Window Seat 16.2.20

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 16.2.20

Do media impact culture?

Recently I attended a conference on ‘Culture, Media and Development’ at Baba Saheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad. There was prolonged discussion on: whether media impacts culture or culture impacts media? If both do, then who impacts more? 

My take was: media, especially the all-pervasive tech-driven media have started impacting the culture like never before. Let me give you just three examples. Look at what has happened to the practice of reading newspaper in the morning. It used to be a family affair. Or for that matter television viewing. Look at what has happened to the practice of scouting for bride/groom. Look at the growing practice of online dating. There is a TV serial now showing a young girl encouraging his widowed father to go for online dating. Look at what has happened to the age old Bengali practice of writing 'Bijoya pranam' letters. Last Puja we received none. Zero. We got phone calls and whatsapp messages with digital rasagola or rasagolla- depending on where it came from - Odisha or Bengal.

Agreed- these are all outer non-core areas of our culture, which is comparatively easy to breach. But once the outer areas of our culture are punctured with ease- media can (or can be  used to) put sustained pressure on the core and eventually breach and change it.

Turbulent Days for Print Media

India’s fourth estate, particularly the print media is staring at imminent danger. Several newspapers across the country are gasping for breath. Shrinking readership and ad revenues, rising costs, waning credibility, and an onslaught of digital and social media have taken a huge toll on their financial health. Recently published data collected by the Indian Readership Survey shows that their future is pretty bleak.

Many media pundits believe that print media (newspaper or magazine) as stand-alone media product hardly has any future. Media houses must have multiple products in multiple delivery platforms to monetize and survive.

Mooknayak at 100

Mooknayak (The Leader of the Mute or The Leader of the Voiceless), the first journalistic venture of Babasaheb Ambedkar, was a weekly Marathi newspaper he started in 1920. Its first issue was published on 31 January 2020. His aim in launching this journal was to put forward his own point of view on matters such as Swaraj, the education of the ‘untouchables’, and the evils of untouchability, which had hitherto not found due representation in mainstream Hindi journals.

Though he was officially not associated with it (as he was in government service then), it was Babasaheb’s paper. In fact he wrote all the editorials that were published in this paper. However, Shri Nandra Bhatkar was the first editor of the paper. Later Shri Dyander Gholap was the editor.

Mooknayak went through many ups and downs. It remained in circulation just for three years. Despite its short life, Mooknayak laid the foundations of an assertive and organised Dalit politics. It announced the arrival of a newer generation of anti-caste politics that broke the confines of region, language and political boundaries and coincided with the larger developments on the nationalist scene. 

Fake and Real

We wash our hands with real lemon pieces and drink lemon flavored carbonated water- in effect fake lemon juice. Gradually we are in love with 'fake' and barely tolerate 'real'. It is gradually permeating into our culture, and this is becoming the only culture globally. Fake is becoming the new real.

Valentine Week special

Khud talashna katil apni aur phir katl ho jana

Isi phankari ko badkismati se isq kahate hain

(Finding one’s own executioner and then getting executed

This artistry, unfortunately, is known as love.
(Courtesy: Social Media)

Post Valentine Scenario: Love and Marraige

When you are in love,

Wonders happen.

But once you get married,

You wonder, what happened

***

A journalist turned media academician the columnist lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com

This column is published every Sunday in Sikkim Express