December 2007 Edition
Umesh Anand
New Delhi
THE media mirrors what we are. It also drives and shapes us. Opinions differ
on how much it should do of either and in the best oftimes it is a delicate
balance. When economies lurch in transition and seek new trajectories of
growth, the media invariably gets caught up in the flux.
In the past decade in India, as economic liberalisation has brought market
forces into full flow, the media has been subjected to large doses of commercialisation.
It is no secret that advertisers and business interests that own media have been increasingly deciding what gets put out as news and views. There is a rush to be celebratory and an unwillingness to cover inconvenient issues. The result is a steady fall in the skills of journalists. There are more journalists reporting on the social sector beats today than there were 10 years ago. But there is less and less worthwhile output to show for their efforts.
The quality of coverage of health and medicine, environment and education doesn’t address the current complexities of these areas. It is not as though the coverage of companies and stock markets is any better. We know very little about companies though they dominate our lives more than ever before. The business journalist seems satisfied with drawing heavily on what corporate communications departments have to say. In times of such drift, Nirmala Lakshman’s anthology of Indian journalism since Independence, Writing A Nation, is an important contribution. Ms Lakshman is one of the editors of The Hindu. The book has carefully chosen articles by India’s leading intellectuals, activists and journalists. It is divided into six themes: Constructing a democracy, Nurturing a free press, A divided society, Corruption and culpability, India and the world and A wealth of spirit. The anthology will serve as a lighthouse for the profession and stimulate and hopefully widen the discourse on the role of the media in getting democracy to work for everyone. Excerpts of an interview with Ms Lakshman.
What inspired you to bring out this anthology of Indian journalism?The first perhaps?
While editing The Hindu’s Sunday magazine I always felt that there is a lot of space in the media for background pieces that really reflect the state of the country. These are invariably on issues that don’t get discussed in the news pages for want of space so it was very fortunate that Rupa and I came together. It was always in the back of my mind that such a collection was needed to understand the media and the nation better. A lot of voices and excellent stories are lost in the daily grind of news and deserve to be preserved for posterity for what they tell us about our country. So when Mr Mehra of Rupa asked me to do such an anthology, it was something that I already wanted to do and I was happy to take it up.
How long did it take you?
It took me about two and a half years to put this collection of articles together. Your emphasis seems to be on development journalism. I have made it very clear that this is my vision and the choice of pieces is subjective. This collection in my view reflects what India is all about. There is a great need to go beyond mere superficialities of what political parties are saying and go deeper into issues. Its my vision of what journalism should be.
What were the criteria for selecting the pieces?
Democracy is work in progress. And it has always interested me to know how democracy works for everyone. Especially where there is a great diversity of people how do you give everyone a voice? Keeping this overarching theme in mind I chose six sub themes and looked for pieces. In the 60s and 70s I found very little. And so you will see my selection from these years is thin.
Why is that so of the 60s and 70s?
It is perhaps because of the continuing euphoria of independence which continued for about two decades. There was the excitement of India’s liberation, of becoming a world player, of the idea of non alignment. There was also this thing about the jute press monopoly so there weren’t so many players in the media. There were refugee issues, floods, drought, starvation, but all these were brushed under the carpet. The media saw itself as a partner of the government. It was the Emergency which provided a wake up call to the media. Yes that’s true. People in the media of those years and people in the government were much closer than they are today. It is a general perception that newspapers have been moving away from core areas as you mention.
What are the trends you see emerging?
I think culture has been so manipulated by mass media and the strength of advertisements TV, in particular, that there is a definite consumerist orientation. I think because of that people have become passive partners whether it is in rural and urban areas.
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