The Power that Media Reigns
Recently an iconic news maker News Corp was in the news for not a good reason though. The media mogul Rupert Murdoch is accused of being involved in the phone-hacking scandal which brought down the head of the goddess of freedom to expression. Murdoch and Co. are accused of hacking phones of many biggies in the government and outside as well in the United Kingdom and other countries which brought the fact that the media group has become so influential that it had a strong say in government forming that goes beyond reporting the facts of current happenings around the world to the fore.
This initiated a discussion that whether the media houses can reign such an influence in every country. With the fact that some years back Rupert Murdoch of News Corp was trying to buy The Times of India an English daily which has the largest circulation in the world, the fear grows more whether the same media could influence the Indian society in a similar way. Or whether the media in India too can have such a strong say in government forming.
But this does not seem to be possible in India. Western society is singular in many respects, while Indian society is plural and that the traditions and cultures in India are overlapping. An immigrant in the United States starts imitating the lifestyle of Americans and becomes easily identifiable with American society and its culture, Sunny Leone and the like are its examples. Uniformity moulds the society. It is therefore easy to create a world of certain thought, while meeting the demand of the people in the long run. And the thought process switches; the thought of the media becomes the thought of the people.
While in India a new community emerges out very often and starts voicing for its own identity and rights, a sub-community from a community and a sub-culture from a culture, which leads to the shaping of the identity of a new thought, ideology, and requirement. Dozens of castes (read community) came out from four main castes, these dozens of castes further gave birth to many sub-castes. Now there are thousands of castes in India. Typically these castes keep on multiplying and many merge up with others. So if you keep hold on some castes for a period, you may lose control over the same castes as they would have divided themselves into further hundreds or many might have merged and vanished after some time. So it is not possible to keep on meeting the demand of a community for a long period. Therefore it is difficult to dent the Indian society towards a certain idea and hold it for too long because the demand of the people varies over a period of time.
The Western society is largely sliced between overt ideologies, whereas Indian society is an accumulation of various covert ideologies, which is evident in the post coalition system of political society.
No single media house in India can satisfy the need of the entire Indian population, as they do not have a uniform requirement. A media house meeting the requirement of a community may not be as famous among other communities. For example, The Times of India is the single largest selling English daily, its Hindi version Navbharat Times is far behind its counterparts, Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran on the other hand. This means that the same reporting ideology of English newspaper does not and cannot work for the readers who prefer Hindi as their language. Importantly newspapers and magazines in regional languages meet the requirement of the regions better than those media houses which are national in nature. Away from regional concern means away from the concern of the people, and away from their reach.
Nevertheless we cannot write off the indirect influence of the media, both print and television, on the people. There are many examples when media’s pursuance have proved to be too influential and brought good results. The cases of Jesica Lal, Rathor scandal, Nupur murder and many others might have been settled in a different way but the pursuance of the media ensures justice to a good level. Some years back a boy, named Prince, fell in a well and the media owes the credit to have moved the government to rescue the boy who was brought alive from the well. Otherwise it is difficult to think that the government could have made such efforts to save a child of no power. The movement of Anna Hazare against corruption got a strong momentum only with the support of media which broadcasts all the happenings live round the clock when Anna is on fast unto death.
CLRI Reviews November 2011 Released
CLRI Reviews November 2011 issue is out now. This issue includes reviews and new releases.
Send your releases, we will include them in the next issue.
Contemporary Literary Review: India Print Version
Contemporary Literary Review: India (CLRI) is to bring out its most awaited annual print version for the first time in January 2012. Though CLRI has planned to bring out the print, Kindle, Nook and Pothi editions quarterly beginning January 2012, this print edition January 2012 will be the first issue.
The CLRI print version will include selected materials published with CLRI online the last year, 2010. In addition to the already published materials, CLRI print version will include some previously unpublished materials—unique to it—arts, models photographs, and editing suggestions such as how to edit creative writings to improve them, a very new concept for a literary journal.
We seek your best submission for the print version of CLRI, in addition to submission for CLRI online.
Important:
CLRI also wants to publish two photos of two models—one male and second female—in its center stage. The models should be media virgin, the models should not have appeared in any type of media including print journals/magazines, Web site, online portals, blogs or any other public domain till January 2012. The photographs should have exotic background, sensual representation of the models, aesthetic beauty, and arts. But no nude pictures please!
For other submission, please visit our Web site: Contemporary Literary Review: India
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Pushcart Award Nominees Announcement
Contemporary Literary Review: India will soon announce its Pushcart Award nominees. (However CLRI will nominate its writers only if suitable candidates are found.)
Contemporary Literary Review: India Print Version Has Got ISSN
With great pleasure we would like to share that the forthcoming print version of Contemporary Literary Review: India (CLRI) has got its ISSN number, which is ISSN 2250 - 3366. The writers whose works appear in the print version may quote the ISSN number in their publication credits. Please note this ISSN is only for the print version
Editor, CLRI, December 2011.
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