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Frenzied Media TrialsAre All About AudienceNumbersBY MOHAN J DUTTA ON 18/02/2016 • LEAVE A COMMENT
A screen shot of the Newshour debate on Times Now.
The 24X7 news cycles that feed the ratingsdriven economics of commercial TV channels
such as Times Now, Zee News, and News X depend on topics such as antinationalism and
separatism to draw large audiences. ‘likes’, shares, and comments on #hashtags feed the
ratings frenzy. The more easily a polarizing opinion can be captured in a #hashtag, the
greater its likelihood of spinning into the gargantuan numbers that drive the new media
politics of news production and dissemination.
This is especially the case now as news channels compete for eyes, social media shares,
and engagement, the buzzwords for measurement of news value in the new media
environment. The heat index of a media story is proportionate to the amount of
controversy it whips up, capturing the buzz for the next spin cycle.
Engagement is the new buzzword in the 24/7 mediascape, captured in public callins,
comments, and tweets that are livecast on the show.
In this media frenzy for numbers, ratings, and engagement, media trials have emerged in
India as a salient genre for driving public discourse. This genre of media trials depends on
the powerful role of news anchors in shaping the conversation, replete with #hashtags and
subtitles. Fashioned as reality shows, the trials are replete with multiple screens, multiple
camera angles, comments screens, and floating headlines.
MEDIA
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The genre looks somewhat like this, with some variances in format and modality: The
news anchor introduces a topic of debate, identifies the problem, and holds a trial with
pundits offering different views around the trial. At the heart of the media trial format is
an issue or an individual that is being tried.
The more controversial the topic of a trial, the greater its heat index. The performance of
the news anchor in this genre depends upon his/her mastery at whipping up the story,
making up the controversy and spinning it to cater to public emotions. The power of
media trials as a genre to speak to public emotions also limits the possibilities of debate,
argumentation, and dialogue. Small snippets of conversations, eked out from broader
events, are framed and flashed onto the screen, anchoring the shouting matches that build
around them. The conclusions of these trials are foreclosed, the judgment already having
been decided upon even before the trial is set in motion. In this sense then, media trials in
24X7 new media cycles are staged performances, tied to sentiment analysis, audience
moods, and market assessment of ratings.
In the latest coverage of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, a programme
poetically titled “Country without a post office” was held, referring to a timeframe in the
1990s when no letters were delivered to Kashmir. The event, an annual cultural
performance, centered on the juridical treatment of Afzal Guru and his hanging and was
set up in the broader backdrop of the Kashmir question, meant to create a discursive space
for discussions of the role of the Indian state in relationship to Kashmir.
After giving approval for a film screening at the event, the administration at JNU later
withdrew it. Students and protestors still gathered at the University site and raised
slogans. In what appears from the videos circulated on TV and on social media, some of
the participants at the event allegedly chanted slogans such as “Freedom for Kashmir,”
“Afzal we are with you,” “the destruction of India,” and “Hail Pakistan” (these are not
literal translations as the highlighted slogans were raised in Hindi).
What followed the event was a media trial. The nightly “Newshour debate” on Times Nowhosted by Arnab Goswami, an exemplar of and an industry leader in the media trial genre,
focused on the cultural event, framing the question “Is it freedom of speech or sedition?”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGN2KOJMaeM) that is captioned in a text on the screen.
Opening the event with the question directed at Lenin Kumar, a former JNU Student
Union President. Goswami opens, “This is not, this is not, this is not democrat (sic). This
is not leftist. This is not freedom of speech to say… ‘India go back’ … It is not freedom of
speech to say… So you want another attack on the Indian parliament…And then you want
to come out and say, the lasting call of Azadi rings hard in the heart of every Kashmiri.
That’s not freedom of speech. I mean, what are you upto?”
Rather than performing the role of a news anchor in attempting even an appearance of
balance, the opening is framed with bias, offering a number of loaded statements that
have already labeled the students. Far removed from the performance of a debate
anchored in bringing out multiple views around a topic, Goswami’s show begins with a
frame that has already decided to focus on the slogans raised at the event, clearly
indicating that these don’t amount to freedom of speech but are against India. The
questions are accompanied by the caption “Is it freedom of speech to glorify a terrorist as a
martyr?” once again depicting the foreclosed conversation. The event thus is reduced to
the glorification of Afzal Guru the terrorist, far removed from the questions of the judicial
process and death penalty that were being raised by the students.
