Where Media Becomes Commerce ...

 Where Media Becomes Commerce ...

Trust deficit of a gigantic proportion is sweeping this once revered industry

By K.T. Jagannathan

Long before the entry of billionaire businessman Gautam Adani into popular news channel NDTV (New Delhi Television), the news media has turned into a commerce and journalism a mere job. The way news is disseminated and consumed has undergone a tremendous metamorphosis. So much so, the media world is full of market jargon now. With the advent of the Internet and, consequent, spread of social media, the Fourth Estate of the conventional kind appears to have gone into the pages of history.  No doubt, the corporatisation of the media has been happening at a faster pace for a long while now. The Adani entry into NDTV, however, has pushed yet again the troubled times of the media into a serious national focus. Perhaps, the current hyper attention is largely due to the stature of the acquirer (Adani) and the promoter of NDTV (Pranoy Roy and his wife). Predictably, the issue has set off a series of debate across platforms on the dangers facing the media business.

Down memory lane

Before dwelling on the NDTV imbroglio, a trip down memory lane will give a clue or two to the media world of the past and the times it is in today. In early 90s, just as India opened up its economy to the world at large under the daring initiative of former prime minister late P.V. Narashimha Rao, Afternoon Courier, a daily tabloid in the then Bombay, came out with an issue with almost a blank open page. At the centre of the front page, there was a tiny info box which said something like `News can wait’ and asked readers to flip the page. It was an innovative Nestle advertisement. It elicited quite condemnation. The editor of the paper (who was the author of the popular column Busy Bee) had to publicly apologise for that ad, and promised the readers that he would never ever allow it again!

 Advent of commercialism

Much water has flown under the river since then. There are creeping ads (protruding into the news articles), sponsored articles and what not. They are dime a dozen these days. And, these have effectively blurred the dividing line between news and advertisement. In a sense, commercialisation has crept in simultaneously with the liberalisation of the economy.  Post-liberalisation, the support system for media organisations (which have now become media enterprises!) has slowly and steadily started changing. Conventionally, the media organisations drew their sustenance from the advertisement support that governments – both centre and states – extended to accredited publications. Post-1991, the corporate world, too, stepped in and provided a resourceful alternative assistance for the news publications, in general. After all, the corporate world saw in the media a winning platform to reach – nay market – their products to the masses. When this was quietly happening, the conflict of interest was coming for sure. Somewhere down the line, this has resulted in the merger of interests. Not surprisingly, the publications have also begun to speak the corporate language – bottom line, top line and things like that.

Modified object clause

Time was when owning news publications gave its owners a sense of pride and a feeling of service to the society. Many are now in the media business for the entitlements and power that come along with it. When the `object clause’ is completely modified, pride easily yields place to commerce. In former times, publications would hesitate to take unverified and unsubstantiated advertisement materials. A peep into the past – into the mid-90s - would clearly establish how media organisations of assorted kind jostled with one another to publish advertisements from finance companies of unincorporated kinds who offered unbelievably high interest rates on deposits. This virtually saw the reputation of many non-banking finance companies come crashing down in the southern part of India. Not just that, many unsuspecting depositors lost their life earnings by following these ads!

The rise of PR industry

Since the 90s, India has seen the slow emergence of a new class of public relationship (PR) professionals. The PR industry has become a strong fulcrum around which the entire lobbying - be it for corporates, industries, political parties et al – has come to be identified. Originally, they sought to play the facilitator role by trying to be a bridge between different interest groups. As time went by, they have come to play a far more dominant role, and are seen as agenda-pushers. They are now an integral part of the news dissemination ecosystem across the globe. The emergence of this class of intermediary has virtually pushed the traditional information sourcing methodologies to disuse. It is well-nigh foolhardy to dismiss the correlation between liberalisation and arrival of the PR industry on the Indian scene. Today, the industry has grown substantially with many PR enterprises sprouting at regular intervals. In this new normal environment, the traditional objectives of news publication stand altered substantially.

Publications galore

This change must also be read in the context of proliferation of publications. This reconfiguration of priority has further accentuated especially in the wake of a boom in television channels. The game of one-upmanship indulged in by the television channels – which has already spread to the print media - tells a tale of the degeneration in the way information is articulated by the media. It is doubtful if the kind of a competition that one is seeing in the media world is doing any good for society at large. One is also not sure if the competition of unbridled and ugly kind we are seeing today is doing any good to the media industry as a whole.  In this digital era, fast gaining social media settings has further pushed the status of the media enterprises – be it print or television – topsy-turvy.  The world is witnessing an information explosion thanks to the Internet-induced digital revolution. Technology is at forefront, spearheading its transmission in real time. In a way a raid of a not-so-definable kind has already engulfed the media world.

