What we understood about Indian Media.
Community Discussion with Ramit Verma, Founder of the Official Peeing Human and Kroordarshan.
Dear Friends
I was supposed to send out this edition yesterday, but given everything that’s happening around us, I felt I needed a break and unwind from the news and the internet. Things are overwhelming and I guess they will continue to be so over the next couple of weeks as well. Therefore the onus lies on us as individuals to take care of our mental and physical health accordingly. I hope you are doing the needful for yourself too.
Last Sunday we had our community discussion on “What we don’t Understand about the Indian Media?” with Ramit Verma, Founder of Peeing Human, and Kroordarshan. Ramit aims to analyze & critique Indian politics & media through the language of memes. His work facilitates informed political conversations with the help of humor. His videos try and capture the absurdity, contradictions, and biases of Indian journalists, news, and politics. Here are the highlights of our conversation in case you missed it.
Why did he name it Peeing Human?
“That comes from lack of creativity and an obsession with wordplay,” says Ramit. He recounts a story of how he named it kind of parodying Being Human by Salman Khan.
Tell us about your work at Kroordarshan
Ramit started Kroordarshan in May 2020. He says that he felt a crucial need to fight the people who are forming the popular opinion, i.e., the Indian Media. The media in India is currently obnoxious constantly spreading hatred and encouraging a particular political narrative that is fascist and oppressive in nature. So he decided to document what the media is doing on a daily basis.
How to consume news without being consumed by it?
Ramit advises that if you consume news on the internet then make sure to follow accounts and pages with varied perspectives and across the political spectrums otherwise the algorithm will feed you only a particular type of news. And you will be in an echo chamber that the social media platforms will create for you so that you spend as much time as possible on these platforms.
How to create a neutral/balanced piece of political content?
“I am not a balanced content creator. I am quite openly biased against a particular political narrative and a party and a group of media because according to me they are really dangerous to what India is and the idea of India.” He explains that just because he is opposed to X doesn’t automatically make him a supporter of Y. “I think this bias is justified and therefore I keep doing it if they become less dangerous and another narrative becomes more dangerous then I will probably focus on that.”
Ramit says a neutral journalist should be biased towards the truth.
Nowadays journalists tell you “both sides of the story” they give equal space to the oppressed and the oppressor to portray themselves as neutral. This makes no sense. When something is wrong, you have to take a stand. But the majority of the Indian media sympathizes with the oppressors and provide them with space and justify on their behalf marginalizing the victims further.
How can media channels strike a balance between commerce and responsibility?
Ramit says these channels need to prioritize their moral interest otherwise they will take decisions that cement their commercial prospects thereby eroding the value systems. If the business is your agenda then you can justify anything and shun all responsibilities.
What are the prominent trends that prove how the media is playing an active role in eroding Democracy?
In Republic Bharat amongst the 1000 debates between 2018 to 2020, nearly 850 were only centered around BJP. and in all these debates they fuel the same narrative, the right, and the wrong are already decided, they know who the ultimate hero is. This way they are suppressing all voices of dissent and ignoring many crucial political discussions on health, education, infrastructure, development and so many other important things happening in the country.
How are independent journalists working to fill up the gap created by the big media houses?
Ramit says independent journalists are doing “stellar work”, they are doing actual news reporting by investing in on-field reports whereas these big media houses just make an anchor sit in the studio and they do their own theatrics to grab as many eyeballs as they can and provide as much entertainment as they can. And they are also upholding the spirit of “independent” journalism in being free from any corporate or political influence.
Does creating political content affect your mental health?
“No for me it solves the problem. I can’t watch the news if I am not making something out of it.”
What’s Ramit’s incentive for creating his content?
His first reason is to inform. He felt by creating consumable content that informs about the truth he could educate people in a way and spread awareness. His second reason was to express his personal frustration and angst regarding the news.
Where do we stand with the argument “Everyone is entitled to an opinion and freedom of expression?”
The constitution grants every citizen freedom of speech with a few exceptions. These exceptions rightfully include that you cant spread communal hatred, hate speech, etc. And Ramit says these are fluted every day openly by the media. The media has pushed normal conversations to an extreme. They have lost all inhibition and mindlessly speak because they are being encouraged. Ramit says people deserve freedom of speech as long as they are not being hateful or perpetrating violence.
Can someone be made to change their long-held opinions through content and conversation?
Ramit says realistically no. He explains that changing your opinion means admitting that throughout your life you have been wrong, that up till now whatever you said and did was basically wrong and that is a very hard thing to own up to and very few people can do that especially when it comes to the middle-aged or older generation. It’s more fruitful to direct conversations and content at a stage when people have not yet formed their opinion so that they can be as informed as possible.
What is the end goal of your data? Do you ever feel you are losing the battle and that nothing is going to change?
Sometimes it does feel so, says Ramit. But according to him, he does it because that is the right thing to do.
Not every effort is about the outcome sometimes it’s only about the effort. If not anything else then it will give purpose to your life, do it for that.
If you liked this conversation and have any feedback or ideas regarding future community events you can reach out to me directly on Instagram @pawan_rochwani.
I look forward to your observation and views and they motivate me to do better each time.
Feel free to forward this with your friends and media enthusiasts.