By Shaik Zakeer Hussain,
The mass Media in India and elsewhere is corporate owned, and like any corporate owned entity, its sole purpose is to generate profit and to push forward its interests into the ‘mainstream’. And beyond doubt, it has been successful in both. The media, like any ingenious manipulator crafts its words and designs its programs with sparkle and glitter, to control our understanding, and to evoke emotions.
Many of us, who have access to news and information at our fingertips, might disagree, we might, perhaps argue that, today we have tens of news channels with different news presenters debating on a variety of topics. We have hundreds of newspapers and magazines, from where we take information from, and therefore we are not only well informed, but are also well equipped, from falling into any propaganda trap.
That might be true, but let us see. Take the example of the recent controversy surrounding the film Vishwaroopam, some Muslim groups protested against the stereotyped imagery of Islam and Muslims depicted in the film and wanted it either banned or some of the ‘inappropriate’ scenes deleted. The media erupted in fury, and skillfully crafted the phrase, “cultural emergency” for terming what it called the ‘intolerance against freedom of expression’.
Through its satellite wizardry, it began to inject and successfully create a notion that, protesting against films or any form of art, irrespective of what it conveys, is backwardly and savagery. Without drawing any suspicion, it made an impression in the minds of its viewers that, the so-called freedom of expression is reserved for a certain class, and others have no right to question it. It scorned at the legitimate concerns of the protestors, whose only reason for doing so was, that depicting Muslims or at least some as ‘terrorists’, and suggesting that they inculcate hatred in children, would build a negative concept in people’s minds, and that concept will influence their behavior and thoughts without any valid ground.
Let’s look at Pragaash, an all girl’s rock band from Kashmir. When news started circulating on Twitter and Facebook that the band members had called it quits, following threats and abuses online, and a fatwa from the grand mufti of Kashmir, the media gave it so much hype, that it looked like, all of Kashmir’s problems revolved around the band and its salvage. One might ask, what’s wrong with it. We will see.
MC Kash is one of the most popular rap artists from Kashmir. In 2010 he released the song "I Protest", the song was about the unrest and the killing of innocent youths in Kashmir and human right violations by local security forces. The studio, where the song was recorded was raided by the police, and MC Kash was threatened by the administration, as it deemed the song ‘seditious’. The national media never reported it.
This blatant hypocrisy is what is wrong. The media only reports what it wants to report. The mission of the media is to please, it is to entertain and make itself marketable, and it will do anything to be marketable.
The media often paints false pictures of the world it lives in, pictures hand crafted to serve its corporate pay masters and to make its world (nation) look good. It creates an illusion to satisfy most of the people - its consumers, if you will, most of who do not want to acknowledge reality.
The corporate media needs to be challenged; the people whose voices are sidelined have to create independent spaces for them to be heard, and thanks to the marvel of technology, it is very much possible, than ever before.
(Shaik Zakeer Hussain is an independent writer and blogs at Mashaal.in)