Online mailing groups or massis?

JournalismPakistan.com | Published 13 years ago | Saadia Khalid

The article explores the parallels between gossiping in traditional settings and the behavior exhibited in online mailing groups. It critiques how such forums perpetuate rumors and distract from productive discourse within the journalism community.
Summary

Leeds, UK: Gossip needs no carriage. This is a Russian proverb that few would disagree with. However, gossip does need an avenue to satisfy the burning desire of people to discuss something, indeed, anything. It is a pursuit few will deny they don’t enjoy participating in.

Women, it is projected, have an extraordinary ability to gossip and that men can never quite match up to them. It is reckoned the kitchen is where women hone their skills and that this is done while cutting vegetables or preparing meals.

It is the common opinion of men, who imagine they are quite the cat’s whiskers and the only ones capable of doing anything productive, that women have little else to indulge in.

This remains but an opinion, a perception that needs to be corrected. Gossiping and spreading rumors is not the sole property of women; men are equally adept at it. One example of just how good they are can be gauged from the effort they put into outperforming each other in running obnoxious social forums on the Internet and right at the top of that list are the ones run by so-called journalists and media persons.

These so-called Google groups are blatantly intrusive and frequently sneak into your mail box even without any subscription. One can and does end up spending valuable time getting rid of such mail.

Most of these mails are malicious and spiteful and are built around half-baked stories and hearsay. They are unfounded, badly written, one-sided, deceitful, and fictitious and all are motivated by personal agendas that are put forward with great enthusiasm.

Sometimes, one gives into sheer frustration and responds to such mails and in so doing unwillingly becomes part of the never-ending and pointless mud slugging game.

Such online groups are no different in character from that of a maasi(house maid)that gossip-mongering, tale-tattling, nosey, interfering and ruthless hag who just loves to spread stories from one home to the other.

The maasi is the cause of arguments and discussions that don’t really warrant time, but nonetheless is so successful at adding fuel to fire that valuable effort and time is spent trying to negate the damage she has done.

Even though everybody knows the maasi’s malicious nature, and are fully aware she lacks credibility and in all probability is lying through her teeth, they still go ahead and waste time trying to confirm what she has said, sometimes even picking fights and indulging in useless arguments to rectify a point that needs no rectification.

The same parallels can be made for certain online groups and forums that indulge in spreading gossip and creating scandals and controversies where none exist.

My words may sound harsh but this is reality. I’m neither trying to please or degrade anybody. Many of us have personally borne the wrath of such forums and online groups.

I still recall that Eid day, two years ago, when one of the online groups started circulating concocted emails about the newly-formed Women Journalists Pakistan (WJP). We, the founding members, of the group were literally left aghast by some of the accusations and statements attributed to us.

At first we assumed that there may have been a misunderstanding about what we had said during the launch ceremony of WJP, but that was not the reason. Had it been, the moderators of the online group would have entertained our clarification, but they never did.

The whole purpose of the exercise was to clip the wings of WJP before it really took off and also to demoralize this forum through the malicious and scandalous content of their emails and comments.

It was a shocking stream of malicious and filthy abuse. Left to their devices they would have advocated that we be stoned to death for committing some unpardonable and heinous sin.

But we saw through these unbecoming and insecure acts and realized we were dealing with a bunch of cowards who did not have the courage to stand up to us or what we were trying to achieve. They felt threatened. The very foundations of their bastions were being shaken.

Most surprisingly there were a lot of recognizable and well known names amongst the authors of that nefarious email campaign. These were men who had unwittingly demonstrated their narrow mindset, prejudiced viewpoint and insecurity. These were those so-called respected, senior journalists.

These were also men who thought nothing except for making lengthy speeches for the welfare of the journalist community at various forums. Some were even office-bearers of journalists’ representative bodies. Yet when it came to the crunch, they showed their true colors.

Some of them had built so called reputations for being pioneers and unquestioned gurus of impartial stories.

But these men thought nothing of putting us through the grind… just because we stood up to them and demanded to speak up for our rights. It’s only logical that women journalists would have a better idea as to what their requirements were rather than the misinterpreted perceptions of the men at the helm of the media industry.

It was only after three days of continuous torture that one of my colleagues issued a clarification on our behalf to all media groups. It was only then that we got an opportunity to clarify our position. But it was too late. The most disturbing facet of this unpleasant affair was that even close colleagues and friends inquired about the accusations made against us and looked upon us with suspicion and disbelief.

Fortunately for us and unfortunately for those who circulated these fake emails, there were still a large number of people who believed in us. There was still support for us. Our advisors, consisting of veteran journalists, were still with us.

This was a big relief.

With their plan backfiring, the online rumor spreading machines had no option but to back down.

But of course, like they say ‘a dog’s tail will always be crooked’, these authors of lies and scandal, were back to their old tricks within months.

This time they targeted the WJP convener. They accused her of grabbing billions of rupees for publishing stories that had ‘paid-for agendas’ and of taking kickbacks.

The same happened again. People started to respond to these emails, some with abuse, others with support but no action was taken against those spreading the rumors.

It also became evident to us that these online forums and groups were being used by people for either vested interests or just for the sake of being vindictive. Whatever they said, however, spread like wildfire. The net was but a tool for them to run the perfect defamation campaign. The carriage for gossip and rumors these days are the online groups.

Every time I open my mailbox, it is overflowing with abusive and obnoxious emails. It has become a habit for me to simply delete them without opening them. I was pained to notice though that many of my colleagues managed a reasonable time out of their ‘busy routines’ to not only check such mails but also discuss and debate their content.

Just like a maasi, these online groups continue to accept information, comments and opinions irrespective of their veracity. Furthermore, other people then go on to add their comments and opinions. Some go so far as to pass judgment.

The perception that women and rumor are part and parcel of the same deal should now be discarded for it is clear that their ‘reputation’ and role has been usurped by those running such online forums and groups. They are the modern persona of the much maligned maasiof yore. But who is to remind them that a gossip-monger’s mouth is the devil’s postbag.

(Saadia Khalid is a journalist associated with The News, Islamabad. She has now moved to England)