Cyclic Journey of Media

The power of media has always been in question. It can influence the key policy makers by swaying the public opinion on various national and international issues. It also has the ability to play a significant role in spreading awareness about various developmental issues. In a country like India, where a host of developmental issues need to be addressed, media can highlight the problems and the challenges faced by the people working at the grass root level.

However, has the media been adequate enough to contribute significantly towards these issues? Does it act as a pressure group in a manner which would lead to social welfare? Has the Media justified its role as the fourth estate especially when it comes to the development sector? How both professions of Social Work and Media are interrelated?

These very issues are pertinent to be addressed as research questions. There are two maladies that affect the world today and both are diseases of plenty. One is what is often termed as ‘Affluenza’ or the disease caused by affluence. The other is what is called ‘information overload’ or the problem of having too much information, so much so that you are unable to differentiate between what is significant and what is not.

Many thoughtful persons are deeply troubled by the extent and depth to which our minds are being controlled by the media. Today, the media blitz is insidiously constricting and contorting man’s malleable mind. The media has played a huge part in arousing people’s consciousness and righteous anger against atrocities like ethnic cleansing, famines, gross violations of human rights, repression of religious freedom and unpopular wars. Sometimes, a lone journalist or a single story can turn the tide and change history.

In India, journalistic excellence, ethics probity and credibility leave much to be desired. A passive and weak media leaves a critical void in our democracy. It epitomizes our mindset of mediocrity as well as paves the way for it. Our media, save for a few exceptions, mirrors and contributes to the national malaise. Much of the media is owned by business houses and is treated as another business enterprise.

Even if democracy is inevitable to India, our political class is disrepute. It is the new class of India driven by its own dynamics of power and alienated from those it is supposed to represent. The brazenness of its behaviour, the callousness of conduct and depth of shallowness is indeed mind boggling.

A well-informed and participatory public is the backbone of a healthy democracy. Along with a strong civil society, a vibrant and vigilant media is a sinew that connects and binds the people and their representative leaders. It is a bridge between political democracy and participatory democracy. It has to reflect public opinion as well as mould it. In a democracy, a personal opinion is not necessarily a public opinion and public opinion is not necessarily a public policy.

What is written in papers, particularly the daily headlines is almost the only thing that the Prime Minister, the Parliamentarian and the people see and read at the same time. At that fleeting moment, a subtle connectivity and transformation takes place, impressions are created in the readers’ and the Prime Minister’s minds alike.

Visual media like televisions and films also exert a powerful influence over humanity. Many programmes—both information and entertainment—take us to various locations which we may never be able to visit in our lifetime. This explains the popularity of channels like the Discovery, the National Geographic etc.

Looking specifically at the recent Supreme Court Judgment for a total ban on mining in the Aravali hill areas of Haryana’s Faridabad and Gurgaon districts, it is convinced that relentless battering of this natural barrier would allow the western desert to gradually eat up the grain bowl of the Gangetic plains.

Now that the ban on mining is in place, the next logical step would be to take measures to undo, even if partially, the damage done to the Aravalis’ geology and ecology. The Supreme Court itself has paved the way for this by directing that the Haryana government and the Union forest ministry come up with an action plan for the restoration of the Aravalis, which would then have to be approved by the Court’s central empowered committee on environment.

It may be recalled that the Mussoorie hills in Uttarakhand and the Asola-Bhatti mining belt in South Delhi had in the past been subjected to a similar onslaught by miners; these areas were subsequently restored to good health through well-conceived retrieval measures. It can, therefore, be hoped that these examples are replicated in the Aravali hills, through judicious action by the state government and the ministry of environment and forests.

Under these circumstances, the special forest bench of the apex court has been moved to invoke the principle of sustainable development, under Article 21 of the Constitution which deals with the right to life, to put an end to this remorseless devastation. This decree may appear harsh and sweeping, especially to those wanting mined material like the Badarpur sand that is used in construction, but nothing short of a total prohibition of mining activity will work in a situation where miners as well as the state government are equally guilty of flouting all the established norms of ecologically sustainable mining.

In fact, this matter had gone before the Supreme Court earlier also, when the court had allowed limited mining on the basis of sustainable principles. But, as pointed out by the court now, none of the statutory requirements had been complied with by the mining lease holders. They do not even fill up abandoned mine pits, leave alone attempt any reforestation and other necessary rehabilitation action. The decree is timely also because the Haryana government was reportedly planning to auction mines in the near-by Khori and Sirohi areas of the Faridabad district as well. It is very much hoped the decree aided by media pressure would hinder these atrocities.

This is one of the many cases that substantiate my argument that today governments have become wise to the power and potential of journalists. And they adopt several strategies to humour, cajole and influence them. It can’t be denied that some succumb and compromise integrity and independence. Journalism in India is in a sorry state and newspapers and periodicals rarely inform or investigate, analyze or appraise. Media is now a consumer-commodity, focused on satiating public prurience. Politics is entertainment and entertainment is news. We need experts to glean the truth. Taking things with a pinch of salt is advisable.

Politicians and personalities dominate our daily information intake, slowly suffocating our sensitivity. But still it is a naked truth that these are powerful instruments of cultural dominance. If public memory is proverbially short, the attention span of the media is confined to a single issue. What one covers, others cover too. We seem to have the ability to digest one scoop at a time and there are so many, that in the end, we forget everything or worse stop caring. That becomes part of normal life. It has become normal life.