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During an editorial meeting when I was a reporter just starting out, my editor got a phone call. Cring….cring…cring…The landline was kept on the side of her round table, which had a glass
surface. Sunlight streamed in through the open window. She picked up the receiver. After listening for a few seconds, she slammed the phone down. We were sitting around the table in
complete silence. We had been discussing ideas for the week’s newspaper articles just moments earlier. Her mood had changed completely. From fairly cheerful she was now fully cantankerous.
No one dared ask what had transpired. “How dare he?” she thundered and told us later. “He was suggesting that his company was willing to give us a lucrative ad in return for coverage.” The
caller had crossed a line – the line between the aspects of editorial and financial in a newspaper. The credibility of journalism depended on editorial freedom. To speak truth to power even
if the power happened to be the payers. This is the kind of journalism I was always used to – where editorial is not dictated to by any financial compulsions. Over the years, however, the
credibility of journalism has taken a huge hit. Oxymoronic phrases like “paid news”, or “PR piece” (in which a public relations company’s client is made to look good by the reporter or
“advertorials” ( in which advertisements are camouflaged as editorial content) have become commonplace. Reporters and writers “tilt” the story this way or that and the “slant” is the
telltale giveaway of who are the sponsors. Advertisement There are, as always, two sides of the debate. Obviously. In this era of free content, subscription fees can’t keep publications
afloat. So, advertisements, more than ever, is the lifeblood of professional journalism. But, in order to survive, is journalism becoming nothing more than a promotional and marketing tool
for the funders? How does independent and credible journalism survive? Advertisement Today, few publications dedicate the time and money to investigate in-depth into their stories, barring
a few major ones. But to be fair, it is not really feasible to do so. In the day of social media when news and views – much of it even fake news and frenzied views – transmit in lighting
speed around the world, the professional media (whether print or digital) must keep pace. News must be fed instantly and passed on through every imaginable channel of communication. The lack
of “wholeness” of a news item thus transmitted, however, is not the main problem. It can even be pardoned as an occupational hazard. The real danger is the encroachment into news of content
that promotes the interests of particular people or entities, especially those who provide financial support to the publication through advertisement (such as corporations and governments).
_The writer is Editor, Features _ Advertisement