This post was published nearly a year ago on this blog. There could be no better time to re-publish it.

Media coverage of the issues that have salience with the consuming classes has increased

BY P. SAINATH

We are in the middle of the greatest agrarian crisis seen in this country since the Green Revolution. Millions have left their villages for other villages, towns and cities in search of jobs which are not there. Eighty lakh people quit farming between 1991 and 2001. Did the Indian media do this story? Here are the basic assertions I make in connection with the media and the agrarian crisis. One, the fundamental feature of the media of our times is the growing disconnect between the mass media and the mass reality. Two, there is a structural shutout of the poor in the media. Three, there is a corporate hijack of media agendas. Four, of the so-called four estates of democracy, media is the most exclusive and the most elitist. [Read more →]

Wide Screen (link) the online, peer-reviewed, open access journal on screen studies is now launched. The inaugural issue was published last week. The editors are thankful to the academics and practitioners on our editorial and advisory board from over nine countries whose wholehearted support was without cavil. Each is an academic or a practitioner of outstanding international standing and without their support, Wide Screen should be still-born. The journal follows exacting standards of blind peer-review and draw from a large pool of experts who act as reviewers. In this opening issue, they have helped to put together a collection of research papers and critical essays that propose new areas of study or re-problematise films. At the same time interviews with practitioners from different parts of the world provides a much-needed counterpoint to academic theorising. The first issue is divided into four parts: a) essays; b) interviews; c) film reviews. For your support and critique.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “sales of Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography and apologia for his anti-semitism, are soaring in India where business students regard the dictator as a management guru.” (Link)

(Guest Post by Daipayan Halder)

“Love is not the greatest glue between two people in love. Sex is.” Tarun Tejpal says in his debut novel The Alchemy of Desire. Anurag Kashyap seems to agree. Kashyap’s DevD, a modern-day avatar of Saratchandra’s flawed but enduring Devdas, says at the end of the movie he never loved Paro. He hadn’t even seen her properly. It’s Dev’s moment of truth. Dev and Paro had never slept together, they made out yes, but never fucked. Was it then unfulfilled desire cut short by a conflict of egos masquerading as true love? Maybe. And therein lies the rub. DevD is not a film on love. [Read more →]

Thanks to the various laws in India, which are archaic… bloggers have to face the wrath of all and sundry. According to a Times of India report, a Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam ruled that it could not quash criminal proceedings against Ajith D brought about by Shiv Sena activists who were not pleased by the comments about the party in an Orkut group that he launched. According to the Times of India:

Petitioner Ajith D had started a community on Orkut against Shiv Sena. In this community, there were several posts and discussions by anonymous persons who alleged that Shiv Sena was trying to divide the country on region and caste basis.

Read report here

The Telegraph however, framed the issue differently, calling Ajith’s Orkut community a “hate site”, on which death threats had been posted (read here).

A Hindustan Times report says Indian government officials have been ordered not to use free webmail, online photo sharing, social networking and other such services that might compromise security. Chinese hackers are believed to be one of the sources of intrusions into government computer networks. Read here

In a media-saturated and media-consuming world, is terrorism a “noun” or a “verb”?

“Kill one person and frighten ten thousand” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War (circa 500 BCE).

In the above quotation by Sun Tzu lies the kernel of my arguments. I would like to begin by outlining that this essay does not claim to be a conclusive and unproblematic argument about terrorism and the media. Though I am acutely aware of its limitations, it should not stop us from engaging in intellectual speculations about the nature and discourse of terrorism and the manner in which it is articulated in public and private spheres. I stress the word speculation because I begin with the assertion that though a widely used term, social “truth” is an elusive one (truth as in material and empirical facts). It is not my objective to play philosophical tricks, so let us try to tackle a simple proposition: if a group of religiously motivated individuals’ objective is the undermining of liberal societies and they achieve this by exploiting modern technologies, social networks to evade the law, cause destruction, and operate with impunity, what should be the response of a “liberal” society? Should it engage in a widespread program of surveillance and controls? Would it then continue to be a “liberal” society? Playing the devils advocate, I could pose a counter question. If we did not exercise controls and track every individual, wouldn’t the terrorists take over the society. Here lies the problem. Terrorism is not a phenomenon new to the 21st century. As evidenced by Arthur H. Garrison in his study of 18th, 19th, and 20th century terrorists — from Maximilien Robespierre, Johann Most, bin Laden, the Army of God, the Animal Liberation Front to the Earth Liberation Front — there has been no change in the idea of terrorism as a tool of social change over the last three centuries (see Garrison:2004). Though his cause, techniques, and destruction may be different, Osama bin Laden’s use of terrorism is for no different purpose from that of Maximilien Robespierre. [Read more →]

Canadian newspaper Toronto Star reports that Jet Airways has been issued a warning over its inability to detect Indian passengers travelling on fake passports. Read here. Read UPI report here. Except for Rediff.com, no media outlet has picked it up yet.

My guest post at the blog World Through Coloured Glasses (link)

Read it here, here . Of course, none of the Indian newspapers gave it any importance. Last year Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt got the awards and this year Shekar Gupta of The Indian Express has been given the award.