Witoubou Newmai
In the face of complex and fast moving reality that has come to define today's media, there have been complaints from the public about "too many depressing stories" in the media. It is not the complaints that hurt as much as the veiled attacks on the media of indulging in “biased reportage.” People have a notion that the media rides on negative news since it is also a sales driven establishment.
Even someone of the stature of APJ Abdul Kalam wondered why the media was so negative. He once asked, "Why are we so embarrassed to recognise our own strengths, our achievements? ... we have so many amazing success stories, but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?"
The media will always have a remarkable capacity to absorb all these tirades hurled at it, albeit it has too many answers to counter them, and at same time, the media can never be in denial mode that the "escalation of mass media reporting can have both positive and negative aspects", to borrow the language of journalist Rajiv Bhattacharya.
A journalist begins his/her day hunting for what we call 'news'. However, the meaning of the 'news' is still ethereal as one school of thought will define it from a different perspective than the other—it will continue to be redefined with time and trend. In a normal understanding of the term 'news', it is something unusual, new, interesting, attracts curiosity, significant...and the list can go on.
To cite an example, from among a thousand vehicles plying between Dimapur and Kohima in a day, an incident of two trucks coming from opposite directions colliding head-on will be focused by journalists but not those 998 remaining vehicles. Or, turning the example other way round, if 99% of vehicles meet with accidents everyday then 1% of those spared from the ill fate will be focused on by the media.
To take another example, on an average there must be over a hundred birthday parties in Nagaland every day. Here, a businessman's birthday gift box containing a grenade from militants is, by all means, a news item, leaving out the rest of the birthday parties from newspaper pages. Also, a case of a 25 years old man marrying a 70 years old woman will always attract the media but not those marriages of regular age groups. In this area of discussion, we can never consider the illustration complete without referring to a classic piece. The New York Sun Editor Charles A. Dana once said, "If you see a dog biting a man don’t write it up. But if you see a man biting a dog spare no pains or money to get the details to the 'Sun' office".
As for the ‘biased reportage’ accusations—in certain situations, especially in conflict zones, "factual and objective reporting" becomes a big challenge for journalists. According to journalist Teresa Rehman, while reporting in conflict zones, "we have to unlearn many theories and grab our own rule". Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, while participating at the 'International Conference on Media’s Role in Facilitating Peace in Conflict Situation in Northeast India and Neighbouring Countries’ held in Arunachal Pradesh few years ago, said that "it is not an easy task for a journalist to write about any war. It is obviously not possible to go back and forth between two warring parties, so one has to stay on one side of the conflict." In such a situation, there is less chance of fair and balanced reportage from a single agency.
Many journalists have been attempting to understand the standard role of the media. Facilitating peace is one common role for journalists reporting in conflict zones. But to do so would mean also to report the truth, and the truth often comes as a bitter pill which is depressing indeed.
