Myth of ‘media’ at the Games

The South Asian Games, a sporting event of international importance, was inaugurated on Friday in Guwahati. No less a personality than the Prime Minister was present at what can be called a spectacular opening ceremony. The dances, songs and brass bands were exceptionally brilliant.

The drums ensemble from the eight northeastern states was mesmerising. And the icing on the cake was the rendition by the internationally renowned Shillong Chamber Choir of the Assamese patriotic song O mor aponar dex .

Those who watched the event live said it gave them goosebumps. Others who watched it on television had the same ecstatic experience. But none of the so-called national newspapers or television channels deigned to carry news of this memorable event.

But do the four or five television channels claiming they are most watched actually carry news from every corner of the country? And is this event, the SAG, happening in the Northeast not important enough? Perhaps no one in this country, barring those of us in the region, believes that the much stereotyped “troubled” Northeast is capable of hosting an international event of this magnitude.

Biased view

In November 2015, an equally impressive international event – the International Mei Ramew Festival, related to Slow Food and Agro-biodiversity, was held in Shillong where over 600 delegates from 59 countries of the world arrived to celebrate food. Only one TV channel, CNN IBN, was here. The others did not think it newsworthy.

I remember calling at least two of the honchos of the “national” television media. One said he was putting his team together. Another said, “You know how it is with us, we get caught up in political events; such social events, however important, may not be important enough for our channel.” That’s how the media weighs the importance of what they project.

But if it’s about politics, then the Friday Games event should have been important as the Prime Minister himself was present at the venue. What he says at such an event is surely important. Or have we got it all wrong? Then suddenly one realises that the media today does not care about the government, as it gets its revenue from the market. So it caters to the basest instincts that titillate the senses of its audience.

Most channels were still gung-ho about the Tanzanian student who was stripped in Bangalore after another person of African nationality – a Sudanese – ran over a woman on the road. The public wrath fell on the Tanzanian woman because they were of the same skin colour.

While media attention on such issues is important and brings it to the larger public domain, an overdrive and repeated debates over the matter by bringing in panellists from the two major political parties, the Congress and the BJP, just politicises the entire episode.

Surely there are priorities in the media, but the point today is, who sets those priorities? It has to be the TRPs that bring in the advertisements and TRPs come in when the anchor is brusque and overbearing and puts people in their places – asks them to apologise publicly for their acts of omission and commission, etc. The anchor becomes a national hero and we all love him for doing what most of us cannot do, which is to literally do a verbal smacking of the high and mighty. It is this feeling of impotence of the common man that the television anchors exploit.

David Brooks, in his recent article in The New York Times, called this the “Anxieties of Impotence”. Brooks said, “Plagued by the anxiety of impotence, many voters are drawn to leaders who pretend that our problems could be solved by defeating some villain.”

We in India are not very different. Many of our institutions are crumbling. Governance is teetering and the government is sleepwalking. The voters know they are important once in five years. The rest of those four years and 11 months, they are powerless to do anything. And that’s because in India we are divided by caste, class and educational standards. Hence, the Indian hero today, who would at once bash up the highest and the mightiest and also bring India and Pakistan to the brink of a war on television is the television anchor who gains credibility and clout from the remote control in our hands.

Blackout

The people across the seven northeastern states are very peeved at the virtual blacking out of an event that showcases the best of the region – its cultural extravaganza, its diverse languages and modes of expression and the sense of joy and achievement that was all part of the opening ceremony of the SAG.

There is a feeling here that the stereotypes about the region, carefully constructed by the media and a host of vultures who have fed on its conflict narratives, need to be deconstructed post haste.

The media will find it hard to do a U-turn and, therefore, the best way to perpetuate the conflict narrative that the Northeast is still that “conflict theatre” is to black out good news, because, according to media moghuls, the Northeast must continue to feed their constructed narrative. The region is frozen in time and space and must not be allowed to come to its own. Also, for the media, the region is only good for its soft stories, such as its mountains and hills and landscapes. Other than that, the people here and their lives and achievements don’t matter.

That a region which is landlocked has horribly poor communication infrastructure and has no industry worth its names for employment generation can still stand tall and host an international sporting event should have been a story in itself. In fact, one must salute the foreign athletes who have come and are happily settled in the spaces where they have been put up, should have been a story in itself.

It’s a pity, though that some of the Delhi-based journalists are trying to poke holes in this event on their social media sites almost as if to say that it should not have been held in the Northeast. That these journalists are themselves from the Northeast can only be the biggest travesty.

Loss for a nation

It is time for the people of this region to learn to package their news more smartly and to reach out to the mass of Indians in this country through other media. The long-held myth that nothing good can happen in the Northeast needs to be debunked. Mediapersons of the region need to pool in their synergies, for that alone is the only way forward.

The country missed hearing about a mega event it could have been proud of. It is not our loss. It is a loss that every Indian should be feeling.

(The writer can be contacted at patricia.mukhim@gmail.com)

The Telegraph / Sunday , February 7 , 2016
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160207/jsp/northeast/story_67897.jsp