“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcolm X
People often refer to media as the fourth pillar of the state after the three known pillars namely – Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. Media holds immense power in today’s world as it keeps people abreast with the latest happenings and plays a pivotal role in making opinions regarding specific issues among the masses. Apart from the mainstream media, the significance of the recently invented social media can be appreciated from the enormous role it played in the recent Arab Spring in MENA (Middle East North Africa) region. As per Malcolm X, media is the most powerful entity on earth; however, the question remains with the powerful entities is that the power could be used either in a positive way or it could be used in a negative way, and the same holds true for the media as well.
Media can aggravate as well as tone the situation down depending on how biased or unbiased it is and how much effort is spent in confirming the veracity and source of the news it gets. In January this year there was a furore in the whole of Syria and the rest of the world and in particular between the Shias and Sunnis when the news came out that a Sunni scholar from Saudi Arabia, Muhammad al-Arifi, had issued a Fatwa making it legal for the rebels to rape the Syrian women. Immediately, the scholar clarified his position that he had not said any such thing. However, one could sense the damaging impact the news would have in the scenario where the Sunni rebels were fighting the war with the Syrian ruler and his cliques. It could have ruptured the sentiments of the Shias and Sunnis in all parts of the world and could have taken the level of conflict to a totally different level, but somehow the situation remained still.
But it is interesting to note that in July the news once again surfaced and this time it was portrayed as it is something new that has just happened. Obviously, there was no mention of the clarification by the scholar and many people took it on the surface. Such biased reporting becomes the rallying point for those with vested interests and hence media exploits its power and moulds the minds of the people in a way that would suit best the interest of those wielding it.
Same is the case with terror related cases in India. The moment a bomb rips off in any part of the country, the media, in a kneejerk reaction, starts parroting the police story as the ultimate truth. The portrayal is such that the reader of the newspaper or the listener of the news channel starts believing the suspect as the perpetrator and before the trial in the court starts, the suspect becomes the culprit. Such portrayals are nothing but the travesty of justice and reinforce the need of unbiased reporting and coverage of events.
Ever since its inception Radiance Viewsweekly had an objective to present the real perspective to counter the false propagandas by the media. The fourth objective of Radiance Viewsweekly says,
“Counteract irresponsible and false propaganda against the Muslim community, and awaken the country’s social conscience in regard to its difficulties and problems by presenting the real perspective.”
In the past 50 years Radiance has tried to deliver to the ever increasing need for the real perspective behind the events. It not only responded to the national events but went all the way and presented the views regarding anything happening in the Muslim community. For all these years, it came up with some extremely good and informative articles and reproducing even a paragraph from those articles would be a cumbersome task. However, below are some of the excerpts from different volumes of Radiance, which handled the issue of media bias with utmost honesty and presented a well researched piece to prove the point. One of the articles penned by Abdul Malik Mujahid reads:
“After the study of nine leading US newspapers from Jan. 88 to Dec. 89, I discovered that the media blame someone by association. These newspapers included the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlanta Constitution, the Atlanta Journal, Boston Globe, Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor….The words ‘terrorism’ and ‘Muslims,’ along with their derivatives were used 149 times. Palestine was associated with terrorism 366 times. Iran was associated with terrorism 300 times. Libya was identified with terrorism 84 times, and ‘Arabs’ 138 times. Together the terms terrorism and terrorist were used for Islam, Muslims and Muslim countries about 1132 times. As compared to the Muslims, Jews were identified with terrorism only 34 times, and then as the victims of terrorism.” (Radiance, 25, 29 July-4 August 1990)
One of the qualities of an unbiased newspaper is that it encourages criticism and does not shy away from publishing news and articles containing criticism. Radiance, in its Vol. 43, did not hesitate to publish a rather fierce comment on its lead writers namely Dr. S. Ausaf Saied Vasfi and Soroor Ahmed. The excerpt goes as:
“It seems that Messrs Vasfi and Ahmed who happen to be seasoned journalists, live only in the world of misinformation and disinformation and not in the world of insight and intellect….It also appears that their world is their reading room and writing table and their net asset is only pens and some paper sheets (or for that matter computer screen and keyboard)….” (Radiance, 18-24 December 2005)
On a regular basis the magazine came up with some well researched articles unveiling the real face of the media industry and busting the connivance of the media with the ruling elite and its cliques. It brought forward articles debunking the myth which the mainstream media propagated and disseminated and tried to present the hidden angle from the stories.
Two years ago, in 2011, the magazine published an article related to a development in Gujarat. It broke the myth of the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ and presented the actual socio-economic situation of the people living there. The article says:
“Gujarat is facing problems at the level of living conditions particularly of the poor, women and minorities. The media hype is meant to change the image of Narendra Modi from the one who led the carnage to a development man. But deeper look at the economic and social situation tells us another story.” (Radiance, 27 February 2011)
Hence by bringing the new aspect and new perspective of the news, Radiance Viewsweekly tried to fulfil the void created because of the one sided reporting by most of the mainstream media. With its own meagre resources and its own style and means, it tried to reign in the media by countering the biased and sometimes false reporting of the events by the mainstream media. In today’s age of bombarding information, there is a need for more credible voices to counter and control the fourth pillar of the state.