DISCUSSION
style for substance. News is sexed up and
Fire in Satire, Evasion
as Opposition
Bhupendra Yadav
T
he commentary by M K Raghavendra
(“Peepli Live and the Gesture of
Concern”, EPW, 25 September 2010)
makes interesting reading for two reasons.
First the writer has rightly pointed out
that in the 1950s and 1960s, the star-studded
films on rural India were political narra-
tives of class conflict. On the other hand,
the star-less Peepli Live, made in 2010, is like
a lullaby for the English-knowing “nation”,
only a gesture of “humanist” concern. Ask-
ing searching questions in the film would
have been desirable at a time when the
agricultural crisis is severe.
The second reason why Raghavendra’s
article is interesting is that it says the
economy is nowadays commandeering
culture and social criticism. The article
argues that the corporatisation of films
has caused a united front of capital against
socio-economic criticism and that there is
greater censorship today because the job
of the censor board is being done by the
economy. Here the writer is over-stretching
his argument and is being pessimistic
about the possibilities of subversion.
Much is known/said about politicians
most of the time. So, let us take the media.
The media is powerful and much of it is
capitalist. But ordinary people subvert the
power of the media in everyday life
through simple ways. Years ago, Jean
Baudrillard, in his The Vital Illusion, sug-
gested two things about representation of
reality by the media. First, he said, the
virtual is becoming the enemy of reality
and, second, even masses can manipulate
the media.
Baudrillard said that, in the past, reality
was the destination of virtual representation
in theatre and literature. Now, however,
the virtual does not stand in for the real
Bhupendra Yadav (byadav57@gmail.com) is
with the MD University, Rohtak.
80
but functions to banish it. We find a few
sequences in Peepli Live where this seems
true. Sometime after he is tricked into
becoming the suicidal scapegoat, Natha
develops cold feet. He asks his elder
brother, Budhiya, to commit suicide in-
stead. “But how can I? The TV has declared
you as the courageous one and your
photos have already been broadcast”,
says the wily Budhiya.
Representation of Reality
After theatre and cinema, the media
marks the highest stage of representation
of reality. Those in power may think that
they can use the media to manipulate and
seduce the masses. However, the reverse
is also possible. The beleaguered object of
media scrutiny, like any virus under attack,
also “invents strategies to counterfeit, evade,
disguise, disappear” (Baudrillard: 79).
The media expands and thinks it
creates reality after its wish. From just one
dedicated news channel, i e, Star News, in
1998, we have more than 40 today. The
screen and networks are more important
to them than the scene and the people.
So much information is generated that
there is an information overload. So many
images are pressed into service, through
the in-house digital archives or OB vans, that
the anchors themselves look bewildered.
On the other hand, as consumers of the
news channels we forget in the morning
what we saw the night before. We greet all
the self-serving efforts of the media by
either forgetting or remaining passive.
The term “couch potato” is coined to tease
us out of our passivity. To seduce us to
remember the milestones of TV program-
mes come programmes like “Whose Line
Is It, Anyway?”
No one asks just why we are so passive
to TV or why we so easily forget its content.
I can think of two reasons for this indiffer-
ence. First, the flashy media has substituted
october 23, 2010
tabloidisation of its content is frequent.
Sting operations are an everyday occur-
rence. To top it all, we get “Breaking
News” every hour (Thussu: 103-04).
Second, the subjects that interest the
media may not interest all the 400 millions
watching satellite and cable TV in India.
For instance, the news channels use cinema,
cricket and crime to infotain us 24×7. But
all of us may really be interested in know-
ing why glaciers are melting and how close
the deluge is. Why does the best food not
reach us at reasonable prices? How is the
power to change land use being misused by
the governing elite? Is there any thought
given to improving the police?, etc.
The corporate media is always decked
up and is trying so hard through newer
products to catch more eyeballs than the
competition. Yet, most of the time, it ends
up making a fool of itself and not us.
What should I believe? Are the Murdochs
of the world, with all their big bucks,
talented specialists and creative profes-
sionals, calling the shots? Or is the viewer
a winner, behaving as s/he is like a
“disobedient object” with innovative
techniques to evade, disguise and dis-
appear? We would like to believe that
there can be fire in satire and evasion is
also a form of opposition.
References
Baudrillard, Jean (2000): The Vital Illusion (New
York: Columbia University Press).
Thussu, Daya Kishan (2007): News as Entertainment:
The Rise of Global Infotainment (London: Sage
Publications).
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vol xlv no 43 EPW Economic & Political Weekly