Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | End of the affair

End of the affair

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Aug 2, 2012   modified Modified on Aug 2, 2012
-The Indian Express

Discord between Team Anna and media brings a crucial and overdue reality check for both

Unhappy with the cameras apparently turning away from their cause and reporting the dwindling numbers at their venue, several Team Anna members and supporters have now declared the media biased and complicit with power. Some in the crowd at Jantar Mantar even heckled journalists. The Broadcast Editors’ Association sought, and got, “an immediate apology from Team Anna for their misbehaviour”. The souring of this relationship could be said to have been inevitable, but it is also an overdue reality check for both — for Team Anna, which built upon the obsessive coverage of its mobilisation to conjure up delusions of a grand movement, and for parts of the media that lost sight of the essential distance in a democracy between such campaigns and a free, sceptical media.

The media cannot be expected to be a collaborator or a cheerleader for any cause or holy man. Ramdev, the yoga guru turned anti-corruption campaigner, who shares Anna’s platform, or vice versa, recognises that — and plays to the media on its terms. Team Anna, though, imagined that unquestioning support was its due, that the media was an ally and a participant, that its role was to rouse public passion. Emboldened by the camera, it exaggerated its own mission. It thought it was leading a revolution simply because there were TV channels gazing at it reverentially, avidly covering its events and personalities, finding the flattering angles. However, as the months rolled on, and given the diminishing returns to the Anna coverage, the media took its focus off Team Anna — and Team Anna is lost. Their sense of injury and betrayal is evident in their public anger now.

The media should also remember this lesson in the dangers of losing its head. Whether it was a race for higher viewership numbers or an emotional, underthought response to Team Anna’s legitimate outrage against corruption, the media discarded the vital scepticism with which it must approach both the establishment and the crusader. That analytical and questioning cast of mind is necessary if it is to serve the public good. The media failed to look closely, or often to look at all, at the dodgy solutions offered by the Anna campaign. It ignored the problematic content of the envisaged Lokpal for the colourful spectacle of the mobilisation in its favour. Arvind Kejriwal recently told the crowd, “The media has become a part of this movement... talk to them with folded hands.” Warm words, but that remark should embarrass us journalists.

The Indian Express, 1 August, 2012, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/end-of-the-affair/982112/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close