I started reading Malayalam newspapers early on, when i was in 6th grade or so. Ever since I am a proud news junkie:) My home, those days, was sort of like a hub for newspaper delivery men. The papers for our neighbors were also dropped off for them to pick up later. So everyday, my morning ritual included skimming through three or four different newspapers, till I really have to run to get to school before the final bell.
As I learned quickly, there is a lot of humor associated with reading more than one Malayalam Newspaper, daily. You will see a lot of conflicting reports that will make you laugh your a** off. You will hear many different climaxes to the same 'story' like that movie - 'HariKrishnans':) Thrilling reports on politics often leave the readers on edge, hungry for next dose of suspense. Anyhow, one thing that is guarantied from the Malayalam news media is that you will hardly ever read an objective News report!.
In fact, there is no such thing as objective reporting in Kerala. Facts are speculative. Sensationalism is the driving principle. Journalistic ethics are thrown into the garbage bin. Competition is so tight. Most of them cannot even survive another day without fabricated, dramatic, sensationalized pieces of 'stories'. They are like a bunch of hungry hyenas, so hungry for (negative) news. They will beat down any dead horses they can find . If they can't find real News, they will 'create' their own news (Ie. controversy). Often the violent political mobs of Kerala comes to their rescue, forming a dangerous partnership between the spoilers in politics and in news media.
Kerala politics is often compared to the act of "fishing in shady waters" ('kalakka vellathil meen pidutham').. Who are the ones helping to make the water shady for politicians?? Our media, who else??
Why is good Journalistic ethics is so hard to find here?? One main reason is that the owners of these media entities themselves have their own vested interests. Journalistic ethics, simply is not one of their top priority. In Kerala, if Hindu upper cast has a Newspaper representing their interests, so does the lower casts. Likewise, different factions within Christians and Muslims have their own media representations. Political parities of course have their own mouthpieces. All these media organization (that include virtually all media in kerala) are expected to act biased when it comes to reporting news that touches their core 'constituents' and often seen engaged in propaganda wars against each other. In this kind of environment, true editorial freedom simply cannot exist.. Much like in an unstable war zone, meaningful development cannot take place.
All these are costing our state a lot. Meaningless controversies, one after another, are ruining the prospects of the states development. Yes, we have some stupid politicians, but in the absence of responsible media, their negative effect on state's development is multiplied. Like the Malayalam saying, " eri theeyil enna ozhicha poleya" controversies grow here, once, media pick it up from idiotic politicians often acting on their own selfish interests. It is a quite pathetic situation.
No news media organization in Kerala has ever tested the water on the possibility of being truly independent ( with the lone exception of Indiavision which btw is not truly independent in appearance, since it has a political promoter). I am pretty sure if anyone comes forward, they will realize it is indeed feasible and profitable to invest in such an independent and credible news source in our state.
Malayalees indeed deserves better from our news media. We don't need another confused, indecisive, brainwashed generation. What we need is credible sources of objective perspectives and news.
For that we need:
- We need progressive, responsible journalists who will upheld the principles of their profession ( ie, by verifying sources before reporting news)
- We need journalist professional organizations that set standards to improve the quality of the profession... Instead of unions that only protect their selfish interests.
- We need at least one profitable media outlet, both in press and in TV, that has realized the value of being truly independent- both in fact and in appearance.
- We need trusted news wire agencies like Reuters or Associated Press that is involved in local news gathering.
-We may need quality standard organizations, to inspect and audit news media organizations.
- Our education system should prepare students to clearly distinguish different styles of writings such as subjective, objective, persuasive,etc so that a natural defence is built up among youths against common propaganda tactics..
