Media Propaganda and the Josh!

Priyanka Rajkhowa

The recent terror attack at Pulwama has left the country mourning with a serious urge for revenge. Starting from posting posts over the social media, demanding serious revenge to using display picture frames which says “I support revenge”, the entire social media feed has been flooded since the attack happened.

The nation and its people are emotionally disturbed to a great extent and very sadly the people have never peeped into the option of analysing the situation and the outcomes which might result if a war among two nations happen or even a surgical strike takes place.

Okay, here is the keyword: ‘surgical strike’. I have seen people demanding the prime minister for another surgical strike. And no confusion on how this particular term is the slogan right now. Who would impact an individual in our country more than a Bollywood movie? With the release of the film Uri, starring the new heartthrob among the Indian youngsters, people have assumed a surgical strike , an attack on a nation to be very easily accomplished with a very entertaining background score for sure. With Vicky Kaushal on its main lead, imagining a surgical strike is quite easy right now. But than why only target Uri, our national film directors have always made patriotic movies which ultimately ended with a hardcore revenge on a nation, lesser highlighting the after effects of a war or an attack.

Right after the Pulwama attack, the social media was flooded with contents blaming a particular country and the religious community on the top of their voices and how faster their finger tips could type assaults towards whatever happened. The posts and their comment sections are a virtual war place to people from both the nations where verbally wars have been going since the 14th of February this year. Whatever the contents were, especially from the news channels and paper’s social media pages it is behaving its very own, yes right they have been telling us what to see, fuelling the users to urge for revenge and nothing else. And why won’t we urge for it? The media is making us do so, and we follow their agenda, don’t we? Yes subconsciously we do. The media is much powerful in instigating any feeling they want us to and right now no matter how much the communication scholars deny that we as audience right now have stopped taking in whatever is shot at us by the media, but are we analysing a content? Are we selectively taking in rather than exposing ourselves to any agenda the media puts up? No we aren’t. Starting from the provoking contents available over any form of media, to shedding tears after watching a film which clearly is a product of propaganda, the analysing power is activated very lately in us.

Right now the movie industry of our country have acquired the agenda setting quality of the other media houses and from trying to eradicate misconceptions on the Baba of the movie industry to believing whatever our political parties have done and are doing are nothing but heroic is what is shot at us and we the citizens pay money to let them brainwash us for a three hour slot and come out doubting on our self beliefs.

Any situation happening or about to happen needs self analysis no matter whatever the media shoots on us. Recently on the various pages of Facebook, I came across a content which said, “More than 13 dogs also lost their lives along with our jawans, in the Pulwama attack,” and it urged us to pray for their peace and also share the post. Without even a second thought, everyone shared the post and cursed the nation which is being accused for the attacks; the curse went on until it was confirmed to be a fake news. This is what the media is doing to us, it is targeting our sentiments in every possible way, knowing that we are exposed to one or the other media.

We are not alien to what fake news can lead to, still the ignorance of media literacy is at its peak and until our people accept and become media literates we are disabled, we as media users will one day be agenda puppets very soon. Let’s not forget , films along with social media, is a medium which requires no qualification and almost every individual living in this country is exposed to this powerful medium of communication and that is why, we hardly have a population who analyses or will to analyse whatever the movie depicts rather believe and follow whatever is on the screen. And as a result of which a sensitive step like a surgical strike is so much in demand among the citizens, who is the fan of ‘how’s the josh?’ community. Like a quote I found the other day says, “Our reaction to a situation literally has the power to change the situation itself.”