After 2014, India became familiar with the phenomenon of the “Godi Media”, a phrase coined by the Magsaysay Award-winning journalist Ravish Kumar. It refers to the media in the lap of the Prime Minister, whose name rhymes with Godi.
In his book of a few decades ago, American scholar Noam Chomsky wrote that the media in democratic nations was not really independent and did not do the task of informing the public, particularly about the overreach of the state. Instead, it engaged in what he called “manufacturing consent” in favour of the government and business interests. He said the mass media are ideological institutions carrying out propaganda, by reliance on market forces, self-censorship and without overt coercion, through a particular model.
The defining aspects of such a model were the following. First, that the media was owned by corporate interests; second, that its revenue model depended on advertising; third, that the government made it dependent by giving access only to a select few pliant reporters and anchors and by withholding licences; fourth, that this compromised and pliant media marginalised dissent and attacked the political Opposition, acting as a government mouthpiece; and fifth, it created “bogeyman” distractions that took attention away from real issues.
As may be noted by alert readers, all these conditions apply to the media in........