Why media reports need to be taken with a pinch of salt
Mainstream media is the news source everyone utilizes to keep up to date on current affairs and it can play an important role in shaping the thoughts and opinions of the masses. Over the years, we have witnessed some incidences of good reporting by the media. One such example is the Jessica Lal Murder Case from India’s capital city of New Delhi, where media pressure ensured the judgement was overturned and the culprits were brought to justice.
Recently though, we have seen how nearly all media channels across the world are biased. In fact, some channels have come down to downright lying by twisting facts and putting things in a manner that raises eyebrows. Here I will take a look at three such examples:
1. Coverage of two murder cases in the US
Two murder cases in the US were covered in a very different manner by the same news agency. As you can see above, for the first case in Chicago, the victim’s race is mentioned in the headlines. However, there is no such detail for the second case in Indianapolis, because the victim was not an African-American. The news agency knew mentioning the victim’s race in the first case would help them get more clicks and they used it to their advantage.
My friend who posted this picture on Facebook, summed it up perfectly: “When I encounter a person in my day-to-day life, I don’t think of their color. I don’t treat them differently because of their color. The only time I think of differences in color are when I read about them in the media. The media have a vested interest in promoting racism in this country.”
2. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju’s interview by Times of India
Times of India, a leading daily newspaper across India recently interviewed Kiren Rijiju and some of the questions were related to internal security and threats of terrorists organizations like the ISIS. With a right-wing goverment in power, any controversial statements regarding Muslims would have turned people’s head. Times of India created a lie out of nothing and published a headline that caught people’s attention. As highlighted in red, Rijiju never made any such comment. Unfortunately though, other media channels like the Huffington Post had already picked up on this interview.
3. Representation of sexual assault cases in the US & India
Irrespective of country, sexual assault is a sensitive issue which needs to be handled carefully. Since the 80′s, sexual assaults have been regularly happening on campuses of various US universities. In fact, less than 15 months back, 85 colleges and universities were under investigation over concerns of handling sexual assault by the US Department of Education.
The first universities which made an effort in this direction were University of New Hampshire and Princeton back in the late 80′s. Both these universities started a sexual harassment education and advising program, where the people running this program made sure no victims were missed. At Princeton, the number of students using the program increased from 50 to 240 in the first three years. It never meant that the number of sexual assault cases were going up, but the universities appeared in unfavorable light in the press and eventually led to the unbecoming of two successful programs.
Similar is the case in India, where the media has termed Delhi as Rape Capital of the country. Yes, in terms of reported cases Delhi is the highest, but the % of cases which are reported (out of total actual cases) across the nation is not uniform. Therefore, calling an area ‘Rape Capital’ makes little sense.
Because of this, politicians and police force in India try to report as low a number as possible, making it harder for victims to come forward and receive help. The media fails to understand that higher numbers doesn’t mean that assault cases have increased and therefore, fails to understand the bigger picture.
As illustrated by the cases mentioned above, the media has become exactly like other for-profit organizations which work only as per their self-interest. The best summary of what the media does these days, can be seen in the picture below. Therefore, when you read a report in the media, make sure you read the details and try to verify facts via multiple sources.