Auto Journalist or Influencer, and what about auto journalism?

Imagine a scenario where the finest soldiers, attired in their olive green uniforms are standing in several rows, their AK 47 guns slung over their shoulders? Would it not make a perfect picture? Now, let’s do a little rejig. Let’s remove a few soldiers and replace them with men wearing ill fitting uniforms holding a baton in their hands. Now let’s remove a few more soldiers and in their place bring in a bunch of unshaven men with unkempt hair, wearing their pajamas. How does it look now? Obviously, it’s no more the perfect picture, rather a depiction of a disorganised bunch of purposeless people.

No, I am not against the guys in the pajamas or the guys holding the baton. This scenario reminds me of the state of auto journalism in the country today, a total mishmash of everything unwanted, everything corny and everything ludicrous. Who do we blame for all this? Looking back into my 30 odd years as a journalist, I blame the auto companies for this. I saw this coming a long, long time back when I had just become a reporter with the Hindustan Times in its business bureau.

Journalists love writing (those who are employed in newspapers and magazines) and they love speaking (if they are working in a radio or a television channel). In the 1990s, things were a lot different. As a print journalist I had to use the typewriter for filing my reports. Google was not yet born, internet was unheard of, mobile phones had not yet been invented and social media meant nothing to any one of us. It also meant that we needed to consult the dictionary for checking our spelling and since there was no erase button it meant that we had to be very careful and meticulous while typing our reports on the typewriter, as both paper and carbon copies were few and precious.

Part I: Fall of Indian Auto Journalism

 It was also the beginning of economic liberalisation in the country that spawned the era of lucre and set the ball rolling for economic journalists to enrich themselves. Press conferences would be followed by lunches and dinners. On their way out, the journalists were handed over gifts which were at that time gift vouchers of Rs 500 denomination and above. At times, gifts would include crockery sets and cutlery.  As my late father, who was a political journalist working in a newspaper at that time, would advice me, “if you want to maintain your decency, you need to stop accepting gifts”.

I tried hard to follow the advice of my old man and I must confess, I would succumb many a times to the enticing world of gifts. Companies, whether they were vehicle manufacturers or shoe manufacturers, always ended their press conferences with lunches, drinks and gifts. It became a reprehensible norm. I tried to wean myself away from this disgusting habit and as I moved up the promotion ladder, I began covering various ministries and press conferences of a “higher level”. It meant interviewing bureaucrats and ministers, according to the “beat” I was assigned by my Economic Editor.

There were no gifts in government press conferences, usually one got a cup of tea or a “pakora” or a cheaply-printed Government of India diary! For me life was bliss. But when I finally decided to pursue automobile journalism I was back into the big bad world of OEMs and auto component manufacturers. I remember going to interview a vehicle manufacturer in his plant somewhere in the hills and even before the interview could start, his assistant gave my photographer and me two massive packets. I learnt later they were suit lengths. I refused and seeing me do so vehemently, I saw my cameraperson also refusing to pick up the packet. It was a different matter that my cameraperson did not forgive me for this for a long time. “Why do you have to play Lord Buddha always?” he asked me on the way out.

Auto journalism meant that I was privy to gifts of all kinds. Foreign junkets in business class by plane, lunches, dinners, and expensive wine and equally expensive gifts. That has always been the norm. OEMs and auto component manufacturers have this funny belief that unless you give out a gift to a journalist, your story will not come out fine.  By now I had become an Editor of a home grown auto magazine Motown India (funded by my own money). I advised my boys and girls, like the way my old man advised me, that accepting gifts is a shameful thing. A few obeyed me, the others cared two hoots. But I used to observe how Editors from different accomplished magazines, senior journalists from leading newspapers and magazines, senior television reporters, etc had no qualms accepting gifts of all kinds. I realised I was a fish out of water here, an absolute misfit.

Junkets, gifts, lunches, dinners, merrymaking, wine and expensive stay, long-term cars and bikes for you to take you girl friends, friends and family, were just the Part I of the story of the fall of Indian auto journalism. Before the covid-19 pandemic hit our world, accepting all these expensive treats had become an irrevocable habit. It was as though it had seeped into our blood like high grade cocaine. It has now become part and parcel of our lives as an auto journalist. Thankfully, our skills as an auto journalist were not hampered to a great existence; it was only our morality that had been torn to tatters. Abetting this moral depravity were all the manufacturers in the automobile industry and the ones who helped them were the young and old public relations boys and girls whom they had recruited!

