Mainstream media credibility crisis – A spiritual perspective

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so we are having a discussion today on the credibility of the news media and what it reflects especially for those wanting to help spiritualized society so basically the internet and the technology associated with the digital culture has revolutionized much of modern society and revolution has not always been in a good direction you see the print media today is facing three dangers that have put it in dominant decline that is sustainability, credibility and identity for any organization to flourish it needs to be sustainable and sustainability comes primarily by having a source of income that is reliable so many of the prominent newspapers or magazines which people used to pay for and subscribe and read they find their subscriber base has gone down drastically because the internet makes things available online for free and there are two newspapers two magazines one offering free content and the other not offering free content naturally people will gravitate to the one with free content so since 1991 which is almost 30 years ago the amount of news media in circulation in America alone has gone down by 50% it has gone down from 60 million so 60 million in United States in 1991 to 2017 it was just 31 million so the first problem is sustainability and now what is the solution if they don’t have enough money the result is that many people get fired copy editors thousands of copy editors have lost their jobs and further this influences quality the invisible quality control people and when they are lost then things just can’t move forward beyond that there are more serious issues also that credibility is very important but now when internet involves people trading on the net then that has led to the rise of clickbait journalism wherein advertisers pay based on how many viewers you get and how many viewers you get is determined not necessarily by the quality of the journalism but by sensationalism and the more sensational something is the more likely it is to be picked up by pick up people’s attention and pick them up and get them to click it on top of that much of the media is known to be ideologically partisan and they have quite often a left wing bias and there is a tremendous amount of distance and even resentment between the intellectual elite and the general people the intellectual elite want people to think and act in a particular way but the people don’t want to be dictated like that and thus we see whether it is the president of America current president or the current prime minister of India much of the media dubs them negatively and yet the following remains because they are using social media rather than relying on the conventional media for their coverage or for reaching out to people so people see the ideological bias, there are two things over here with respect to credibility the publications themselves are biased in a particular way and on top of that the readers are also often biased, polarized and once they sense that a particular publication is leaning in a particular direction often that affects whether they will buy that publication or not so going beyond this the credibility is also stretched because the internet wants breaking news and quite often investigative journalism requires time so when you try to break the news before you have tested the news quite often sometimes people fall flat and that also decreases credibility again now of course certain media have developed a certain brand they have their identity but then so where they seem to take hardline positions on certain issues they may criticize some big names and they try to win a royal base of readers by showing how they are uncompromising in their search for the truth and after they have developed this image then they will sell them to their sponsors whom they will soft pedal to their unsuspecting readers that means newspaper will criticize big corporate brands on the credibility of the readers and then those corporate brands which sponsor it we will soft pedal them so this way be soft on them not criticize them and the readers don’t realize it so in such a situation it’s important that every one of us recognize that we have to move forward ourselves we have to develop our critical capacities to know whom to trust and whom not to trust especially if you want to grow spiritually it’s vital that we learn the essence of spiritual growth is in terms of our spiritual connections our connection with our inner self with the divine and then whatever operational knowledge we need in the world we need to get it by gradually using our discerning ability Bhagwatam says that doubt is also a faculty characteristic of knowledge that means those people who doubt they are also trying to do something that doubt is a function of intelligence because only those who have intelligence can have doubts otherwise people will be gullible and they will just believe whatever they are told so if that is not to happen at one level we could just keep reading news and reinforce our biases we live in echo chambers or we could seek to learn if we develop proper discerning ability then we can recognize which issues need to be carefully studied and then not jump to conclusions that agree with our preconceptions but we move gradually and systematically so the more we study scripture the more we will also be able to sharpen our intelligence by such study and that will enable us to discern the news as and when we need to discern it beyond that is also an understanding that the same dynamic applies to us as spiritual traditions where technology shapes the perceptions of people each one of us needs to understand through technology and understand how our presentation, our practice and our purpose is being affected by technology unless we are available online we can’t we may have no digital presence to have no online presence is like having no presence at all at least for some people and if we are to move forward in our lives constructively we need to be as a movement or as a spiritual group we need to be sensitive to the way people think and it will be best not to take any strong ideological positions on contemporary issues unless that’s directly connected with our philosophy and practice because otherwise we will end up alienating a large number of people this doesn’t mean we compromise it just means that we strategize it is not our purpose to enlighten people on primarily on political or social or racial or economic issues our purpose is primarily to give spiritual knowledge now of course there are many places where spiritual knowledge will interrelate these other areas of knowledge and they are a matter of concern but we don’t want to alienate people by strongly endorsing say one group in an ideological divide we don’t want to alienate all those who are on the other side and that’s why it’s important to recognize the ideological tensions that run high in today’s world and to make sure that our presentation focuses more on presenting our tradition and our wisdom rather than on wittingly, unknowingly or unknowingly triggering prominent tensions so language that is perceived as a racist or that is perceived biased at least we need to be aware of that and avoid that kind of language and its usage and overall we also have to be clear to preserve our identity, credibility and our sustainability to the extent we stay faithful to we maintain our roots and reach out on the routes that are today opened up in society we will be able to keep our tradition both vibrant and relevant it will be vibrant to the extent it gets nourishment from its roots we are relevant to the extent that it follows the routes that are opened by by technology today