It was while I was covering the Punjab assembly elections that a discussion with a young man of Jethuke village in Bathinda district, Harmandeep Singh, drew my attention to the new phenomena—a proliferation of small-time, independent Punjabi-language media outlets. I was already witness to how the Trolley Times had invigorated the farmers’ agitation in Delhi. Here I noticed how people were not only keeping an eye on mainstream TV and newspapers, but also monitoring the tech-driven new media—that, incidentally, also claimed to be an alternative media.
On that morning of on February 16, Harmandeep said: “The new Punjabi media emerged recently during the farmers’ movement. But with elections approaching, they have started copying mainstream channels. Instead of raising grassroots issues, their programming revolves around election rallies and candidate-interviews, like mainstream TV news.”
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