Indians love a good story - one with humour, revenge,
surprise, betrayal and suspense. Based on present media coverage, 2014 Lok Sabha
Elections seem to have all the elements of a blockbuster movie in the making.
It would be a revelation for
firms and parties spending heavily this election season to know that the silent,
resilient Indian voter gets irritated and turned off by paid coverage,
confusing information and yellow journalism in the guise of
‘election specials’. But this revelation won’t bring in ad spends, TRPs and
eyeballs that every media firm lives for.
In its unbridled greed to get a
bigger share of the pie from firms and political parties, the media is feeding
the Indian voter an overdose of election porn and is in danger of being
completely oblivious to the commercialization of an institutional process –
elections. The
principles of decency, fair play, sound judgement and objective, fact based,
balanced reporting have been sacrificed on the altar of mammon. What
else can explain the mad rush for fielding paid analysts, poll gurus; the
endlessly insatiable drivel of ‘how’ India is going to vote, ‘who’ will come to
power and the colourful profiling of candidates in the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections?
India’s election coverage season
is a peculiar organism. It is cooked
for the Indian voter by consummate opinion maker and chef extraordinaire, the
Indian media. That this dish isn't exactly served to the taste and liking of
the Indian voter is a story worth telling and repeating. Doing so
would require our media to self-introspect and self-correct – two qualities so
rarely found they might as well be extinct. Unless one happens to belong to a rarely seen species - the media
watchdog, all is portrayed as well and vibrant in the big desi media family we
read, hear and watch from.
India’s electoral process and
the politics surrounding it is now lurid entertainment that makes for gripping
viewing. In the rush for TRPs, the serious task of vetting candidates and
letting issue based politics take prominence has been given a miss. Gossip about candidates and their personality
is played up. Verbal volleys among candidates, party satraps & journalists
have replaced soaps as primetime viewing. Scandal, filth and the most banal aspects of
competing candidates have been listed and faithfully regurgitated as ‘breaking
news’ with unswerving dedication in the guise of comprehensive coverage. The
media has become kingmaker instead of becoming a voice for the Indian citizen.
The positive
outcomes of the 2014 election coverage are that
a)
Media has played a key role in voter awareness
by providing information on local, regional & national issues.
b)
The clarion call to go out and vote has been loud
and clear this election season. The need to ‘make your vote count’
has been played up on TV, print, radio & online with the Election Commission
leading from the forefront.
Whether
the Indian media is providing clarity to the Indian voter on the choices he/she
needs to make while electing candidates or simply serving confusion is
debatable and defendable – based on which side of the media fence you are on. While media has
indeed brought more awareness on the need to vote, too many cooks have spoiled
the main dish - serving up unwanted, unnecessary information, adding clutter
and chaos to an already shrill & polarizing election.
To sum
it up, Indian media coverage of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections has
been hijacked by commercial considerations rather than the practical need
to present Indian voters with well balanced facts, analysis and objective
reporting. Clarity
has been sacrificed in favour of paid information doled out in tera-byte size
servings of confusion; way beyond what the viewer or reader can rationally
digest.
The biggest
casualty is the Indian citizen who feels betrayed that the
fourth estate is no longer striving to uphold solemn constitutional processes
and has given in to a primal desire to promote what sells and what pays. Only a
thorough judicial inspection and constitutional review of the Indian media’s
rights and responsibilities to the nation will ensure that we get a fair deal. ‘Media kitchen
cleanup underway’ makes for good headline copy!
(The above article was my submission on April 17th, 2014 for the Super Journo Contest conducted by St. Paul's Institute for Communication Education (SPICE) and has been therefore written in Indian / UK English. Any spelling variations are intentional and deliberate.)