Bringing out the poster of the cultural event, Goswami next zooms in on the subtext of a
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printed poster “In solidarity with the people of Kashmir” he holds to the screen. He then
goes on to ask, “Which side are you on?” Critical to the media trial format of TV
performance is the placing of the object of the trial under the lens. Note here once again
the leap in logic. The expression “in solidarity with the Kashmiri people” is a heuristic
replacement for “antinationalism.” The slippery slope of claimsmaking quickly moves
over to the realm of Kashmiri separatism, equating the expression of solidarity with
Kashmiri people as antinationalist.
Judgment on nationalism
Nupur Sharma of the BJP joins in the chorus: “You are antiIndia. You are closet
terrorist.” A judgment has been passed on the metric of nationalism, the student
organizers of the event having been labeled as terrorists and as antiIndia. Accompanied
by screaming matches and enactment of rage, there is no opening for interrogating the
claims that have been offered. Goswami as anchor, rather than interrogating this leap of
logic, works collaboratively with Sharma to feed and magnify the narrative. Such is the
nature of the media trial genre. Its effectiveness is not judged by the quality of the debate
it generates, but the number of abbreviated conclusions that speak to the collective rage of
its audience.
Truncated video clippings that are mostly unclear and hazy are flashed onto the screen,
apparently as sources of evidence. The audio in most of the clippings is unclear, and so is
the video. The viewer is not offered any evidence. Tools such as highlighters and markers
are used on the screen, highlighting students, repeating specific frames, and recycling the
frames as evidence. That the frames are of poor quality or don’t really offer the evidence
for the claims being made is not relevant. Images of the students present at the event are
circled with a red pen, with continuous replays on the screen.
Particularly chilling is the segment when Goswami attacks Umar Khalid, a student. Umar
Khalid, the viewer is told, is the organizer of the cultural event. He is an easy target. He
appears Muslim. Perhaps he is Kashmiri, the mind of the viewer wonders. Perhaps he is
attached to one of those terror outfits. Umar is guilty by appearance, offering an easy
narrative that fits the linear stories that Goswami and his audience would like to believe
in. His appearance lends itself to the media trial genre.
Goswami opens Khalid’s trial with the statement “Don’t hide behind two things, which you
are not. Clearly not. You are antinationals.” Framing a series of questions, Goswami
speaks over Khalid, without giving him an opportunity to offer his explanations. The
harangue continues, with Goswami concluding with a series of rhetorical statements, “You
people carry the Indian passport? You are on an Indian campus? You are the beneficiaries
of a subsidized government Indian education? Your education is paid for by the Indian
taxpayer? You misuse your freedom of expression and then you say ‘this is cultural?’ What
is cultural about this?”
Goswami’s rants are echoed by Nupur Sharma’s intermittent accusations “I don’t know
how you call yourself Indian.” As Khalid attempts to offer an alternative, Goswami allows
Nupur Sharma to speak over him, ending up with the statement to Umar, “Remember
this. You. You are more dangerous to this country than Maoist terrorists. I wonder who is
funding you?” Nupur Sharma joins in leading the chorus “You are a terrorist. You are a
closet terrorist.” The experts and Goswami join in on the onesided attack on Khalid.
As Khalid attempts to speak, suggesting the relevance of having open debates and
alternative views and points toward the McCarthyite environment in India under the
current BJP rule, Goswami asks him to stop, talking over him “Umar stop. Someone’s
going to call your bluff, and I am going to call your bluff tonight. Someone is going to
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name you as antinational, and I am going to name you as antinational tonight.
Someone’s got to say, Who is funding you, and I am going to say, who is funding you…
There’s no place for advocating antiIndia sentiments in our campuses…At least admit,
you are a secessionist.” Without the opportunity of a debate, without the opportunity for
Khalid to offer his view, Goswami arrives at the judgment Umar Khalid is antinational. A
judgment that gets picked up in the hashtag #flashpointAfzal and gets amplified.