Somnath Chatterji panel report

What is happening today was foreseen many summers ago by the law-makers in India when a debate on letting foreign investment into the print media was raging.  A report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by late Somnath Chatterji, released in March 2002, dwelt elaborately on the dangers of letting foreign investment or control in Indian print media. “Dissemination of information being a part of the fundamental right of freedom of expression, the press in India enjoys fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. However, the fundamental right to freedom of expression is available to Indian citizens only. This means a foreigner who comes to acquire control of the Indian newspaper through whatever means cannot enjoy the freedom of expression and thus cannot run the newspaper in the country,” the report said.

Security angle

The Committee indeed gave serious consideration to the possible impact of liberalization in the print media on the security situation in the country. “The Home Ministry official stated before the Committee that as people tend to rely more on printed versions of facts an attempt at disinformation will have tremendous impact on the people and it will be more difficult to control it. The Committee feels that the perception of the Ministry of Home Affairs about the security implication of allowing foreigners to operate in the print media is based on a realistic understanding of the ground reality,” the report said.

Mind influencers

The Committee was convinced that newspapers had a significant impact on the minds of the people. “It influences the political beliefs, the social mores and the basic cultural impulse of the people. The foreign print media owners or the foreign investors with their superior technology and managerial skill and unlimited resources can neutralize any statutory restrictions which may be imposed and become crucial players in the domestic print media sector. Further, the hostile countries through their intelligence agencies can use front organisations to enter the Print Media sector through the foreign investment route and undermine the unity of the country. They can do incalculable harm to the fragile social harmony by purveying slanted and mischievous news and views. Thus, print media can be used by them as an instrument of subversion. This adverse possibility has been brought to the notice of the Committee by some witnesses. This only underscores the fact that there is a consensus on the point that control of the management of a newspaper in the hands of the foreigners is not in the interest of the country,” the report said.

Serious upheaval

The Chatterji committee also studied as to who had greater influence on the public – the print or the television (where foreign investment was allowed then). Today, the television media – both English and regional – are under the control of big corporations. It will be incorrect if one were to classify them free press in the conventional sense. From being information disseminators, they have become influencers and agenda-setters. With the arrival of social media on a big scale, the definition of media has undergone a major metamorphosis. The content controllers have largely gone invisible, and this is causing a serious upheaval across the canvass cutting across borders.

Indirect control

The Adani incursion into NDTV is a hard reflection of a media world that is at the cross-roads at this point of time. Is it right to view the Adani-NDTV face-off purely from the prism of media freedom? To be sure, NDTV is a listed corporate entity accountable to its shareholders and other stakeholders. As a company, it is also bound by the rules of assorted regulatory undertakings.  Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are quite normal in the corporate world. There are rules and regulations to guide M&As. In this instance, an Adani group company has acquired an entity which has given a huge loan to NDTV. The loan has a conversion option into equity at any point of time during its pendency.  Upon acquisition, the Adani outfit has chosen to exercise the conversion option. In line with the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) regulations on takeovers, it has announced an open offer to acquire additional 25 per cent shares from the public. Should this be just seen from a corporate M&A angle? Or, should this be viewed as an assault on media freedom? In this debate, can one wish away the fact that NDTV has not paid back the huge interest-free loan very many years ago? Why would anybody – especially a corporate – give NDTV – for that matter anyone at all – interest-free long-tenor money without any quid pro quo? Given the political overtones this entire imbroglio has taken, this debate will go on till the cows come home.

In fact, this line of possibility was discussed by the Chatterji committee in its report in 2002 when the question of foreign investment in the print media was dissected in detail. The indirect control of a media enterprise found extensive references in the report.

The Adani-NDTV fracas is indeed the culmination of the metamorphosis that the media world is witnessing for quite some time now.  If change is for the good as Karl Marx said elsewhere, this change is causing havoc across the media organisations world over. Trust deficit of a gigantic proportion is sweeping this once revered industry. How to regain the trust? How to do it by keeping the head above the water? What is required is a new institutional arrangement which fosters a fair, fearless and sustainable information-dissemination system that is ethical and trustworthy.

 

 

 

GDP number & ground reality

You may love it. You may hate it. But you can’t ignore it. Perhaps, this sums up the position of India in the global stage. More than anything else, its sheer size – in terms of people – has compelled many to convince themselves to take a positive view on India. Indeed, India has edged out the U.K. to become the world's fifth largest economy.

Well, the growth numbers – as dished out by the government and predicted by assorted global and local agencies – can be dissected widely, depending on which side of the table one is standing. Numbers are indeed important. But do they really reflect the ground situation? A single number – GDP figure – alone cannot assure a sense of comfort and calmness for people at the bottom of the pyramid, whose number is quite large indeed. When read with other numbers – which are even more critical for ground level happiness, the excitement over the GDP figure just evaporates.  A common man pictured by the legendary cartoonist late R.K. Laxman doesn’t comprehend the esoteric terms such as GDP, inflation and the like a bit. But when he goes to the vegetable market in the street corner, he finds that his 100 rupees fetch far less than what he was getting earlier.

