Narratives Outside the Control Room
World Media and its Stories
Please read The Women in the Control Room, for the context.
The story in this post - moves outside of the control room and into the world of narratives, otherwise I was going to title it Women in Control Room 2,
The World of Narratives
World Media and its Stories
In the age of screens, the world of narratives is controlled by those who control the media and those who create the content. Here are two real life stories to consider how media distort, misinform, even when they are trying to ‘do good’.
Lack of clarity and transparency in the news media creates divisions in the hearts and minds of people and the countries they belong to.
Hard power and soft power work together. Both use media to a different degree and for different reasons.
Every country highlights certain aspects of her history to build a national identity. For example, the U.S. promotes the "American Dream" as a core narrative. India always speaks of unity in diversity and a thriving democracy despite housing many faiths and languages. France has always stated liberty as her primary value. However, Italy may consider herself, the world knows it for its food and the Vatican.
For me it was the ‘eyeballs in a soup and monkey-brains”.
Even as a young person, I was disgusted at the film, and kept wondering, “But that is not how we eat in India. In fact, we are vegetarians.”
Films, books, and news media shape how people view a country. For example, Hollywood projects the U.S. as a land of opportunity and innovation, while if you watch Bollywood, you think India is all music and dance. However, if you watch closely, until the early 2000s most movies revolved around family life, indicating the place of family in social life. Post 1990s much money has been invested in the film industry from foreign sources. Remember, India has the largest market audience, considering China controls its media strictly.
As a result, of foreign investment- today Bollywood is unrecognizable and, in many ways, not even Indian.
The ‘Other’ through ‘Our’ media
Equally important is how one country views another. How does Hollywood or US media portray other countries, and vice-versa?
Although, as I shared in earlier posts (MEDIA AND ITS WAYS SERIES), the US media has a higher reach and credence. Meaning what US says about the world matters more than what the world says about the US1.
Think Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom (1984).
What images come to mind of India? For me it was the ‘eyeballs in a soup and monkey-brains”.
Even as a young person, I was disgusted at the film, and kept wondering, “But that is not how we eat in India. In fact, we are vegetarians.”
India remains the most vegetarian country in the world proportionately. Even for meat eaters, there are at least 60-100 days a year when people abstain from any animal product (except dairy products). The reason for not eating meat is primary one: to avoid causing pain to another living being.
Imagine being represented as eating monkey brains for dessert?
Whether it is Hollywood, National Geographic or The New York Times, they never stop to think of how they are using their power and reach.
The New York Times’ Understanding of India’s Space Mission
Mangalyaan was launched in November of 2013 and reached Mars in September of 2014. In October of 2014 the very liberal New York Times published the following cartoon to mark Mangalyaan’s success and India’s entry into the space club.
Cartoon Published in the New York Times, after the success of Mangalyaan.
Of course there was an outrage, and The New York Times apologized a few days later.
But what made them do this in the first place?
There were many things to praise about the event. The fact that nearly ten percent of the engineers working on the mission were women, that it was the most cost-effective venture of its kind and was the first one to be successful on a first attempt. More importantly, India never went through Industrial revolution, something that was a privilege of the countries that colonized and looted land or material from others, i.e. most of what we call developed countries today.
Yet, the New York Times, a liberal newspaper, with an international following chose to focus on India’s previous (and somewhat contemporary) status as a developing country/an agrarian economy.
Why?
Another incident
In 1998, when India secretly tested its nuclear weapons there was an outrage all over the world, especially broadcasted on the US news channels.
Strangely, the day before breaking the news about India’s nuclear test The New York Times published a story focusing on the practice of child marriages in India.
Why just a day before the story of a successful nuclear testing in India?
My Hunch: The Reason is Two-fold.
One, that the US had learnt about nuclear test too late. To conduct the nuclear tests, India had employed a multi-pronged strategy to avoid being detected by the US spy satellites, ---e.g. maintaining secrecy, camouflaging activities, and timing operations during satellite blind period2. Owning that Indian scientists had been successful not only in conducting the tests, but without so much as a whisper leaking to the US, would be embarrassing3.
Two, by ensuring that a story of a ‘regressive India’ precedes the story of India as a nuclear state would counter any image change for the country.
We all know images matter on the global stage.
What images, words, concepts come to mind when you hear India or China?
If you are over thirty-five, you know that in the last two decades, there has been a shift in the image of India and China on the international stage.
Personal Opinion
My advisor in the US and I had a long discussion about India’s secret nuclear tests. My first words were, “Shame on us, we are the land of Gandhi.”
However today, as a grown up, I have a much-nuanced understanding.
Geopolitics and Good Will
Geopolitics does not work on goodwill, although goodwill is always an underlying force for whatever peace we have in this world. Usually, the history of previous encounters between two nations paves the path for future decisions.
India is flanked by two nuclear armed nations. Pakistan, which is clearly hostile towards India and China that has a tepid to warm relationship with India depending on the time.
In addition, national naivety isn’t a trait to be upheld during uncertain times.
War should ALWAYS be the last resort. But weapons must be sharpened every so often, because that means preparation, and is every nation’s responsibility. In international politics, vigilance is not a luxury. For that reason, even Buddhist monks are trained in Shastra vidya (the Indian art of weaponry and self-defense).
Besides, most importantly, the nations that started it all cannot be the ones complaining when emerging economies follow suit.
In the next post I will talk about how the (Western) world is having a difficult time accepting the powerful status of the two nations in Asia, a continent clearly known for its non-western ways with regards to cuisine, culture and civics4.
And the recent skit by SNL-Saturday Night Live, where sacred Hindu chants were depicted as demonic.
Until then, admire this photo again, it will be referenced in the next post.
There are always exceptions.
Watch Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran or read here how the tests were carried out clandestinely –and the US was upset at how a country like India had bypassed the scrutiny of the US. Pramanu means Atom.
Which happened earlier in 1996.
Should not be the case, considering Japan has shown great resilience since World War II.
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