PS: If you can, please try to contribute your suggestions to this list.thnks,
-Babin
THE 'SAVE KERALA' INITIATIVE
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
State of the Malayalam News Media
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19 comments:
It was my roommate who used to say that he doesn’t like to read newspapers rather he likes to create news. Though he doesn’t create any news, that was a good take on newspaper. I belong to that group of readers who used to read right from the Title to Edited and published section:D
M Krishnan Nair’s take on politics:
Q: What do you think about a person who says that he doesn’t know the name of Indian Prime Minister:
A: A genius
-GK
excellent post babin. this is something i have been thinking of writing about too. infact i totally agree that the malayalam media is the most irresponsible.
recent instance: during the recent student violence (violence unleashed by leftist student organisations, like the SFI and DYFI, against the SSLC paper issue - there was no leakage or any incident in the first place)the so called "student" goons burnt three vehicles, damaged innumberable public vehicles and injured scores of people. after all the rioting these goons went inside the university college and when police went after them, the management, including the prinicipal, denied permission for the cops to enter and locked the gate.
the police, under the command of the IG, detached the gate by removing a few screws in a very peaceful manner and continued the search operations.
within minutes, CPI leaders like Kodiyeri and Achu and all other clowns gathered. all the media people gathered around them. the statement was " Ommen Chandy's police has damaged public property ruthlessly by opening this gate"
and the media focussed on the gates, which looked the least bit damaged, while behind them were vehicles burning, damaged buses, broken windows and bleeding people.
anyway, i am sure despite all this there are thick skulled idiots who still want to vote such goons into power.
i would like to add just one more to your list, without which there is no point having anything else in your list:
we need people who can think for themselves, leaders who are more educated, voters who are sensible and a kerala willing to change.
I think it would be prudent to post this excellent MV Kamath article from the Pioneer.
--------------------------
Anatomy of Fourth Estate
by MV Kamath
THE INDIAN MEDIA: ILLUSION, DELUSION AND REALITY, EDITED BY ASHA RANI MATHUR
What is right - or wrong - with the Indian media? At last count the total number of registered newspapers in India stood at an astounding 55,780 and the total circulation of newspapers at 142 million printed in 101 languages! Right now India is in the midst of a media explosion. Not only are practically all newspapers doing well, Hindi newspapers like Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran are breaking all circulation records as is the Telugu Eenadu.
Yet doubts are being expressed at the manner in which "national" newspapers are functioning. As SV Sista and Jagdish Rattanani, have noted, currently the media is largely run by a breed of managers who have not been trained to have anything to do with, let alone understand, the complexities of journalism. A deliberate blurring of the lines is noted between the newsroom and the boardroom, the latter in command and the former reduced to a supporting role.
The fact that the glamour brigade has taken its toll on some senior members of the profession so that it is not uncommon to see, hear or read editorial leaders more out of their own news environment. Lack of investment on the news side is leading to a downgrading of journalists practising the trade with no prospect of their growth.
What on earth is happening to the Indian media? It is this subject that has been dissected with remarkable objectivity by a host of distinguished journalists and it is a pleasure to read them. The comments may sound sharp but they are basically fair. P Sainath, for instance, writing on the moral universe of the media, says "quite a bit of reporting on rural India now simply views people there as buyers". The bottom 400 million are not to be viewed as people but as a "difficult market to tap".
DN Bezboruah, former editor of the Guwahati-based The Sentinel notes in anger and sadness that "for the mandarin of New Delhi, the eastern limit of India has always been Kolkata, regardless of what the map of the country may indicate". Very rightly upshot he is at the thought that the so-called 'national' media in India has shown total apathy towards the problems facing the Northeast, calling it an "abiding injustice" adding that "the metropolitan media has remained a silent spectator to the total lack of industrialisation in the region."
Similarly Gowri Ramnaryan is extremely analytical of the print media asserting that few newspapers deal with cultural matters. As she puts it, "The editing desk has experts at work on the political columns, business and sports pages. But culture? Few publications think that expertise is required to edit the art pages. Here you have sub-editors who don't know raag from raas, tirmanam from tihaayi". Ramnayayan concedes that there may be competent editors but insists that they are there "by serendipity rather than by design".
Her complaint is that the entrance of a new brand of players, the business community, offers little hope, considering that corporate sponsorship is depends on market dynamics. As she puts it, "It sees culture as a means of publicity for consumer products (offering) no stability or security for the slow, long-term, patient nourishing of the arts". And she couldn't be more right.
