I would like to start with an old saying by Mahatma Buddha, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
These great lines express the true essence of education. Believe the only thing your soul agrees with. Anything that is written in any book can be under the influence of ideology of writer who has written it. Things said by anyone can be their own perception and views about anything. Whatever is shown to you can be staged. In this era of technological advancement, the misinformation system has been revolutionized. For example, If we speak a sentance,
” There are a few things wrong with Ram, but overall he is a good human.”
The total statement will not offend anyone but if we cut the statement into two parts and tell only one of them to the person named Ram, first one may anger him and the second one may declare you his flatterer if media is involved. We have to be careful and should not reach any decision until we have every information about anything.
“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”
-Buddha
The case where the pregnant elephant was killed after eating a pineapple stuffed with crackers, is usually used to kill wild boar which are responsible of spoiling the crops in areas which are around forests. The practice of using fruits stuffed with crackers is illegal as per wildlife protection act and what has happened to the poor elephant and her baby is not forgivable. But, in those areas the standoff between humans and animals occurs very often and leads to death of around 100 or more animals and around 500 humans every year.
The article is not to discuss about killing of elephant and her baby as we don’t have the total background of the incident. I wish to discuss the credibility of media and social media. Now a days media does not present the news as it is. Media is like a juicer, if fruits are news which are more beneficial for us as they are media spice it up with sugar and flavours like political angle, communalism and castism, personal perception to increase its sale.
The incident was inhuman and should be condemned but there were many social media platforms, media channels which gave the half news at first then there were some who tried to give this incident a communal angle. They all exploited us emotionally and used an emotional angle of delivering the news for TRP. I read a post which said , “Elephants are worshiped in hindus were killed in an area which has more population as muslim.” Another was like, “Rise hindus rise, you have to avenge Vinayaki.”
How dare people do that and how foolish of people who believe that all. This not only with Hindus but also with muslims, actually misinformation is problem of all communities and all religions. There was one news channel which presented news of locust swarm as attack by Pakistan and not a natural disaster, every month there is a news about any asteroid approaching earth, more than a dozen of world wars and war with neighbouring countries happen in news channel studios, debates there don’t happen on real issues. Almost every news channel is biased and only show the part of story which favours their own agenda. Many of us believe whatever we read or see; we believe in whatsapp forwards, we believe on anything on social media, we believe on doctored video clips, we believe what is shown in media without investing the truth behind.
We were born free, our body is free and so is our mind. Why should we allow anyone else to frame our ideology, attitude and mindset towards anything. There is an old saying,
“There are three types of truths the one which is shown, the one which is seen and the one which is actually true.”
The most accurate is the one which is actually true. Believing totally on media or social media is like standing on any one end of ‘9’, either you will see six or nine. Which side is true can not be known until total frame is included.
People are dying every day due to hunger, poverty, lack of cleanliness and clean water to drink, pursue education is hard for many kids, there are rapes and harrassment cases from all over the country, there are scams in many government projects, party changing of politicians is unnoticed and not ever questioned, water crisis, financial crises, depletion of forest, improper health care, unemployment, environmental pollution and many such issues are there. On which we don’t see anything on media until it gives them TRP. What I see there is narratives, baseless stories, debate and opinions mostly, the information we look is only 5%. We should only believe on what actually true and is justifiable.
At the end I would like to quote,
“My intentions were to write against mis information only. I wanted to address baised media. Cruelty against animals and issue related to killing of elephant Vinayaki were addressed in following articles:-
Please Watch all, Read everything but believe only what is true”