A footloose media needs regulation

Satish Kumar Dogra

Retired IPS officer

We are the largest democracy. We are also the fastest growing among the major economies. We are the only nation to have achieved success in our first attempt to send a spaceship to the Mars. And it was the cheapest of all Mars missions. 

We have also been adjudged as the most dangerous country in the world for women. The harshening of laws after the Nirbhaya case in 2012 has only been followed by an increase in the frequency as well as the gruesomeness of rape cases. Innocent people can suddenly and unsuspectingly become victims of mass lynching. An honourable minister, known for her brilliance, dedication and patriotism, becomes victim of abusive trolling by her own countrymen. And young children are turning to crimes. 

What has gone wrong?

The root cause of problems is the tremendous outreach of the media and its unscrupulous exploitation  by some for selfish gains. This is an age of viral videos. It is an age when a TV serial touches millions of people and when a song like 'kola veri' can become an instant international success. This is also an age when false information can be propagated to cause fears or provoke violence. Should such a powerful instrument be allowed to operate without control?

The need to define the limits of freedom and to prevent the misuse of the media is one of the biggest challenges. A democracy works through numbers and the modern media provide an effective means of gathering numbers. In the run-up to the elections during the next few months, rival videos will travel through the social media, projecting totally opposite pictures of the work done by the Modi government. 

Should no one be responsible to ensure that true information reaches the masses? If falsehoods can be dished out without impunity, then the Right to Information Act becomes a joke. Should we not think of an independent agency that verifies the information circulated through the social media and punishes acts of deliberate transmission of falsehoods? 

In Tamil Nadu, organisations that centre around the themes of Tamil patriotism verging on separatism, anti-Hindu-anti-North orientation and with Maoist leanings use the media to fill the minds of the youth with ideas of extremism. The members of these organisations troll whoever opposes their views on TV discussions. Thus, freedom of speech is being used to kill freedom. During recent times, virtually every major project of the Government of India has been stalled through mass protests. 

Currently, mass protests are seeking to stall an 8-lane Green Corridor from Chennai to Salem. Youtube provides the facility to individuals and small organisations to put up videos presenting a simplistic view of the green corridor and ending it with a challenge of "Touch our land, if you dare!" 

Competitive politics has to keep counting the vote-banks. This makes the business of the social-mediaperson flourish. The unlimited outreach of the media brings the numbers game to the centre-stage. The TV serial that depends upon the approval of millions of viewers must provide the fare that would keep the serial on the top of the list. This results in freakish turns and twists in the story as well as conspiracies within the family. The impact it will have on our collective consciousness is a question that withers into a corner before the financial returns of success. 

The numbers game stretches across the canvas from victory in elections to the mob on the street. It results in a culture that survives on the creation of a mass mind. 

The mass mind is not the sum total of individual minds. It is an independent entity that emerges in a situation when individual minds surrender to an idea that goes beyond the purview of individual minds. Once the mass mind emerges, the decision of whether to lynch or not to lynch need not be taken by the individual. The individual is now completely surrendered to the joint task before the mob. The individual now performs acts that he would, as a person, consider abominable. 

Political parties find it expedient to label such situations as a result of a culture of intolerance promoted by their rivals. Such ghastly incidents are the result of desensitisation to the suffering of others. Faulty socialisation as well as projection of violence into young minds is making such desensitisation a norm in our society. The outreach of the media with its exploitation of the numbers game combines with a faulty socialisation to make the youth prone to mass hysteria. Loudness rather than logic is the weapon of intellectual fights.  

How should the media be bridled?

In the western world, a new subject called media psychology that straddles across human cognition, communication and computer technology is emerging as a powerful means of studying the impact of television as well as social media on the human mind. It is time educational institutions in our society took up research in this area and guided the lawmakers on how to frame laws that ensure discipline without restricting freedoms and provide to the parents models of socialisation that accord with the requirements of a changing world. 

An independent agency should be constituted to ensure that the media are not used for propagation of falsehoods and for trolling. The decisions of such an agency should be open to judicial review.