Deciphering media role in promoting nationalism- K.V Nagraj

Deciphering media role in promoting nationalism

   The Indian polity is moving through yet another decisive phase of re-inventing nationalism, secularism and plurality. The issue has generated endless debates and discussions all over the country. Nationalism often subsumes patriotism when it arrogates different forms, in terms of religion, language and ethnicity. Nationalism is volatile and also violent. India has opted for secularism and plurality as enshrined in our constitution unlike many of our neighbours. The greatest virtue of India is its multicultural mosaic of diverse ethnicity, denominations and ideologies. The political structure of India is directly imported from Whitehall, and this is not acceptable some scholars and political outfits. The Nehruvion obsession with soviet socialism and subsequent industrialization were not in tune with the Gandhian economics or his political ideology. Gandhi wanted production by humans, not by machines in a populous country like India where massive employment strategy is the need of the hour. The recent politico-cultural developments besides economic measures have been lapped up by media for its own discourses. The idea of nationalism always manifests in violence as evidenced in human history. The two world wars are a fine example of how nationalistic tendencies can bring in colossal destruction to mankind. Though Mahatma Gandhi and  Rabindranath Tagore differ on the issue, their goal of peace and prosperity of mankind is undeniable. Gandhi’s passive resistance demonstrated that nationalism can also be non-violent, a unique initiative.

            Again, we have borrowed the western concept of secularism, which some scholars consider alien to our cultural ethos. For them, it is Abrahamic, not acceptable to Asia. Whatever the argument is, undeniable is the fact that India is a shining star of tolerance and amity, to the best possible extent. The peaceful co-existence of different ethnicity and social categories is appreciated all over the world. However, it is always useful to conduct a micro analysis of the media role in promoting secularism, or for that matter, nationalism, for a peaceful state. Plurality of opinion is the basis of a democratic existence. The media should focus and emphasize for the creation of a pluralistic society. Dissent is the life-blood of democracy. Unfortunately, it appears that Indian media suffer from pluralistic ignorance, detrimental to a free society. The international seminar “Re-inventing nationalism, secularism and plurality: Media discourses and deconstruction” is a sincere attempt to decipher the media role in various spheres of political operations. Trust it will be a fruitful deliberation for two days.

K.V. Nagaraj

Inaugural session of the two day International Seminar on 'Reinventing Nationalism, Secularism and Plurality, Media Discourses and Deconstruction'

NOTION OF NATIONALISM IS TROUBLESOME: SAYS K.V.NAGRAJ

   The Department of Communication and Journalism, GU is all set up with the floor to address the most tough, sensitive and slippery issues of Nationalism, Secularism and Pluralism in the international seminar from today.

In the inaugural session of the two-day International Seminar on ‘Reinventing Nationalism, Secularism and Plurality, Media Discourses and Deconstruction’ held at BKB Auditorium, Gauhati University, Professor K.V.Nagraj of Mizoram University in his presidential address said, “The topic selected for the seminar is very sensitive and touchy. And despite these, we have to discuss it.  Because, notion of nationalism is troublesome in terms of aggression and violence and there is a need for the introspection”.

Professor Nagraj added, “Nationalism takes many forms like cultural, religious and linguistic whereas patriotism is geographical in character subdued by the notion of nationalism.”

Commemorating the 50 years of Media Education in the entire North East region, the Department of Communication and Journalism, Gauhati University which is also in its Golden Jubilee year has organized this two-day International Seminar starting from today in collaboration with the Department of Mass Communication, Mizoram Central University.

Gracing the occasion as a Chief Guest, Dr. Mridul Hazarika, the Vice Chancellor of the host University said, “Secularism is facing a tremendous challenge with the changing pattern of education for which we got to look at secularism from different perspective than what the term defines genuinely.”

Speaking on the importance of the topic, Hazarika added, “As we move forward, the issue we have today may not be relevant tomorrow. But the issues of secularism and nationalism will need a critical evaluation. And hence, these are extremely relevant topics that need to be focused upon.”

“Media literacy is of utmost importance in this changing notion of nationalism today. Otherwise, it is pitiful to see the loss of credibility of media before the public”, said Dr. Bhabesh Chandra Goswami, the Vice Chancellor of Cotton University who was invited as the Guest of Honour in the seminar.

