The media’s Obamavali
Stories of the worries about what Obama’s domestic policies mean for many Indians makes more sense to certain parts of India that export human resources to the US, more than other regions.
Perhaps the media missed an opportunity to offer a better, balanced and pluralistic perspective on the visit, says B P SANJAY
As the drone of Air Force One fades over the Indian skies and the din of the lavish media coverage dies, many of us will settle down to our regular soaps and channel surfing for news and mull over the Obama visit. Our social and academic agendas will in due course debate the elder brother’s visit as TV 9 (Kannada) labeled it.
Hardly had the firecracker sounds died in this rather sleepy town on Deepavali when we were exposed to the Obamavali through the morning countdown coverage leading to the touchdown of the Obamas and their retinue into Mumbai. The disappointment continuously flagged in the media that the President had not uttered the P word was almost hawkish and did hurt our aman ki asha sentiments. Thankfully, the young (now) media celebrity from Mumbai raised a specific P query. We were heartened to hear Obama speak on good neighborly relations. Erudite media panelists and the rest of the country were also relieved that among other things BJP could no longer make it a rallying point for their political commentary. The business leaders were happy over their deals notwithstanding the fact that software companies and techies did not have much to cheer more so when the PM also stated that we did not intend to “steal jobs from the US.”
The regular foreign policy panelists on both NDTV and CNN-IBN were predictable dipping into their official and academic archives to enlighten us on the subtleties of what the President did or did not. With so much of loop coverage and other forms of content distribution, how much of what they said made sense to the viewers is another matter. Instant editorializing and opinionated responses on television to some extent diminishes and perhaps challenges the intellect of the viewer who is watching the live images and is able to make sense. Was it a strategic design of the high-level planners to slowly build the tempo leading to the address to the Indian Parliament? Or, was it a well rehearsed sequence as many would argue that there would be a please-all address to the Indian Parliament with both a carrot and a stick? Permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council for India would come in the reformed UN system but at a price that would necessitate that India preach and proclaim US democratic ideals forfeiting its own assessment of realities in the region. This has already prompted the CPM brigade to reiterate its anti-imperialist perspective on Indo-US ties including their assessment of the lopsided market access to the US.
Despite repeated claims of electronic media’s so-called “ we have come of age coverage” of major issues and events, the Indian television news channels were effusive and gloating in their coverage of the visit. Countervailing academic discourses as to whether an Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the US would have the same coverage are perhaps just rhetorical. Media patriotism would suggest that such comparisons are unwarranted at this stage when the Indian media is celebrating its “Naamaste Obama” I live coverage.
The print media coverage was slightly different and perhaps contained by its limitations as well, if one looks at the New Indian Express and the Hindu ( Trichy editions). The coverage although front-paged and a full inside page was just news and had the advantage of leaving the interpretation to the reader to some extent. As both these editions have limited circulation in the nearby towns and villages, the district and local coverage did not suffer. Moreover, the dak editions that one receives in smaller towns would have coverage up to late evening only. You could still pick up tidbits minus the excited voices of correspondents and anchors telling us their view of what we could also see. An advisory to the enlightened ‘national’ channels may not be in order. Yet continuous coverage of however mighty and important a person is does fatigue the viewer. More backgrounders, plural perspectives of what this visit means to the numerous other towns and cities, stories of the worries about what Obama’s domestic policies mean for many Indians makes more sense to certain parts of India that export human resources to the US more than other regions. Perhaps the media missed an opportunity to offer a better, balanced and pluralistic perspective on the visit. They said Obama was also addressing his constituency but we could have focused on our Diaspora and their kin in India keen to know how this visit affects their dream run.
More media monitoring exercises might follow but the homogeneity of the coverage in terms of both obsession and fascination cannot escape our scrutiny. TV 9 (Kannada) offered a break as it interspersed its coverage with colloquial expressions and focusing on its mix of metro and district stories. Plurality of anchors and correspondents on our television was not much of a help, as the multi-layered security that the President had could not have allowed too many digressions from the main subject. The jarring aggression of the anchors and cacophony of interventions by the panelists and others is routine nowadays, more so on contentious issues.
The K and the P word was more than evident in the coverage much to the glee of the panelists from Pakistan who maintained that India indeed was obsessed with it. The 26/11 dossier that came from Pakistan asking for a commission to visit India escaped our usual scrutiny and silently the neighboring nation was sending its forget me not strategic messages. The Pakistan mainstream media, Dawn appreciated the balanced response of the US president and their local media coverage may offer an interesting line of enquiry.
The bubble created by the visit of Obama is, thankfully, unlikely to burst soon and it will linger. It perhaps will also sustain as the normal practice of the usual balancing stop over or visit to the neighboring country is not in the itinerary. History has repeatedly informed us that even before the ink on our print media celebrating the arrival of a high profile US visitor dries, the visitor would have made a stopover visit for fueling or otherwise and issued countervailing signals that worries the government and dampens the euphoria of the visit. Like they say, they came, saw and seemed to have conquered the Parliamentarians and us. Thanks to the media, viewers too were able to take part in Obamavali with all the fireworks they were able to mount. Over to print media for its coverage of the 4200 word joint statement.
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