Journalism can be done even in the hyperpolarized days like today, if journalists and anchors follow three Cs-Constitution, Conscience and Credibility- as these Cs will always lead journalism, said Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor, India Today Television, at the e4m NewsNext Conference in Delhi today.
Speaking on the hot topic ‘Elections 2024: Covering Elections In The Age of Hyperpolarization’, the veteran journalist, said, “I intend to address both the positive and not-so-positive aspects of the news today. “Being a journalist right now is incredibly exciting. With an upcoming election, there’s no better time than now to engage with our political leaders and, more importantly, the voters of our country. This period of democratic fervour presents us with vast opportunities to connect across our nation,” Sardesai noted.
Even typically frugal news organizations are sending their reporters into the field to vie for attention amidst the repetitive chatter from the studio, featuring the same guests night after night, he said.
“Technological advancements have made it effortlessly possible to be present in any corner of the world and uplink your story through a live view hit that you might have. So, you are a lucky generation as we enter this election season. Now that is the good news. And that’s where the good news sadly ends,” he remarked.
Speaking further, Sardesai shared, “Let’s turn to the not-so-good news. It is taking place arguably in the most hyperpolarized atmosphere in newsrooms and outside. Make no mistake, the Rajiv Gandhi versus VP Singh election in 1989 was just as bitter and far more frenetic, some would say, than the elections of today. It was the classic election between the top dog and the underdog. But the interesting bit is that it did not affect the newsroom. We gave almost as much space to Rajiv Gandhi as we did to VP Singh. In fact, dare I say we gave more space to VP Singh because journalism in those days believed you.”
“That was the difference between 1989 and 2024. The journalist would come explicitly back to the newsroom after having covered a VP Singh rally because he was the new person on the block. As I said, elections were just as frenetic as they are today. In fact, it was the pre-electronic voting age as well when ballot boxes were stolen, journalists were beaten up, television cameras were broken. So, if anyone tells you it was a gentler age, it wasn’t quite a gentler age. Sorry? But it was an age where I think somewhere down the line journalists did not allow what was happening in the newsroom. Now the newsroom is almost wholly monopolized.”
“We talk as journalists of having a level playing field in every area or every other arena. How much do we attempt to ensure even the semblance of a level playing field in our own profession is a question that we must all ask ourselves if we have a conscience left.
“What is even more troubling is that now it is almost demanded of journalists to take sides, partisanship is being rewarded, and in the age of social media, opinions have overtaken facts. To make your debate go viral, you are expected to say something bipartisan. The space for so-called objective journalism is shrinking and shrinking,” he noted.
Therefore, navigating this hyperpolarized ecosystem is not easy. You will be called anti-national and your reports may be censored. And who knows, you may have to start one day your own YouTube channel, Sardesai said.
Sardesai says that despite challenges in the profession, he remains a believer, and is still doing the same thing that he did 35 years ago. “I met Narendra Modi Ji for the first time in 1990 during the rath yatra. Recently when I met him, I told him that I am still doing the same job, the job of a journalist.”
“The journalist is the cockroach in the system. He is not meant to be the butterfly. I think many of us made that mistake and conflated our popularity on TV with suddenly becoming the butterflies in the system. If you can remain the cockroach, you can still stay in the system.”
Urging journalists to do their job honestly, Sardessai said, “Journalism must take sides but the side that journalists must take at election time in particular is the side of the Constitution and the side of your conscience. Hold those in powerful positions accountable. Expose hate speech. Expose the misuse of power. Question institutions that are seen to brazenly abuse their powers. Even if it is an institution that is called the enforcement directorate.”
“Tell the stories of ordinary Indians. Those who have benefited from the government schemes and those who have lost out. Tell the stories of netas who have kept their promises and of netas who have not. The fight my friends that we are fighting as journalists is not between government and opposition. Let politicians make all the noise that they want. It’s their battle to win. It is not our fight as journalists to win or lose. But our fight is another far more important fight. Because politicians will come and go. The constitution of this country must be preserved.”
