The sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole country sides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within. If this line of reasoning is correct, how many of the journals in the world would stop those that are useless? And who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil, go on together, and man must make his choice.”–M. K. Gandhiji in An Autobiography, P. 287
The day Mumbai Commissioner conducted a press conference on the Television Rating Point (TRP) scam, all media channels behaved as if it was a news to them. With the emergence of First Information Report (FIR) related to the scam, allegations and counter-allegations over the scandalous method became a point of discussion. As if it was not sufficient, prominent production houses from the Hindi film industry approached the Delhi High Court accusing specific English channels of “irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood as a whole” and conducting ‘media trial’. They are happy with the holier than thou approach without realising the nature of crisis both news and entertainment media is going through.
The novelty about the 24X7 news channels is over, and people no longer trust media, especially Television, for reliable news. Ordinary people never understood the TRP gimmicks; now whatever little faith they had about the numbers has also waned with the alleged scam. These numbers are used for one-upmanship over the competitors and generate revenue. Many celebrity TV Journalists of yesteryears had mastered this art, and carried out the scandals in the name of journalism for years together. Fake narratives pushed by vested interests, non-sustainable financial model, sensationalism and irresponsible journalism without realising the societal impact are the natural outcome of this process.
The challengers came from within the industry. Not just the anchors but even media houses got divided within based on their political leanings and preferred revenue model. This process has exposed the so-called objectivity of the elite manipulators in the field but simultaneously brought in new vices in the news industry. The collective mum over the malpractices is no longer a viable strategy. The disruptive technologies, politics and societal changes have broken that consensus, hence the drastic transition.
The scenario in the film industry is not very different. Immoral, abusive and egoist behaviour of the established stars was a known fact. Now along with their individual unethical behaviour, their collective harm to the society in the form of selectivism and biased narration is also getting exposed. The communist ideological biases of most of the actors and their capitalist lobbying tricks are visible to the common masses. The challenge posed by the combined force of internet, social media and Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms had already shaken the conventional stardom associated with the film industry. The naked truth about the rotten character of the industry has further damaged the same.
Instead of introspecting about this crisis, both the industries are finding a devil outside them. These industries have a powerful weapon of freedom of expression to shape public opinion. Manipulation of the same with the fraudulent financial methods would be suicidal in the long run. Today some government or commissioner is using its power to target the few; tomorrow, someone else will use it against others. The ultimate casualty will be ‘freedom’ of both speech and creativity. The unfolding of these scams is a blessing in disguise for both the industries. The sensible members have to decide whether to draw constructive lessons and start the cleansing process or to accuse others and become more irrelevant in the future.
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