As trade unions we organise many campaign and struggle programmes on the issues of workers. It is our desire that the conditions of the workers, their demands and struggles are understood by wide sections of, not only other sections of workers, but all other sections of people as well. We want them to understand the genuineness of our demands and their support to our struggles. We seek the support of the media in this.

As soon as we return from any big struggle programme, we sit glued to the television surfing all the news channels to see how it has been reported;earlier it was the radio. We eagerly turn the pages of the newspapers the next day. Workers’ struggles do get some coverage in the local channels and cable TV networks, and in the district or local pages of the print media. But rarely do they get their due coverage at the state level and almost none at the national level. The conditions of workers are even less often covered. In general, workers, peasants and agricultural workers who comprise the overwhelming majority of those who produce the wealth of this country, don’t find even a fraction of this space in the mainstream media.Many of our cadres get disappointed; some even get angry.

Why? This is a question that puzzles many of our cadres and members. Some feel something more should be done to attract the attention of the mainstream media. Of course, there might be lapses in some places in effectively communicating information about the working class struggles in some places. But that is, more often than not, not the main reason for the neglect of the workers by the mainstream media.

Media has a very important role to play and a big responsibilityto discharge in the present society. Is it playing that role? Is it allowed to discharge that responsibility?

India has a vast number of media outlets. There are about 17,000 newspapers and 98,000 periodicals, with a combined circulation of nearly 49 crore. And, there are 883 TV channels out of which 382 are news channels. About 16 crore households have television in their homes and they are reached by these channels. With the spread of internet and mobile phones, news is also received by lakhs of people through online websites. Social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp also contribute to circulating news.

The immense scale of media today has a disproportionate influence on shaping the thinking of people especially after the rise of 24×7 news channels and mobile phone-based news spread. The capitalist class and its political parties like the BJP and Congress use the media to spread and consolidate their influence constantly.

Corporate Stranglehold

It may seem as if Indians have so many alternative sources of news that different kinds of news and views would be available to all the people. However, it would be a mistake to think so. The reality is that among all the different news outlets – newspapers, TV channels and websites – a handful of very big outlets dominate the news flow. All these media giants are controlled by big corporate bodies. For example: Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries has invested in five big TV news channels covering various shades of political spectrum.

There is cross-ownership also leading to even more dominance. Cross ownership means that one company controls several types of media outlets. For example: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd owns several top newspapers (TOI, ET, etc.) as also the news channel Times Now and Mirror Now, besides several other entertainment channels and publications.

Through the news channels, a particular type of news is mainly propagated – it shows the corporate and rich world in a good light, it seeks to build loyalty towards the capitalist system, and it upholds the consumerist lifestyles. In the entertainment sections, these values are openly and systematically propagated, along with all kinds of regressive ideas. Some channels specialise in propagating superstitious beliefs in the name of tradition, others openly have religious content only.

Broadly speaking, most news channels and newspapers follow the corporate direction of being on the side of the ruling party. For example, most media outlets are at present supporting the BJP led government of Modi.

During the campaign for the 2014 Parliament elections, they projected Modi, then the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP as a messiah who has a solution for all the ills of the country. Remember that earlier, in 2004, when the Congress led coalition snatched power from the erstwhile NDA government led by Vajpayee, the same news channels and news papers extolled the virtues of Manmohan Singh as a great economist. But when they sensed people’s growing discontent and anger against the UPA II government and also felt that the Congress led Manmohan Singh government was not doing enough to satisfy their demand to hasten the neoliberal reforms, the corporates switched sides. They believed that BJP with the backing of the RSS with Modi at the helm would better deliver their demands and commands; that such a government would be ready to crush resistance to the neoliberal agenda. They extended all support to the BJP and Modi – in all ways. The corporate controlled media was also well utilised for this purpose.

Advertisement is the main business

The major share of all media outlets comes from advertising. Circulation or viewership contributes only a very small proportion of earnings. Most advertisers are themselves corporate houses or the governments, central and states. Hence the most inviolable rule for media outlets is not to offend the advertisers. This too contributes significantly to the mentality of sycophancy towards the governments and corporate houses.

There are numerous examples of governments arm twisting media outlets if some news report is considered critical or offensive by the government. In the most recent case, two senior journalists of a news channel quit under pressure after they aired a programme debunking the earlier report of a woman farmer from Chhattisgarh saying that it is because of PM Modi that her income has doubled. The channel showed the woman later saying that she was told to say all this though it was not the truth. Another way of the government pressuring media is through stopping the government advertisements. This too has happened many times in the past.

The government’s role

The government of India has a two-fold role in the media in our country. One is as a regulator of media and the other is as a public service broadcaster itself through its Prasar Bharti which is an autonomous body under the I&B ministry. Prasar Bharti, set up in 1997, has two wings AIR and Doordarshan.

