It shall give viewers an overall impression, not of despair, but of hope.
Furthermore, it is the media’s job “to interest the public in the public interest.” Let us face it, we are over politicized. If we desire a prosperous society, if we desire transparency and accountability in our affairs, then we must dedicate a sufficient portion of our communications capacity to consideration of the public interest. Beyond any semblance of real balance in our media system particularly television and radio, we all suffer from the lack of vigorous investigative reporting to inform the public about social problems confronting our state and our communities and what can be done about them.
A more efficient conclusion is that all alternative points of view have typically been excluded, especially in favor of electronic media here, dominated by establishment perspectives and sensibilities. Media’s unique mission requires that it includes alternative voices rather than justify their exclusion; that it reflects on power, not simply reflect power.
It comes down to a question of what stories get told and who gets to participate in the telling. Surely, the perspectives of government and leaders are important. However, they must be balanced, if you will, by coverage from the bottom up—with an understanding of what happened to our plans, consumers, citizens, and environment.
The problem with the average television programmes especially on Kashmir is that they’re about “moments”, not “stories.” Similarly, we in television these days have the obsessive drive to be “topical”-it’s all about what’s hot NOW. There’s no past, no future, just now. In other words, there’s no story, no arc to draw the audience and emotionally involve them until that arc ends. There’s no direction, no momentum, no exploration of new territory. That’s what makes it stale.
We need to present research documenting factual claims that lay the basis for reasonable discussion. And we need to model public discussion that is more than a mere scream fest.
We do not require business programs to invite socialists or labour leaders to balance the views of capitalists, religious programmes to invite atheists to balance the views of believers, or cooking shows to give equal time to vegetarians. On our electronic media what we need is a beautifully researched, visually dynamic, precisely edited chunk of realistic and investigative programmes, Issue-focused debates, stretching the limits of public discourse.
Television programmers here must bring to the viewers not just a record or report but insight and understanding of Kashmir in evolution, mirroring the changes of an ancient culture metamorphosing into a modern Kashmir. And in the process present various dimensions of Kashmir’s vast heritage.
Promoting the development of robust electronic media software like this, is a crucial element to building civil society, economic growth, democracy and resolving, preventing or healing conflict.
We the people of Kashmir need to probe the follies of past in order to make the future better. Let us explore the economic and educational possibilities of the vast and diverse electronic medium of communication. It has the potential of being a tool for social change. Let us think of a professional, electronic media platform, a satellite channel.
The writer is a Media Professional tariq
@associatedmedia.org
