HOW TO CONTROL MEDIA?


Mukesh Devrari 

How to control media? This question is politically incorrect at least in democracies. Why anybody would like to control media? Nehru preferred free media which might have a lot of negative effects than an enslaved media which may have only positive effects for the sake of freedom, liberty and long term progress.

Let me answer the question, one cannot run away by dismissing it. People sincerely believe that the media in India has to be controlled. The content it creates is problematic. It spreads irrationality, sensationalism, jingoism and creates war hysteria. It is extremely biased and loyal only to their political masters. Viewers are looking for quality content. Our current media outlets, barring few exceptions, have failed in delivering objectivity and neutrality.

It is urgent to control media. The state can control media through laws. It is a tricky path. Any policy regulatory measure which is not known to western democracies will never be accepted in India. Any Idea which is not being already practised in the west cannot be implemented as Indian intellectuals are mostly relies on western arguments to justify or dismiss most of the policy measures. 

Still there is a lot of scope. Indians can learn from the best practices in the west which are being put in place to control media. It can make laws to curb cross-media ownership. It can empower regulatory bodies to punish and reprimand media outlets which promote irrationality, communalism and sensationalize the news. It can make laws to stop powerful corporate houses to control all media outlets.

Currently most of the news outlets function with a sense of impunity. They are aware that it is extremely difficult for anyone to question them for their content preferences. Theoretically this solution makes sense, but in reality, India cannot resort to laws to control media as it may open Pandora’s Box. It may lead to many unforeseen challenges.

What else then, we can do to control media. The second option is simple. We need more competition. We need to use market forces to bring balance in the narrative. That is the only solution to bring some sanity in mainstream media discourse.

Diversity of media is our asset in India. The state must promote the creation of as many news outlets as possible. If some of them will be serving non-sense, some others will be more responsible. In the end, we have no choice but to trust the ability of the common citizenry to differentiate between trash and meaning media content.

This option has also limitations. It will be improper on the part of the government to provide direct monetary benefits to news outlets as it may fill the market with many dubious media businesses and increase corruption. If news media outlets will be totally dependent on the market than it will be difficult for most of them to survive. So, this method is also not a complete solution to our problem.

What else that can be done. India must have patience. It should continuously spend on the citizens. It must educate them properly. It must empower them with knowledge and moral sense of right and wrong. While we will create aware citizenry to raise the standard of our media outlets, we must resort to using laws and raising the level of competition among media outlets to control them.

Ultimate Solution

Perhaps a middle path, a proper mixture of regulatory measures and use of the power of market forces can be deployed to control media and its content. Some soft solutions can also be used like giving proper training to media workers and media owners about ethical practices. However, they are unlikely to work.     

As far as digital media is concerned. Most of the content which is being created and circulated through it has its origin in mainstream media. It will take a while for digital media to be independent of traditional media. It is a much bigger challenge to regulate it. However, market forces together with proper regulations may also serve the purpose of controlling digital media as well.    

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