That is indeed the complaint made by Sista and Rattanani when they make the point that "all flavours of non-journalistic talent, mostly of the consumer goods selling variety have undermined news operations and fattened selling operations". Raj Chengappa has another complaints, and that is against city supplements published by some of our dailies.
There is no question but that the media - specially the English media-is changing. But in which direction? AK Bhattacharya is concerned with the changing paradigms for media coverage of scams. According to him the belief that financial scams have increased with the onset of economic liberalisation is "completely mistaken".
Nothing, he says, could be further from the truth. What seems to be true is that newspapers in the pre-liberalisation era (the period prior to 1991) were less focussed on economic and business news. Barring the financial newspapers, general dailies would relegate most business or economic reports to an inside page. If a MP called Mudgal hogged newspaper headlines it was because he was a parliamentarian. But times have changed.
Time was when there was no clear editorial direction given on reporting financial scandals. The Haridas Mundhra scandal was the first financial scam that newspapers gave adequate prominence to. All these essays beautifully presented in this volume by Asha Rani Mathur are in honour of Prem Bhatia who was a journalistic icon in his times. He passed away in 1995, and it is in his memory that this fabulous volume has been put together.
Bhatia himself was an eager media watcher in his times and as early as in March 1994 had written in The Tribune, which he then edited an article on how proprietors were taking over the functions of an editor, Prem then asked: "Does such an arrangement not reflect an effort on the part of the proprietor to put the editor in his place, so to speak, by showing him that he is not indispensable?" Good question.
The same can still be asked, considering how many editors have now been all but marginalised. The Prem Bhatia Trust deserves to be congratulated for helping bring out this fabulous volume. It is critical and thought provoking. Above all, it tells us how things are in the media. Surely it is time that the truth, however unpleasant, is told. The only thing missing in this volume full of wisdom and honesty in on index. Integrity is all very well, but a book without an index is a geography text without a road map.
@ sherlock - dear friend, i dont think you should use names and malign any individual based on suspicions or hearsay. so kindly avoid naming individuals. i see in general malayalis like to plant suspicion into peoples minds and that then is enough to set of a series of gossips and protests.
nonetheless, as far as i know there is no connection except work between those individuals.
one is constructing a mega techpark in the state and the other is the chief minister. it is natural then they will have interactions. and incase they are related it doesnt mean that both have to stop living their life.
this sort of tunneled vision is so common in kerala.
let us say all the businessmen are getting favors from this government. so what? if at all they do, by way of these favors there are techparks, techcities, ports, airports, industries and plants coming to kerala. there is employment being generated. there is more work being created.
unlike the commies, the government is not building an empire for themselves and themselves alone. they are not making the rich poor, and poor poorer.
so why not for a change let us believe in hard facts. this government has struggled against this attitude and petty politics and has managed to give us some hope. like OC said let us give him another chance, another term during which he can build on the great initiatives.
he for sure deserves it.
nice pot and a very interesting follow up by anand. thanks to both..
on a different note.. i have always appreciated EMS Naamboodripad and his writings..i used to read his columns in the frontline mag..started from class 6 till he stopped writing forever!!! but again he was no journalist, so to say!!
Very interesting debate you got going here. I agree with you when it comes to the objectiveness of our media, in particular the local newspapers in Kerala. Malayalam dailies thrive on sensationalism and many a time borders on yellow journalism unfortunately.
@GK that is a good one.. sadly some news organizations are often involved in news creation activities as opposed to news reporting:P We need separation of duties in the media as well:)
@Mindcurry, Yep, that is a typical example of our medias responsibility to the political goons of the state. you are right about the people's part too. It is like a chicken and egg problemo.. Thanks for your insights as usual.
@sherlock Thanks for dropping by. About political gossips in general, I second what mindcurry said. One main problem in our state is that there is too much political gossips and there is no credible news source to help people weed out what is malicious gossip and what is fact:( We are probably gona see a lot more political gossips in this coming election season.. unfortunately, the local media, if its not reformed, is only going to promote the gossips as opposed to facts. In such an environment, there will not be any 'informed' voters!
