By Adarsh Madhavan
There is a lot of uncertainty in the air.
Did I say that? Yes, I did.
Is it coming from me? No!
I say it because I have been hearing it for sometime now.
I am repeating what someone said and although I am not the one to believe in it, yet I still find myself saying it, I don’t know why.
What is this so-called uncertainty about?
Most of it is created, concocted, brewed by those whose only desire is to sow discord; they spew venom; they spit out sugar-coated poison.
Most of it is because we all fear the unknown. If we don’t have enough information or knowledge about something; if we don’t know what it is; if we don’t understand, we don’t accept.
And when we don’t accept, we try to deny its existence. But simply denying does not kill it and what we cannot kill with our minds, our thoughts, our words, we fear.
There will be uncertainty in the air…
When pockets no longer run deep; when salaries are late or don’t come at all; when you’re randomly threatened to be served notice or when you are just whipped with the pink slip; when you are booted out despite being suited…
Doubts will furrow your brow as rumours abound…
And when rumours abound, prices skyrocket and things you could buy for a penny costs a dollar and when suddenly all items are no longer within your reach… And that is when you hear this mournful dirge even though there is no reason for sorrow and there is a general mourning even though no one has died, that is when you wonder what exactly is going on. Which dark mind has painted gloom on all these faces?
The uncertainty feeling continues as you reach out to some of your seniors and they nod their head in slow motion and portend a dark future. Suddenly you are enthusiasm sapped and you tend to feel as though the walls are closing in on you.
Some people tell us that they are planning to leave soon, or in a matter of years, next year for sure… We, the ones who are rooted here and perhaps will die here, wonder why? What was the need? What was the sense in running away? Yes, things can be bleak, there is gloom, there is despondency, but, aren’t these reasons to just work harder than ever?
We work our backs off, yet with lesser results, goes the plaint and that maybe a fact. And those in the print media world know that things have never been more tougher.
Ads, the only revenue source for the media, especially the printed ones, are hard to come by and as there is a preference to putting ads in the online media, we the diehard old-comers are suffering.
Investments too are hard and too difficult to attract. Somehow, potential investors seem to believe that they can’t invest in a dead wicket. And if it is us, the media, that seek the funds, we are told, rather bluntly, that the written word is going to die soon if its not dead already.
And some of us foks believe this in earnest as we pile on to the next best thing: social media. But how will social media feed you; pay your bills, pay the rent or at least if you have given up, how will it buy you the next ticket back home if you want to bail out?
Sometimes, doubts like these lack answers and when you don’t find answers, they create a world of uncertainty. We, in the media world, are feeling the pinch worser than ever because many seem to mistrust the media as they folishly equate the social media circus to news.
While our denials fall flat on its faces, let’s just remind everyone and ourselves that social media cannot beat news.
Just by having WhatSapp installed to your smart phone and a rich pixels phone will not take over genuine news. Yes, we, the written press maybe termed the snail media, but we will get there. Solid.
And we will wipe out all these uncertainties.
In a culture of hares, the tortoise always wins.
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