The Power of Media Narratives in India: What Are You Not Seeing?
- Hindu College Gazette Web Team
- Jul 14, 2025
- 10 min read
Introduction
Media has historically been a powerful force that moulds popular opinion, but in the digital age of ubiquitous digital platforms and algorithmically curated content, media narratives' influence has become record-breaking. In India alone, where more than 800 million individuals enjoy access to the internet, news channels, social media sites, and digital influencers hold tremendous power over what the masses see and accept. Your daily feed is loaded with breaking news, trending viruses, and political scandals. But have you ever paused to ask yourself: what is lacking? What are stories taking center stage, and what significant events are getting lost in the process?
Historical Precedents of Media Diversion
Media diversion is nothing new. Power holders have long used manipulation of narratives to influence public opinion throughout history. In India, during the Emergency period (1975–77), censorship of the press was a major instrument wielded by the government to quell opposition voices while propagating a state-sanctioned narrative. Newspapers were required to obtain prior sanction from the government before publication, and any content that was critical of the ruling order was deleted or watered down.
Another case in point is the coverage of the 1991 economic crisis in India. While the nation was suffering from a bad balance-of-payments problem, the focus often turned to political upheaval and leadership shifts instead of profound economic debates. Of late, some corruption scandals have been given inordinate publicity, while more significant systemic problems—like frauds in the financial sector—were not as scrutinized.
This pattern throughout history reveals that the media, either voluntarily or under coercion, tend to move attention away from matters requiring constant public scrutiny towards those of political or economic convenience.
The Indian Media Landscape: A Reflection of Priorities?
India's media ecosystem is wide and varied, ranging from print and television to digital media. Yet, one emerging concern is the rising corporatisation of media outlets, many of which are controlled by business groups with political connections. It raises a key question: Is the media serving the public good, or are they telling stories that benefit corporate and political interests?
You might have felt that often, a single subject overwhelms headlines in various news sources. For example, a celebrity controversy or a social media scandal might enjoy wall-to-wall reporting for days, while issues like agrarian crises, unemployment, or climate disaster are relegated to the background. When did you last see a serious report on India's groundwater crisis or the condition of manual scavengers?
Corporate and Political Interests in Media Narratives
The Indian media is highly entrenched in corporate and political interests. Business conglomerates that have interests in different sectors own the country's leading news channels and newspapers. Such a structure of ownership makes editorial autonomy questionable.
For example, if a corporate entity that owns a news channel has business interests in coal mining or telecom, then its media reports on policies governing these sectors would be biased. News that could hurt the interest of influential advertisers or political benefactors is kept low-key.
Political parties also have strong influence over media narratives. Many major news outlets receive direct or indirect funding from political entities, making them less likely to challenge the establishment. The government’s allocation of advertisements to certain media houses can act as a financial lever to control narratives.
This combination of business and political interests ensures that some issues receive overwhelming attention while others are quietly buried under an influx of distracting stories.
Agenda Setting and the Selective Spotlight
Agenda setting refers to the media's ability to influence what issues become significant in public discourse. News channels and digital platforms strategically highlight certain events while downplaying or ignoring others. This is why some news stories appear inescapable, while others seem to vanish within hours.
For example, consider how a social media controversy surrounding an influencer can suddenly take over every news outlet while important legislative bills or major policy decisions barely make it to prime-time debates. Have you ever wondered why a particular issue floods your Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn feeds while another, perhaps more significant, remains buried?
The recent boycotts of public figures, media trials of celebrities, and sudden outrage cycles are all carefully timed. Think about how stories gain traction. Was it an organic rise in interest, or did specific platforms push it aggressively?
The Psychology Behind Media Consumption
Why do individuals consume sensational news instead of important but intricate issues which are of actual importance in actual life? The reason is cognitive biases and how human attention functions. Availability heuristic describes the fact that people estimate the relevance of an issue by how easily examples are accessible. If their social media are filled with gossip about celebrities, they believe those stories are more significant than economic policies or changes in legislation affecting them more substantially.
