Where are we headed?

So you have got that much-desired senior reporter title and the beat you are experienced in. Salary matches your lifestyle and then there are some crumbs left to put in the Small Investment Plan (SIP). You miss stories couple of times a week but it’s not that bad- good exclusives level off the slump. You are still far from being that old hag journo who is now writing tit bits for some horribly-unknown broadsheet. In your late 20s, you still have lot of time and stamina to carry on with the profession. But does your job have that kinda stamina to carry on? What if the profession runs out of steam before you do?
It was in the late 90s that English dailies in India decided to realign themselves. Introducing newer clever designs, westernised style of reporting and hiring contract workers rather than Wage Board journalists, they went on to capture young readers. Hindi publications followed suit but with a time gap of 5-10 years.
A decade after the first experiment, things are about to change again with TV news, Internet and mobile making inroads at places where newspapers may take years to set up a printing press.
That’s what is happening across the world starting from US. Going by the pace at which we are catching up with the West, it would not take long for the trend to get to our share of pie. With Internet giants like google and yahoo offering news for free across the world on computers and mobile devices, paper may soon face the brunt.
In Britain around 70 local papers have shut down since the beginning of 2008. Among the survivors, advertising is dwindling, editorial is thinning and journalists are being laid off. Technology has earlier phased out several popular products like typewriters, cassette players and landline phones. Television news has taken over the newspaper space and lesser time available with people means they watch more TV or read news on cellphone.
But can you really compare these mediums with a newspaper. Journalists investigate and criticise governments, thus helping voters decide whether to keep them or sack them. With sting operations out of TV news, they have nothing else but to give spot news and have a panel of members discuss issues already debated. In newspapers, pressure is always for exclusives, journalists work overtime to build sources, meet them every other day and do investigations. Power of the written word is still strong as all public offices manage news clippings concerning them, letters to editor is still the best option for readers to present their views since TV has less time for them and nobody knows how blogs are read, by whom and from where.
Newspaper companies are trying to ride the wave by launching web editions and offering services on blackberries, but they are yet to find a business model for that. With Google and Yahoo offering free news, they can’t yet ask for charges from readers. But they have to find out a way soon. India, meanwhile, seems to be lax on this front. Recent statement of India Today group chairman Aroon Purie at a London conference sums up the mood. “I hope that this (business) model is sorted out in the West and by the time it comes to us we have it all up and running,” he said. This blatantly means we would continue to ape the West both in progress as well as decay.
India, however, has one unexpected advantage- that of large number of illiterate citizens who can be potential market for the newspapers if we know how to sell. Hindi and regional newspapers have already taken the bait and are rising in numbers as well as circulations. English papers are catching school students forcing on them a habit to read by offering discounts.
The growing influence of so many news sources can be gauged from the fact that we have lesser news in common to discuss at tea time. We all have different sources and differnt news to quote. But does not that translate into more job avenues? It’s all very ironic.
Future feels uncertain, the only surety remains we would have news which is different from present just like present is different from past.

Photo courtesy- www.raingod.com

Only affirmative collective action can save India

I was very much impressed by Arvind Kejriwal's. From his work on RTI to the recent campaign for Swaraj, he has shown his strong motivation for people's rights. Streetpolls in Delhi are dotted with posters seeking Swaraj. So this time it's just reproduction of what he wrote for IBNlive--

Despite aggressive "Go out and vote" campaigns and thousands of Mumbaikars thronging Mumbai roads to express their anger at 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the voter turn-out in Mumbai actually decreased rather than going up. It is easy to blame the middle-class as lazy. But a deeper analysis would show that the people actually do not see a connection between voting and a solution to their problems. In the last sixty years, almost every political party and leader has been tried. But things have gone from bad to worse. People do not see elections bringing any change. They vote and then plead before the same people the next five years.


For example, can you as a citizen do anything if a school teacher does not turn up to teach at your local government school? If a doctor in a government hospital does not attend to patients? If a ration-shopkeeper is siphoning off ration supplies? If a policeman does not respond despite repeated complaints? If the engineer colludes with the contractor and makes a road which wears off within a few days? If a sweeper does not turn up for work and your area remains dirty and unhygienic?


