Arsheen Abdul
This year has been a circus of events – both in and out of this world. Things we expected and didn’t have swept us off our feet & caught us off guard. Despite such events occurring on a daily, the mainstream media has failed to show us the news that actually matters.
With an end number of media houses today, the truth has the vulnerability of being shadowed. This being said, these multiple sources have become a means of misinformation rather than reporting the truth.
In the past few months, under lockdown, the country’s economy has been damaged to an extent it will take a matter of 2-3 years for it to recover.
The GDP dropping by 23.6%, along with issues like a surge in the rates of farmer suicides and existing issues within the country, several newsrooms have failed to show us the truth with their snappy & dramatic Bollywood talk. TRP being their priority, these media houses have become nothing but reporters on rent, willing to be bought into an agenda they seem to think is more crucial than the socio-political issue of the country.
The biggest headlines of most channels today has been circling the death of an actor whose family hasn’t had the opportunity to peacefully let go of their child, a questionable accusation of an ex-girlfriend being a drug addict linked to a possible drug chain, a Bollywood star picking fights with almost any & every person in the spotlight for the sake of an increase in the channel’s TRP. Hence, highlighting the priority of today’s journalism.
This brings to mind a thrilling film, grasping the dark side of media & journalism – Nightcrawler starring an exceptional performance by Jake Gyllenhall of a psychologically troubled individual – hungry for ‘selling fear’ since it offers the highest monetary value. The movie puts a spotlight on the unarticulated reality of journalism – manipulation of the truth. That being the theme of the film, it speaks rigorously concerning the newsroom BTS.
A doubtless fact, we require the news to keep up to date & know the occurrences happening in the world around us. However, due to the omnipresence of media & the vast number of sources, we can often find ourselves at a fix – ‘which source is to be trusted, and which is the most truthful?’, one that does not shadow the truth.
To answer the question, we can only trust ourselves with enough research. Moving into an age of misinformation, it has become a matter of ‘who’s the lesser evil?’ rather than who’s ‘good or bad’. Having to filter through, research more than ever to find out the reality distorted with poised language. And even then, the partial truth.
Arsheen Abdul
21 years and nearly 15 nicknames later, Arsheen likes to pre-plan almost everything in her life. From obsessing over sci-fi novels to writing poetry, you can find @itsarshh on Instagram for her aesthetic tidbits and love for writing and creative direction.
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