Media plays greater role in democratization of the political society and making politics accountable to people.
During the times of revolution and great transformation media has much to do. It must be recalled that during the 19-day April uprising of 2006, Nepali media had firmly stood in favor of people’s aspiration for restoration of democracy. Needless to say, Nepali media then had acted as good as any political party. Media played constructive role then and the movement became a success.
It is disheartening that after Constituent Assembly elections of 2008, Nepal’s mainstream media has limited itself to political issues, nearly excluding other social, cultural, economic and development issues. According to Noam Chomsky, the main purpose of the media is to amuse, entertain and convey information and keep the public updated.
But in the current phase of political transition, media has to go beyond Chomsky’s vision. It has to defend public rights and extend its responsibilities towards other issues of importance. It has to guarantee transparency, accuracy and credibility of information it disseminates and publishes. Most important of all, it has to act as supervisory body to ensure good governance, checking and reporting cases of graft and abuse of authority.
Are the Nepali media establishments abiding by this responsibility? Not entirely. Anuza Baniya’s case is a supreme example of misreporting. The story, in all likelihood, could have been carried out just to create sensation and increase sales. Of late, Nepali media is less focused on constitution making process and more carried away by political standoff and inter and intra-party disputes.
Most of the mainstream Nepali media do not seem to be concerned with the public interest and national issues.
As Nepal is in the process of state restructuring, transition politics is even more fragile now than ever. Given this unstable political situation, Nepali media has responsibility of lending its hands to the government to end the peace process. It should play the role of catalyst to lead the peace process towards a logical end by monitoring the activities of the political leaders. Nepal has a chronic problem of corruption on bureaucratic and political fronts. Impunity is rampant and even the most-wanted criminals are walking scot-free because of political protection. It seems that there is no presence of the state.
As if this were not enough, most of the political leaders seem to be reluctant to address people’s genuine problems. They seem bent on spending the country’s resources to make their vote banks strong. In this situation, media’s role is to expose cases of corruption and make people understand the idea of federalism. Nepal is about to be federated soon but people are still confused about federalism. We do not have any visionary leadership with clear road map to distribute the country’s resources and power. In this regard, people expect media to tell them what is really happening in the country.
Media can work in a number of ways: It can organize public discussions in the remote villages of Nepal. It can advocate democracy and the rule of law and so forth. But Nepali media is hardly working according to people’s expectations. Instead, it seems to be serving the interests of a certain class which dominates and controls country’s politics and economy.
To meet people’s real expectations, Nepali media should focus on the constitution making process because people are still not sure whether political leaders will be able to draft it. They do not seem to believe that even if the constitution is ever drafted, it will include the voices of marginalized communities. So the Nepali media should focus on those issues, and should disseminate balanced news. Merely highlighting the political leaders’ activities, scandals, crimes, and other profit-oriented issues won’t be enough. It has a duty of bringing the political parties, civil society, CA members, and other intellectuals together on common platform.
Another problem with Nepali media is that it tends to overlook the audiences’ real expectations. Audience is a key to rise and fall of the media. Indeed, the media’s main concern should be attracting an active audience with strong purchasing power. Media analyst JT Klapper argues that audiences’ perception, attention and retention are very important for the media because based on those principles media makes their market and circulation policy and selects the content.
However, most of the mainstream Nepali media do not seem to be concerned with the public interest and national issues. Although the concept of active audience is important, Nepali media seems less concerned of this fact.
All this boils down to an incontestable fact: Nepali media should be analytical, objective, and transparent and should play a constructive role in the process of nation building. It has a great responsibility to escort the peace process to a logical end. Most of all, it should function as a watchdog in all sectors of the state.
The writer is a Researcher at Interdisciplinary Analysts
pranjali.sapkota@gmail.com
Related story
-1778465739.webp)
