Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change
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Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 ii µ Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change Editors Somnath Batabyal Angad Chowdhry Meenu Gaur Matti Pohjonen Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 LONDON NEW YORK NEW DELHI First published 2011 in India by Routledge 912 Tolstoy House, 15–17 Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi 110 001 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Transferred to Digital Printing 2011 © 2011 Somnath Batabyal, Angad Chowdhry, Meenu Gaur, Matti Pohjonen Typeset by Star Compugraphics Private Limited D–156, Second Floor Sector 7, Noida 201 301 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-415-61032-2 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 Dedicated to the memory of Sacredmediacow Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 vi µ Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 Contents List of Figures and Plates ix List of Abbreviations xi Foreword by Rachel Dwyer xiii Acknowledgements xv Introduction 1 Matti Pohjonen 1. NDTV 24X7, the Hanging Channel: News Media or Horror Show? 18 John Hutnyk 2. Editorial! Where art Thou? News Practices in Indian Television 42 Somnath Batabyal 3. The Roja Debate and the Limits of Secular Nationalism 68 Meenu Gaur 4. Identities in Ferment: Reflections on the Predicament of Bhojpuri Cinema, Music and Language in Bihar 93 Ratnakar Tripathy and Jitendra Verma 5. MMS Scandals and Challenges to the Authority of News Mediation 122 Angad Chowdhry 6. Circulating Intimacies: Sex-Surveys, Marriage and Other Facts of Life in Urban India 140 Kriti Kapila 7. Indian Haunting: Representing Failure as ‘Change’ in Contemporary Mumbai 166 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 Angad Chowdhry and Aditya Sarkar viii µ Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change 8. Theory and Practice in Emerging Digital Cultures in India 184 Matti Pohjonen and Soumyadeep Paul 9. The Uncomfortable Truth behind the Corporate Media’s Imagination of India 208 Naresh Fernandes Epilogue: Thinking about India and Change: The BRICS and the Brats by Annabelle Sreberny 218 About the Editors 221 Notes on Contributors 223 Index 225 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 List of Figures and Plates Figures 5.1 Accelerating shame 125 5.2 An MMS clip named ‘Mallika.3gp’ was widely available in India but was ultimately found to be that of a look-alike — a Mexican adult entertainer 130 8.1 The state of citizen journalism in India, 2005–06 202 8.2 The new emerging hybrid model/diagram we were developing 203 Plates (between pages 92 and 93) 1 Examining representation, Kashmir: Residents of an orphanage look at their photos on the display of a digital camera. 2 Walking the airwaves, Kashmir: Recording an interview at a community radio studio in Kashmir. 3 Live politics, Kashmir: Workers at a hotel restaurant watch political protests live on TV. 4 Language media, Kashmir: The Kashmir valley has seen a substantive increase on Kashmiri and Urdu media in the recent years, in a scenario where people perceive reportage about the valley in the national media as biased or neglected. 5 Listening in, Bihar: The mobile phone, where one can listen to music and radio, has become an all purpose and a very powerful communication tool. 6 Varanasi: A young man stops to talk on his mobile phone as the world rushes by. 7 A TV is born, Varanasi. 8 New movies, Varanasi. 9 Changing worship, Varanasi. Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 10 Old news, Chizami, Nagaland. x µ Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change 11 When old and new meet: Shooting a documentary in Chizami, Nagaland. 12 Visibility of voice, Tripura: A member of an indigenous rights organisation speaks to journalists on various issues. Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 List of Abbreviations ABP Ananda Bazar Patrika ADRI Asian Development Research Institute BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BJP Bharatiya Janata Party CCTV Close Circuit Television CEO Chief Executive Officer CMFS Centre for Media and Film Studies CNN Cable News Network FMCG Fast Moving Consumer Goods HRM Human Resource Management ICICI Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India IIT Indian Institute of Technology IM Instant Messaging IT Information Technology JKLF Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front MCCS Media Communication and Content Services MMS Multi-media Messaging Service NDTV New Delhi Television SEZs Special Economic Zones SMC Sacred Media Cow SMS Short Messaging Service SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies TAM Television Audience Measurement TG Target Groups TOI Times of India TRP Television Rating Point UPA United Progressive Alliance Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 xii µ Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 Foreword acred cows are real animals and subjects of political debate in SIndia but in London they are irrational beliefs which must be destroyed. Sacred Media Cow (SMC) is a new beast, a hybrid breed of Indian and European origin, which removes protection from irrational beliefs which it tests and destroys, to form a real presence in critical debates, a remover, not a creator, of gobar (bullsh*t). The four major limbs of SMC, Meenu, Angad, Matti and Somnath, are or were SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) Ph.D. students, and I am delighted that the Centre for Media and Film Studies (CMFS) at SOAS, which has just completed its first decade, has been such a rich pasture for them to flourish and to develop their own research activities and to host their conversations. Yet, the full credit belongs to them directly for hosting the conference on which this volume is based, a wonderful event in itself, and for finding time among completing their Ph.D.s, teaching and other commitments, to bringing the book together to mark what I hope will be the beginning of their work in research and publishing. These four researchers bring together their diverse training and fieldwork and huge personal engagement with their research to push new boundaries of the role of media and film in constructing the region, the nation and the transnational and showing the dynamic interactions between the local and the global. The range of their topics and their demonstration of the mediated self in the transnational transmedia networks marks a major intervention in the study of the media in India. Angad Chowdhry and Kriti Kapila’s discussion of the transformation of sexual intimacy by the media is a case in point. The examination of the range of media and their interlocking networks is at the core of this volume. Matti Pohjonen and Soumyadeep Paul, Angad Chowdhry and Aditya Sarkar theorise and philosophise on the media, drawing on a range of thinkers, though most centrally on Deleuze and Guattari, in papers that Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:34 19 May 2016 frame other discussions in the volume. Important papers show xiv µ Foreword the recent changes in the news that once represented the Indian nation via its state-controlled media but which has now become an institution where celebrity and other media become part of the ‘news’. Somnath Batabyal details the changes in the news media while Prof. John Hutnyk, based at Goldsmiths College which has been a strong backer of the CMFS, develops this in his discussion of television in the Kali Yuga. Wider debates by SMC, led by Meenu Gaur’s research, note that Indian cinema, previously a negotiator between the state and civic institutions, is now becoming a corporatised multimedia advertising form for which the term ‘film’ is no longer appropriate. The last two decades have seen film at the cusp of change from interrogating the state and the nation before the cinematic turn to the diaspora in the 1990s, then back to the question of ‘Islamic terrorism’. Meenu Gaur’s discussion on secularism and the film Roja continue to develop these themes. The relationships of the variety of media which SMC have noted are part of the dynamic of the CMFS which is developing into an important global centre for the study of non-Western media. Recent video footage of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai included a message from the mastermind of the operation, who used the classic movie-trailer slogan to show that these attacks were just the beginning, as he announced, ‘Picture abhi baaki hai’ (you have yet to see the feature). The use of media in these operations reminds us all of the power and centrality of the media in all representations and that their study is vital to all areas of contemporary thought. I have no doubt that the contributors to this volume, in particular the members of SMC, will be loud and clear voices in these debates.