All we can do is complain to higher authorities. In all likelihood, these individuals don't care to act on our complaint. In short, we have no control over the teachers who don't turn up to teach at government schools, or janitors who sweep the road, the ration-shopkeeper, the government-hired contractors, the politician, the policemen or the bureaucrat.


And that's the reason why, 62 years after Independence, there is so much illiteracy, there is so much poverty. So many people die of simple diseases like TB and so many others go hungry while roads are broken and cities are filthy.


This has to change. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to give complete power to the people. He stood for swaraj. He said, "Twenty people sitting at the Centre cannot run true democracy. That should be run from the bottom by the people from each village...The centre of power today is located in Delhi, Calcutta or Bombay i.e. in big cities. I want to distribute it amongst seven lakh villages in India."


But this is not what we got after Independence. Swaraj is about giving direct control over all local affairs to people's assemblies - mohalla sabhas in urban areas and gram sabhas in rural areas. These sabhas would have complete control over funds, functions, functionaries and land in their area.


These assemblies would meet every month and take decisions regarding all issues in their area. Decisions taken by these assemblies would have to be implemented by elected representative and bureaucrats. People's assemblies would have the power to recall elected representatives and penalize bureaucrats if they act against the will of the people.


The people's assemblies would have complete control over all public funds spent in their area. The people would have power to spend public funds in such a manner that no one starves, no one is homeless, no one is illiterate and no one goes without adequate health care in that area. Why should the schemes related to our lives be made in Delhi or state capitals by some politicians and bureaucrats who have no clue about our problems? The people should have the power to plan for their own lives and surroundings.


Therefore, the people, through people's assemblies should directly manage all affairs of their area, which can be managed at their level. Only such issues which cannot be managed at their level will go to higher levels of government.


If a majority of gram sabhas and mohalla sabhas in a state vote for a particular issue, the state government should implement it even if it requires legislative amendments. That would be true democracy -government by the people. This would be swaraj. This is self-rule. This is Lok Raj.


This is how it used to be since the Buddha's times until 1830. The villages were run by the people assemblies. Those who invaded India merely took control of the central government. Villages continued to be governed by village assemblies. But after 1830, the British demolished this system and introduced collectorates taking away all power from the people handing it to the British bureaucrats. Unfortunately, we did not restore the powers back to the people after Independence.


Today, in many countries like the US, Switzerland, Brazil etc, people collectively take decisions on all local issues in people's assemblies.


For urban areas, the Central Government recently sent a draft Nagar Raj Bill to all state governments, which seeks to create mohalla sabhas in urban areas, but does not give any power to them. After extensive consultations with various people and experts on this issue including Anna Hazare, Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Prashant Bhushan, S C Behar etc, a redraft of this Bill has been prepared to give complete control over local affairs of an area to mohalla sabhas. For Delhi, this Bill needs to be passed by Parliament. The important points and the complete draft of this Bill are available at www.lokrajandolan.org.


Swaraj Abhiyan is a campaign by several eminent citizens, NGOs, groups etc who are encouraging people to demand swaraj from the parties in these elections. They are encouraging people to vote for that party, which will bring in necessary laws to give swaraj.

Grassroots has already won it

So they are here again- promising moon, throwing cash and belittling rivals. But elections, everybody is telling us, is different this time. The nation is in a flux and so is its neighbourhood. From Pakistan to Bangladesh, from Lanka to Nepal, the whole subcontinent seems to be simmering up disaster.
So here we are the biggest democracy with inefficient leaders looking to choose again. They say it’s different because we had the Mumbai attacks, others say recession, and still others talk about ties with US. So, we have quite a lot to handle this time- with one vote all of us decide which way India should swing on terrorism, economic policies and international relations.
But helping us with that this time is the whole gamut of grassroots media, which seems to be firmly grounded after a long struggle all these years. Far sensible than its mainstream cousins full of rhetoric and sensational stories, it’s throwing up relevant issues and for a change offering solutions too.