@Anand, Thanks for that article.. It adds a wider perspective to the discussions here.
Generally, i have good words on the 'national' media, specifically, IE, NDTV, CNN-IBN.. I hope in the future, these companies will extend their expertise and credibility to the 'regional' markets through subsidiaries or through local media tie ups.
@Aashik, Yep, Can't forget Internet.. we ourselves are media professionals in a way right
@dewaker, Reading EMS's articles at 6th grade! sammathichirikkunnu..
@quills, Thanks for the comments. I think the more pathrams are there, the more yellow they all become.
BTW, Congress's Jai Hind TV and Manorma's MM TV are going to infiltrate the already crowed TV news media soon.. Like the malayalam saying, "mulline mulle konde edukkanam", Bias ne Bias konde edukkanam!! alle? grr
Ethra manoharamaaya, nadakkaatha swapnam!
This is the first thing came to my mind on reading Babin’s forward looking article on media of Kerala. Commendable it is, but sounds impossible.
Much has changed in Indian journalism, some for the good and some not so good. This good and bad can be attributed to the advent of a number of news channels like NDTV. If you watch these channels, you can feel the energy and robustness in their journalism. That is one good thing happened to Indian Media in the recent past. You could see a good number of youngsters running with camera and mike with an urge to deliver. But are these youngsters really driven by the love for their job? Doubtful and Questionable!! All are looking for “exclusive”ness”. The increased competition has redefined the word “exclusive”. If a channel has an interview with a politician in their studio, they will term it as exclusive. And within hours you would see the same politician giving a press conference on the same issue. Where is the exclusivity here?
But I am not blaming the media for this. The only reason being they are not biased to any political outfit. Even though they are not coming up with real exclusive story, they are not trying to support any political party or the government. In fact there were occasions where they openly criticized government and many other governmental agencies. If you watch any of the new generation English news channels, you can see at least one politician is being ripped off everyday. I have seen politicians like L.K.Advani, Sonia Gandhi etc struggling to answer the grueling questions form the interviewer.
Babin, my question is –Do you think that, our politicians/rulers will change even if we bring this kind of fairness in Kerala media?
I feel, an unbiased media will never be successful in Kerala. One reason is that, Malayalaees had never been fair-minded. Babin, You have been reading Malayalam newspapers ever since you were a kid. You had an opportunity to read more than one newspaper and could feel favoritism of each NP. But a lion’s parts of the mallu population do not understand the meaning of fairness, or even if they understand, they will not accept that. Look at mind curry’s response to this article. He himself is biased towards the UDF and not trying to find out if there is anything good in the agitations form the “leftist students”. Why is it so? If an educated youngster cannot think beyond an Omman Chandy or a Pinarayi Vijayan, how can you expect a media house-who is running for their return-on-investment (RoI)-to be truthful and unbiased.
Mallus are not ready to change their years old “political-love” and beliefs. They will always claim themselves to be educated and intelligent and will always select UDF and LDF to rule alternative terms. So the basic problem is with the public. There is no demand for true journalism from the public. The political system in Kerala works like a software, which follows a simple algorithm of selecting two parties (fronts) for alternative terms. There is no role media can play here. So they better be running for their profit.
I have only one solution to put-forward, a “united media”. I know it sounds mere foolish, but I feel there is a great strength hidden in that. Best example is the recent Jessica Lal Case. When the court acquitted the criminals who were involved in this, the media took the issue to the public. Now that there are all chances for the case being re-opened, Media has proved its value in the society.
Why can’t media do that in other politically/socially relevant issues in Kerala? I am not asking them to go after each and every corrupted politicians and bureaucrats in the state carrying a hidden camera and microphone. At least they can show us those issues, which have larger impact on the society. I strongly believe that such a move from media will definitely get some supporters among the public.
