This morning I was in class teaching Media Studies. We were looking at different aspects of media — especially the ‘filtering aspect’. Dennis McQuail - media theorist - defines this as

…selecting out parts of experience for special attention and closing off other aspects of experience, whether deliberately and systematically or not…

And, then i got down to explain the nature of filters. For example, the ToI does not really believe in publishing news that will impact the self image of Indians on the front page. Senior members of the news industry have told me and all of us - go to any media event like FICCI Frames - that Indians don’t like watching news on Caste murders, political maneuvers and minority harassment. It does not jell well with this notion of India - the seat of tolerance, the seat of equality, the seat of culture, the seat of living in harmony. And, anything that takes away from this image is unappealing. So, Muslims or Christains attacking Hindus will make frontpage or lead story, where as the reverse will be tucked away. An Indian taking over a firang company will make front page news, and a firang taking over an Indian company will not. The Oscars or Brangelina will make front page news, but regional films that win a National Award or Caste murders will not.

The example that I used was of Priyanka Bhotmange - the 12th standard girl who wanted to grow up to be someone and join the army.. she and her mother were gangraped and murdered. And her brothers were brutalised and hung. It was just another murder that could happen anywhere in the country. Somehow filtering the gory and gruesome pictures off the front pages (or even the inside pages) helped to sanitize the crime. It also seemed to make us care less. If more people saw the pictures, then maybe the outrage would have been more.

The MSM didn’t even pick up the news, until it got too big to be buried. A couple of days after the verdict that denied the existence of caste in the murder of the family .. the story is as dead as the protagonists. No one - including the judiciary - wants to admit that maybe, just maybe - caste played an issue. We will rest content knowing a family was massacred and ‘justice’ may have been done. And we move on.

And, then one of the girls piped up and asked - why is the media quiet on Orissa ? And, the answer is the same. The bulk of the population are like ostriches - we don’t want to believe that ‘our’ people will kill, burn, rape and loot. Other people do it. Not us.

There could be another reason. And that is media bias. It is that news agencies are so infiltrated by Hindutva supporters that they spike the news that is unfavourable to the cause. Either that, or they are being run by morons.

I have suggested that my students go beyond the ToI and news channels for news - and look at other sources as well. And, while the whole truth may not be represented in the MSM, it is the start point to understanding any story. Read the Indian Express, Read the Hindu, read Tehelka, Read CounterCurrents, Read Atrocity News. Read what ever you can lay your hands on. All of them will contain biases - that is natural, the only unbiased person is a dead one! The truth will lie somewhere in the middle. What else could i tell them?

do check out Shivam Vij’s blog - he broke the Khairlanji story - and has stayed with it since.
Read the Tehelka coverage on Orissa.

And, Finally on Orissa -
if you are Hindu and reading this - maybe you would contemplate sending a message to the RSS and its allies. And, that is “This is not happening in my name. As a Hindu, I oppose this violence and hatred”. Just look at countries like Iran . Ordinary people didnt’ stand up against religious fundamentalism and look at the result. I hope and pray that India doesn’t become like that!

Tags: India, Indian Media, Khairlanji, Maharashtra, Media Bias, media filters, Orissa, Priyanka Bhotmange

One of the most difficult parts of teaching is making sure that students get it into their heads that plagiarism is wrong.I am known to have thrown bitch fits when i have discovered chunks of projects from the net. ‘you will lose your job’ i tell them, ‘no one will hire you’, ‘it is stealing’ …….

But, at the back of my mind I know that - the message may not get through. After all this is a country where people attain success through blatant lifting of ideas, music, formats and other rights. There seems to be no penalty, only successes. Although recent cases give hope to the notion of ownership of copyright, the bulk of the times copyright is taken as the right to copy

So, it is hardly surprising that the Hindustan Times got the wrong definition of copyright when they used Nita’s picture without attribution, or permission or payment.

I wonder what i should tell my students the next time someone decides to pass on someone else’s work as their own ! It’s ok, the HT will hire you, it seems to be company policy !!

Tags: Copyright, Hindustan Times, India, Indian Media, Intellectual Property, Media, Media Ethics

…. are always fun (except for the newspaper concerned), but they take a life of their own when the newspaper masks the fact that it has been made an idiot, by taking the moral high ground….. 

