The way ordinary
people consume and interact with media is light years removed from two decades
ago. This shift has been so massive that all of us are still grappling with
understanding it. We have never had a media landscape like this. There is a
very vocal left-wing media machine that has proven to be every bit more
effective than the mainstream media.
Now there
is an emergence of a right-wing media machine, as effective as the left-wing
media machine or even the mainstream media. What the emerging right-wing media
machine lacks in terms of its effectiveness, it is attempting to make up for it
through the social media. The general public has never been networked the way
we are now. Unfortunately, however, both, the left-wing as well as the right-wing
media machines, are building the sculptures of Networked Disinformation. The mainstream
media is sitting outside of the arena where these ugly bouts are taking place.
Let us
acknowledge that there have been mass media layoffs. Uncompromising media
outfits have shuttered, leaving dozens of upright journalists without jobs. Reporters-on-rolls
and editors have vacillated between feeling extremely energized and extremely
demoralized in such circumstances. Unstable job environments have become the
norm, and unfortunately, those who have stayed back in journalism have confused
average for acceptable. There are now “full-time freelance” positions in
journalism.
Editorial
teams are shrinking, workers are forced to accept lower rates (due to increase
in competition), and they are bearing the psychological impact of repeated
layoffs as they navigate financial insecurity.
Journalists
and reporters are constantly in a state of stress and scarcity; they are constantly
working too much and fearing that it is still too little. They don’t know how they
are going to pay rent, and if they do, they can never be sure the checks are
going to come in on time. Health insurance is either a luxury or a distant
dream; and getting sick is not an option.
The
distinctions between regular, freelance, contract and outsourced labour is increasingly
porous. The press and publication houses are unionising but the unions of their
employees are nearly defunct.
Is
journalism a vocation, profession, business or an errand? With confusion
getting compounded, the losses of talent, freedom, standards and ethics are a natural
corollary.
(First
published 22 April 2020)
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