Looking beyond the veil of the Media
Human bias towards negative news
It might not come as a surprise, but the media prefers to sensationalize negative news and give the impression that everything is always wrong. Several studies have suggested that people tend to pay more attention to negative information than positive information. Historically it would be riskier to ignore information that says there might be a high chance of flooding compared to the effort of a human being stopping another human being from jumping off a tall tree.
Genetically, negative information was used to warn a band of people and control their actions to not step out of bounds or take action that may endanger others and result in a potentially harmful outcome. For example — while hunting in a group, it was necessary to keep discipline and not do so would lead to negative consequences like missing out on the hunt, which essentially meant no food for the tribe for the day. Excellent/Positive information was shared as a celebration and unifying the tribe to a common purpose and increasing their survival chances. However, resting on laurels was dangerous as it could cause complacency and hence a balance had to be maintained.
The broken moral compass of the media
The concept of objective information sharing and discussion with hard facts is lost as the hunger to make profits is the driving factors for mainstream media and social media. While there is nothing wrong in growing a business, growth must be done through the right means. The common saying among the journalist circles is “If it bleeds, it leads” Creating a mountain out of a molehill is a common practice to gain people’s attention, which garners higher ratings and more views. ‘Dangerous’ is one many words that can be used for such an approach as purposefully putting on negative news and social media creating algorithms for click baits is the new normal.
The wrong effect on the image
The constant bombardment of negative news contributes to tarnishing the image of people, companies, culture, cities, countries, etc. Taking India’s example — the recent farm laws that were introduced were painted wrongly as unfavourable and falsely shown as the worst thing to happen for Indian farmers by some domestic, international mainstream media and similarly on some social media handles. Protests by farmers primarily from the state of Punjab, some from the state of Harayana were conducted, and it is the fundamental right to protest in a democracy. It was wrongly sensationalized that most farmers were up in arms and protesting throughout the country. Everything is in disarray, and supreme injustice is bestowed upon innocent farmers which is far away from the ground realities. Unfortunately, negative news travels like wildfire through international media in other countries and their respective government agencies and unfairly creates a false image of India’s transpiring events.
The farmers in disagreement are a minuscule number compared to the larger farmer population in agreement and have welcomed these long-awaited farm reforms. These facts don’t get highlighted because it doesn’t count as negative news. The fact that government and important farmer groups representing the majority of the farmers have formed committees to better understand the finer points of the law, address any concerns, make changes if needed, and educate on the implementation. These vital positive points don’t get highlighted. People who are not aware will never know and consistently have a bad image about India, especially for people not living in India.
How does one know what is really happening in India?
A fair question has one answer — research and reaching out by asking the local people and re-clarifying any questions and doubts. Look beyond the negative media’s veil and ask the common citizen what is going on and share their thoughts. Asking knowledgeable people on the subject, you are concerned about or merely understanding a common person’s perspective.
India is the largest democracy, the second-highest population globally, and its diversity is its greatest strength. Finding diversified opinions on the same subject is genuinely incredible because, despite differences, 99.99% of the country chooses to live harmoniously.
