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!
You seem to have made a fundamental assumption that is flawed: that people ‘read’ the ToI.
And even if one were to look at it seriously, hasn’t the nature of our news gathering changed quite dramatically? Don’t we all get our news from TV/Internet and views from the Op-Ed page? I suspect that is what has rendered the front page irrelevant.
ToI is the largest circulated paper. about 75% of my class read it exclusively.
The trouble is that if anything parts of the regional media are even more biased – and where English language MSM use filters to avoid a story – the regional media uses bias, depending on who owns it and what their agenda is.
many get their news from TV – and these stories don’t make TV leads.
Arushi will get wall to wall coverage – but Priyanka will not…..
maybe it is not deliberate. maybe, the MSM is genuinely dumb.
There was this photo feature on Iraq war, mostly about the injured american soldiers and their recovery, in the national geographic magazine. Here is the link. The entire set of photos are in black and white. Looking at black and white pictures of war veterans somehow takes you back in time. It doesn’t feel current. It softens the blow. You cannot see the redness of the blood or the blueness of a clot. I almost think it was politically motivated to depict the photos like that.
More and more journalists are now coming to the profession just because of the so-called glamour attached to it.
Naturally, when there is no ‘fire’ in you to expose injustice, these things will happen. Earlier there used to be a feeling that a journo was like a crusader who rooted for the underdog. Not anymore.
For twelve years I have been a journalist, I have seen how journos are so opinionated and heavily biased against Dalits and other weaker sections.
There is no longer such cross-questioning of police and officials, which was so common earlier. Now many journos come from such background that they identify with the system and are more happy talking to a bureaucrat and taking his version on face value rather than trying to find out what is happening on the other side.
@sowmya – although i love black and white, you are right it freezes the event in the past. Also it romaticizes the whole situation – brave men, beautiful women, duty, honour etal….. like the old b/w films
And, given the US population’s non interest in fighting wars — it’s best to portray it like this 🙂
thanks for the link – i ‘enjoyed’ the photographs.
Hi Adnan
i did a little show of hands in class last year. i asked them what kind of journalists did they want to become. Politcal – some 3 kids raised their hands, economics – 1 student put up her hand ; entertainment – some 45 put up their hand….. i am too scared to repeat the experiment 🙂
it is not just against Dalits. It is against everyone who doesn’t conform to their notion of ‘indian’. i.e. Hindu or non practicing ‘other relgiion’ , middle to upper caste, middle to upper class, successful and will not rock the apple cart 🙁
I have seen more investigation and reportage in blogs than in papers 🙁 to cover India, you need to leave the metro. I don’t think that journalists do that. And which is why they have this romanticized notion of the rest of India !
But Harini! Haven’t you heard? moderation is only for Muslims, Christians and other “foreigners”. We Hindus are children of the soil, we can be as extreme as we like because we are tolerant .
Or something like that.
hi amrita
sad but true…..
no one is tarnishing all Hindu’s with the acts of the VHP or the Bajrang dal….
h
re: Iran, I believe common people did resist (or tried to) but were repressed, and the repression against anyone who dares to speak up still happens.
I opened last Sunday’s Express Magazine and the front page had some story about Hindu terrorists or some such. Instinctively I flipped to the second page. Then, I remembered this post and went back to the first page to see why I had done what I had. There was a good reason — while showing Hindus in poor light is one thing, most of such write-ups in India are authored by left wing nuts who don’t know how to write an analysis. Instead they state opinions for facts and have rants for logic. I realized, I had conditioned myself to read the blurb-like-thing and decide whether the write-up was worth the time. Sometimes, very very very rarely, the left wing nut turns out to be right because that’s how pathetic reality is. Not because he/she became a good analyst. Or, one can wait for really fantastic writers who rarely write — N Ram comes to mind, but he also spewed left wing propaganda which is such a pity given what a gifted writer of prose and an excellent analyst he is — to wake up and write.
The right wing BS on ToI is anyway not taken seriously by anyone. So, I guess, there is something you can teach your students from this. I don’t know what that is though.
Felt glad to read something sensible AND logical after long. Your views on media and its take on current core issues, is truly very enriching. In my opinion, media filters and in the process gets glorified. While this whole process glamourises the ones weilding power, the poor, ignorant and simple are the ones who are at the receiving end – for no crime of their own.
The possible solution… media awareness and wide reading… open attitude!