Few days back, we had a discussion in class about why the instances of collective action are decreasing? What could possibly be the reason? Has our concern about the world around us reduced? Have we lost trust in collective action? Are we so engrossed with our own lives that we don't take collective action about issues around us? Why do we not raise voices? Even when we do, why does it die out so fast?
One of the reasons could be the media..the 24 hour news channels which give so much coverage to issues-both in a good and bad way that may be the need of people protesting against issues has decreased.
So are the news channel a substitute for collective action??
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5 comments:
To a certain extent yes but media activism is only limited to news which are interest provoking rather than real news. As Mr Aiyar pointed out,the big newshouses in India do not have dedicated spaces in their newspapers for rural news or do not have special rural editors focussing on rural affairs. The situation worsens when the Indian newshouses are owned and managed by the westerners.
LISTEN TO P SAINATH on Indian Media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QewCqpgBiuw
@Rashmi- you may be right in your view but i totally disagree to the points raised by you.
i believe that media are creating awareness among people to the different issues prevailing in the society.
suppose there is an announced date for holding a rally , then media is the only medium through which awareness is spread among people living even in remote areas about the date of rally and we saw huge gathering of people including those from remote areas also for the rally.
I witnessed one live example in Delhi while returning from Fieldwork in Uttarakhand.The collective action and co-operation was on the issue of "Sugar Price". Initially there was very few people but when the visual media started full coverage of this issue,it increased the awareness among far living areas and the result was that within 2 days all the streets around Jantar-Mantar were full of crowds for this collective action.
so how can you say that Visual media has become a substitute for collective action rather than saying it as accelerating agent????
Media houses, whether owned by Indians or Foreigners, are doing nothing in terms of promoting activism. The few cases that we have seen of media prompting collective action are all aimed at garnering attention from the prospective ‘audience’, and are mostly superficial in nature. I’ve already given an example of the Uphar Movie hall Fire Case in a previous post, where media actively got behind one party and pronounced the defence guilty way before the case got over in court! The case involving sugar farmers is one of the few 'real stories' tracked by the media..
rajat, 30029
It is true that media, especially visual media give a special attention to the issues which would improve their TRPs but at the same time their role in giving visibility to obscure and unheard cases cannot be undermined.
News channels can sensitize public and give voice to the weak. In all cases, it brings the issue concerned in eye of the masses.
i request the publisher to please elaborate the concept, please excuse me if i am wrong, it looked like a very vague idea. what are your perceptions about the media and its role in the issue that you have raised??
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