Orissa violence, a threat to secularism

Christens have been targeted by communal forces in the State of Orissa like never before. One fails to understand how fundamentalists can stoop to such animalistic levels of barbarism perpetrating so much violence on innocent civilians – mostly tribals and poor villagers. Has humanity lost all its sense of judgement and discretion, one wonders. Fundamentalists in Orissa are just proving to be what famous political philosopher Thomas Hobbes termed the human being as: savage, barbaric and cruel.
For the media, of course, these are hay days. There is so much to cover and so little time and space. Jammu and Kashmir is burning, Bihar is flooded and now Orissa is communally divided. But ‘plenty’ can upset the balance at times. That is exactly what has happened if one closely follows the media coverage.
One might claim that the communal violence in Orissa is an attack on a minority community. Such a feeling is true to a certain extent. But I think it is much more than that. It is an assault on the secular and plural constitutional values of India. The violence is a symbolic of the intolerant and sinister designs of communal forces to perpetuate communal hatred among gullible people, thus seriously tarnishing the identity of a democratic country. In no way can such attacks be justified and perpetrators’ actions condoned. There is an agonising sense of insecurity and fear among minorities across States and one really wonders if the State is bearing any responsibility.
The Orissa developments have received quite a bit of coverage across media – both print and electronic. While some newspapers highlighted the violence on front pages, others treated it in the inner pages. Several dailies carried editorials condemning the attack on minorities. Such a stand of the print media was heartening.
Across electronic media, though, there was palpable lack of priority amply displayed. One news channel gave it a third priority in its prime-time news bulletin. JK hostage crisis received as much as 10-minute coverage, while Orissa violence less than three minutes. (Perhaps there was greater ‘news value’ in JK). In terms of importance and urgency, Orissa communal clashes should have received better coverage, as secularism was at stake.
Moreover, electronic media reporters looked cynical in their approach. There was this anchor who asked Fr Babu Joseph, CBCI spokesperson, whether closing down of educational institutions would not incite further violence. He called the closing of institutions as ‘unfortunate’. What is so unfortunate about a silent protest is indeed a mystery. Further, can mindless violence for any reason justified is for anyone to decide.
Priority, sadly, does not appear as a news value in Journalism books on news values. It is high time that we included it, so that the future media professionals learn to prioritise issues and send right messages among readers and viewers.

Abhinav strikes gold and media glitters

So finally India has won a gold medal in Olympics. The whole country is in such a jubilant mood that hardly anyone noticed India’s series loss to Sri Lanka in cricket. The gold that Abhinav Bindra has won has not only created history but has turned the mood of the country. At least for the time being, people, including Abhinav’s parents are not complaining about India’s dismal training facilities and politics in sports. All are celebrating India’s first ever individual gold in Olympics.
As expected, media went berserk giving more than due importance to the event. There were copious reports and photographs dotting the front pages of most newspapers with dramatic layouts and designs. Most news channels covered the event the whole day and more. Most part of the prime time news was devoted to Abhinav, with reports of his hard training, state-of-the-art facilities provided to him by his father, the unassuming nature of the gold medalist himself and so on.
Why not? Media were doing the right thing. Even if they were going overboard, for the time being, at least, they could definitely be excused. No one is really complaining about the media this time, as every one wants to know about Abhinav.
Granted that media normally are falls in love with winners. Losers have very little space and time devoted to them. Even that can be accepted as well. But it is sad and a difficult matter to accept that media do not have space and time even for the fighters. It is only now, after he has won the gold that the whole country has come to know who Bindra is. It is only now that we know the efforts that he has put in. Media had no time or space to tell us the fighting sprit in such people.
Winning or losing is part of the game. But what makes the difference is the fighting sprit of the athletes, the hard work that they put in and the amount of sacrifices they make. Such efforts sure have to be given their due place by the media. It is only through such ways that the younger generation can be inspired and motivated. Sadly, media do this only for the winners. Losers and fighters are rarely noticed by them. No wonder, India Today magazine once made a rather ‘candid’ acknowledgement as regards its inability to put Vishwanathan Anand on their covers when he failed to win the World Chess Championship. The editor said, “Only winners make covers”. Perhaps Anand took serious notice of that statement. The very next year he won the same championship in style and he was on India Today’s covers. When fighters also make covers India can expect more medals in the years to come.

Bombs and media blast

Last week was a week of panic and terror for the whole country. There seemed to be bombs everywhere. Suddenly people felt they were not safe anywhere. Bombs exploded in buses, bus-shelters, near shopping malls, in parks and, sadly, even in hospitals. So which was the safe place? No place was safe, no one was safe. That was the message picked up by the people after the bomb blasts occurred in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
Media were, as usual, agog with wide coverage of the twin blasts. News channels had no other news, except the terror news in two states, for several days. Further, they were also quick to make equations and draw conclusions on the pattern of terror – that it happened only in BJP-ruled states. So a high alert was sounded by the Media, to start with. Accordingly, other BJP-ruled states went dizzy beefing up security measures.
Such equations seemed far too pre-matured. In fact, the two blasts that happened may not have had any immediate connection with each other. When all attention is concentrated somewhere else, terrorists have their job easy. That is how the strategy may have worked.
But there was another issue; that was media’s carelessness exposed abundantly those days. On the first day most channels were in a way responsible in creating panic among people by airing all the while only the blasts in Bangalore. They had no other news. Though the blasts were of low intensity, the channels made them look really serious and enormous. Because they aired only that news, the whole city was in panic. Everything came to a standstill, at least for sometime, when terror struck Bangalore.
The next day, however, when there were blasts in Ahmedabad, Bangalore was totally forgotten, left to fend for itself. Channels spared not even a few minutes doing a follow up. That was not their concern, at least on that day, as they had a bigger pie to savour. It is unfortunate; but it is a fact that media always look for stories to ‘appease’ their audience and keep themselves afloat in the market of cutthroat competition. In the bargain, of course, audience is left to wonder at the media dynamics that are at work.
A couple of days later, however, channels came up showing the resilience of the people of both cities. They had high praise for these people. They said that in general people in all metros were highly resilient. What else can those people do? Can they lock themselves inside their houses for days? Life in a metro is tough for common people. Unless they work hard everyday they have to worry about their next meal. Media may call it resilience; but people would rather term it their fate; their daily struggle.