If you could clearly observe one difference in the Indian media scenario now and about ten years ago, one thing is clear. The word of Main Stream Media, or MSM as used, is no longer taken as the final verdict or the ‘law of land’. There were times when media used to set the agenda for anything that happened in the country. And they enjoyed the absolute ‘Monopoly’ over their control of this so called ‘agenda manipulation’. But then came Social Media, and it all toppled in a short while. This ‘throne’ of the MSM was shaken, and many ‘Crown Holders’ who enjoyed the absolute power felt the jolt. I think there is no need to name such ‘Monarchs’ of the MSM who have now been reduced to mere pawns, all thanks to the ‘Truth Digging’ carvings of the social media people. The advent of social media has surely revolutionized the thinking in the minds of people. The hit and run journalists can no longer just ‘shoot and scoot’, as long as the social media holds them answerable and digs out the truth faster than they can ‘run’.
The latest episode in this series was the ‘Bhak Sala v/s the Bainjal’ episode. When my day began with the twitter, the first thing I observed was the trend #Support_Bhak_Sala. Out of curiosity, I tried searching out and found that some Hit and Run media journalists had been tagging Rahul Raj’s employer, a well known name in Pharma field and asking them to take an action for ‘bringing out the truth’. This journalist blamed him of stalking her, and called him names and even went down to say that he has a ‘mediocre’ job in a small company. Well, as if she was into some forbes listed organisation (which she can just dream of).
Flashback, Rahul’s initiative OpIndia had recently exposed the truth about the lies of the abusive journalist, Swati Chaturvedi who had been abusive and a compulsive liar reporting half baked lies and abusing people over twitter when they try to feed her the facts. She was yet again caught trying to do a hit job on Smriti Irani, claiming that the secretary in Textiles Ministry wanted to be transferred out of the ministry, a claim that was refuted by the ministry themselves.
But then, caught lying through her teeth, true to her habit, she tried another hit job, this time the target was Rahul Raj, the founder of OpIndia. They degraded themselves to poking in his personal life, trying hard to get some reaction from his employer as well.
But then something came out of the blue, which I consider it rare these days: The whole of the right wing social media, espcially twitter, united together. #Support_Bhak_Sala was in top trends, and even people who had differences with ‘Bhak Sala’ came forward in his support. And the hit and run ‘Bainjal’ could only resort to blocking people, including me, on twitter. Seems like she could not handle the heat of the facts.
One thing is for sure. The heat has turned up for these hit and run journos. They cannot lie through their teeth and get away with their false propaganda anymore, since fact diggers like OpIndia are there to make sure that the truth comes out. And coming out of a United Twitter support is a positive sign, that these journos cannot bully anyone. Their power is diminishing day by day, and as such the frustration is building up.
All I would say is, Great Job Social Media, keep it up.!
