VIEW: The media mafia —Andleeb Abbas
VIEW: The media mafia —Andleeb Abbas
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
The popular anchorpersons’ power to make or break opinion creates an
arrogance in them that is displayed through condescending sneers and
mocking jeers, inciting their guests to lose their cool and be reduced
to a laughing stock
Extremism in every form and of every
nature is equally dangerous. In a society that seems to have lost its
balance, most things seem to lose control too easily and too soon.
Whether it is religious beliefs, political ideologies or social norms,
there is a bipolar tendency in such unbalanced societies to be either
aggressive or passive, either fanatically expressive or indifferently
silent, causing volatility of behaviour, manifesting itself in
destructive conflicts and uncontrolled aggression.
The media in
Pakistan is just like the genie out of the bottle. While it has played
a powerful role in exposing the flaws of our society, its obsession to
scandalise everything and anything has more often than not made it
cross all ethical and professional limits. Although we all commend the
media for taking nearly every big shot to task, we also must condemn
the media for causing immense damage to many innocent people due to
their inability to verify and portray the truth. The reason behind this
irresponsible behaviour is twofold: first of all, it is the desire for
many of the investors in this industry to act as media moguls and,
second, it is the relative immaturity of the media industry itself.
The
electronic media has seen a mushroom growth in the last few years. From
ATV to PTV, you now have almost all alphabets being covered by a
regular introduction of more and more new channels. The investors in
this industry are of two varieties: one party of investors belongs to
the group of businesses that are already in the print media and wanted
to expand into the electronic media and thereby accumulate commercial
and political clout; others are investors who have no idea of the media
industry but are looking for opportunities in growing industries to
invest and add to their revenue kitty. Industry growth is always skewed
in Pakistan, as most businesses just spot a growing industry and jump
in without analysing their own strategic capability to match the core
competence required for running that particular business. The result is
a mad ‘me too’ race, where anybody with money and connections enters,
overcrowding the industry and leading to its premature decline. We have
already seen the textile industry suffering from an overdose of ‘me
too’ investment and we are now witnessing the same phenomenon in the
electronic media industry. Most of these investments are not well
thought out or carefully planned. The only focus in the mind of these
investors is to be able to set up and start a channel with scant
attention to how to make it sustainable.
With little vision
and strategic planning, all the channels are simply cloning each other
in ideas and programming. Most of them are providing ‘talktainment’.
The race in these channels is to prize away a popular talk show host at
an exorbitant rate and steal his/her viewership from its competitors.
Since they cannot provide anything different to their audience, the
only strategy to compete is by being the first to give breaking news
that is dramatised to the extent of ‘breaking’ the nerves of its
viewers. It is this lack of variety and strategy that has led to their
desperation in giving news that is not authentic, in creating a scandal
out of nothing, of inciting people into unnecessary agitation and
negativity and in twisting a lie to make it look like the truth.
The
pursuit of viewership at all costs has recently been exhibited in the
spate of allegations against hospitals and the alleged negligence of
doctors. While we all know the pathetic state of affairs in our
hospitals, it is insane to assume that all deaths taking place in
hospitals are due to the negligence of doctors. The recent incident at
Jinnah Hospital is an eminent example of a desperate attempt of the
media to make news out of no news, consequently endangering the lives
of many others. A patient was brought to Jinnah Hospital in the last
stage of cancer. As she was hardly gasping for life, the treatment
provided by any hospital at this stage would have been insufficient to
save her. She did not survive long and her relatives, though sad but
resigned, were taking her dead body away when a media journalist
‘advised’ them to make a hue and cry to get some media-worthy coverage.
The minute one channel started covering it, all the channels converged
and, without verifying the facts, started outdoing each other by
forcibly trying to enter the emergency ward. When the doctors stopped
them, a confrontation emerged where physical and verbal abuse took
place between the journalists and doctors. On being ordered to stay out
of the emergency ward, the journalists went out, gathered force and
equipment and came in and bashed the windows and staff of the emergency
ward. Thereafter, a war between the two parties took place, resulting
in the journalists filing a case against the doctors and a complete
boycott by doctors in hospitals for three days, resulting in agony to
many patients and their families. Such incidents not only cause
significant financial and physical damage but also erode the
credibility of the media, making them look like opportunists who are no
better than the politicians they tear apart in every talk show.
Another
aspect that has become too hot to handle is the power of the few big
time anchors. Some of these anchors, due to their huge viewership,
consider themselves kingmakers and literally blackmail channels and
their political guests into payoffs on their terms for trying to
influence viewers in favour or against them. Their ability to twist
facts and colour stories is not just unethical, but almost criminal.
Their power to make or break opinion creates an arrogance in them that
is displayed through condescending sneers and mocking jeers, inciting
their guests to lose their cool and be reduced to a laughing stock.
To
prevent the media from becoming a destructive mafia, it is imperative
that a committee be formed comprising PEMRA, channels’ representatives,
and legal and media experts who should construct a strict code of
conduct specifying the norms of reporting and clearly laying down the
process of verification and authentication of information. This code
should also contain a code of anchoring etiquette. The code should
specify the penalties associated with non-conformity of members to
these stated requirements. The code needs to be signed by all members
and enforced without discrimination to streamline the behaviour of
those guilty of serious ethical and behavioural infringements.
Media
plays a very powerful role in the development of any society and we
have seen the positive impact it has had in creating the right
awareness and direction in the masses. However, if it lacks the
discipline to draw a line between what is fact and what is fiction,
what is true and what is false, what is responsible freedom and what is
reckless wildness, it needs to be harnessed through policies and
regulation to prevent it from becoming another mafia which becomes a
victim of its own mad pursuit of power rather than playing its true
role of empowering the powerless.
The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com
In : Andleeb Abbas
Notes