Based on the analyses of select elections coverage by five television channels – India TV, NDTV, Aaj Tak, ANI, and IBN– I argue that:
- The way journalists pose questions to their favorite politicians are often already answers;
- In pursuing a storyline, journalists subordinate, even sacrifice, actual responses or events/facts to bolster their pre-determined narrative; and
- Electoral polity like India is heading towards a designer democracy marked by permanent campaigning-cum-advertising.
In short, I caution against the use of widespread phrase: ‘media and politics’. It is more fitting to say: ‘media as politics’ or ‘politics as media’.