Part II: The Rise of Social Media Platforms

But in Part II, the automobile players upped the ante in their bid to get publicity for their products. Journalism is a profession that is supposed to be defined by ethics, rules, discipline, decent language, the right words, genuine news and preferably governed by a body like the Press Council of India. In auto journalism, all rules are thrown into the garbage bin. Part II saw the rising popularity of social media platforms. Every other person with pelf and power, or anyone learned or unlettered, could be a part of this huge social media circus that goes by the name of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. These platforms started getting more powerful than the media house itself.  As long as these social media platforms are confined to innocuous banter, it’s just fine. But the moment they begin to influence and take over a profession (as is the case of Journalism), it is like treading on dangerous grounds.

The worrisome part of this was that anyone, whether an OEM, a rich guy, a poor guy, a joker, a journalist, a hatemonger, an auto component manufacturer, a student, a professor, or a dopey could create his own account. Fair enough, I guess. But who is going to monitor the content? Who is going to monitor the language? Who is going to monitor the accuracy? There are no rules here. You can do anything to garner supporters and followers, you can post anything, funny or stupid, you can dance, take off your clothes, pay the social media platform owners tons of money to promote your post and get millions of views and followers, likes and comments. So is this wrong? Of course not, it’s a free, liberal world out there.

Auto companies themselves started having their own accounts on these platforms and they started investing huge amounts of money in their accounts to popularise their posts. The top management of several auto companies also resorted to airing their views. A few got ballistic and obsessed and found it a way to be quoted in the main media for insane comments. Even if they were to like a dog wagging its tail, the media would report how Mr X liked dogs wagging their tails. Soon, there was no difference between news and views, sense and nonsense, good and bad. But did this digital revolution see any exponential growth of vehicles? Nah! That went its normal way depending on monsoon, GDP and the income of people… economic parameters that govern demand.

What about journalists working in auto magazines and TV channels? What about auto journalists who working in newspapers? They continue to exist but all of them whether they like it or not have to be a part of the social media circus because it is believed that unless you did that you would not be taken seriously in the world of auto journalism. Thus, the conventional world of auto journalism that consisted of journalists working with the “real” media began to travel and report along with exclusive hardcore and popular social media account holders.  The latter was referred to as “INFLUENCERS”. Now whether you were a blogger, a vlogger or a journalist working with an established media outlet, the grim fact is that you better be a smart “Influencer”. Because that is what an OEM likes.

Yes, OEMs which have also been so good at vitiating the world of auto journalism with their free gifts, hotel accommodation, expensive plane rides and sundry other freebies, now decided to put the INFLUENCER and the journalist on the same pedestal. Almost everyone, whether he or she was an Editor with an established magazine, newspaper or television channel, donned the attire of an Influencer. You had no choice. Every bit of news from the auto world that came their way had to be tweeted, had to go on their Instagram account, their Facebook account, their YouTube account, or any account that the OEM felt was interesting. The OEMs wanted publicity at any cost.

As for a few auto journalists like me who tried to remain a “journalist” at heart, trying to maintain an ethical stand, tried to survive in this world of intense “circus” competition, was shunned into a dark corner. Now without the support of an OEM whether it is an advertisement in a magazine or a car or bike for review, the world of an auto journalist comes crashing down. That is what I realised when I became an entrepreneur in 2010 and when I started Motown India magazine. I could never wag my tail in front of a corporate leader, I was not very popular on the social media platform because I refused to grow the inorganic way (where you have to pump in money to become popular, very similar to the way politicians pay those who attend their rallies) and most important, I wanted to be ethical in my ways.

I know I am like a marooned Alexander Silkirk, who famously said, “I am the monarch of all I survey, my right there is none to dispute….” But the real fact is that I am in the midst of “influencers” wearing pajamas, shorts and glitzy attires. Some of them are naked too. As for me, I am foolishly clinging on to my dignity, waiting for a sea of change in my world of auto journalism. But the bitter truth is that I have no other way but to dance with the influencers, a task I am sure I am incapable of performing at all.