@ nair - what you say sounds very right, but what is the point?
you say i cannot think beyond OC or pinarayi (who i am not even thinking about). but can you? who is that? please let me know.
i admit i am biased towards UDF, because of solid reasons and facts, which i have elaborated plenty in my posts.
i am not saying UDF is the best..but of the lot they are the ones who have attempted to do something about kerala. so i wholeheartedly support them.
OC is good because he is trying to do something despite all the apathy.
its easy to sit back and watch, but if you were to take a decision you need to do make a choice based on facts. and as of now, if the choice is between OC and pinarayi, i would definitely choose OC. i cannot think that some day some great chap is gonna come along and until that day i will sit back and do nothing right? we have to begin somewhere. and if OC is the person doing the right thing currently, i have no qualms in openly supporting him.
well at the end of this, i feel its heading towards a one on one debate, which is not the idea here.
as much as i appreciate your views, i just have my own. thats all.
I have a new name for this blog...Mythbusters. Peope like me grow up reading text books extolling Kerala as a literate state, with female literacy at an all time high. We read about the hard working Malayali and the presumed state of bliss that is Kerala. That is why everytime I read a post here I get a minor shock. One of the most enduring myths about Kerala among us NRK's is the strong Kerala Press.We have been bought up to believe that the Press is free, unbiased and the newspapers widely read in Kerala from the ubiquitous chai kada to posh homes. Therefore this article came as a shock!
Guess my unlearning begins here :)
@Nair I agree with what you are saying to a certain extend. Yes, there are some unfortunate realities in the media business such as the sensationalism issue. They (the private media) will always sensationalize stories to get maximum ratings/readers. It is a necessary evil for their own survival, we will just have to put up with it. But the difference between national media (NDTV class) sensationalism and Malayalam media sensationalism is the absence of credibility(of the Malayalam media). When the media is not credible (because of known favoritism) and is extra sensational, then we have a serious problem, like the situation in kerala.
As you know, Media is a damn powerful weapon in a democracy or in a dictatorship for that matter. even a small improvement in its quality will have a significant effect in the governance. However, I understand your frustrations, it may well be true that realistically only a small percentage of the population will get the 'velive' as a direct result of sane meida operations. But the quality is always better than quantity. frankly, we don't have any other choice but to push the media for improved standard of service.
I disagree there is no demand for independent media.. I am demanding it, so do, many others reading this blog. We don't really need a people's movement to start up responsible media. It is just a matter of a few dedicated people taking the initiative and doing it smartly. I also disagree with the notion that it is not viable to run an independent, credible news source in kerala. As i said before, nobody, really have tested the waters yet. It may be a hard thing to do in the newspaper business bcs of the high barriers to entry exist there but its quite doable in the television media. There is no need for too much of a desperation, these problems are part of natural course of evolution of the news media. every local media has to go to this stage. We saw dramatic increase in the quality of the national media in the last few years. Things will trickle down slowly. The situation in USA, as i understand was even worse. The introduction of wired news service is what forced change there. In this context, I dont think our hopes are just swapnagal. It is pretty realistic and doable in medium to long term. And, nobody expect all the malayalam media to become responsible, suddenly. Even one trusted, independent media company is enough to serve the purpose.
About the social activism of the Media.. I have some reservations about the concept. In moderation, yea, it is good. But the core responsibility of journalism should always be reporting objectively.
@silverine Kerala press is indeed strong. We have the second largest density of newspapers in the world, only second to Japan. (well, old fact hope it is still true). But strong doesn't mean, smart, sensible, etc..
Take a look at these
articles on media criticism from a media man himslef.
http://npr.bizhat.com/showMedia.php
ബ്ലോഗുകളും ലോകലൈസെഡ് ന്യൂസ് നെറ്റ്വര്ക്കുകളും ഇതിനൊരു പരിഹാരമായേക്കാം ഒരു പരിധിവരെ. ഇപ്പോള് തന്നെ ലോകല് ടി.വ്വി.ചാനലുകള് ഇല്ലേ? പത്രമുതലാളിമാര് മറ്റുള്ളവരെ വളരാന് സമ്മതിക്കില്ല എന്നകാര്യം വേറേ. അവര് പറയുന്നതിലപ്പുറം ചിന്തിക്കെണ്ട എന്നുകൂടെ ഇപ്പോള് ജനങള് ധരിച്ചുവശായിരിക്കുന്നു. പണ്ട് വായനക്കാരുടെ ഇടപെടല് (ചായക്കടയിലെ ചര്ച്ചകള്) ഉണ്ട്യിരുന്നത് ഇപ്പോള് കാണാനില്ല.