He emphasized that in order to understand media in changing discourse of nationalism; we have to understand the origin of India which is about the social reform of the systems like Sati through the medium of newspaper like Brahma Patrika.

The guests from all around the globe including participants and the international delegates were present in the seminar.

Dr. Hemanta Kr. Nath, Secretary of the University Classes, GU gave the welcome address.

The inaugural session also witness the release of book entitled ‘Decoding Communication for Development: Emphasising India’s North East’ in the presence of all the dignitaries.

 

Speaking to GU Times, the Editor of the book released, Dr. Ankuran Dutta, HoD of Communication and Journalism, GU who is also the organizing secretary of the Seminar said, “The book is fragmented into the sub themes of conceptualizing communication for Development, which is an attempt to understand the concepts associated with C4D as well as define how it can be incorporated into curriculum in the academic sector.”

                                                                                                                      -By Raja Das and Nisa Das

                                                                             

Comprehending and Measuring Development

Professor Madhurjya Prasad Bezbaruah, Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, Gauhati University, in his session discussed at length about the concepts of development and the different methods that are being used while measuring development. Professor Bezbaruah stated that the concept of development can be explained in two ways- a) development as a state or static condition and b) development as a process or course of change. The concept of development as static phenomena was explained by the traditional thinkers. But soon it was realized that development entails much more than mere expansion of volume of production of goods and services. While explaining the concept of development, Professor Bezbaruah mentioned the concept of Development by M.P Todaro. He further added that according to Todaro, development is not purely an economic phenomenon rather a multidimensional process involving reorganization and reorientation of entire economic and social system. Subsequently, the concept of development has been extended to substantial and sustainable improvement in the quality of life of the people. Along with this, Professor Bezbaruah spoke about the physical versus spiritual quality of life. However, the economists have tended to limit to physical quality and Professor Bezbaruah rightfully justified that the spiritual perspective of development is an inconclusive debate and it differs among generations. While discussing about the measurement of development, he stated that in earlier version of development, per capita income (PCI) had been taken into account to measure development, but soon was criticized on the ground that it is merely an average and does not represent the standard of living among people. To meet the limitations of PCI, in the mid- 1970s, Morris David Morris developed Physical Quality Life Index (PQLI) as a measure of economic development. Health and education had been taken as main components of PQLI. Professor Bezbaruah further stated that PQLI was also criticized for ignoring some other factors which influence the quality of life such as employment, social security etc. Consequently, the Human Development Index (HDI) was developed by the Pakistani economist Mehbub Ul Haq and the Indian economist Amartya Sen in 1990 and was published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). HDI makes it clear that income cannot be considered as a yardstick for measuring human development because well-being depends on the use of income and not on the level of income. The three dimensions that have been take into account in HDI are- a) living a long and healthy life, b) acquiring knowledge and c) having a decent standard of living. Health indicator is measured by life expectancy at birth and it leads to a decent standard of living. Gross National Income Per capita in Purchasing Power Parity in dollar is taken into account. He further explained the concept of Purchasing Power Parity as an exchange rate which reflects the prices and is used as proxy of income so that it can be compared across nations.

Professor Bezbaruah mentioned that since UNDP report, 2010, expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling have been used as indicators of measuring knowledge dimension. The idea of sustainable development has also been discussed in the session. In this context, Professor Bezbaruah spoke of a committee known as Club of Rome formed in 1970’s by many countries together and which is also known as ‘limit to growth’ where the future of human life due to increasing pollution, consumerism etc. had been discussed for the first time. However, it was criticized that the dynamic nature of development had been ignored in the discussions. While explaining the concept of sustainable development, he even mentioned about the energy crisis of 1973. Moreover, he added that the limit to growth theory is not same across the countries of the world. The rich countries can cut down the growth process for conservation of energy and natural resources. However, this is not the same for the underdeveloped countries as these countries were still at their first stage of development. Hence, combining these two issues, Brundtland Report of the World Council on Economic Development, 1987 articulated the whole concept of sustainable development. Adding to the concept of sustainable development, he stated that the intergenerational equity has to be maintained. While giving light to sustainability, the concepts of weak sustainability and strong sustainability had also been taken into account. While school of weak sustainability believes that manufactured commodities and natural resources can be used as substitutes; the thinkers of strong sustainability strongly opposes it. He, further rightfully argued that the weak sustainability is not always unacceptable. While discussing the arguments of interrelationship among growth- inequality and development; he cited that some earlier economists like Kuznet argued that to increase growth and development, there should be more inequality between rich and poor. However, the idea has been countered by the other studies. Finally, Professor Bezbaruah pointed out the rising problem of inequality of income in developing and developed countries, the causes and the fallouts of inequality. 