Raging tirade
At one point in the show, Goswami juxtaposes Khalid with the narrative of Lance Naik
Hanumanthappa, the Indian soldier who died in an avalanche in Siachen. As Khalid seeks
to offer his point of view, Goswami keeps amplifying his voice, stating he would not
tolerate anyone to say anything disrespectful when he is discussing the brave soldier
Hanumanthappa. Khalid’s mic is muted as Goswami goes on a raging tirade. Salient in
this narrative is the power of juxtaposition as a tool for labeling Umar Khalid as a
terrorist, framed as a threat to the nation.
Goswami’s anger leaves no room for debate, forgetting the fundamental journalistic values
of evidence, balance, nuance, and engaged conversation. The pivotal question raised by
Khalid, the question we all ought to be asking, “Where is the space for alternative voices in
India?” is quickly erased. In doing so, Goswami and his team of nationalist guarddogs
performed precisely the McCarthyite erasure that Umar Khalid and the event of February
9 wanted to draw attention to.
As we will later see over the course of the following days, Umar Khalid’s identity becomes
the subject of a new witchhunt, with unsupported claims about his links to Pakistan and
to the terrorist outfit JaisheMohammad. News channels such as Zee TV manufacture
and circulate falsified reports about Khalid’s terror linkages, turning him into the image of
the terrorist needed to prop up the nationalist story. Social media spaces have reified these
stories in spite of a later Intelligence Bureau Report brief published in the Hindu
(http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jnustudentsjaishlinkgovtdeniesreport/article8245603.ece)
that noted the Center denied any such report linking Umar Khalid to JaisheMohammad.
Arnab Goswami’s “Newshour Debate” is one among many shows in the genre of reality TV
media trials. They don’t rely on journalistic ethics or traditional news formats to construct
the shows. The performance of hardhitting questions is not grounded in a commitment to
balance or thoughtful debate. Rather, as performances, the shows in this genre are guided
by an everamplifying spin zone, picking up small frames, capturing these frames in
abbreviated #hashtags, and appealing to circuits of anger as bases for connective action.
In the national narrative of public outrage, the collective of the public coalesces around
instant responses on twitter, brief comments on Facebook, and shares on WhatsApp. As
hot spin, the performance of the “Newshour Debate” can’t in principle be a debate as it has
to cater to its genre characteristics of condensing monolithic frames into tweets and
amplifying them through multimedia stories.
The national frenzy on antinationalism and terror offers the perfect fodder for the
ratingsdriven economy of media trials, feeding each other in an everexpanding vortex
that leaves unquestioned the heuristics and the foreclosed judgments. The voices of
students, activists, communities that question the national narrative and its assumptions
are marked as the “other,” as the subjects of witch hunts. Voices of difference lay silenced
as the national narrative works out the morality of the nation state, having marked these
voices as sites to be jailed, controlled, and silenced.
While Arnab Goswami’s brand of spin works well in serving the media economy of
channels such as Times Now that depend upon an everexpanding mass of audience to
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drive the advertising and circulation revenues, the danger of media trials as a genre lies in
its power to suspend judgment. Feeding into cycles of anger as affect, a nation state and its
imaginations are quickly marked on the image of the “other” as the “antinational,”
offering the basis for the kind of witchhunt we are witnessing in the nation’s capital and
in its social media sphere.
Mohan J. Dutta is Provost’s Chair Professor and Head of Communications and NewMedia at the National University of Singapore.
Categories: Media (http://thewire.in/category/society/culture/media/)
Tagged as: Arnab Goswami (http://thewire.in/tag/arnabgoswami/), JNU (http://thewire.in/tag/jnu/), Lenin Kumar(http://thewire.in/tag/leninkumar/), News X (http://thewire.in/tag/newsx/), ratings (http://thewire.in/tag/ratings/), Times Now(http://thewire.in/tag/timesnow/), Umar Khalid (http://thewire.in/tag/umarkhalid/), Zee News (http://thewire.in/tag/zeenews/)
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