JOURNALISTS OR FANS?

With the digital age, mementoes too have become digitised and, as such, a selfie is a way for today’s youth to keep memories alive. Where once fans would clamour for autographs from a star, today, they vie for their attention to click a selfie. However, when selfies come at the cost of professionalism and dignity, one has to question how far is too far when it comes to fandom. For instance, at any press event, it’s not unusual to see journalists and photographers clamouring to get a selfie with a celebrity or a star they’re there to interview. At fashion weeks, one can often find journalists so busy trying to click selfies with their favourite stars that they are heedless of whether they are blocking up the passages. In a professional setup, it could be more than embarrassing for a star to deny the request for a photo, since they’re actually there for a byte. With selfie journalism quickly turning into a tool for correspondents to gloat on social media, most veteran journalists believe that impartial reporting is taking a beating.

Aakar Patel, writer and columnist, says, “It is natural to want a selfie with a celebrity. However, it then becomes difficult to create objective content around the person. Journalists are very much awed by the fact that they are around a big star but it ends up coming in the way of their work.”

To a certain extent, I think distance is needed to read and understand the person well, especially in niche film journalism. I think the selfie destroys that.

At one level, there is a certain fan worship, so the journalism gets a bit flawed. Maybe there should be a new genre of journalism called fan worship — we have fake news, why can’t we have fan worship? But unless one can split themselves into two, it is difficult to write an objective report on a person when you really are a fan of them. Sometimes, even stars want to read good, hard critical writing. I think that then goes missing with selfies and fan worship. Genres in journalism need to be kept separate. What happens in selfie journalism is that genres break down. Having said that, I think that clicking selfies with celebrities only partly comes in the way of being a journalist. Such people are more fans than they are journalists. And, I can understand that in a human way. I mean, if I meet Amitabh Bachchan or Rekha, I would take a selfie myself.

This, I don’t think is a new phenomenon. Selfie journalism has been picking up momentum since the past few years and I think it affects how journalists write about a star because it shows how they are, deep down, a fan of the star. It is also quite rare for a star to deny taking a selfie with someone because then it makes for an awkward situation and when you are in the public sphere, how many times are you going to say no? I also think that stars don’t want to say a no to selfies because it is only beneficial for them to take pictures with fans and people out of their professional circle.

— PRITISH NANDY, writer

The fact that a selfie would come in the way of writing an objective, unbiased piece on a star is an extreme way to look at it. We are in the selfie age; today, one doesn’t need to preserve a physical picture — it is all digital — at the tip of your fingers. And, the ease of doing this has transformed every body into a selfie junkie. I think, wanting to take a selfie has a lot more to do with the human nature than it is to do with being a journalist or a photographer.

A selfie is not a measure of friendship or a connection. Several people are swayed by the fact that they have taken a selfie, but frankly it doesn’t mean anything more than them being present at a certain place at a particular time.

— AYAZ MEMON, sports writer