So if we have Jaago re campaign which has registered more than 6 lakh voters explaining them the election process, Association for Democratic Reforms (http://www.adrindia.org/) is reaching out with affidavits of contestants letting people make informed choices.
Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal has also taken up the cudgels. After RTI, his new passion seems to be ‘Swaraj’, a thought which inspired a whole generation years ago on this very land. Campaigning through auto-rickshaw posters, street pole kiosks, and the Internet (http://www.lokrajandolan.org/), the organisation is warning politicians its supporters would vote for the party which promises to bring in legislation on self-governance. Self-governance would mean power to people on policy matters and greater accountability. Beginning this weekend, the organisation members would visit headquarters of all political parties asking if anybody cares for Swaraj.
The Election Commission also seems to be game for some curbs. Videography being done of every candidate’s political rally has raised quite a lot of heckles. Inflammatory speeches or cash distribution, all politicians are on the tape- but does that stop them from doing their bit? Unfortunately, it does not, but still something is better than nothing. They get the EC notice and news splashes - which is, well a just way to keep them on guard to some extent.

India is a true democracy and how do we know that? That’s because if we have all these pro-voting grassroots media, there is http://www.bleedindia.com/, which gives voice to the disgruntled. They don’t want to vote, they would rather thrown netas off their chairs and fling muck at them. A take on Times of India’s ‘Lead India’ campaign, which promotes voting, the website says nothing would change- the politicians would continue to fill their coffers and hence bleed India. It has got good number of supporters too.
So, it’s different this time for sure. We don’t know how decisive the turnout and its results would be, but grassroots media has definitely come of age. You never know- may be the script for next five years is being written by them right now. Wish it had happened earlier? Never mind- they are here to stay now.

Sex, sensibilities and the truth we own

Sex and sleaze makes the best recipe for media. May be that's why it's a relief when you encounter real people asserting their right to gender and sexuality. That Sunday evening could not have been spent in a better way than at the Habitat Centre.

A short film festival by the YP Foundation threw open a new sky of possiblities- of sheer grit and of really unreal dreams.
Life of a photographer chronicalling Indian gays lied close to underbelly of male sexual workers and their desire to be accepted. Yet another film had Miranda House girls sharing visions on same sex relations and intricacies of anything male.
'My Identity' tries to unravel just that- intricacies of men having sex with men (MSM) who crossdress for commercial sex. Talking about their natural tendency to love a male body, the film asserts their wish to have families and gain social acceptance. It also serves a volley to the entertainment industry for projecting homosexuals as an object of ridicule. "Most television programmes or films lampoon same sex relations. Some of us may behave like the way they show, but that's nothing to joke about. It's as natural for us to fall for a man as it is for straight men to fall for a woman. What's the big deal in that," asks Manoj, an MSM who helped Mukta Foundation produce the film.
Taking the thought further, 'Flying Inside My Body', a film by former Jamia University students, takes a different trajectory. It chronicles the life and thoughts of 53-year-old photographer Sunil Gupta in first person. The film goes back and forth into Gupta's life.
So we walk through his images of homosexual Indian couples clicked in 1980s to challenge the notion that same-sex tendencies exist only elsewhere- off the Indian shores. The effort was obviously to debunk the theories which remain as strong today as ever. A remark summarises his effort. "I had to emphasise that they are embedded within families. Outside world thinks they have to be feminine, perverts or pedophiles. I found nobody had photographed same-sex relations here making them a missing piece of history. India is quite a tricky place to be gay and being Indian. That is what motivated to take up the project," he says.
The film goes on to detail Gupta’s own struggle to assert his sexual preferences on his parents and friends who believed he has to be straight. Fighting HIV in latter part of the film, he again decides to break free of the victim tag associated with those living with HIV and that he does by being open about his status even with strangers.
Before the film ends, the protagonist has another point to make- that he can be old, sick but still desirable. This he does by posing nude. Here, however, the out-of-focus images give away the flimmakers' prejudices. They confess the same. "We wanted the movie to be more acceptable. The nude images could have put many a people at unease," says Sushmit Ghosh, one of the filmmakers. The sequence in a way does injustice to Gupta’s defying spirit.
Spirits flow high at Miranda House too as three students decide to get their hostel mates candid on their bodies and sexual preferences. No morphed faces, no fake names, which is why ‘Female Gaze’ seems so refreshing.
When girls start talking about physical abuse in public transport, they also point out their compulsions of wearing restrictive clothes. The film gets lighter as it muses about the not-so-secret but yet hushed up pleasures of people fiddling with their bodies.
Girls get chatty about sexual preferences with some pointing out being more comfortable with a woman. Male intricacies, they say, are difficult to predict. We can’t disagree. The film ends with a hostel party as the camera catches girls in slow motion seemingly out of any societal rules. It’s a different world in there, the film shows.

