Fooled by openness

I am reproducing here my brief Twitter conversation on 4^th January with a lady who, among other things, is a journalist / columnist with a once well –regarded newspaper .

The conversation on Twitter went as follows:

“Columnist’s - The RSS chief says rapes occur in India not Bharat. Which Bharat does he live in? And, has he ever met a Dalit woman?

Self - What has caste to do with rape??

Columnist - Caste has everything to do with rape in rural India. You need a little bit of Bharat Darshan.”

At which point, I promptly unfollowed the said lady and went on with my life.

Somehow, this brief chat has stayed with me and prompted a few thoughts / questions. Of course, bashing everything that RSS / BJP /say or do (right or wrong,in this case wrong) or do not say / do not do is ‘de-rigueur’ for any self-respecting journalist in India, but this is not what set me thinking.  I somehow could not reconcile with  the approach towards the issue being commented upon and the didactic attitude.

On the Topic

Why do people, especially media “professionals” make such generalizations? Is it not the duty of a columnist / journalist to back up claims with data – not motherhood statements?

Why does media /mediapersons in India paint everything with the brush of caste, religion etc. The entire framework of any crime, any problem is constructed around these.  

Why the question of caste is deemed to be a holy cow, the root cause of all problems, including drinking water and state of education?

On the conversation itself

Does being a journalist / columnist provide a license to proclaim points of views as absolute truths – of the kind that should not be questioned by lesser mortals.

In my opinion, if one professes a view on social media, one should be ready for the inter-activity due to the very nature of the medium being used. A know-all approach, which might work well in print media will not work on a Twitter or a Facebook, where one should be ready to discuss openly any comment one makes. It’s a 2-way street now, and the journalist / columnist does not sit on a holy pedestal, controlling the communication, and any disagreements the reader might have will have to be routed by the supplicant (reader) through an editor, and will see the light of day only if the said authority permits.  

I was (re)reading ‘Fooled by Randomness’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his thoughts on the practice of journalism (dealt with in this book in context of financial journalists) came across to be so very relevant, in context of all traditional media.  The noise created by journalist is drowning meaningful information and sensible discourse about the society.

In my view, in today’s society, the role of the journalist (especially a print journalist) has moved beyond being a provider of information to that of a catalyst bringing about a debate about relevant issues. The print media-person should give up the mindset of being an intermediary of information which leads to such a didactic tone, even when a print journalist is using a new age media.