Friday, August 19, 2011
MEDIA & ANNA MOVEMENT: POINTS FOR ACTION
B.RAMAN
1.From "Dawn" of August 20,2011 on Karachi: "Anchors are seizing on it all, flogging the machinations to shore up flagging ratings.”
2. "Anything will be discussed, anything is fair game, as long as it doesn’t add up to informed or meaningful debate.”
3. " Informed, meaningful debate isn’t good for ratings."So says "Dawn" on TV coverage of Karachi.
4. Equally valid for Indian TV coverage of the Anna Hazare (AH) movement. A well-known columnist has compared the TV coverage of AH to its coverage of the Kandahar hijacking in 1999.
5. Creating illusions and street hysteria. Karan Thapar pointed out last night that Times Now reported that there were over 100,000 outside Tihar whereas the number could not have been more than 20,000.There is a need for a more critical focus on the role of the TV.
6. Unfortunately, Doordarshan (DD) has not risen to the occasion & made an impact as a public service TV channel.
7. DD has totally surrendered the field to private channels. DD's coverage of the parliamentary debate was the best, but nobody noticed it.
8. PM & others should make greater use of DD to disseminate their point of view and project their ideas & let private channels pick up from DD.
9. Govt should set up a group of journalists for a critical analysis of the role of the TV.
10. Twitter should be extensively used by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to disseminate Govt's views. Start today. Start Now.
11. We neglected media during Kandahar. Paid a price. Repeating the mistake now. Shed the diffidence. Choose the right persons as spokesmen.
12.Interact with media freely, frankly, trustingly & without complexes. Distrust begets distrust. (20-8-11)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter @SORBONNE75 )
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8 comments:
I do not think the private channels do not give space to the official voice. The govt functionaries have always been invited along with Anna Supporters to tell their views
Issue is not about PR or media coverage.This is a common logical fallacy that Cong supporters fall into,focus on form rather than substance.
The problem is that the Govt's Lokpal Bill is a piece of trash.Dont beleive me...Read it,compare it to Jan Lokpal.You will reach the same conclusion as I have.
Infact,Congress is dragging this issue deliberately to target certain of its own people within UPA 2,for political reasons and divert attention from Past and Present ie re-couping black money and scams like CWG and 2G.
It will backfire,like everything else has in the last 2 years or so...by splitting Congress..and eventually dis integrating soon.
Your tacit support to Govt/Congress & the media channels like NDTV & CNNIBN who also support congress, is too wellknown. Dont divert attention Mr Raman, lets talk about wiping out the corruption rather than the free press that do not act as a stooge of congress.
Oh honey! u wont change. be it as it may. what ever ur perceptions it wont alter the ground realities. see for ur self. dilli ab door to hain nahin.
one comes to the conclusion after reading u r points is that u congis r still not serious. never the less its irrelevant what u congis think. train station se nikal chuki hain. speed bhi pakad li hain. chalti gaadi pakadne jaoge, chances r that gaadi ke niche aagaoge. u decide
How could DD rise to the occasion and help the government? It has effectively been made a sacrificial lamb in the altar of corruption. Every government public service provider has been sacrificed to aid the growth of private companies. Now can they revive them overnight? Corruption hurts not just the people, it hurts the ruling class too. Its a shame they don't realize it.
Dear Mr.Raman, Your comment on this issue seems to be the result of your subconscious desire for order and a fear for a remote semblance of disorder and bold dissent against authority. You need to look inwards and ask the question, how long will people put up with this cancer of corruption with their mouths shut?
In a country where you have to pay a bribe to get any work done, from birth certificate to death certificate, how will the people react? It is fortunate that we have a leader like Anna who is able to unite young people in this non-violent struggle and rekindle people's hopes on Ahimsa. Today our young people are holding the tricolour in their hands. Can you imagine what they would hold if they don't have a guiding light like Anna?
Dear Sir, I admire that you are a prolific writer. This question is regarding the Kandhahar hijacking episode in 1999 (as you raised it in the current article). Could you please either reproduce on your blog (or provide us with a web link of) all the articles on the Kandhahar hijack episode that you might have submitted to press or any other publications - with the dates of submission?
I did follow the entire period of the hijack episode very closely on the media. My impressions from that time were: 1) NDA government would have faced a severely adverse public opinion if the passengers had been killed.
2) Initially, the hijackers had demanded release of 35 terrorists and $200 million. This and that a bargaining process was in progress were in public knowledge. As far as I remember, I did not hear any voice from anyone against the release of terrorists on TV news channels.
3) A covert action to eliminate the five hijackers/three released terrorists after the exchange was (and is even now) always an option.
Thank you.
More trash from the trashy old corrupt bureaucrat
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