yellow Indian journalists

I had read an article on yellow journalism some time ago and read about what kind of reporting constitutes yellow journalism. In fact, I had made a note of it in my blog as well, and realized that all those characteristics, if not all, are employed by the tabloid media of today. When I say tabloid media, I am clubbing all the Indian media together, especially the English media because in their eyes, objectivity means nothing and their only concern is to sound as sensationalist as possible and look as western as possible.

So I was reading some news headlines online today and it just struck me that a lot of online articles today begin with questions. And not just generic questions or harmless questions but mostly negative questions that will already create a bias in the mind of the reader that whatever the subject of the "news" article is, is a bad person, thing or phenomenon.

On Google news, the news is presented in sections, and under the Sci/Tech section this morning, there is a substantial coverage of the Mumbai metro. The Bhaskar Group's English daily, Daily News & Analysis has a coverage as well, titled "Metro ride in Mumbai could prove 'shocking'". Now there are two or three thoughts I have about this headline.

First, it is sensationalist without doubt. I personally have a huge dislike for reporting that looks more like an opinion piece but is reported as objective and factual. a metro ride could prove shocking because the wires running overhead have the potential to hurt the commuters inside the trains and the commuters and drivers on the street below. Using the same theme, lighting can start striking the Mumbai streets and could prove "shocking" to many, including taking many lives. So perhaps the dumb media needs to come out with a headline that citizens beware of this rainy season because it has the potential to kill. Anybody who follows the national media diligently, and unfortunately there are many who take everything the likes of Times of India, Hindustan Times and NDTV peddle very seriously, should then drastically reduce the time they spend outside, because if their luck runs out, the next lightening victim could be them.

Here is the point I am trying to make is there is threat, no doubt, and unsafe construction, wiring could pose problems, but here is when objectivity takes a back seat. To catch the eye of the reader, you put a vague headline on top, such as this - that a Mumbai metro ride could prove shocking. First, the Mumbai metro is a prestigious and much awaited project. Much, much delayed and with a myriad of issues, but prestigious none the less. So after thousands of crores being invested, if a metro rider is going to get "shocked", then obviously you will prick your ears and try to find out why.

Then the second part is that Mumbai Metro is not just one kilometer long, so is the wiring faulty or dangerous throughout the constructed line, or just one stretch or one specific location? If I can understand the situation correctly, here is what is happening. Now any metro runs on electricity, and there are a number of ways of providing this to the coaches. First, you can do as they do in the railways, the overhanging cables which is connected to the coach. This is what the first line of Mumbai Metro has. Now another way of providing this source is through the third rail, which is what the Kolkata metro and the London metro have and under-construction Bangalore metro proposes to have. The Delhi metro, which can be called the seed for all the new metro projects in the country, has overhead cables, and so do the lifelines of Mumbai, the locals.  Delhi metro has had incidents in the past and even deaths, but as far as I recall, I have not heard of any mishaps due to the overhead cables.

When a metro system is being laid, there are a lot of discussions done on what technology to use, what design to use, and what not to use, and the engineers and designers and other professionals must have sat down and discussed whether the line should have a third rail or overhead cables to provide power. Just to soothe all the self-flagellating Indians out there, these professionals not just include Indian professionals, but all the global companies that are part of the EPC contract, such as Siemens of Germany or Veolia of France. So surely they must have had very good reasons for using the overhead cables.

Now an issue with the overhead cables in the Mumbai metro's first line could be that they are not constructed well. But I am glancing through the article and I do not see any issue of bad construction. And yes, there are hundreds of safety scenario analyses done, "what if" analyses done so that metro systems all over the world are prepared for most eventualities.

So this is the Indian media. I am googling this news and I realize that actual media reports say that the MMRDA wants the Mumbai metro authorities to "explore" the third rail option to provide traction to the metro system. These media reports say that the reason why overhead cables could be dangerous in Mumbai is because its path is surrounded by many tall buildings, something which most of Delhi metro avoids. This is however completely lacking in the Indian coverage.

The fact about technology is that no matter how efficiently it is run, one can't rule out a mishap or error - by the machine or the person running the machine. Even Kolkata metro is facing problems this rainy season as water has seeped into the tunnels and is affecting the functioning of the third rail.

So finally, my peeve is that all these Indian media houses have adapted this form of yellow journalism where they try to be opinion leaders instead of being professional journalists. The television media does it all the time, seeping in their biases into their words and the way they present issues. Perhaps soon all the pages of a newspaper will be the ed-op pages because there won't be objective news, but what the journalist, his/her editor, and their paymasters want the situation to be presented as.