Report prepared by Reema Rabha on the second session, October 31, 2017 on Refresher Course on Communication for Development organised by Department of Communication and Journalism and UGC-HRDC, Gauhati University with support from UNICEF, Assam 

Decoding Economics through Development

Professor Nissar A. Barua, Department of Economics, Gauhati University in his session discussed on the issues of Governance and Economy. Prof. Barua started with the concept of Governance which came to the forefront in the 1990’s when re-minted by economists, political scientists and disseminated by institutions like UN, IMF and World Bank. Since then, the term has gained increasing usage. Initially, the term governance was basically about authority and control; however, over the years, the importance of some attributes like participation in the decision making process, equity and justice, transparency and accountability was being realized. Recently, the definition of governance has been extended to bring predictability through corporate governance. With this background, Prof. Barua narrates governance as “A process whereby public institutions conduct public affairs, manage public resources and endeavor to attain the exalted objective of maximizing social welfare.” He states that governance can take place at individual, national, local and as well as at institutional level. Moreover, he added that to understand a particular form of governance, one has to look into the participating entities, the intentions associated with it and the relative sphere of their influence. While discussing about the democratic and non-democratic structure of the inter relationship among the entities in terms of power or control, Prof. Barua has rightfully justified that in a democratic structure, the role of government and the private sector including media have much more important role than the civil society, unlike the non-democratic structure. He has also added that the whole structure changes and power comes to the hands of military forces when some distortions occur under particular governance. The professor also explained the rural and urban setting of power relations of the entities. In addition to this, from the UNDP report, 1997, he has also discussed about the principles of good governance. The principles which have been discussed extensively are-a) participation and consensus of the stakeholders, b) vision and direction of the government leaders, c) flexibility to respond in a dynamic environment, d) efficiency in terms of allocation of resources and proper utilization as well as equal distribution and effectiveness in terms of attainment of goals, e) accountability and transparency in utilization of resources or government funds, f) equity and rule of law. Prof. Barua, concluded by explaining the three issues that come into play while studying the role of governance in terms of economic development. These issues are –

§  Issues in allocation of resources- the scarce public resources should be used in terms of public interest in an optimal and sustainable manner while giving priority to the poor section

§  Utilization issue- the transparency and accountability should be maintained and there should be timely formulations of proposals and prompt execution.    

§  Equity issue- the issues of equity like minorities, SCs/STs, gender equity etc. have to be given equal importance.  

Report prepared by Reema Rabha on the first session, October 30, 2017 on Refresher Course on Communication for Development organised by Department of Communication and Journalism and UGC-HRDC, Gauhati University with support from UNICEF, Assam 

Development does not mean uprooting the originality of people

The class mainly focused on three concepts and their interrelation with each other. The three concepts were media, communication and development communication. Starting with the origin of the term media i.e. from the word Medium or Mediation, various angles were elaborated. The features and functions of media   such as the mediatory role between the people and public, media’s influence, functions such as to educate, to inform, to entertain, persuade, debate and discus. Media’s role in cultural promotion, edutainment, an agent for social change, knowledge circulator and multiplier were all elaborately discussed. Media’s positive campaign on various issues such as health (polio), school enrollment among others were also discussed. The historic events such as the emergency period from 1975- 1977, and the evolution of the Indian cinema of the 60s and  70s such as Sholay, Mother India to cartoons and animation which had famous character such as Mina were linked with the entire concept of development communication. Stories with a moral conclusion along with direct social messages were part of the discourse. Opinions where media is considered to be an integral part of human life and man’s incapability to escape media’s existence and influence were justified in the discussion.  

