which news channels are godi media in India?
Answers
Explanation:
GODI (lapdog), bikau (venal), dalal (agent) and bharkau (inflammatory). These are some of the labels with which a major section of India’s mainstream electronic media is identified by a majority of Indians, especially Muslims and low-caste Hindus, as well as the remaining section of the national media.
This chunk of the media, which consists of nearly a dozen 24-hour national and regional TV news channels, is infamous for biased reporting and fanning communal hatred in society. Their journalists and anchors routinely engage in spreading fake news and causing hatred towards the country’s 200 million Muslim community and Islam. They, in fact, nourish Islamophobia. As someone rightly remarked, “the Indian media is not doing journalism but waging a jihad (holy war) against Muslims. It acts like hyenas”.
On one hand, these channels demonstrate a clear bias against the country’s low-caste Hindus, the poor, and less privileged and weaker sections of society. On the other, they promote the agenda of the Hindutva forces including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ruling political wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners in the government, as well as their leaders. They also favour the rich and powerful and promote their interests.
Prominent among these pro-BJP/RSS news outlets are English television channels Republic TV, Times Now, India Today and CNN-News18, and Hindi TV channels Zee News, ABP News, Aaj Tak, India TV, Sudershan News, News Nation and News24 (India). All the above-mentioned titles fit these channels for one reason or the other.
The term “godi media” was coined for these channels by Ramon Magsaysay award winner journalist Ravish Kumar of NDTV. He inherently spoke of the lap of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and its lapdogs.
Besides these channels, there are many more news and at least 18 Hindu religious channels in regional languages across India that promote the agenda of the Hindutva forces to establish a Hindu Rashtra (nation) and impose Hindi as the national language all over the plural, multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country of 1.37 billion people.
Among the key reasons why these channels and their anchors so aggressively support the BJP, RSS and Modi, as well as the rich and powerful, are:
1) Absolute majority of the BJP-led NDA in Parliament and its government at the centre and in many states, and growing irrelevance and inconsequentiality of a largely obliterated opposition;
2) Hindu viewership by the BJP’s 100-million-plus primary members and their massive support for the party and government, and the cult-like following of a “monolithic” Modi;
3) A high TRP achieved because of the majority Hindu viewership. (TRP, or target rating point, is a metric used in marketing and advertising to indicate the percentage of the target audience reached by a campaign or advertisement through a communication medium);
4) Funding by big business houses, which might be chummy with a particular party which supports their growth and in return they support that party;
5) Ownership or stakes of certain BJP and RSS leaders, MPs and supporters in some of these TV channels;
6) Owners’ political connections or affiliations with the BJP and RSS;
7) A huge revenue earned from government advertisements which these channels receive in return for their pro-BJP/RSS/government policies;
8) Commercial interests of these channels as business entities rather than as social service non-governmental organisations;
9) Government advisories/directives and restrictions on news presentation;
10) Fear of being targeted by the government for failure to toe the line.
Let’s take a close look at what these Hindutva TV channels are, who owns or runs them and what are their policies.