നല്ലപോസ്റ്റായി. കൂടുതല് ആലോചിക്കേണ്ടിയിരിക്കുന്നു.-സു-
സുനില്, ബ്ലൊഗിലേക്ക് സ്വാഗതം . പറഞത് വളരെ ശെരിയാണ്. സുബോധം പുറത്ത് നീന്ന്, മെല്ലെ മെല്ലെ, മലയാള മിഡീയാ ഗുരുക്കന്മാരിലേക്ക് ഇറങി വരുന്നുണ്ട്.
ഒരു തരത്തില് പറഞാല് വാര്ത്ത എന്നത്, ‘എടിട്ടെര്സ്‘ എന്നു പറയുന്ന ചെറിയക്കൂട്ടം ആളുകളുടെ അഭിപ്രായങള് മാത്രമല്ലെ? അവരുടെ ബോധം കുടിയിരുന്നുവെങ്കില്, സത്യതിന്റ്റെ ശക്തിയും കൂടും...
We are really a bunch of Hypocrats. The Malayalam news media is for us. We cannot expect anything else.
We can do only blogging, blaming. No practice. We like to give some advice to anyone. We dont like to practice it. About the news channels and newspapers... we dont need them.They need us. The news media is following us everywhere now. SMS breaking news, advertisements... soon you'll be lost in a flurry of news and ads. And we are now doing nothing productive. Juz NewZing...One channel says NEWS POWER PEOPLE AND PEOPLE POWER NEWS.
Now News enslave people.
Imagine a wonderful world without any news to bother you. No news is good news....
Regards,
Blah Blah
@anon. Thanks for your comment.
blamers need credibility. if blamers have credibility balaming is a constructive act. Situation in kerala is that its professional blamers (ie opposition and media) have no credibility except among naive fellows:(
Forgive me for my sarcasm.
But Kerala can be rightly called as 'Dog's own country'.
There are lot of dogs in the state.
Stray dogs, house dogs, ... dogs etc.
All these dogs bark, but only the stray dogs bite, bcoz they are not taught about this phrase "barking dogs seldom bite".
Otherwise Kerala is Gods' own country. There are lots of Gods living together in unity. Variety Gods. Small Gods, big Gods, private Gods etc are there in Kerala.
In God's own country the man has no right to save a drowning man. It is the responsibility of the God. In other words, it is the fate of that man. We can watch it live!!!
As we live in God's own country we need not work!!! God (for secularist and others Govt) will provide the food, job etc. It is the responsibility of the God.
But we can even sell Gods, beliefs etc for votes. We can kill people in the name of God.
Catchy phrase for the Lazy malayali...
God's own country....
Statutory Information: I love my state. Kerala is very beautiful.All Keralites are friendly and educated
@ralminov, thanks for your comment. I can completly understand your frustrations.
@Chekuthan, Glad to see a journalist here!
The situation you described is quite depressing though i am not surprised.. Wonder what it take for these media houses to understand staying truly independent will pay off long term??
I also started reading newspaper at a young age even before 5th i guess.
It was Manorama and was the only paper except for a small stint with the Hindu.20 yrs down the lane it takes me less than 10 min to complete manorama(nunarama as many call it)every day.Not that iam a fast reader I can skip thru and read and still see its nonsense. Thanks alot to news channels giving different views the previous night itself.
I have started reading the page 'NIRYATHARAYI' few yrs back and is one fav page now.Some uncooked news afterall and gets to know of non celebreties.
So why continue to subscribe - its for the morning potty- less than 10 min. Excellent laxative after a hot tea :-)
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