No news is good news?
“But by no imaginable checklist, other than gruesome prurience, is there any need for us to know so many details of what happened in Herr Fritzl’s underground dungeon,” wrote Lawson. Bringing up Marshall McLuhan’s idea of a ‘global village’ where the collapse of boundaries would create a kind of universal human concern, he commented that “when an Austrian family tragedy becomes home news in other countries, it can seem that the interchange of information has created not worldwide concern but global voyeurism […] At least the Burmese coverage has an effect beyond a lethal peepshow in the appeals for western charitable cash that are already appearing amid the coverage […] a sort of licence-fee for having witnessed this pain in a place that it usually ignored.”
The risk, as he pointed out so deftly, “is that Austria and Burma — or future nations struck by flood or a psychopathic paterfamilias — become of interest simply because of the horrible fascination of their narratives, becoming genres in a schedule of entertainment: real-life horror and disaster movies. […]And so readers of newspapers or viewers of TV news become internationalist snackers, feeding their morbid hunger with Chinese one day, Burmese the next, even occasionally prepared to give Austrian a go if it’s really spicy stuff. And concern for these countries is unlikely to become a habit […].”
Lawson’s argument is perfectly valid and relevant in the issues it raises. But a deeper, perhaps far more sinister pattern is discernible in media coverage of events in other countries, and the style and scope of the coverage.
Back in 1987, media studies pioneer John Fiske identified this pattern in terms of western televised news coverage of events in the Third World. The idea retains relevance when expanded to other countries, including developing nations, and the print media.
Writing about the strategies of containment used to make international news fit into the underlying ideological thrust of western societies, Fiske pointed out that “Third World countries are conventionally represented in western news as places of famines and natural disaster, of social revolution and of political corruption. These events are not seen as disrupting their social norms, but as confirming ours, confirming our dominant sense that western democracies provide the basics of life for everyone, are stable, and fairly and honestly governed. When deviations from these norms occur in our own countries they are represented as precisely that, deviations from the norm: in Third World countries, however, such occurrences are represented as their norms which differ markedly from ours. For the western news media, the Third World is a place of natural and political disasters and not much else.”
Meanwhile, he theorised, the very act of analytical categorisation in news – politics, the economy, domestic or foreign news – encourages the audience to understand the stories in terms of the ideological context imposed upon them. These categories are merely indicative, true, but the point is that “categorisation constructs a conceptual grid within which ‘raw’ events can be instantly located and thus inserted into a familiar set of conceptual relationships.” Such groupings then become a strategy through which the news presents itself as objective, thus effectively masking the process of representation that is at work at a deeper level. While categories such as ‘industry’ or ‘foreign affairs’ appear empirical and naturally-linked, the manner in which they work and their effect is highly ideological.
Therefore, “stories on a famine in northern Africa, political corruption in Nicaragua, riots in Bengal, and guerrilla activity in Indonesia all appear to be naturally linked as part of ‘foreign affairs’,” wrote Fiske. But “putting them in one category invites the reader to understand them in terms of their similarities rather than their differences, and the similarities make a sense that serves the interests of the western bourgeoisie.”
Viewed through this lens, the coverage being given to Burma or Herr Fritzl can be understood to work as reaffirming the normative social ideologies of audiences in the UK or the US. The effect, in other words, is to reinforce in news consumers’ mind that whatever the ills in their own society, at least things aren’t as bad as ‘over there’. As Lawson pointed out, in the last few decades Austria has appeared in the international media in only two contexts, that of “men hiding young women in cellars and the possibility that certain of its politicians might be Nazis.”
Meanwhile, coverage of disruptive events such as Cyclone Nargis also allows for a sort of ‘feel good’ element which is felt by the comfortably-off as they reach into their pockets for a donation. Consequently, the voyeuristic element of journalism is made all the worse for achieving good in return for pandering to selfishness.
Post-script: In Pakistan, on the other hand, no news can force journalists desperate to fill the airwaves to put often unbelievable and entirely counter-productive spins on the same old news. If you don’t believe me, try turning on the television. — hmumtaz@dawn.com
Power tussle may lead to another crisis
The previous Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government’s working relationship with local government representatives was not that ideal either and most of the nazims were always complaining about the Akram Khan Durrani-led government’s interference in matters pertaining to transfers and postings in various departments as well as neglecting them in allocation of development funds.
The current situation, however, seems to be more sensitive because almost all district and union council nazims are apparently united and gritty to frustrate the provincial government’s alleged designs to curtail their official powers.
The differences between the two elected bodies have surfaced not only at the district level but also at the union council and town levels. An example of such kind of disunity was observed at a meeting of the Town-I council on May 6.
Naib nazims and councillors affiliated with the Awami National Party and the Pakistan People’s Party came face to face and raised slogans in support of their respective political parties.
One group had moved a resolution against the alleged interference of ANP leader and Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour in the local government bodies and his party people protested over the way the opponent group targeted the minister.
Town-I Nazim Shaukat Ali is affiliated with PPP and convener Niaz Mohammad Mohmand belongs to the ANP. The two have cordial relations, but their affiliation with different political parties forced them to support their own party groups in the council.
