Where do you get your news from?

If we don't have a reliable source of information, it is not because they don't exist but because we don't know how to find them. Representation pic

There were some disconcerting issues that cropped up during America's elections a few weeks ago. For the first time in recent memory, I watched as people from all walks of life put out tweets, videos, and op-eds on how that country needed to fight for a future that was at stake. There were warnings about the possibility of civil war, and the relentless scrutiny of everything that the men running for the top spot were saying.

On the day of those elections, the people of India were force-fed footage of a TV anchor masquerading as a journalist being arrested on a serious charge. Paid campaigns on social media were rigged to drown all other voices as his supporters spoke of encroaching fascism, asking us all to stand up and be counted. I dismissed those campaigns with the contempt they deserved, but worried about what kind of opinion millions of people watching that melodramatic footage would come away with.

There are a few things that unite large swathes of India: cricket, cinema, and politics. It is how we consume information about the last topic that deserves a bit of our attention.

I grew up in a Bombay that had few sources of news about politics. There was Doordarshan, which no one I knew took seriously because of its programming that was as bland as khichdi, and a small number of newspapers that people swore by, choosing them like toothpaste and sticking with them for generations. It may be simplistic to dismiss those times as less political than our own but it may be more accurate to say that people involved with the political space were simply more decent than the ones who occupy it today.

Where we get our news from is important because the sources are now difficult to identify or control. We are bombarded by information on Facebook and Twitter that can be created and disseminated within seconds, and the line between fact and fiction has been deliberately blurred by people with vested interests because of how it serves their purpose.

If we don't have a reliable source of information, it is not because they don't exist but because we don't know how to find them. Our newspapers come with pages of paid features, it's harder than ever to differentiate between anchors and spokespersons of political parties; and the average person on the street has to contend with a stream of forwards on WhatsApp that doesn't seem to end.

To take everything we read or watch on television with a pinch of salt is difficult because we all have to draw a line somewhere. It may make sense to do a bit of research before choosing to accept anything at face value though. At the heart of this year's lockdown, for instance, I was forwarded a message on WhatsApp warning me about how a COVID-19 vaccine could change my body structure permanently. A vaccine is months away from being announced, but that didn't stop someone, somewhere, from creating a very believable piece of propaganda that can have real consequences for vulnerable people who choose to accept it.

America has been awash with lies for years now, its openly partisan news outlets pushing all kinds of theories and dubious statistics to receptive audiences that are no longer interested in the truth. On the one hand, it's easy to see why this course of action may seem comforting; it's nicer to feel as if one is part of a team, even if that team believes in something that doesn't exist. On the other, it has an impact on the lives of everyone else who must pay the price.

I no longer watch the news on television because channels tasked with giving us unvarnished coverage have been extinct for a while now. I pick and choose my newspapers carefully too, and suspect more people do this after the owner of a media house was caught on camera offering to whip up public sentiment for a price. I am in a minority though, if ratings are to be believed, because large numbers of Indians still turn to these channels, subscribing to the fantasies they peddle.

The reason I ask everyone I know to spend as much time on who is saying something, as well as what is being said, is because we have the power to stop a lie from spreading. We can choose not to forward a message, turn off our televisions, or stop endorsing brands that help fund them. What stops us?

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

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