What am I talking about…. well, it is about the famous Maliaka Arora and Arbaaz Khan break up reported in all its glory in the Mumbai Mirror yesterday.

One of the sultriest women in India is said to be single again. Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora's 10-year-old marriage has gone kaput. Buzz is Arbaaz has found a new love. The disintegration of one of the strongest marriages in Bollywood has sent shock waves through the industry.  ……Our well-placed source in the entertainment industry also tells us that Arbaaz will not remain single for long. He has already decided to remarry and even has a girl in mind, who is, incidentally, not from the entertainment industry. When contacted, Malaika refused to comment.

Arbaaz, however, said, "I don't want to comment on my personal life or on Malaika." When we asked him whether he's planning to remarry, he said, "Why is the press so impatient? They will know whether I'm remarrying or not in due time. I will probably talk about it soon. At this moment I don't want to say anything further

 However, this morning was the retraction masked in outrage… 'we have been made a fool…but how could they, we trusted them"

 Yesterday, on the front page of this newspaper we carried a story about Malaika Arora splitting up with her husband Arbaaz Khan. We were told by none other than Malaika herself that her husband was "remarrying".

There were many reasons why we thought the story deserved front-page treatment: Malaika Arora is a huge pin-up star and Arbaaz is a celebrity in his own right, and comes from one of film industry's most-respected families. In an environment where celebrity unions crumble faster than cookies the two, who have been married for 10 years and are parents of a five-year-old boy, offered a great example of a happy family unit in the face of relentless public scrutiny.

John Updike defined celebrity as a mask that eats into your face. Apparently it also chews up your integrity. It turns out that our story was false. Not for want of journalistic rigour on our part–the reporter did what any journalist sould do on receiving a tip-off– he called up both Malaika and Arbaaz for their versions. Both, through commission and omission, lied brazenly to the reporter

Why would anyone do something like that ? The answer is simple …

Both husband and wife had been contracted by a cosmetics company to launch a skin-care product, and the campaign, unveiled on Thursday night, revolved around Arbaaz playing Adonis to his wife's Aphrodite. They used the myth to renew their vows on stage, thus the sham of remarriage.

I am not sure whether the outrage is because the journalist got played for a fool (as did the paper) or whether it is because Medianet got left out of the deal……

If you are going to publish publicity as news, then expect those who want publicity to use your paper to their own end…. 

If you are going to lie down with the dogs, expect to catch a few fleas…. 

 I haven't had such a good laugh in years….:)

Technorati Tags: Maliaka Arora, Arbaaz Khan, Mumbai Mirror

Tags: India, Indian Media, Media, Media Ethics, Media Integrity, Mumbai Mirror, News, Paid for Content, Tabloid Journalism

There is something very disturbing about media houses falling over each other to sanitize the image of Rahul Mahajan. For someone who indulged in an orgy of excesses, with his father’s urn lying in the next room, and who ended up in hospital OD’ing on some narcotic or the other, and in whose party someone lost their life - Rahul Mahajan seems to be treated not as someone who fucked up beyond measure but as a poor lost boy.

The Financial Express tells us that Rahul Mahajan is off to Seychelles on his honeymoon - the FE not page 3 of the ToI. The Bombay Times shows us Rahul Mahajan getting a Rakhi tied on his hand by his sister The BT today carries an interview on Rahul, his life and his take on his uncle.

Any where else in the world, the media does not make excuses for people charged of crimes. While there are many who will argue that drugs should not be banned - and it is a view that i don’t disagree with - for now narcotics is illegal. Lobby to change the law, instead of making a law breaker into a role model. The same happened with Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Fardeen Khan, Sunjay Dutt, Salman Khan - the message that the Indian media is putting out is so long as you are attractive and glamourous, it is ok for you to break the law, and even be caught breaking it. And oh don’t worry, if you break the law and are caught, for the right amount we will set about whitewashing your image. I hope that media houses are getting paid and paid well for this kind of a whitewash job. I would hate to think that journalists and editors were abandoning the basic principals of good & responsible journalism for free.

Technorati Tags: Rahul Mahajan, Indian media

Tags: BJP, India, Indian Media, Media, Media Ethics, Rahul Mahajan