Haroon Bijli

As Israel’s genocide continues in Gaza, an even more potent information war is taking place on the internet in the rest of the world. There’s information, misinformation, disinformation, pure propaganda – a huge amount of it, and disproportionately spread by global media houses. Most mainstream global media is pro-Israel and parrots Israel’s talking points without even pretending to interrogate their claims. Add the Indian mainstream media’s disdain for the truth and objectivity, you have propaganda on steroids.

Sample this tweet by the prominent (centrist?) journalist Barkha Dutt where she likens criticism of her to support for Hamas. https://x.com/BDUTT/status/1712318754426925134?s=20

These events remind me of an early class I took while pursing my master’s in journalism. This is how it went:

The lecturer came into the classroom, unannounced and quietly. He sat down in his chair and started reading the Time magazine upside down. Didn’t say a word. We were all amused – we were in week one of J-School after all, and of course we thought we knew everything.

A good five minutes later, he asks us to write what we had witnessed. We did, and he read some answers aloud. Some of them were quite derisive.

He kept the notes away and reenacted the scene. This time, there was one instruction: come over here and look over my shoulder. We did.

Only the cover of the Time magazine was upside down.

Then he said, “consider this your first lesson.”

He did not elaborate further, though some of the learnings were brought up time and again as the term progressed. I recall some below (as best as I can; all this happened around 25 years ago):

1. You are going to be journalists. Get close to the event. No one asked you to remain in your seats. Why wait for instruction?
2. Try and gain a different perspective. What you may have witnessed – even with your own eyes – may be deceptive.
3. People can manipulate you, as I just did. Some of you said that I was being irrational. I merely created that impression.
4. Be independent. Again, you waited for me to instruct you to come close. You acceded to authority. As journalists, you must be sceptic of authority.
5. The truth often reveals itself gradually, especially with more information or knowledge.
6. Sometimes, the truth has versions. Your truth was that I was holding the magazine upside down. My truth was that I was holding it right.
7. You presumed that I was holding the magazine upside down. All you saw was the upside-down cover of the magazine. Some of you said “I appear to hold the magazine upside down” – the distinction is important.

I wish some of our present journalists had taken this class. Then again, I don’t doubt that they had been taught this at some point in their training – it is just that they haven’t internalized it, or find it much easier, lucrative and convenient to discard the one of the tenets of journalism: verify.