That human attention spans are dwindling is now almost a fact. The problem is further compounded by the rapid pace at which trends change nowadays. In such a scenario, I do not envy the task resting upon the shoulders of the Content Managers in Media Houses today. The media houses derive most of their revenue from advertisements, and the Content Managers often use every trick in the book to jack up TRP's. This may not be much of a problem when done on a General Entertainment Channel, the problem comes when News Channels employ such tactics to grab eyeballs.
Objectively speaking, it is easy to see the bias or 'Shadow Packaging' which goes on on a TV news channels, it just takes a switch of the channel to make out the same. However, it is not so easy to make out the same in case of the Print media. The problem lies in the fact that not many people would subscribe to more than 1 Daily or more than 1 periodical, that they could see the inherent slant of the newspaper.
This brings to the fore two very important issues.
Firstly, with so much of packaging and editing which goes on in reported news, how does a Citizen in our country form an unbiased Opinion that his purely his own?
Secondly, even for the well-informed populace, the question arises, are the views he forms his/her own? Or are they simply a result of passive indoctrination?
To the first, the most obvious answer would be to turn to The Internet, but from my experience on the Intertubes, what I have observed is that there tends to be a hive mentality on most Internet Fora. This means that at most fora, the majority of the people are those who have similar set of views and any opinion expressed with an opposing view is quickly shot down. Moreover, as in real life, people on the internet too tend to hang out with people with similar views thus defeating the very fundamental gift the Internet can offer, that is Objectivity.
The answer to the 2nd seems to be a painful Yes. In todays' world very few of our opinions on various matters, are truly ours.
This, then, brings me to my ultimate question, Is it actually possible for a person to ever form an opinion without any outside bias. If yes, Would it be good for the Society on the Whole or Bad?
Do let me know what you think.
