Fourth Estate, Event Management and the Societal Interlude

by Saket Bihari

The Media: An Introduction

The Fourth Estate is a spectacle par excellence that is hewn in the rationale of profit-seeking and rent-seeking and which remains a great deal intertwined with the rationale of the spawning of imageries. If one delves inside the thematic and objective pretext of KEDS (Events Data Research), then researchers are looking forth to the norm of creating and discovering events out of news which is where the real story of the media is. The Fourth Estate might dabble in the logistics of the Social Responsibility Theory1 but at the end of the day, the precursor element to the assessment of the media is going to be done and exercised by the iota of the commercial mullah that it rakes in. The
coverage of war is a special case in point wherein the conflict and the bad things as they happen to big people are considered to be the news and attention garners for the make-believe audience. The context of media freedom is well exemplified by Suzanne Pitner. She contends that “The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech so that the press can remain fully free, and the public can be fully informed. This freedom may sometimes be hindered by corporate pressures and government control.†2 Thus, the media subsists on a tight trajectory of governmental leash where the state interventions moving all the way from Macrythism3 to the North Korean media status vary depending upon the nature and form of the government that prevails.

As far as the conflict in the Indian nation-state is concerned, the media or Fourth Estate creates an event and the misery and turmoil of the common citizenry embalmed within the rubric of rebellion turns out to be the staple fare of the Fourth Estate. The tenet of rebellion runs in the bloodstream of humanity whether it be the steppes and urban landscapes of a Czar-tortured Soviet Union or the charred hinterland of the Indian Union. Reasons abound due to the antipathy to the state but still the sores are there to be seen all across the length and breadth of the national polity. The images provided by the cinemascopes of the order of Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma etc. can provide one with what transpired in the seventies in certain tracts of the country that are witnessing further but interconnected fulminations now in the contemporary context. With the advent of Naxalism the tribal innocence of the people has been discarded and if one goes by the 2010 Bollywood flick’s ditty, then one can concentrate upon the theme song, “Sasura Gainda Phool†, which refers to the peace and tranquillity of life in the hinterland of the State of Chhattisgarh, wherein the people are alive to the natural rhythms of sequestered life away from the urban cacophony.

The Political Contest Model: A Theoretical Narrative

The political contest of the Roman amphitheatre variety also has a role to play in the mammoth aggrandisement of the events as they unfold before us. In a way there is a constant tug-of-war which persists between the state and non-state actors and it permeates into a perennial conflict in the nation’s context. The state does not have to take recourse to the stratagems which are employed by the non-state actors. The state or the regime of the day has to its credit the military/power resources, the soft power paraphernalia of state propaganda along with the economic strength of the nation which does not force it to take recourse to an advertisement-oriented spectacular effect.4 Also, the non-state actors of the order of terror-mongers and insurgents have to take recourse to an internationally attention-seeking modicum which will enable them to bring their group’s cause to the forefront and be discussed and deliberated upon in the context of negotiations. The story harks back to the notion of a Roman gladitorial contest which makes the state officials invite the audience that comprises the citizens of the day. In the stately event which follows, the warriors—all dressed up in bronze armour—ride astride the horses and chariots and hurl pick axes and iron balls with protrusions upon each other along with spears and pickaxes in order to win personal duels. The audience receives the event with rapturous applause as it derives fun from the event.5

Thus, today’s media is there to be called the “Event Manager†, which draws its power and influence from the iota of influence and popularity which it ratchets up at the programme TRPs and the positive ratings which it receives from the audience. The media in the contemporary context hones all these Roman managerial skills to a great extent and props up the alternate voices against the regime of the day in the name of equity, justice, social cohesion, camaraderie and mass upliftment through the social responsibility paradigm of the Fourth Estate. Thus it is a mediated society going by any perchance definition of the media.

The Overall Pervasiveness of the
Fourth Estate

With the attendant unfurling of the social media, the extent and expanse of the internet-generated new media also weilds comprehensive influence in the fulcrum of societal happenings and the political make-up of the state in general. John D. Jackson explains “how media affects ideas about individuals, society, and how both interact by looking at various influencing factors. How it provides a range of visual and pedagogical aids, including lists of useful media and learning activities that will further enhance student learning and absorption of the material.†6 The author further asserts: “How the all-pervasive influence of the Fourth Estate affects students with a deeper look at the role of media in society and how it affects daily life and it encourages deliberations eliciting links between media, citizenship, and democracy give this book a unique, relevant perspective that will encourage further deliberations.†7 Thus, the sociological insight also delves into the norm of how much the population and citizenry are inclined towards comprehending or can be made to comprehend the government agenda in the garb of its propaganda-originated domestic and foreign public policy.

The Societal Indices of Media

Media Sociology also exists as an independent interdisciplinary field of study which deserves some analytical and scholarly attention. The media no longer remains a monolith but has become intrinsically and functionally scattered within the nation’s socio-economic milieu and subterranean context. Daniel Bell has called the dominat paradigm of Media Sociology to be “Received Knowledge†of “personal influence†and the attention of the media has been diverted to define normal and abnormal social and asocial activity.8 The theme of media sociology also highlights the recalcitrance of the audience to serve as a receptacle to the political contest model and how far the audience does not partake in the construct of the state-sponsored or non-sponsored media apparatus.9

Theory is only the deft implementation as it happens in the realm of praxis. Apart from the event-centric approach of the media, the day-to-day humdrum approach of the media coverage too deserves some attention. An observation, from the State of West Bengal, pinpoints to a phenomenon concerning the influence of films on the fashions of dress and appearances of young village dwellers. Dr Rajesh Kumar informs: “The fieldworkers reported how fashions were changing and that certain sections of the youth were imitating the styles seen in the movies: growing their hair long and wearing flared trousers instead of the more traditional village dress. This was a source of friction between the youth and their parents who saw it as a symptom of departure from traditional values, including sexual mores and caste norms of purity and pollution.†10 The author then
notes: “This observation might appear trivial in itself. How does it matter what kind of trousers young people wear? What has this to do with development?†11

Footnotes

1. “The Social Responsibility Theory†, URL: http://suite101.com/article/what-is-the-social-responsibility-theory-a118662

(Online: Web, accessed on April 1, 2013)

2. Ibid.

3. A state practice started by the American Government under the presidency of Eisenhower in the 1950s that launched a much discussed and critiqued process of communist witch-hunting which was meant to dovetail with the American policy of the worldwide containment of the communist forces across the length and breadth of the global polity.

4. Gadi Wolsfeld, Media and the Path to Peace (Communi-cation, Society and Politics) (London: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

5. Ibid.

6. John D. Jackson, Greg M. Nelisen, and Yon Hsu, Mediated Society: A Critical Sociology of Media (London: OUP, 2011).

7. Ibid.

8. Todd Giltin, “Media Sociology: The Dominant Paradigm†, Theory and Society, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1978.

9. Ibid.

10. Rajesh Kumar, “Mass Media can effect Socio-Political Changes: An Analysis,†Global Media Journal—Indian Edition, Summer Issue/June 2011.

11. Ibid.

The author is an Assistant Professor in Sociology, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.