Media slaps Pawar over and again

The past week was dominated by the public slap delivered to Sharad Pawar’s face. Channels went into frenzy and showed the slap many times, in the process ensuring that as far as the viewing public was concerned, Pawar was slapped endlessly. 

 

This frenzy did not end with the slap but was followed up with the media physically running after Harvinder Singh, the offender and soliciting his reaction, in fact forcing him to say things he may normally not have, which included his intention to murder. Reactions, expectedly, poured in from all over the country and the social media ran amok. The slap clip was shown all over the screen occupying a tiny bit of space in the corners, half the screen and full screen. The clip was played even as discussions on the even raged in the background.

 

In the follow up, ruckus prevailed in Maharashtra, uproar took place in Parliament, cabinet ministers descended on Pawar’s turf (his home at 6 Janpath Road in Delhi) and the prime minister expressed deep concern. All of this, however, only meant that the clip was repeated over and over. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was seen denouncing the act and exhorting the media not to publicize such incidents. Harvinder Singh became an instant hero, a cult figure. Within hours the whole nation knew this aam admi and parallels with Muntadar al-Zaidi, who hurled both his shoes at George Bush during a press conference in Baghdad in December 2008, were a natural corollary. Zaidi had failed to make headlines when he was kidnapped by gunmen in 2007 and released after three days. However, that changed overnight when he shoed Bush.

 

While the electronic media showed great enthusiasm in telecasting the incident, it was quite evident that it was primarily aiming at getting the viewers’ attention. There was some attempt to analyse the reasons behind the `thappad’ but this was not the main goal, which was television rating points. The country wanted a tamasha and the media provided it. That action packed coverage translates into rise in viewership is no secret and had been demonstrated during the Anna episode. At that time, the share of Hindi news channels rose by 87 per cent to 11.02 points upcountry and English news channels scored 0.54 points, as viewership shot up by 74 per cent. As per media reports, in the preceding four weeks, Hindi and English news channels had recorded an average genre share of 5.7 per cent and 0.33 per cent only, respectively.

 

In repeatedly reporting the action of an angry and unhappy man, the media was forgetting that it could be at the receiving end unless it took care of how it reported news. There are many instances when the viewing public has been disgusted with the coverage of news and other events by the electronic media. What would be the media’s reaction if one these viewers were to slap a well known news reader or offensive presenter in public? Would the media then go to town showing such a clip?

 

There is no doubt that channels do have to face some serious difficulties in field coverage. Their reporters even get manhandled while covering some events. Rajasthan’s Bhanvari-Maderana episode is a recent example. The electronic media, in these circumstances, prominently plays up those incidents and accords itself the victim status. There is a trend here. Such incidents are always reported in a manner which may engender public sympathy. They try to show how they are always hounded by some powerful business or political interest. Following any attack on them, channels always project themselves as objects of sympathy and paint the opposite party as a disgusting suppressor of democracy.

 

But how long will this trend go on? It may have to face “Sach ka Samana”. It is time for the media to take notice and be circumspect about the content and manner of its coverage.