Secondly, Communication, which is the root of all human activities right from sharing knowledge, information dissemination and experience establishing the co- relation between media and communication was established. “Media is one of the most powerful and influential part of communication. In order to prove the influence of media in the society an understanding of the development stories is extremely important,” stated Kashyap.So to elaborate this he cited examples of stories that he himself has covered. The successful radio programme named “Krishi Jagat” (where the listeners who were mostly non- literate were the real heroes making the green revolution a great success with the help of agricultural information provided via the program)

Coming to the third concept, Development communication or Journalism, he analusd few definitions such as:

Nora Quebral, 1975: It is an art and sciences of human communication applied and achieve speedy transformation of a country and the mass of its people from poverty to a dynamic state of economic growth that makes promotes greater social equality and larger fulfillment of the human potential.

Rosario Braid, 1979: It is an element of the management procession in the overall planning and implementation of development programmes. In a broad sense, it is the identification and utilization of appropriate in the development process that will assist in increasing participation of intended beneficiaries at the grass root levels.

The resource person made an attempt to define development communication as a special area of interest along with how the media can be used in a positive manner to bring about sustainable development in the society. He said, “Development should not only be measured in economic terms but in social, political, cultural, educational aspects also”.

Few parameters that surrounded the concept of development communication such as a perceptible change in people lives, per capital income of the majority of the people for a given period of time, access to clean drinking water, sanitation, heath care, primary education, immunization, employment, road connectivity and its relation to market expansion to employment, proper education, better facilities to health care etc. was a part of elaboration.

Kashyap also said that, “Development does not mean uprooting the originality of the people and civilization in the name of development, industrialization and expansion, it also does not mean the destruction of the beautiful mother nature, but it means sustainable development, bringing desirable changes, thinking and working for the people of the society.

At the end of the session Kashyap discussed about his experience in the Indian Express and explained the ground reality of the journalism world along with the development stories of the state of Assam citing examples of the development of higher education and multipurpose school including Goalpara Rabha community, the koyal lady named “rangoli” who self-educated herself at the age of 45 along with many more fascinating stories.

Report prepared by Shashi Subba on the second session, October 24, 2017 on Refresher Course on Communication for Development organised by DEpartment of Communication and Journalism and UGC-HRDC, Gauhati University with support from UNICEF, Assam 

Social and Behaviour Change Communication

Ms. Veena Kumari, C4D officer for UNICEF discussed at length about the  concept of ‘Social and Behaviour Change Communication’ (SBCC), which is commonly known to the layman as ‘Communication for Development’.  She said that this particular area is relatively new in the sphere of health communication where the onus of importance is given on how communication tools can be used effectively to disseminate information specially on pressing health problems of the masses at the grassroots level. She even mentioned that providing access to information is a core function of development communication besides encouraging people’s participation in decision making processes. In her opinion, if the vulnerable segments of the population are better informed, they can claim their rights and hopefully make use of state resources/services more purposefully to pull themselves out of poverty and lead a healthy life. Ms. Kumari then moved on to discuss the percentage share of different communication activities that an individual on an average spends. A typical study in this regard pointed out the fact that people spent about 45% of the waking hours on listening, 30% of the time on speaking, 16% on reading and the remaining 9 % on writing. As far as the art of speaking is concerned, it has been mentioned that words only convey about 7% of what one is trying to say , 38%  on the tone of the voice and the remaining 55% on facial expressions.

She categorically stated that the ‘ Social and Behaviour Change Communication’ makes use of the most powerful  and fundamental human interaction – communication- to exert a positive influence on the social dimensions (knowledge, attitudes, norms and cultural practices) of health and well-being. Thus, according to her, SBCC uses creative ideas to focus on-

Ø  Changing or positively influencing social norms in support of long time sustainable behavior change at the population level

Ø  Strengthening community responses to the core issues ; and

Ø  Influencing decision makers, family and peer network.

