By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Vice President of India Muhammad Hamid Ansari has said that the pursuit of profit has altered the profile of the media entrepreneur. Today, a media enterprise is seen as a necessary subsidiary for a growing business enterprise, a political party and even individuals seeking to leverage public influence for private gain, said he while delivering M.C. Varghese Memorial Lecture on “Indian Media in the new Century” here today.
On the other hand, Hamid Ansari said, deception, opaque flow of political information, or slanted economic data prevents political and economic actors from exercising rational and well considered choices. They impede the democratic process and could lead to public disenchantment.
The Vice President said that in a changed and changing world, “it would be useful to remember that vibrant journalism in a democracy is watchdog journalism. It monitors the exercise of power in the State and stands for the rights and freedoms of citizens. It informs and empowers citizens rather than entertains and titillates them. Vibrant journalism is based on professional ethics and should be the rule rather than the exception it has come to be.”
The Varghese Memorial Lecture series has been instituted by the Mangalam Group in the memory of its founder Late M.C. Varghese.
Elaborating on the topic of the lecture series, the Vice President said the Indian media today is indeed a new phenomenon. The statistics themselves are staggering. It is estimated that we have: over 400 million TV viewers, over 400 million mobile phone users, over 300 million newspaper readers, over 150 million listening to the radio and around 50 million using the internet.
“Media content has thus rapidly permeated our lives through various formats that are constantly being upgraded through new technologies. However, the most important change in this century is neither these mindboggling numbers nor the dazzling new technologies. The purpose of journalism and the objectives of media enterprises have undergone a fundamental change.”
Hamid Ansari threw light on how the media went through changes over the six decades.
“The pre-Independence period witnessed the use of newspapers for reform and emancipation and for advocacy in social and public discourse. The media also became a principal instrument in the fight against colonial rule and in consolidating our national consciousness. Political journalism was the staple and provided the sense of purpose.
In the post-Independence era, the media was caught between asserting the fundamental right of freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution and the pursuit of the commercial motive.
By the 1990s, our tradition of a free press had been firmly established. However, the winds of economic liberalization brought with them the elements of the market economy that have changed the DNA of our media organisations. Four of its principal features need to be noted:
First, there has been a rampant growth of broadcasting media, principally television, along with new delivery modes such as Satellite TV, Cable TV, Mobile TV, IPTV, etc. The print media too has grown and India is today estimated to be the world’s second largest print market. The phenomenon of convergence between news media, entertainment and telecom has meant that the demarcation between journalism, public relations, advertising and entertainment is rapidly eroding.
Second, it is now clear that amongst the pillars of democracy, it is only the Fourth Estate that has an identifiable business and commercial persona. Today’s media organizations are large business entities with thousands of employees and huge financial and other assets. Thus their primary professional duty to their readership has been diluted by the commercial logic of catering to the interests of the shareholders of the holding companies.
Third, commercial success of media organisations has become a function of advertising revenues rather than subscription and circulation figures. The advertisers have thus replaced the recipients of media products. By the same logic, circulation figures, meant to attract advertising, became more important than content.
Fourth, the pursuit of profit has altered the profile of the media entrepreneur. Today, a media enterprise is seen as a necessary subsidiary for a growing business enterprise, a political party and even individuals seeking to leverage public influence for private gain. On the other hand deception, opaque flow of political information, or slanted economic data prevents political and economic actors from exercising rational and well considered choices. They impede the democratic process and could lead to public disenchantment.
In this context, the recent practices of leveraging political and economic content in our media for overt and covert revenue generation have the malevolent potential to tarnish our polity and even destabilise the economy. This has led the Editors Guild and the Press Council to investigate the phenomenon of electoral malpractices of paid news and coverage packages.
The public purpose of journalism that guided us in an earlier era thus stands changed. How many of us remember that Gandhi ji was probably the first editor in the history of Indian journalism to have started a newspaper for the express purpose of breaking the law governing the publication of newspapers; or that he was also one of the first editors to be prosecuted for sedition.”
At the end of his speech, the Vice President drew attention to three questions on which, he said, introspection is necessary:
*Is there a public debate on issues of concern to the common citizen?
* Is sufficient media space given for the concerns of the marginalized, the dispossessed and the vulnerable?
*To what extent has our media contributed to upholding the social and political objectives of the Constitution?
[Photo by Merinews]