Tolerating the Good and Celebrating the Bad

Note: We have been talking about 'responsible tourism' for some time. Why don't we talk about 'responsible journalism'? Unfortunately, we, in Kerala, are in the middle of 'gotcha!' journalism.

A few months ago, dailies in Kerala had a field day reporting details of a gruesome murder. A man was murdered, by his friend, chopped into pieces and was put in several plastic bags which were buried in the backyard.

Most dailies splashed the news with at least a five-column picture of the dug-out plastic bags! A man in many plastic bags—butchered and chopped like beef!

A Keats line comes up… ‘My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my senses…’

The debate whether we should ‘splash’ or ‘scream’ such stories and pictures above the fold is pretty old now.

I have been a silent watcher of contemporary news media, and a silent believer in the power of positive news, and the adverse effects of negative news.

No news is good news, but in media bad news is good news. Yes, we tolerate the good, celebrate the bad and go ecstatic over the gruesome.

Pick up any vernacular daily, and turn to the local pages and I bet eight out of 10 stories will be about murder, rape, theft, vandalism and human savagery. We celebrate human pervasion in the pretext of ‘news value’ and ‘giving what the readers want’.

In Kerala, the most used word in news media is ‘peedanam’, which in the evolved context means sexual abuse of a minor girl. Every other girl is being abused these days, and I firmly believe that there is even ‘sexual abuse beats’ in newsrooms. A cub reporter is not worth his salt if he cannot unearth a case or two of ‘peedanam’.

Not for a moment am I in support of abusing a minor girl, but celebrating it in media and supplying it to the readers as an energy supplement is sick.

I believe that man is inherently evil, and civilization is a process of getting rid of the evil tendency. But the way our media is playing up to the darker side of human psychology is disturbing. We all know that there is no dearth of bad news or gruesome news across the globe. But if we are bent on celebrating the beastly nature of man, what’s the role of civilization? Media is not just for informing but for redeeming as well.

Media creates a trend in readers and audience. It plays a critical role in shaping their psyche, and that is where ‘responsible journalism’ becomes relevant. Investigative journalism and sensational journalism are not two sides of a coin. Sensational journalism is the pervasive face of a noble vocation whereas investigative journalism (that too carried out with a noble, pure motive) makes journalism the whistleblower, which it should be.

If we continue writing ‘colour stories’ of farmers committing suicide because of debt and bad harvest, we are creating a trend in farmers to believe that the only way to escape debt is to commit suicide. When was the last time we read a story of a farmer who fought the odds and came out a winner? Sure there are many if we go looking for them. But who needs such passive, less-dramatic stories?

But if the newsroom think-tanks are determined to play up such positive, encouraging stories, they will surely discourage negative thoughts and destructive tendencies, and help build a positive society.

I remember reading a story a few months ago which talked about a handicapped man building a library in memory of his late brother. It was such a good story that it, even though covertly, spread the message of brotherhood, love, commitment and filled the readers’ heart with hope.

Why can’t we read and see such stories in the mainstream media? It is not that the world we live in is bereft of goodness. In fact, there are millions of good people and good initiatives around us, but media does not believe they will make a good read. After all, who wants to read a story where the devil doesn’t play a lead role?

Positive news is not paid news. Paid news is the death of journalism, and is worse than prostitution. Positive news is not without a critical tone, but even if it criticises, it is constructive criticism. Positive news is calling a spade a spade, and not calling a spade an axe!

If negative news is a drug that energises the pervasive matter in the brain, positive news, in the long run, will fill a reader’s heart with a hope to live and it will eventually eclipse the nihilism in us.

Positive news may not satisfy the gossip-mongers in us, it may not warm up the rapist and murderer in us, but it will surely place another brick in building a society which will be far healthier and sounder than what we live in at the moment.

Positive journalism is not reporting without spine, but reporting with responsibility and without bias.

And, media marketing and circulation guys, please excuse. We all know it is easier to sell the bad and ugly than the good.

Positive news may be hard to sell but it is the right product to sell, only if the editors and media management would listen.

(Sabin Iqbal is editor of Vibrant Keralam. This article is published in Vibrant Keralam and Art & Deal magazine, New Delhi)