THE INDIAN MEDIA IN A GLOBALISED WORLD

THE INDIAN MEDIA IN A GLOBALISED WORLD

MAYA RANGANATHAN

USHA M. RODRIGUES

Sage publications 2010

Rs 550 Pages 275

The problem with social research: humanity and its infinite variety defies categorisation, yet we ‘find’ neat little groups convenient for our analysis.

Another problem with social research: without those categories you cannot do any analysis.

The book under review proceeds on several such assumptions. The first is that there are ‘two Indias’: the urban/rural elite and the impoverished segment (so globalisation, and consequently, media, has to progress on two distinct sets of considerations). The theory moves forward and observes that “despite two decades of liberalisation, [India] treats foreign entry into the country with fears of ‘cultural imperialism’.” Which particular group has expressed this fear of cultural imperialism is not clear. The subject, one’s afraid, is restricted to coffee shops where people air their pseudo-intellectualism to pass the time of day. The citations given by the authors for ‘cultural imperialism’ also point to high-browed foreigners worried over the ‘local culture in many parts of the world  ... being battered out of existence…’ The authors then proceed with the hope that a study of the Indian media and its transformation would help us understand the globalisation-related changes taking place in the country – and that’s what the book is all about. There used to be a story in the old days about the six blind men and the elephant. Surprising (and delightful) how these simple tales take on oracular dimensions!

If this kind of classification and a study based largely thereon were to be useful, one would expect an examination of the influence of the media on public opinion or on the process of globalisation in India – that influence not being insubstantial. There has been phenomenal growth in newspapers from 214 in 1947 to 62,483 (with 222 million readers) in 2007, and equally so in literacy from 18% of a 345-million population in 1947 to 65% of over one-billion. From 6 radio stations in 1947 and an absence of television we now have over 500 radio stations and over 450 television channels. (All these statistics are from the book). From this huge vantage position, the authors find a message of ‘Swadeshi’ regaining currency somewhere deep inside the messages hammered out of the idiot box,  particularly in MNCs placing ‘foreign products in the Indian milieu as if they were an integral part of the country.’ (Apparently, the need for an offensive on the demand for things-Indian is now of foreign origin). There is also a reference to the obliteration of national borders (including India’s recent law on dual citizenship) – raising questions about the fears of cultural imperialism coexisting with claims of political and cultural borderless-ness. The authors, to their eternal credit, find it interesting how these corporations have identified traits that are ‘national’ in character in the country as diverse and completed as India – perhaps they (the MNCs) have located the old elephant’s trunk.

The book is a collection of 12 articles (twice the number associated with the blind men of old). Usha Rodrigues states that Doordarshan, having the wide reach it has, can find a prominent place in the competitive market without imitating its profit-centred counterparts; that  it remains to be seen whether Indians will embrace the practice of the ‘on-line citizen journalism’; that Doordarshan still has a significant role in India’s development goals. In her final article entitled Television Policy in India: An Unfulfilled Agenda Usha questions whether the government is doing enough to guide the public service broadcasting to meet the developmental goals envisaged for television in India in 1959, and notes that the government makes ad hoc decisions, without providing a clear legal framework in which ‘this potentially catalytic media can grow, and meet the education and entertainment needs of the various segments of the Indian population’.

Maya Ranganathan in her seven articles speaks of nationalism as a marketing tool by MNC advertisements, the role of Commercial FM Radio, and how Tamil Media attempts to push Tamil identity to the fore in a ‘carefully articulated pro-LTTE slant’. Another article explores the success of online communication as an alternate media in the politically sensitive north-east regions of India. She then deplores the fact that the women protagonists are archetypes of mythological or historical characters; adhering to the traditional values of a ‘good’ Indian woman – touted as a solution to the problems that women face in the era of globalisation.

In her final article on the Blogosphere she notes with regret that media laws in India do not distinguish between online newspapers (sources of information) and blogs (platforms for personalised communication).

The introduction promises that the book would deal ‘exhaustively with the way in which the Indian media is coping with challenges of globalisation, its role and content’. It doesn’t come anywhere close to that.