Depiction of media diversity: Thematic deconstruction of `Pipli Live’

By Archana R Singh

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Cinema on rural life

Cinema has tackled the issues of agrarian crisis since Mother India, Upkaar, Dharti kahe pukar ke and many others to the latest Summer 2007 .

one film that has tackled the above issue through a satire on political, bureaucratic and media response to the same is Pipli Live ( 2010, Amir Khan productions)

The reviews

Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film three and a half out of five stars stating," How smart can Indian cinema get? Exhilarating answer: Very smart. “And that's the bottom line of Peepli Live.”

Taran Adarshof Bollywood Hungama gave it four and a half out of five stars and argues that "the concept (farmers' suicides) would instinctively translate into a serious, thought-provoking film.

Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times gave the film four out of five stars arguing that "the satire is irresistible; the subtext, compelling. And yet neither shows itself up in any form of self-seriousness.

Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN also gave it three and a half out of five stars, calling it "a scathing satire on the country's apathy towards the rural class, and specifically towards farmers

The Statesman gave the film 4 out of 5 stars noting that, "Anusha Rizvi demolishes successfully whatever little faith we had in the political process. Peepli (Live) is entertaining and inspiring".

The media ignores the media

The film talks about the impending death of a farmer It delves upon one apparent and one implicated death;

that of the `mud digger’ being symbolic of silent death of the poor and impoverished

More importantly, it manages to metaphorically announces the death of the rural print media through the small time reporter of sole proprietor rural newspaper.

The film takes a long hard look at the market driven media environment

A student of media can discern a commentary on the dilemma being faced by the Indian media persons in every dialogue and description.

Objectives

This paper tries to identify the deeper nuances of media diversity as shown in the film.

To go beyond the superficial depiction of media appearing to be only about salability of the story and the circus created by electronic media pouncing on `breaking news’.

To take a concentrated look at the diverse aspects of media which speak about the changes that the profession of journalism is going through and the insecurity being felt by the journalists.

To conduct a qualitative thematic analysis of the film through emerging themes and their contribution to the narrative.

Methodology

The film has been analyzed through qualitative thematic analysis

The priori, non content-specific scheme of coding has been used for the purpose of analyzing the visual data

The codes are derived directly by the researcher from the themes originating in the film and the data are examined and sorted into the scheme

Unit of analysis

Emerging themes relating to the issue of diversity of media are:

Urban/rural Rich /Poor Alert/laid back Sensitive/Callous Opportunist/idealist Print/television Sole proprietor/Corporate Bureaucratic pressure/market pressure Inter-media competition Intra-media competition

Data Analysis

Media makes an entry Natha’s brother is shown listening to a

newspaper story about farmers’ suicide published in `Jan Morcha’ being read out at a tea stall. ( 1)

Urban elitist media in the form of English news channel makes its entry into the frame of the film with a `Shilpa Shetty’ story in the lead. Farmers’ suicide story is the third lead in the bulletin on air ( 2)

Hindi media makes its entry as a viewer of English Channel. ( 3)

Media-politics relationship The nexus between politicians with the

correspondents of the English channels is casual, friendly and one of symbiotic interdependence made clear by their dialogues about attending each other’s parties

relationship with Hindi channel reporter is about sycophancy and feet touching.

Print/Electronic

Print is the first medium to make its entry and is depicted as a reliable medium. It is also the first medium to break the Natha story.

Governmental action in the form of `Lal Bahadur’

License of Jan Morcha being revoked. Electronic media is hesitant about the

coverage but later attacks it like an army operation

Print media in the film

 Breaks the news at the local level. Breaks the first Natha story. Is being followed by/referred to local politicians. Is represented only by small sole proprietor rural newspaper and

only one instance of an international magazine when the Natha family makes it to the cover of the Times, with the headline, `The great Indian tragedy’. It exists in two extremes of hyper-local and global i.e. either the Pipli newspaper or Time magazine.

There is no national or regional print media to provide inter-media or intra-media competition

Is prone to closure and governmental action. Is not considered as competition by the electronic media. The

inter-media competition is visible in the broadcast channels only.

Rural/Poor

The Rural media is symbolized by a sole proprietor (NavKranti Prakashan) small newspaper called `Janmorcha’, an aggressive suggestion to the otherwise meek existence

rural print media reporter turns out to be the only media person with a `nose for news’. He is first to recognize the Natha story, first to break it in his newspaper, first to recognize a good story in the Mahto the mud digger.

He is also first to notice the futility of Natha story, first to notice suspicious behavior of police officers who have kept Natha in a warehouse ,first to reach the spot and find Natha and first to martyr his life for the cause of a good story. He is however unaware of his capabilities and is starry eyed about electronic media.

Urban/Rich

Hindi urban electronic media has been portrayed as sensationalist, opportunistic and self congratulatory. They mostly are shown as keeping an eye on the English Channel reporter and following her lead. They are shown indulging in sensational journalism by encouraging superstition asking the villagers to pretend to be possessed

The English Channels are insensitive, opportunistic, TRP driven and unconcerned with human discomfort and cleverly hide their callousness behind the garb of professionalism. Crude opportunistic with local residents and condescending towards local media

Sole proprietor/Corporate The Natha story is picked up by the English Channel

followed closely by the Hindi channel based solely on the editorial decision making of the higher hierarchy of the media establishment and not by the reporters

The reporters are shown taking decisions on event oriented news and not on perspectives.

The sole proprietor is portrayed as scared. As it is he is struggling with lack of support system, limited resources and untrained staff, and to add to his woes are the political and bureaucratic pressures. He cringes at every question and places the blame on the correspondent.

Conclusion

The basics of journalism suggest verification The small time print reporter dies in the

explosion and everyone assumes that Natha is dead. No one verifies.

Natha, the farmer is dead, a fact that media has not noticed. Natha, the migrant labour has just been born and nobody perceives.

A more tragic death is that of Rakesh. He who, symbolizes, print media, the sensitive media, the only media with some nose for news, the alert media and the small grassroots media.

Epilogue

The film for a media student is reflective of the condition of journalists in the small, sole proprietor print media. Unrecognized, unappreciated, dying a quiet death amid the din of corporate media.

As they go extinct, the elite urban media blows dust to the rural hinterland and will return to the Piplis of India only when they have the TRP friendly, eyeball catching, `breaking news’!

archana@pu.ac.inarchanarsingh@gmail.com