Since the advent of neo-liberal policies in the 1990s, the regulatory role of the government has primarily been used to allow privatisation of TV media, including allowing foreign investments, granting licenses to private TV outfits and pushing the whole system towards technological dependence on satellite TV. Simultaneously, government’s control over content has increased, especially since this BJP led government of Prime Minister Modi came to power. As has been revealed recently, a 200-member team of contractual employees monitors every news channel to gauge how much time is being given to Modi and Amit Shah. If any channel falls behind, its top managers and owners are contacted and told to mend their ways. Similar tactics are used with newspapers and other media products. However, no monitoring is done of regressive content like superstition, mythology, fake news, showing women as sexual objects or as subservient to men, etc.

As far as the role as a public broadcaster is concerned, All India Radio and Doordarshan have always been used as mouthpieces of the government. They have been unscrupulously used to air blind support to government policies by earlier governments too. They continue to do so, with more vigour under Modi. What has changed is that RSS ideology is also now being openly aired on these public outlets, including live telecast of RSS activities, etc. Considering that Prasar Bharti is run by public money, this hijacking of their role by the current govt. is a dangerous development that needs to be fought.

Besides this, regulatory bodies like the Press Council and Accreditation Committee have been turned into government rubber stamps by the Modi government. Periodically, the government threatens to bring in legislation or rules for controlling the media, as was done when Smriti Irani was I&B minister briefly. Similar attempts to gag the media have occurred in states, as in BJP run Rajasthan.

Hostility to Working Class Movement

Political support may change but all the mainstream newspapers and channels are always steadfast in supporting policies that help corporate entities – like tax breaks for companies or changes in labour laws to make it easier to depress wages and fire workers. They are unanimous in condemning strikes and agitations by workers and employees. They avoid showing or writing about distress of workers because of low wages or back breaking working conditions. Without fail, they always criticise or try to show in bad light, the red flag, the trade unions. This is because the worsening conditions of workers are due to the increasing exploitation under the neoliberal policies; the struggles of the workers are against the neoliberal attacks on their livelihoods and basic rights. These are struggles of the working class against the corporate class. Highlighting the conditions of the workers and their struggles is not in the interest of the corporates. Naturally the corporate controlled media tries to ignore and black out them. 

For example: in November 2017, the historic workers’ mahapadav took place in Delhi where nearly 3 lakh workers from all over the country, and from all types of occupations participated demanding better wages, job security, protection of labour laws, end to contract system, etc. No major newspaper and TV channel covered the huge protest although it was taking place right in the heart of the country’s capital.

Sometimes, new items or reports do appear that show the struggles of working people of India. These are put out because in the working of news organisations, there may be some journalists or senior management people who have some sympathy for some particular cause and allow it to be reflected on occasion. Or, some event happens where it is unavoidable to talk about workers. Such items also serve the purpose of establishing the credibility of the news organisation – if criticised for their partisanship towards the rich elite class, they can point to such reports and articles and say “Look we are fair in our coverage.” But the truth is that news outlets have no sympathy for working people or their organisations. Sympathetic coverage is rare and happens as an exception.

Conditions of Media Employees

The conditions of the thousands of people employed by media companies as journalists as well as office staff, technical staff and as workers in printing presses are more or less similar to the lakhs of workers and employees employed in other establishments. Except for the elite sections of journalists, mostly in the English media, most journalists are employed on contract basis at low salaries and limited benefits. They work under enormous pressure of time as also what to write/show in their output. Since there is no job security, most journalists succumb to this pressure and do not dare to produce any report that will annoy the senior management. The highly competitive atmosphere within media houses, encouraged by managements, also contributes to their frustration and cynicism.

As far as the rest of the staff is concerned, most are under contract and mostly not paid minimum wages despite working for many years. Older employees, who are permanent and covered under the wage board are struggling to get the Majithia Wage Board Award implemented because newspaper managements have delayed it through court cases.

With the shift in technology in the 1990s, unions of press employees were destroyed by managements and this new system of contractual workers put in place. This has lead to extreme exploitation of the workers and journalists both. There have been several instances of journalists being fired en masse in order to get rid of older employees and/or restructure the business.

Approach towards media

Despite all the limitations of the corporate media and its hostility towards the trade union movement, its immense reach cannot be denied. Hence all attempts must be made to persuade media outlets to carry news relating to the working people and their struggles. This persuasion can be through various means including regular and ceaseless feeding the media with material and arranging for coverage of programmes organised by trade unions or other fraternal organisations.

However, it should be borne in mind that media coverage is but one part only of the propaganda effort made by the working class movement. It should not be seen as primary or superior to the basic tasks of propaganda work among workers directly through meetings, leaflets, processions and other forms of agitation.

Efforts should also be made to organise the employees of media outlets so that this vast and growing section finally gets some relief from the intense exploitation they experience. This will also help in curbing the power of the corporate media.

2018

Published by Centre of Indian Trade Unions