Following exchange of hot words, protest and walkout from the session by PPP sympathisers, the convener adjourned the meeting and went out leading his group. The PPP supporters occupied the convener’s seat and held a separate meeting in the council hall and spoke openly against the provincial government.
The second big event against the provincial government was a meeting of district nazims of the NWFP held at the residence of Peshawar District Nazim Ghulam Ali on April 8.
The meeting attended by 17 district nazims targeted Bashir Ahmed Bilour, who also holds the portfolio of local government, saying the minister was interfering in affairs of various districts.
Nazims are neither ready to be held accountable by the provincial government nor like to see their powers curtailed. An insider said some district nazims were not in favour to waste time in dragging each other’s legs and were in support of good working relationship with the provincial government.
Nazims affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Q are reported to be very active in organising all the nazims, particularly those belonging to Mansehra, Abbottabad, Shangla and Peshawar districts.
On the other hand, the provincial government has announced that it will probe into financial matters of various councils and take steps for making the local government system more effective and useful for the public.
Members of local bodies, instead of concentrating on their official duties, are busy trying to counter any move against their official powers. In such a situation the ultimate sufferers will be the people because their problems like sanitation, supply of contaminated water and increasing encroachments will remain unresolved.
Generating textbook ideas in the loadshedding republic
The charade of power continues unabated in Islamabad. Interpret that anyway you like, the result would be the same: little sign of light at the end of the tunnel.
Nearly a month and a half has passed since the federal cabinet took oath but a certain inertia grips the capital — particularly, regards the ubiquitous energy crisis, statements of good intent notwithstanding.
It is customary for any new government to blame the ills on inheritance — the usual drivel about misdeeds of its predecessor. But to give it the benefit of doubt, the new coalition did inherit a troubled house but like Imran Khan pointed out in a talk show the other day, little allowance could be given to new purveyors of power beyond the universal honeymoon period of a hundred days.
The lack of power is no more evident than in the nightmarish hours of loadshedding suffered by people in their homes, that is, if they can find power at the workplace — courtesy a generator or two. Even shopkeepers have been forced to take recourse to the alternative to keep the business up and running. It has obviously created a hole in their pocket(s) and added to the expenses substantially.
Back in their homes, too, people are straining to fend off power cuts by buying either generators, which are costlier in terms of upkeep, or UPS units with batteries.
Not surprisingly, the prices of both have shot through the roof. While many in the middle income groups may have managed a buyout, one can only imagine the plight of the ‘switched off’ low income groups staring at a long drawn out summer.
As if it was not enough of a budgetary strain for these households and shopkeepers to make up for the lack of power, many of them are sweating not only over rising costs to buy the said equipment but also a huge demand-and-supply gap.
There is a long list of customers seeking the must-have tool and one has heard a few narratives of how procurement is one ‘hot’ adventure with most sellers inundated with advance orders. This leaves many prospective buyers in the lurch.
In these summer months, one cannot but empathise with students readying themselves for examination (my apologies to them for sounding so optimistic about their readiness in what are palpably, pessimistic times when many of them would be hard- pressed to even think straight).
In fact, one came across a news item in one of the local dailies the other day headlined Students reluctant to attend school on account of the testing summer made only worse by lack of electricity.
Let’s just say, it is unfair on these poor souls, who have no choice but to grin and bear. And also pass muster at the exams! My generation — and am not exactly as old as the hills — was barely acquainted with loadshedding. The current lot will probably, have perfected the working of generators and UPS in a few years time if the song remains the same.
Perhaps, a DIY complete with diagram and pictures can be included in the textbooks so that Pakistan won’t have to depend on heavy duty nuclear plants for power generation from China or elsewhere in the future!
Contrast this situation with the wastage of electricity on any given day in the number of sectors in Islamabad where lampposts burn bright during morning and day time but retreat into pitch dark come the prowling hour.
When I asked someone in the know about such gross morning negligence, he blamed it on “auto switch” failure. So who is to get it in working order? And how come so many of these auto switches are out of order in one place or the other and no-one really bothered about fixing these?
Capital Development Authority head honcho Kamran Lashari has done so much to change Islamabad’s landscape in the last few years but all the red paint misses a simple stroke: before you pander to the urge of doing things big and bright, you attend to matters basic and simple.
Leave alone the automation of switches, many of Islamabad’s major roads don’t even have functional lampposts. Night time driving can be a real hazard without light. Personally speaking, it is a sight one dreaded each time one came on vacation to Pakistan until 2005 when one returned home for good. One got the impression that people were either too brave or too fed up with the ‘system’, to do anything about it.
Three years down the road, one is convinced that more likely, the lights have just gone out of their lives. That they just get by, used as they are to being deprived/discriminated/cheated by the ‘system’.
I can’t say if I have gotten used to the ‘system’ myself, but besides cursing one’s luck there is very little one can do to change an entrenched ‘system’. Sadly, it is a road less travelled in Pakistan.
The writer is News Editor at Dawn News. He may be contacted at kaamyabi@gmail.com