A media, more user friendly

As far as the Indian media is concerned, it has played a vital though unscripted role in our recent spate of disasters. During the tsunami, it vividly brought home the scope of the devastation, ran appeals for aid, and messages from family members of those feared affected. At the time of the Mumbai floods, it was, for many, the only source of information in the paralysed city; it relayed news of danger spots, it flayed the lackadaisical administration for its negligence and issued warnings about potential epidemics. More recently, over the last week in fact, the media has highlighted the lack of aid and relief operations for victims of the earthquake in Kashmir and opened up its valuable communication resources for survivors to trace family members; one man even learnt about the death of his brother and his family on live television.

These acts of humanitarian intervention are in keeping with a growing trend in the media that, in the absence of a formal term, can be called user friendliness. It is a trend evident in the growing shift in the self definition of the media from being mainly a provider of news and analyses to being, increasingly, a provider of services. Admittedly, this is not an entirely new role. Newspapers, for instance, always carried entertainment listings, obituaries, weather reports, advertisements for products, jobs, and matrimonial alliances and also issued charitable appeals at times of national crises. Over the years, however, this particular function of the media has become far more significant than it was before. Consider, for instance, the number of shopping guides, ‘how to’ pieces and entire sections devoted to advice on money, property and so on; the twenty-four hour television channels devoted to guiding investors on the stock market, shows on gadgets and signals from the occult.

All these reflect a shift in perception of the reader/viewer as an entity that is not just a citizen of the country and a part of the human race and, as such, interested in truth and news that would affect his own and the well being of his fellow men but also as a consumer, not just of products but also of services such as those provided by a government or, in the case of a disaster, the administrative machinery responsible for crisis management and relief.

It is a trend that is rife with implications for the media. For one, by marching into areas outside its traditionally perceived role of newsgathering, it opens itself to expectations that might be difficult to control. Last month, for instance, at a seminar conducted by a prominent Mumbai business school on the ‘Roles and Responsibilities of the Media in Disaster Management’, the audience expressed a strong sentiment favouring a pro-active role for the media in disaster management. Among the suggestions thrown up were, one, that the media should use its network of reporters and photographers to help relief operations and, another, that it should form an alliance with NGOs. On the face of it, all these expectations seem evidence of faith in the media, but are they compatible with the media’s need for objectivity and its primary function?

Past experience has shown the dangers of misplaced or exaggerated expectations. In the eighties, the public, frustrated by the degeneration of the political process, invited the judiciary to make incursions into the realm of the legislature through public interest litigations. Some years later, it heaped its hopes on the Election Commission. The good they did was undeniable but politics has continued to slide and both institutions have been tested beyond their capacities in the process.

Today the media’s size and pervasiveness makes it extremely influential but also brings about new temptations. In the past, such temptations were considered a matter of concern. The media’s relationship with the state, for instance, including issues such as whether it was right to accept government favours and how much time should be reserved for public interest messages from state heads, were avidly debated. In this age of mass media, the media’s relationship with the public, though seemingly innocuous, should be a matter of equal concern.