CRITICAL THOUGHTS ON JOURNALISM

As a vocation, journalism has always been the civil society's favourite punching bag - whether in India or in other countries. There is a strange yet dominant perception that journalists are supposed to be selfless - almost to the point where they are expected to be in an eternal mission bereft of any professional and personal aspirations. 

While being equally (if not more) critical in terms of their social roles, lawyers, or civil servants, or doctors are seldom held to the same ethical, and dare I say moral, standards. In fact, legal services and medical care have become legitimate industries the world over. It will not be an exaggeration if I were to say that people dread becoming bankrupt when they approach lawyers and doctors for any assistance. However, the moment I remind people that a journalist has the same lifestyle necessities as that of any other professional, I am usually given nasty looks. 

While we have tons and tons of discussions (often misdirected) about 'Fake News' (an oxymoron by its very imagination) and how it contributes to the society's perceived 'decline', we hardly have any time to talk about how justice, governance, and medical care have become the fiefdom of the privileged few. 

As a media academic and an erstwhile journalist, I would never support unethical journalistic practices. However, as a society, we need to look deeper and farther to decrypt what is primordially wrong with the global information order. Bashing journalists and news organizations will not help. Nothing exists in seclusion and journalism is not an exception either. An evidently rotten system that works on privileges across categories will never support ethical journalism. I am surprised at the pretended collective naivety. But, aren't we already aware about how naked capitalism works and didn't we agree to its unchecked dominance across all social layers? 

Cherry-picking professionals of a certain kind to mend everything that is wrong with our lives is foolish, and may I say ludicrous and hypocritical. Mind you, at the end of the day, an unemployed journalist will not think about honesty and ethics. Like any of us, she/ they/ he would think about how to get a job to pay her/ their/ his bills - ethically or otherwise.

𝐍.𝐁. There are some moments that one cherishes for a lifetime. For this existential post, I decided to pick up one of those moments for the purpose of creating a balance. This photograph was clicked many moons ago with one of my idols - the iconic journalist 𝐃𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐳𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐡 - on a winter morning in Guwahati. For the uninitiated, Bezbaruah is one of the most important names in classical Indian journalism. He was the founder editor of 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑙, an important news publication from Assam. One of my friends used my first point-and-shoot camera to capture this rare moment. The date of the photograph is clearly visible in the frame. Please excuse the framing though!