‘Trivialisation of media’
Tarun Tajpal, Suhasini Haider worry about the nexus in media
The pre-emergency journalism was aligned to those in the nation-building, whereas the business of journalism was not to be aligned but to be opposed to those in power, commented eminent journalist Tarun Tejpal at the outset of the session on media. The role of journalism was to keep the money and power in check, because, as Tejpal said, “Left to themselves, they misbehave. It’s in their DNA.” But he said that all the big fights of the Eighties argued by the media had given way to trivia, as a result of which the ordering of news that journalism is supposed to do had been given a short shrift.
He said that in spite of the fact that four of the top billionaires were from India, the destitution in India was unparalleled. In the face of this, media was part of the problem. In the nexus between power and business, media was supposed to blow the whistle, but rather, it was getting aligned. “In the last 20 years it’s impossible to find five exposes to do with leading business houses.” The reason, he pointed out, was, “All journalism is fuelled and sustained by ad money… Publications you read are financed by corporates, not you.” This, Tejpal said, had also led to knocking out of 80 per cent of Indian concerns. No newspaper had rural bureau, he said, and what counted was sex, sensex, cricket, crime and Bollywood.
Suhasini Haider of CNN-IBN , in her address, said most sensorship by the media was self-imposed. “Corporate leaders don’t even have to make a call. Ninety per cent of the stories are stopped by us. There is the fear of being branded anti-national.” She discussed the roles media plays in the society. One role she described was that of doing the business of transmitting experience, which translates to ‘I see, you see’. The second role is that of creating awareness about a problem. Media also wants to trigger action. And it wants to make governments change, by bringing about change in attitude. But, said Haider, “Media also triggers apathy. That it’s OK if we are not worried about farmer suicides.” She pointed out that when the farmer suicides were at the peak, the tragedy got a footage of 200 hours, while the Abhi-Ash wedding got 1,200 hours.
Commenting that the whistleblowing, jholewala media had given way to insider media, she said, “The media has transformed from watchdog to lap dog. The closeness between journalists and corporates is frightening.”