Mark Twain said "If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do, you are mis-informed."
The role of media is significant in presenting the most important issues of the current time. By keeping the issues in the spotlight, media is able to affect public opinion and galvanize communities into collective action. This was true with vernacular press in colonial India where the idea of Swarajya brought an oppressed population to revolt against its oppressor. This is equally true with the reconstruction effort and support from people all over the world in the wake of the Tsunami in the Indian ocean. The power that the media wields is therefore, undeniable.
Unfortunately, this power doesn't necessarily work in a constructive and objective manner. We see this every day - from the nonexistent WMD in Iraq to killing of the report on Paid News by the PCI. Chomsky talks about this in "Manufacturing Consent". The spectrum of acceptable conversation is controlled rigidly. The vocabulary is also carefully constructed and repeated over and over again until it is accepted as a fact. It can even be sarcastic at times - remember the "India Shining" campaign? How about "Aam Aadmi"? The latest one doing the rounds - "impeccable personal integrity".
The malware that is circulating in the media, seems to have had the desired effect of diverting
our attention away from the pressing issues of our time.
It is time to swallow the red pill and awaken our minds from this Matrix.
