Creation of Absence
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 21 2015 -
Noam Chomsky, the American linguist, philosopher and political commentator argues that the media have only been able to feed the beliefs and ideas of the elite while “subverting the ideological and cultural independence of the lower classes”.
While one wonders whether such a point of view is valid or not in the context of developing nations, it has become imperative to opt for a nuanced reading of the dynamics that have unfolded in India in the post liberalization period.
Here, it is important to ask who are actually dominating the marketplace of ideas and allowing their ideas to shape the perception of socio-political reality.
In the even more localised Northeast regional context, it has become tougher to make a dispassionate assessment.
While certain sections have time and again pointed to the fact that metro-based Indian media have not been able to eliminate the information deficit, especially on marginalised regions and people in India, there are certain local dynamics that have determined even one’s choices on public debate.
While much has been read on the metro-based media’s apathy toward the Northeast region, there has been a missing discourse which has escaped scrutiny on local dynamics.
The question that has to be addressed now is how have local centres of power covered the peripheries of the periphery.
While making attempts to answer such questions, there is also the danger of focussing too much on the quantum of coverage of these peripheries rather than the qualitative content of the coverage.
This basically calls for an analytical take on who actually constitutes the peripheries of the periphery and the construction of the same through the power of the local media.
The dawn of regional aspirations have had adequate projections while the centres of these peripheries have a tendency to replicate a rationale on what Noam Chomsky had been stating.
The rationale behind the construction and imagination of identities has also played the tricks to consolidate retrenched identities of the constant oppressor and the oppressed.
While trying to trace the origin of identity formations, the local media to certain extent have been able to reinforce the contentions of smaller groups not by virtue of extensive coverage but by the creation of absence from the glare of the public.
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