The fear factor comes into play also. Negative and emotionally charged tales—crime, scandal, personal betrayals—are more engaging. That is the reason why media outlets tend to blow up on conflicts, outrage, and melodramatic happenings instead of policy debates.
Additionally, confirmation bias guarantees that individuals consume news that supports their preconceived notions. When the media reports a polarized reality, viewership increases, consolidating biases. This is the reason that divisive stories receive more attention than subtle discussions.
The algorithms on social media also take advantage of the biases, promoting stories that generate maximum user engagement instead of those that are most important.
The Role of Algorithms: Who Decides What You See?
Social media platforms do not simply show you what is happening; they decide what you see. Algorithms analyze user behavior and curate content to maximize engagement, often leading to echo chambers and sensationalism. This phenomenon is particularly visible in India, where political polarisation is at an all-time high and online debates frequently turn into digital battlegrounds.
Let's consider an example: You engage with a particular kind of news, let's say content that is congruent with your current beliefs. The algorithm picks up on this and begins to show you increasingly more of the same, solidifying your point of view while at the same time filtering out opposing perspectives. This is the reason why two individuals from varying ideological camps may have entirely divergent views of reality, yet they are watching news from the same nation.
Furthermore, controversies are apt to peak in visibility since they increase engagement. Social media loves outrage, and networks amplify divisive content since it gets people engaged. A well-crafted hashtag campaign, a leaked video clip, or a trending tweet can hijack national debate overnight, sidelining important policy debates or economic news.
CASE STUDIES:
1. TikTok Controversy: Algorithmic Control and Data Sovereignty
“Data is the new oil.” – Clive Humby, British mathematician and data scientist
The TikTok controversy between the United States and China is far more than a cultural or political spat; it lies at the intersection of digital sovereignty, surveillance capitalism, and geopolitical rivalry. While the Trump administration’s executive orders in 2020 sought to ban TikTok citing national security threats, the core issue was control over data flows and algorithms that influence public discourse and behavior.
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is based in China, and under China’s National Intelligence Law (2017), all domestic firms are obliged to cooperate with state intelligence if asked. This legal backdrop intensified fears that data from millions of American users could be accessed by the Chinese state including behavioral patterns, preferences, biometrics, and possibly even location.
Beyond privacy concerns, there’s the algorithmic power TikTok holds. Unlike Western platforms where user feeds are heavily influenced by friend circles or hashtags, TikTok For You Page runs on a hyper-personalized AI algorithm that detects attention patterns and emotion-triggering content. Critics argue this gives ByteDance an unprecedented power to influence user behavior and public opinion subtly, raising concerns about soft propaganda, mood manipulation, and potential election interference.
As digital theorist Shoshana Zuboff warns in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, “When private capital owns the information infrastructure, democracy becomes negotiable.” TikTok’s case illustrates this precisely: it is not just about what content people consume, but who controls what content they see, and why.
2. Propaganda Transmission During Elections: The New Weapons of Influence
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion.” – Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent
Modern elections are no longer just contests of ideology or leadership; they are information wars fought on digital battlegrounds. Social media platforms have revolutionized communication but have also become tools of micro targeted propaganda. Through algorithmic amplification and data analytics, political actors can now shape narratives, polarize electorates, and suppress dissent all without traditional censorship.
One of the most prominent examples was the Cambridge Analytica scandal during the 2016 US presidential elections. The firm harvested data from millions of Facebook profiles without consent, using psychographic profiling to send tailored political ads and fake news, influencing voter behavior on a subconscious level. This wasn’t merely digital campaigning, it was behavioural manipulation on a mass scale.
Elections in countries like Brazil, India, and the Philippines have also shown signs of coordinated misinformation campaigns, often promoted by political bots, fake news factories, and WhatsApp forwards. In India, for instance, the 2019 general elections saw a massive surge in targeted disinformation, sometimes even communal in nature, shared rapidly through closed messaging groups making fact-checking nearly impossible.
