Pohjonen, Matti (2014) In media res : the problem of cultural translation of international news in Mumbai, India. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20351 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. IN MEDIAS RES: the Problem of Cultural Translation of International News in Mumbai, India. - 1 - A dissertation submitted to the University of London, in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Centre for Media and Film Studies School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London Word Count: 92,206 - 2 - DECLARATION FOR PHD THESIS I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed, Matti Pohjonen Date: 28.08.2014 - 3 - ABSTRACT My thesis is a theoretically driven yet empirically grounded investigation into the problem of cultural translation of international news in Mumbai, India. Underlying it is the assumption that a significant part of what we call international news is composed of a limited amount of original news material - text and pictures - in circulation on any given day. As a consequence of this, news organisations across the world have to routinely rely on news material produced somewhere else for their own coverage of major world events and themes. What we call international news thus largely consists of different kinds of practices through which this limited amount of original text and pictures is re-used in different ways by news producers in other parts of the world. The thesis explores in detail - empirically and theoretically - the different kinds of relationships that are formed with such practices of re-use and their broader significance to international news as a field of study. These questions are investigated in the thesis by looking at four points of entry to the English-language print and online news media in India: (1) a historical analysis of how the relationship between Indian news media and international news has been imagined since the colonial times; (2) the re-use of international news at the biggest English-language tabloid in India; (3) alternative journalistic practices by a popular Indian blog during the Asian tsunami in 2004; and (4) the discourse of international news in the English- language newspapers since India liberalised its economy in 1991. A key argument of the thesis is that what we broadly call international news should not be seen as a naturalised object of study. On the contrary, it is itself the outcome of different practices of articulation, sometimes antagonistic and - 4 - contradictory, through which it has been given closure. These points of closure need to be now opened up for critical analysis. The thesis is thus as much about research into this relatively unexplored problem in international news research as it is a critical reflection into the theoretical frames of reference we use to understand news practices and processes in other parts of the world with different cultural, political and social histories and media environments. This critical dialogue between theory and practice of research developed in this thesis I call the problem of cultural translation of international news in Mumbai, India. - 5 - ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thinking is seldom an orderly process. On the contrary, something in the world forces us to think, something unfamiliar - a shock from the outside. Similarly, a PhD thesis rarely begins with a clear set of research questions that one systematically pursues. Rather, it begins with some kind of an encounter that inspires us, sometimes even compels us, to begin the long and often arduous process of research and writing. The final result that you read here is the outcome of a series of such encounters, some more pleasant than others. Without these, I would not have arrived where I have or become who I am. A few words of gratitude are in place: The first encounter was getting sick during fieldwork. This was a blessing in disguise. What began as a more classical ethnographic research project into news production practices at a popular tabloid in Mumbai, India - through contingencies of fieldwork - was transformed into a theoretical reflection on the difficulties of researching cultural difference in countries such as India. This thesis is thus dedicated to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and especially its Water Works Department for making my fieldwork as a corporeal experience as any fieldwork can be. The second encounter was my experience of the Asian tsunami in 2004. Observing a group of creative people working with emerging digital technologies at the time both inspired me and gave a new direction for my intellectual development I had not anticipated at the start of fieldwork. If good research is as much about finding what one does not expect to find as it is about finding answers to questions one is posing, at least this part of my fieldwork has been fulfilled. I wish to thank all the - 6 - people I met during this time and with whom I have remained friends ever since. The third encounter has to do with the Centre for Media and Film Studies (CMFS) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). The centre has provided me with formative training as a young academic as well as generous funding for my PhD research with their SOAS Research Studentship. I wish to especially thank my supervisor Professor Mark Hobart for tolerating every possible tangent that a research student can get involved in. I have benefited greatly from his astute and often difficult comments. He remains an example of intellectual integrity that one can only hope for today in an increasingly commercial academic environment. I also wish to thank Professor Annabelle Sreberny and Dr. Dina Matar for their kind support and inspiration I received as a Teaching Fellow at SOAS. The centre provides an exemplary model for academic collaboration that has kept me from not entirely losing faith in the path that I have chosen. I also wish to thank my old comrades-in-arms at our now-defunct South Asian research collective, Sacredmediacow, for bringing a dose of unruly jouissance into the drudgery of PhD work. Who would have thought in 2005 we would have published a book much before my thesis was finished? I wish to especially thank Dr. Somnath Batabyal, Dr. Angad Chowdhry and Dr. Meenu Gaur for making intellectual work as fun as it should be. And last but not least, I wish to express gratitude to all my MA students at SOAS who have kept me intellectually alert and reminded with their enthusiasm that I must have been doing at least something right all along. The fourth and final encounter is my family, and especially my parents, who have always given me unwavering support throughout the difficult days of finishing - 7 - the thesis. Without their persistence, I would still be caught in the quagmire of the many side projects I seem to always get caught in. But most significantly, I wish to thank my wife. In a way, the completion of the thesis has mirrored the arrival of my next life project that was born only a few weeks after the first submission of the thesis. I now have to thank my wife once again for having the patience to allow me to finish the requested changes post-viva while this new life project keeps on growing disrespectful of any deadlines. - 8 - TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 15 1. Introduction 15 2. Framing the research 19 (a) The problem of international news 19 (b) The problem of cultural translation 24 3. Research design and methods 29 (a) Research design 29 (b) Points of entry 30 (c) A note on the theory and practice of research 34 4. Thesis outline 36 II. LITERATURE REVIEW 39 1. Introduction 39 2. Framing the problem 41 (a) Imagining international news 41 3. An overview of a debate 45 (a) Political economy approaches to international news 45 (b) Localisation/domestication of international news 49 (c) Sociology of international news production 51 4. Metaphysics of communication (part I) 57 (a) Two models of communication 57 (b) Communication as metaphysics of presence 62 5. In media res 67 (a) The problem of difference 67 (b) Difference and repetition 68 (c) International news as simulacra 73 6. Conclusion 79 - 9 - III. METHODOLOGY 80 1. Introduction 80 2. Framing the problem 81 (a) The paradox of conservatism 81 3. Critical approach(es) to research 83 (a) Critical Theory 84 (b) Art in the age of mechanical reproduction 85 (c) Dialectic of Enlightenment 87 (d) Mass media (and international news) as ideology 88 (e) Post-Marxist challenges to ideology 89 (f) Media and cultural studies approaches 94 (g) Towards a doubly critical approach 97 4.