Premier Bhattarai, however, is a committed twitterati. It’s been suggested that the number of followers (nearly 20,000) his official handle (@brb_laaldwoj) commands is a fair measure of Twitter users in Nepal. Political associates of the beleaguered prime minister never tire of emphasizing that their boss operates the handle and responds to all tweets personally. The caretaker status has probably freed Bhattarai from the pressing concerns of the country and he has enough time on his hand to engage an audience that’s been described by its users –only half in jest –as Hawa Chhekuwa or the ‘air-stoppers.’[break]
Every media revolution has had some impact on governance and society. The world of printed word, Marshal McLuhan and Benedict Anderson have independently argued, strengthened the idea of unified state and helped create an “imagined community.” The newspaper assisted anti-colonial struggles; and radio turned out to be an important tool in the hands of imperial masters. The radio, however, also helped propagate Ernest Gellner’s notion of a nation as a “linguistic community with political ambitions.”
The television facilitated forging “bonds of aspiration” among members of global middleclass that couldn’t do without a free market for sugared soda, lard-laden potato chips, exorbitantly priced blue jeans and the commercialization of education, health and essential supplies – all in the name of competitiveness and quality. Meanwhile, the idiot box also assisted democratic struggles by encouraging dissension and providing a platform for celebrities of opposition.
The role of the Internet, including that of the citizen journalism and instantaneously updated web portals, upon body politic is still being debated. Access to the web in the age of desktops was rather limited. Laptops, notebooks and net-books enlarged the user group. Yet the service was largely beyond the reach of the masses.
Availability of Internet access from handheld devices such as cellphone and tablets has taken digital computing to the people who once looked at mysterious desktops in awe. The boom in social media is in many ways a product of mobile computing. Though it’s a little early to assess its impact, the relationship between social media and political economy has begun to generate widespread interest.
Medium matters
Enthusiasts argue that the Occupy Wall Street protests, the Arab Spring and the Anna Hazare phenomenon in India shared a common thread: The role of Internet-enabled mobile devices and the social media. It’s passionately being proposed that Facebook and Twitter helped protestors connect with each other before as well as during the demonstrations and thus helped increase the overall effectiveness of their joint efforts. The evidence is still anecdotal. Apart from geeks and aficionados talking to each other about what a swell job their iPhones and Androids did during demonstrations, roles such devices actually played remains to be critically studied.
As it is, methods of measuring the impact of media are largely inexact. Circulation figures of print publications monitor copies sold, not readers reached with specific commercial, social or political messages. Listeners of a radio broadcast are almost impossible to monitor. The Television Rating Point (TRP) is based on a shallow, subjective and limited sample size. Even within those limitations, TRP tracks eyeballs – some of them probably cooking pasta in kitchen, dozing on a sofa, playing Scrabble, daydreaming or talking over the phone – not the attention it grabs.
For someone who once dabbled in measuring comparative advantages of print, television and radio in selling different products and services while moonlighting as an advertising copywriter, advancement in the assessment techniques of media impact has indeed made great strides. Surveying listener’s preferences of Radio Nepal, collecting data about newsstand buyers of newspapers (During Panchayat era, subscribers often got newspapers out of obligation rather than to read while sales at the stand indicated genuine interest) and later identifying households with television sets but without dish antennas used to be an arduous task. (In pre-cable days, the dish on the rooftop meant that residents of the house watched Ramayan, Mahabharat and Nukkad – serials of Indian Doordarshan – and only occasionally tuned into Nepal Television). These days, surveyors trained in market research professionally do such assessments.
From narrowcast to broadcast media, it was a great leap. The Internet, however, is narrowcast, broadcast, and what can perhaps be termed as ‘megacast,’- all at the same time. The social media is the neighborhood teashop, the public square and the private salon all rolled into one.
How does one make sense of a media so complex upon the society and polity? That will remain a question for quite a while. However, its influence upon the way politics would be done in the days to come would be inescapable.
Rumors register
At a talkfest about the future shape of democracy in Asia recently, organizers of the program at the International House of Japan in Tokyo had tagged the front-row seats as reserved for “Speaker/Performer.” Whether the decision to do so was deliberate for the symposium (Original meaning of the term: Philosophical or other friendly discussion) or a matter of routine in the assembly hall that also hosts musical and theatrical events from time to time could not be ascertained. The characterization, however, is apt: In order to be effective, all speakers have to be performers. This is where the social media loses out to the word-of-mouth (“Give me your ear,” “whisper…whisper,” “keep it to yourself,” “confidential,” “don’t tell anyone, hai ta!”), long-form reporting providing context, radio vox pop, and wide-angle television cameras. Emoticons and initialized slangs expect a crowd attuned to the mumbo-jumbo of the medium.
The traditional way of assessing the impact of a “performance” circles around the intentions of the performer, instruments used, the style, personality of the player, and the mood of the audience. Premier Bhattarai’s fetish with social media probably springs from his desire to find acceptance in the crowd that he truly belongs to: The professionals of Kathmandu City.
A scion of the priestly family of the House of Gorkhas, he topped school, attended elite Amrit Science College, trained to be an architect and an urban planner at premier institutions of South Asia, researched development economics, married a fellow progressive and professional of a different but equally highly placed community and family, and then went on to achieve the post that he probably thought he deserved all along: Be the Prime Minister of the country.
Social media is an intensely private instrument, and it suits Bhattarai’s personality. His style is learned, but he’s careful in dumbing down his tweets to the level of the majority of his followers.
And yet, his tweets have failed to win friends and influence people. The reception of the audience makes all the difference. Social media is almost ineffective in swaying moods.
Girija Prasad Koirala often used an Urdu word “mahaul” to mean political mood. After someone came back from a conference or seminar at the India International Center in New Delhi, he would often have only one question, “Don’t tell me who said what. That’s for people like you to analyze. Baru mahaul kasto thiyo?” What was the mood like?
Mood is partly rational but mostly emotional. An authority figure (leadership), a sense of belongingness (organization), trustworthiness (organizers), simple beliefs (ideology), conversations (communication) and participation (demonstrations) all played their role in the Arab Spring or Anna Hazare phenomena. The television – Al Zajeera in the Arab World and Aaajtak in India against corruption – transformed protests into mass eruptions.
Human beings are essentially aural and oral beings. Rumors do play a role in igniting the fire of simmering discontent. Its impact upon initiating campaigns for action geared towards positive outcomes is perhaps limited. The message of the megacast carries the risk of being lost in the maze of the medium.
Lal contributes to the week with his biweekly column
Reflections. He is one of the widely read poliitical analysts in Nepal.
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