We wonder why it ceases to be that out here.

Note- The pic above is the famous "Liberty Loves Justice" pose. It's symbolic in several ways.

Can recession be good for media?

A friend says: "Recession is when you lose your job, depression is when I lose mine. " So, till we get into depression, let's talk about recession.

It's bad times. Ya everybody knows that but it was believed there won't be much impact on media. But recent developments, starting with Saakal Times Delhi office lock out, seem to indicate a bleaker future. While NDTV's Metro Nation decides to take a final bow, Metro Now has started downsizing in every aspect- staff, pages and beats besides shedding the daily tag to see the print on weekly basis. They are penetrating deep into streets and mohallas of Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida avoiding the bigger picture. Definitely, they don't have competition there, but neither would they have big advertisers.

An interesting fact is that while biggies like HT, TOI and Dainik Bhaskar decide to reduce pages, cut perks or sack staff, Indian Express seems to have largely remained untouched (except reduction in pages at some centres). The reason- insiders say- that it never got much corporate revenue. IE continues to get government tenders on which it has thrived on for long. So, it has not been that badly hit.

This gives birth to a thought- should Indian media be free of market influences and return to the age of socialism? Revenue has more importance over readers today with people in management and marketing spelling out news. We also have FDIs now, which obviously depend upon markets abroad.

The way media industry has expanded from handful of national language newspapers to regional dailies, lithography to digital printing, Doordarshan to CNN-IBN, things have moved on to mean better quality (of the paper and design), pay structures competing with other professions and deeper penetration. To cover a country like us, we really needed money, which the market has been eager to offer.

And we are also able to insert the meaningful journalism in bits and parts while pursuing greater revenue goals. Jessica Lal case stands as the best but not the only testimony. But are we prefering quantity over quality here? Sting operations are thankfully out, but media houses have outrightly rejected any proposal for regulation in its coverage.

At the time when media is campaigning for accountability of judges, it's not ready to put its own house in order. The marketing gimmick has also given rise to a tribe of journalists who feel power, galmour or fame are the only outcomes of dispensing news. Many of them either exhibit false pride in the press card or gain favours. Blackmailing and extortions are also not uncommon.

Lack of accountability also promotes malpractices within the industry. The way media houses chuck out people and believe that labour issues only exist elsewhere, the current scenario is dismal. Recession has in fact provided us an opportunity to cut the weed. Reinventing the wheel maynot be possible since the industry supports lakhs of people and influences many more. But at least the imbalance that has persisted over last several years can be corrected. May be it's about time editorial gets its due share when the chips are down.

The Mail Today story

From MidDay to Mail Today- the Indian tabloids have gone for a piggyback ride on the increasing spending power of country's middle class. Interestingly, that's what all commercial products are doing- making the newly-discovered "wealth" go round (wealth should be taken in pre-recession context)

With a large English-speaking population game for a lifestylised newspaper, it's no surprise the country is taking to the new experiments with open hands. It's interesting how the Mail Today story actually began.

Thomas Jacob, pursuing a course at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, wrote a thesis identifying a niche in India for a tabloid newspaper targeting mid-market English readers.
His sponsors for the MBA programme in Singapore, Associated Newspapers of Britain, liked the idea so much that they prepared a 48-page prototype edition.
They took the dummy to New Delhi and called on Aroon Purie, chairman of the India Today group. He was impressed enough with what he saw to ensure a deal was in place within weeks, heralding the birth of Mail Today Newspapers Pte Ltd.
The tabloid is an Indian version of Britain's mass-circulated Daily Mail, published by Associated Newspapers. In the one year that it has been around, the sassy tabloid has achieved a circulation of more than 110,000 copies.
It seems to have exceeded the expectations of the promoters. Jacob, who is now a Singapore permanent resident representing Associated Newspapers on the joint venture's board, says the only problem the tabloid is facing right now is the constraint of a printing press. With good promotional campaigns, the demand is on rise, but there is a huge waiting list for printing presses.

Thought to think of- Why we have all the tabloids beginning with a letter M- MidDay, Mail Today, Metro Now and if you will so- Mint? Don't know how far the M trend would go on.