The role of mainstream media is equally complicit, where ownership patterns often reflect elite interests. As Herman and Chomsky noted, media outlets often “manufacture consent” by framing issues in ways that serve power reducing democratic choice to a controlled illusion.
Thus, propaganda in the digital age doesn’t shout its whispers, in tailored memes, short reels, AI-generated images, and emotion-laden headlines all designed to bypass reason and stimulate impulsive political response.
Impact on Public Discourse and Policy
When media narratives are selectively amplified, they influence public opinion and, in turn, policymaking. Governments often react based on what dominates the public discourse rather than on objective priorities.
For instance, in India, serious debate on economic reform, environmental protection, and education policy is needed, yet these topics get lost amidst political controversies of the moment. A public figure's one ill-judged comment can provoke weeks of social media outrage, dominating the headlines, while more profound issues such as unemployment statistics manipulation or rural distress lack staying power.
This selective focus also affects law enforcement and judicial responses. Public pressure built by media narratives has, in some cases, led to swift arrests and trials, while other serious but less publicized cases remain unresolved.
Governments, businesses, and interest groups understand this dynamic and often use media trends to control or deflect attention from more pressing concerns. A shift in the media’s spotlight can alter national priorities in ways that may not always be in the best interests of the people.
Manufactured Outrage and the Cycle of Distraction
Media houses and digital platforms have mastered the art of manufactured outrage. Stories are framed in a way that triggers strong emotional responses—anger, shock, or fear. This ensures prolonged engagement, shares, and debates, keeping audiences invested in a particular narrative while diverting attention from other pressing matters.
Consider how some controversies drag on for weeks, overshadowing long-term crises. For instance, a celebrity's personal life might dominate prime-time debates, while crucial issues like declining employment rates or inflation are reduced to short segments. Every time an emotionally charged story explodes on your timeline, take a step back and ask: Why is this issue being amplified? And what is being overshadowed?
Media and Political Strategy: Timing Is Everything
Strategic media storms are yet another interesting area of agenda setting. There have been various instances in which a high-sensationalized controversy miraculously emerges on the eve of an important political decision, deflecting public focus.
For instance, at times of key policy rollouts, economic recessions, or demonstrations, apparently unrelated controversies tend to dominate news cycles. Whether it is a sex scandal involving a celebrity, a boycott campaign, or a trending social media brawl, the timing is never accidental. Media management is an extensively studied political instrument, and control of narratives is crucial in influencing public opinion.
The Role of Alternative and Independent Media
Whereas mainstream media follows the interests of corporations and politics, alternative and independent media websites play a counter-role. Online news sites, independent investigative reporters, and social media-based citizen reporting have proven to be key role players in uncovering under-exposed problems.
Sites such as Scroll, The Wire, and The News Minute have disrupted dominant narratives by bringing forth stories that mainstream media outlets refuse to cover. Investigative reporting has brought out corruption cases and human rights abuses that otherwise would have remained unknown.
Though independent media do have challenges. Several such platforms do not enjoy financial sustainability, face legal risk, and experience smear campaigns. Social media websites that initially allowed for alternative voices to be heard now are confronted by growing algorithmic constraints limiting how far their views can go.
In spite of all these challenges, alternative media serves to break the cycle of selective reporting. It challenges people to question prevailing narratives and demands a wider perspective of what is going on in the world.
Conclusion: What Are You Not Seeing?
The next time you find yourself deeply engaged in a trending controversy, pause and think: What else happened today? Was there an important policy passed? Was something of significant economic importance overshadowed by a big announcement?
Media has a great influence on what we believe and how we see the world. While it is important that we consume news, more important is critical thinking. Do not simply take in whatever shows up on your feed, but actively ask yourself why some stories become so prominent and who stands to gain from those stories.
Then, the following time your social media is bombarded with some specific controversy, take a pause and ask yourself: What am I not seeing?
By Lavanya
Lavanya is a fourth-year student at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics. She has a strong interest in public policy, development studies, media, and the intricate connections between history, geography, and society. With a curiosity that spans multiple disciplines, she enjoys exploring how different fields intersect and shape the world around us.
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