About The English Media And The Elections

How much influence does the English media - news channels, newspapers, weekly and fortnightly magazines all put together have on the electorate?

• My sense is, not much not at all. It is perhaps the same set of people who follow all of these and the audience is not mutually exclusive. At the end of the day, (the day never ends though, for these 24 hour news channels!), I don't think it really matters to the electorate how loud, obscene, shrill, vicious the English media is, while the media would like to believe otherwise. And what about the urban areas where they seem to have some influence? Two things, one - the urban constituencies aren't necessarily urban in terms of their voter profile. While there may be pockets of prosperity, there are large areas which are underdeveloped and people will still continue to vote based on factors they have been for years - caste, alcohol, free television sets, money, promise of better food, clothing and shelter. Second - I am yet to find enough proof to be convinced that the urban audience, your young, upwardly mobile, techie/executive type is honestly bothered about anything other than where the next party is, no not the political party. Alright, I am exaggerating, but then it's sad to see little or no involvement from the urban audience in trying, first to understand the functions, actions and people in our governance processes and then trying to change what they do not like by being a part of the system. Can't blame them either, if what they rely on for information and opinion, does not do a good job in the first place. And what about initiatives like these and people like these? Good for feeling good, eyeballs and higher TRP ratings, but what after the elections? It's back to their business and the media will find something else to write, show and scream about. I pray I am proved wrong and something helpful comes out of it.

I am totally dismayed at the collective disdain and lack of acceptance tolerance and respect the news channels and some of their prominent anchors have for those from the BJP. While that doesn't take me any closer to the BJP, one gets a feeling as if all of them have taken a decision to ridicule, rile and object to anything that those representing the BJP say on the talkshows. Sudheendra Kulkarni, Swapan Dasgupta, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Arun Jaitley are probably some of the most articulate, intelligent and coherent people one has come across on Indian television in recent times. What scores for me is how gracefully they carry themselves in the middle of the mud and noise floating around. Compare that with how Manish Tewari, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jayanthi Natarajan and Ashwini Kumar carry themselves and you get the feeling that their agenda is not to convey to the audience what their points of view are, but to rubbish what their opponents say, with their trademark wry smiles and arrogant smirks. Also, the BJP team appears to be well-prepared and seems to have been briefed properly, for they seem to speak in one voice. The Congress team, on the other hand, pun unintended, seem to have not gotten their act together yet.


PS. Have to write about my experiences in applying for the voter ID card and now waiting to get it. It has been a lot of effort, mostly due to lack of proper information and clear communication from the authorities, but I do hope to get the card soon.