A TOI-let in need of a thorough scrubbing

The news appalls and the scenes shock...But c’est la vie in the seekers’ sneak world of journalism. The recent happenings are only a choiced pick of events where a targeted ‘Human’ decided to cough back a word or two to the wildly wielded tongue of national news writers. Personally, my feeling towards this kind of culture of journalism has two sides.

One, where I feel that this attitude of journalism, rightly pointed can bring about social change. If a similar zeal with which such dramatic-cinematic matters are pursued, a simple societal issue is picked and followed through...Imagine the gravity it would gather, the sheer volume of buzz. All that effort of an entire segment of news-makers aimed towards bringing the need for change to light.

Two, I detest the turn of tide that has come onto the world of journalism. There were times when general buzz wasn’t what a journalist pursued, what you wrote was what you represented. But with the advent of social media and twittering sounds, came the need for second by second updates. The unsurprising result? Anything and everything that meets or slips the eye makes it to the feeds, timelines and doorstep of the everyday reader.

Now let us, as we do in most issues we read, look for the culprit of the day. In my opinion, there is none. There seems to be an unprecedented rise in the avenues for issues to make news, along with the breadth of each avenue. A TOI which was just a 40 pager a while ago now has to maintain a twitter feed running by the second, 24/7, for each section. What was a consolidated whole of matters now becomes an evolving stream of updates.

Hence for me, honestly, the blame doesn’t fall on a mere already-stretched-out journo or a digital marketer who maintains the constant running of the stream of news. What must be addressed is the way we consume news and the quality we demand, rather than what we are forced to consume by the psychological tugs and pulls of media. 

 

A novel but unfortunately a far too utopian suggestion would be to have a code of ethics/morals to be maintained for conventional news and digital news. To have an autonomous board of review for issues raised by the affected would also serve as recourse to many.

I admit falling short of ideal suggestions of what is the best course of action for news media. But it is necessary, for us, every once in a while, to dig deeper and answer the questions that take us to the root. We dream today of a world in which news just isn’t the next celebrities dental concern, and I genuinely hope that in times to come we do see such a change in the news-makers ideals. As of now, we are at the point where we are happy when there’s no news..as that itself is good news.