Coming to a small screen near you

There is no doubt about it, the big news of the future is news itself. Nowhere has this fact been more vividly conveyed than by recent event...

There is no doubt about it, the big news of the future is news itself. Nowhere has this fact been more vividly conveyed than by recent events in Iraq where the media, its role, its performance, its impact—all appear to have been as significant to the outcome of events as the actions of the combatants themselves.

The interesting thing about the phenomenon, though, is that nothing has gone quite as predicted. If the US and its allies appeared, in the beginning, to have staged a PR coup by providing state of the art communication facilities and a ringside view of the invasion to journalists; they also faced the repercussions of openness when embedded journalists, who were supposed to cover the glorious advance of the coalition, ended up writing about brutalities inflicted on the Iraqi populace instead. If the colossal might and reach of the western press implied that the battle for hearts and minds would be won without a struggle; the tenacity of the Al Jazeera network revealed how mistaken such an assumption could be. If the US establishment believed that the evocative shots of Saddam Hussein’s statues being pulled down by eager crowds would provide the final vindication of its stand then reports in the British press and the internet about the doctoring of pictures to magnify the extent of public enthusiasm must be causing it a certain amount of discomfort.

At every step the expected impact of propaganda has been contradicted and turned on its head. Take the terminology, for example. If the media eagerly lapped up the high sounding rhetoric put out by the Bush administration; there were many, such as entertainer Jay Leno, who made fun of it (‘‘they wanted to call it Operation Iraqi Liberation till they realised it was an acronym for OIL’’). Consider also, the numbing impact of too much information and the tendency towards trivialisation through sheer excess and you will find that people bombed out by news are now being provoked to question the correctness of previously sacred establishments such as the BBC in giving so much attention to the invasion of Iraq.

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Truth follows the lie follows the truth follows the lie in a never-ending sequence, definitions of both, of course, being partly dependent on which side of the coalition fence you belong. It will be some time before a clear picture of the media’s impact emerges and when it does it is possible that one side will appear to have won the propaganda war in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. On the other hand, it may be that the other side has won the long term war vis-a-vis the short term war. The only inescapable conclusion is that in a world overrun by media, no side can completely escape scrutiny. On the other hand it is open to question whether anybody cares.

All these developments are of particular relevance to India at this time, poised as we are in the midst of an apparent media blitz. Four new 24-hour Indian news channels and, if I am not mistaken, an Asian news channel, have made an appearance in recent weeks on our television screens. This is in addition to existing international, national, regional and local channels and an increasing focus on news on other regular channels. Too much information? You bet. Needless to say that before one can get used to this surfeit of khabar, inflated cable costs and set top boxes will have become a reality and most of us will be forced to make a selection. And yet, even on a reduced scale, we will still be inundated by news, news and more news.

It is possible that households will awake to a television channel’s signature tune as they did to Akashvani in the days when radio ruled. It is possible that increasingly television news will determine our priorities, shape our consciousness and be the subject of our daily conversation. What will this television-ised future look like? Will the result be greater trivialisation, for instance, more Bollywood, more fashion, more pop stars and certainly more petty politicking than you would ever want to know about? Most likely.

On the other hand, it is equally possible that the competition for audiences will spur channels to outdo each other, to leave the studios where many, our politicians in particular, have shown themselves to be adept at manipulating the media, and go out in search of hard stories. It is possible that a multitude of cameras will focus attention on public officials and make them accountable. It is possible we will see Tehelka type exposes.

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The problem is exactly that everything and its opposite is possible. And it is coming soon, to a screen close to you.