From Street vendor to Journalist ,Pseudo Journalists thrive in south Kashmir’s Anantnag District

Arising State Desk

By Sameer Ahmed

Anantnag ,23 December : Call it smart Journalism or FB Journalism, the idea that has simply replaced all journalists, thanks to social media for the preposterous role that has evolved new kind of journalists during the ongoing DDC elections in Anantnag district. South Kashmir’s Anantnag district has been witnessing a beeline of journalists during the recent DDC elections.

Hang on these are not journalists actually, but some paid agents who are employed by some agencies to give publicity to DDC contestants on newly created FB pages ..The paid agents who claim to be journalists can be seen holding mics and conducting interviews with the sole motive of grabbing money in return for their services to the unscrupulous agencies. Interestingly, these so-called journalists are illiterate people doing odd jobs in their real life.

The entire episode highlights how social media is being misused. Several Facebook pages are run by persons pretending to be journalists in Anantnag. They spread the news by copy-pasting it from other sources without checking the authenticity of the facts.

In District Anantnag, several Facebook pages were created under the name  “news” section, during DDC polls. These Facebook pages were created either by politicians for carrying their campaign rallies or made by so-called journalists to publicize the politicians during polls.

We have observed that these Facebook news pages are copy-paste information. Everyone has become a journalist and the big problem is that such pages and groups only spread false information. These facebook journalists have nothing to do with journalism.,said S Tariq a senior journalist in Anantnag District.

It has been observed that some rumor mongers share incorrect and false information on social media sites which sometimes creates panic in the public.

The mission of journalism is to use the citizen’s right to freedom of expression to keep them informed. Journalists go to great lengths, and put themselves at considerable risk, to gather and investigate factual information to alert the public and authorities about wrong-doing and malpractice, but here in Anantnag District, it seems that senior educated journalists who are working for the last 15 years with leading news organizations are just zilch in front of these facebook journalists, Tariq added.

Journalism is such a noble profession, that is more than just a job, however, few people with ulterior motives are just tarnishing this profession . Recently during DDC polls these pseudo-journalists had even got  logos made by the name of these Facebook news pages to cover the rallies of DDC contesting candidates. After concluding the DDC polls in District Anantnag these Facebook journalists are gone with the wind . While some have resumed their previous jobs.

The mushrooming  of Facebook news portals has degraded the profession of journalism in general..  People usually believe such   Facebook news pages . The ironic part is that these news portal admins introduce themselves as Journalists ,and enjoy good rapport in the local administration just because they come in handy to officials for their PR at cheap prices,said Mir Shafat working with “the wire” as a stringer.

While talking to Arising State Arif Rasheed a South Kashmir based reporter in a national news channel said that  these so-called journalists have created their Facebook news pages in every nook and corner of the Anantnag District. People are unable to understand the stance of govt  on this ,if  government has set certain guidelines for  news portals, agencies, and other media then why are they acting as  mute spectators on these unregistered news Facebook pages. This has never been observed except  in this part of the world (Kashmir)where any Tom dick or Hary can venture in any kind of business whether the person has the acumen to carry the responsibility of the job . From street vendors to journalists the journey seems so easy for these people who want to become journalists overnight ,said Arif.

A politician name withheld while talking to the Arising state said that during the campaign rallies here in the Kokernag area,” we were confused about the new name’s of news Facebook pages. We never saw in our lives these news pages. We can’t understand whether they really are news channels, news agencies, news portals, or newspapers. They came for coverage and on records asked for money from  the political  leaders . After coverage of the programme we didn’t see that programme on their so-called new pages or Facebook or their channels.”

Meanwhile, Rao Farman Ali a researcher while talking to the Arising state said that people today get information not just from the mass media but also from the Internet. The dissemination of fake news, rumors, defamation, and violation of privacy on social media is not journalism. The government should make that distinction.

The authorities should not mistake misinformation for journalism, and not use objectionable social media content for blanket suppression of journalistic information. There has to be a mechanism to track such content and take action against perpetrators.

Farman said that recently a rape incident that occurred in Kulgam District, several unregistered facebook news pages carried the identity of the girl. The admins of those pages even don’t know about the ethics of the journalism . In rush they exposed the  identity of the  girl. The administration should be more hard-nosed against these Facebook pages so that the journalism profession gets justice here in Anantnag, he said.