Rising numbers & different emotions

 Retail inflation hit a 5-month high of 7.41% in September, disconcertingly above the upper tolerance limit of 6% fixed by the Reserve Bank of India. Food inflation – which has political implications - was 8.6%, even higher than the 7.62% in August. The two numbers – GDP and inflation – are higher. One brings cheer and the other agony. As the famous ad lines of English daily Indian Express said, “The truth lies somewhere in between.” Rising prices hurts a common man more than anything else. We have seen a government fall because of escalating onion prices!  

Two unconnected headlines – rather numbers -- over the past week should give India's economy watchers fresh room for concern. As one of the commentators mentioned, Inflation, like Alladin's genie, is difficult to put back into the bottle. It is rather simplistic to assume that answers to the problem – especially of inflation - lie at the Mumbai headquarters of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and not the North Block, where the finance minister sits. Look at the other disconcerting number. India's rank on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) went down to 107 from 101 in 2021 last week out of 123 countries surveyed by two European NGOs—Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. These two numbers tell a significant tale. Indeed, as the proverb goes, one swallow doesn't make a summer. A single GDP number does not tantamount to all round happiness at the ground level.

Price rise & hole in the purse

In a rising inflation situation, the RBI has little option but to increase interest rates further. This will have a cascading impact. We are in a situation where middle-class home loan and vehicle loan EMIs go up.  The poorer sections – at the bottom of the pyramid -fret about increasing prices of food items. The net impact is that there is considerable erosion in their disposable incomes and this will have a negative fall-out on the demand for industrial goods.

Read in the context of surging food inflation, the drop in India’s rank in Global Hunger Index (GHI) requires one to ponder over. And, it is indeed a serious matter of concern for any administrator. In a situation like this, what leeway does the government have to cool the price rise? But numbers on food grain stock do not seem to provide elbow-room. The central stockpile has 44.1 million tonnes of food grains September 30, 2022 — 20.9 million tonnes of rice and 23.2 million tonnes of wheat, according to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.  The stock was 49.28 million tonnes before September 1, 2022, with 27.95 million tonnes of rice and 24.82 million tonnes of wheat.  The depleting food grain stock has indeed raised concerns. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was slapped on a slew of everyday food items - even packaged parathas are confirmed to carry 18% GST. 

Regressive tax

Of all taxes, indirect tax is the most regressive. Everybody knows that such tax force-collects (in an unseen way) from even the poorest of the poor! Let's look at a few basics. Inflation is a number that needs to be managed, argue economists and others. For a common man, however, price rise hurts badly not just their very livelihood but their way of life as well. In the new unfolding global dynamics, the rising fuel price is a significant factor of pain for the common man. The visible impact aside, the invisible cost of fuel hike is also loaded on common citizens as it is passed on across their purchases, resulting in the prices of consuming items escalating considerably.

Robert Kennedy on GDP

Is GDP an all-encompassing unit to signify a nation’s development, combining its economic prosperity and societal well-being? Not really. GDP is one significant number among many others. It just measures production capacity and economic growth. GDP, by definition, is an aggregate measure that includes the value of goods and services produced in an economy over a certain period of time. To be sure, it does not give a clue or two to the positive or negative effects created in the process of production and development. Robert Kennedy in his famous election speech in 1968 said, “GDP measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

“GDP takes a positive count of the cars we produce but does not account for the emissions they generate; it adds the value of the sugar-laced beverages we sell but fails to subtract the health problems they cause; it includes the value of building new cities but does not discount for the vital forests they replace,” wrote Amit Kapoor and Bibek Debroy in Harvard Business Review in an article on October 4. 2019. India is on the growth path. Yes indeed. Yet, Delhi’s winters are increasingly filled with smog and Chennai’s streets are inundated with water during the rainy season. GDP numbers cannot explain these. GDP cannot capture the distribution of income across society. The rising number of contract jobs in the modern context, reflects a tale of its own.

Tail piece

GDP is a flashy term that a common man may find it hard to comprehend. What a common citizen wants is a sense of happiness and a feeling of comfort. It requires a more than a robust GDP number to get him that privilege.

 

 

 

Smart talent wins India game against Pakistan in WC 2022

Virat Kohli plucked a stunning win from the jaws of defeat. And, the extraordinary triumph over arch-rival Pakistan at the iconic MCG in a World Cup could not have come at a better time, just on the eve of Diwali. In the frenzy that followed thereafter, a crucial aspect of the last few balls of the game appears to have been drowned in the noisy scene.  The last over saw three senior Indian players on show. All three are 30 plus years old. In a crunch pressure-cooker kind of a situation, the three brought to bear their immense experience and exhibited a rare knowledge. All three are talented. There is no doubt about that. Is talent enough to carry the day? Talent sans intelligence is no use. In this instance, their show transcended talent and bordered on intelligence. A no-ball followed by a wide and a free-hit saw Kohli bowled. Kohli ran. So did Dinesh Karthik. These two senior batsmen acted intelligently and impulsively to scamper for runs. If they aren’t aware of the rules at that tense moment, the match would have gone the other way. With one ball to go and two runs to get, Ashwin acted calmly to earn a wide. The rest is history.  Smart talent is what makes the difference.