Emphasizing on the need and importance in bringing about changes in the very fabric of the society along with the behavior of the people, Singh said that social and behavior change are complementary to each other. In fact, social change will have an impact on the mindset of the individuals ensuring that change is sustainable. Thus, according to her, certain program needs to be implemented by the different media platforms that would initiate the development process in the society. Citing the example of film as a medium for disseminating socially relevant messages, she said that films like ‘Toilet :Ek Prem Katha’ have managed to create  a positive impact on the minds of people. The director held a mirror to the society by focusing on how superstitious villagers, lazy administration and corrupt politicians have actually converted India into the world’s largest shit-pond. 

She also delved on the evolution of the concept of SBCC over a period of time stating that the implementation of IEC (Information Education Communication) actually gave a solid foundation for BCC (Behaviour Change Communication) and later on SBCC to take a shape. The common line of thread which crisscross the three approaches is an attempt to change or reinforce a set of behavior in a target audience regarding a specific problem in a predefined period. She cited some of the earlier Government initiatives (like immunization programmes including pulse polio campaigns) for enhancing the health education in the country. Closer home, the National Health Mission in Assam has also been working relentlessly to sensitize the people and create awareness regarding various health issues.

Singh also highlighted some of the key issues concerning human behavior as given below-

Ø  People interpret and give meaning to information based on the context in which they live

Ø  Culture, norms and network influence people’s behavior.

Ø  People always cannot control the issues that determine their behavior

Ø  People’s decisions about health and well being compete with other priorities ; and

Ø  People often make decisions that are based on emotional factors and logic.

 According to her, Social and Behavior Change Communication is the systematic application of interactive, theory based and research –driven communication processes and strategies  to address ‘tipping points’ for change at the individual, community and social levels. In this context, ‘tipping point’ refers to the dynamics of social change where trends rapidly evolve into permanent changes.

Thus, the afore mentioned definition of SBCC lead to the following three characteristics –

v  It is an interactive , researched and planned process

v  It requires a socio-ecological model for analysis at finding the tipping point for change

v  It operates through three main strategies-advocacy, social mobilization and behavioral change communication.

As far as the SBCC being a planned process is concerned, she said that five steps are involved in this process like (i)  Understanding the situation (ii) Focusing and designing of messages (iii) Creating of messages (iv) Implementing and monitoring of different campaigns and initiatives ; and finally (v) Evaluating and Re-planning of the different messages and campaigns

The Social Ecological Model (SEM) as pointed out by Veena is a theory-based framework for understanding the multifaceted and interactive effects of personal and environmental factors that determine behaviors, and for identifying behavioral and organizational leverage points and intermediaries for health promotion within organizations. Accordingly, there are five nested, hierarchical levels of the SEM:  individual, interpersonal, community, organizational, and policy/enabling environment. The different levels are in the form of a concentric circle and are interrelated to each other. The opinions of the community leaders and service providers also influence the decision making ability of the common masses to a great extent. Thereafter comes the influence of the family and peer groups whose opinions matter the most when it comes to some of the core family oriented issues. Overall the concerned individual himself/herself has to have the motivation, willingness and the ability to work for the betterment of the society.

Summing up, Ms. Kumari gave an overall view of the entire concept of ‘Social and Behavior Change Communication’ and the various factors that contributes in shaping the behavior of the people along with bringing a societal change. She also rightly pointed out the fact that every bit of information that percolates to the grassroots level must reflect the actual scenario that prevails and not just something that is intended to glorify the image of the concerned society at large.

Report prepared by Dr. Trisha D Baruah on the fourth session, October 27, 2017 on Refresher Course on Communication for Development organised by Department of Communication and Journalism and UGC-HRDC, Gauhati University with support from UNICEF, Assam 

Cultural Variables are imperative to assess Development

In continuation with the lectures on development communication delivered by Prof. K. V. Nagaraj, the third lecture by him began with the discussion on dominant paradigm. He said dominant paradigm is criticized, as it does not take into consideration many of the cultural variables, while gauging development. The western perspectives do not take into account the realities/ specificities of other cultures. This hegemonic attitude of the western paradigms makes them inappropriate for developing countries. The instance of Andre Gunder Frank questioning the hegemonic attitude and being chased away to Chile was cited by Prof. Nagaraj. Sameer Ameen and many others, who contested the hegemonic stance of the Western concepts of development.

