromised
and a different issue is portrayed in order to harm and hurt the reputation of Zee Media". In
June 2018, Cobrapost denied Zee's statements and alleged that it "has not falsified,
fabricated, concocted, tampered, doctored or altered in any manner whatsoever".
According to Cobrapost, it did not finance the sting operations, an independent reporter
Pushp Sharma self-financed the cost of meeting and secretly recording the owners and
senior executives of 27 media houses in India. Once Sharma approached Cobrapost, it
purchased the work product from Sharma. Cobrapost's founder Aniruddha Bahal admitted
that the sting operations never made any payment to any media group or executive, and the
tapes were "all about showing intent"

Some news channels pretend that whole the news channel is sub standard and only they do
the real journalism. More specifically if we talk aabout NDTV in 2010 they were exposed .
The Radia tapes controversy relates to the telephonic conversations between Niira Radia,
a political lobbyist in India, the (then) Indian telecom minister A. Raja, and senior journalists,
politicians, and corporate houses, taped by the Indian Income Tax Department in 2008–09.
The tapes were leaked out to the press, and were eventually published by some media
outlets and shown by television channels.
The revelations in the tapes led to accusations of misconduct by many of these people and
served a precursor to the 2G scam and a stronger checks for the media. Niira Radia used to
run a public relations firm named 'Vaishnavi Communications' which was the object of CBI
investigations.

In short all news channels are doing the same work but the difference is they are united in
different different groups. According to the Free Press Unlimited the ownership of media by
people who have vested interests has enabled the governments and corporations “to
develop a centralized information strategy that amounts to a modern form of propaganda
whereby all important media are speaking a similar vocabulary, demonizing the same
enemies, and presenting the same arguments in support of the leadership’s actions”. For the
bills that are passing in the parliament, you don’t have to think much, to tell merits there is
Sudheer Chouadhary and for demerits there is Ravish Kumar .

Now what is the solution of all these things is:

1) Avoid those sources which are only based on advertisements for consuming your
news on daily basis.
2) For this you can use Alternative media. These  are media sources that differ from
established or dominant types of media (such as mainstream media or mass media)
in terms of their content, production, or distribution.
3) Don’t trust on any fake news propaganda easily.
4) We’ll be advantaged only when we talk about the issues and take stand for them in
front of government and media.