As far as the economic development is concerned, there is a huge gap between the developing and developed countries. But media does not portray this economic divide. They highlight only the fascinating facts and do not concentrate on development.

The western model of development is a Mechanistic model of development, where everything is injected on to the people and people are generally passive in the process of development.  Hence, to actualize real development, an organic model of development is required. Socio-economic factors are no doubt, an essential component of development. However, the quality of life is not an easily quantifiable phenomenon. Happiness and material comforts cannot be equated with each other. Despite the fact that western scholars have identified certain variables like education, health, nutrition, employment and others to describe the quality of life, the eastern civilization and cultures cannot be studied on those scales. In continuation with this, various instances of development in the rural areas of India without the support of the government were discussed.

Then the discussion gradually moved to corruption, and he stated that corruption has become institutionalized now-a-days. The developmental process is designed by the corporate. He spoke about the partial success of endeavors like ‘Radio Rice’ and others and stated how development strategies are prepared which are not successful. Bureaucrats, Politicians, Panchayat Leaders and others share the money allotted for developmental projects. Many development projects remain on paper.  Gandhiji’s model of development ‘Swaraj’, is one of the finest models of development and he claimed that villages should produce for themselves and be self sufficient. Today villages are produce to gratify the needs of urban India. Villages are being exploited. Gandhi was not against machines. He wanted machines that do not affect the employment of man. Perhaps, Gandhian philosophy was suitable for his time. It did not foresee the technological developments of the future.

Communitarian thinkers like Majid Tehranian and others say that development does not mean economic development alone. They have opposed the imposition of Western value system in the name of modernization. It is against the preservation of native cultures of the developing countries. Development is cultural, social and political development. Development is not simply producing and consuming. If social and cultural aspects are not taken into consideration, development is meaningless and cannot be assessed. 

Report prepared by Dr. K.S. Krithika on the first session, October 25, 2017 on Refresher Course on Communication for Development organised by Department of Communication and Journalism and UGC-HRDC, Gauhati University with support from UNICEF, Assam 

Visit to the University's Krishna Kanta Handiqui Library

The participants of the Refresher Course in Communication for Development were taken for a visit to the University's Krishna Kanta Handiqui Library on 25^th October 2017. All the participants gathered in the reading hall of the library and the Assistant Librarian briefed us about the significant facts of the prestigious library. The briefing session went on for 30 minutes which has been summarized below.

The University library started functioning in the year 1948 at Chandmari and it was shifted to the present building in the year 1962. The University Library was renamed as ‘Krishna Kanta Handiqui Library’ after the death of the first Vice-Chancellor of the University Krishna Kanta Handiqui. He himself has generously donated more than 7000 volumes of books to the library which is considered to be a treasure for the library.

The library, which is considered to be the biggest in Assam, at present has 2, 70,000 volumes of books, 3,700 thesis and 5,600 dissertations. One will be overwhelmed to see around 35,000 volumes of bound periodicals which is an asset to the library.

It also hosts about 5,000 priceless manuscripts, some dating to more than 300 years. The Library is a designated 'Manuscript Conservation Centre' (MCC) under the National Mission for Manuscripts established in 2003. The valuable manuscripts have been collected through different means - some were donated by benevolent citizens, some were acquired from past owners, and others were salvaged after search and rescue efforts undertaken by the library. The scripts were meticulously detailed, numbered and preserved using modern scientific techniques and processes.

Ratna Mala Biyakaran, ChitraBhagawat, Kumar Haran, Bhagawad Shlokas, MantarPuthi, JyotishPuthi and AuyrvedicPuthis are some of the rare manuscripts preserved, along with some texts on magical rituals from Mayong. 1, 50,000 pages of manuscripts have been digitized already.

The participants were taken to all the sections of the library including the manuscript section and were briefed. The library is no doubt the pride of the University. 

Report prepared by Dr. Ilam Parithi on the fourth session, October 25, 2017 on Refresher Course on Communication for Development organised by Department of Communication and Journalism and UGC-HRDC, Gauhati University with support from UNICEF, Assam