Close on the heels of one media ‘summit’ that offered a platform to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to wax eloquent on his leadership a day after election dates were announced, yet another media event is being staged this week offering Modi primetime real estate for his campaign.
When such media events began in the 1990s it was the normal practice that apart from speakers from the government there would also be speakers from opposition political parties. Sometimes there would be a panel of speakers with both the political party in government and ones in opposition represented. That was the era in which a plural and liberal democracy was thriving. Today, there’s no place for such balance even in media hosted events.
Before 2014, the general practice at all such events was to have at least one speaker from an opposition political party to balance the views of speakers from the government. During former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s decade in office the media favourite in the 0pposition who would be invited to speak, after the prime minister and some of his senior ministers have spoken, would often be Arun Jaitley of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was considered the normal thing to do. Allow the opposition to have its say, once the government of the day has had its views put across. Alas, that no longer happens.
At last week’s media event the hosts, India Today, did invite speakers from the Congress party, including P. Chidambaram, Sachin Pilot and D.K. Shivakumar, even if the publishers were unapologetic about their support for the prime minister and the ruling party and the ease with which they would rubbish the opposition alliance.
At this week’s event, hosted by CNN-News18, the organisers have been even more blatant in their partisanship. All the politicians invited are from the ruling BJP. No one from any opposition party is listed as a speaker. Indeed, the News18 format is now the norm for most such events.
Few among the public are aware of why media organisations host such events. I was made aware of this when I became an editor. From the point of view of media managements all such events are revenue raising opportunities. The money spent on hosting the event is a fraction of what is raised from corporate sponsors.
Often the hotel hosting the event is itself a sponsor so there is no money to be paid for the venue. Corporate sponsors are offered the privilege of their nominees being seated in the front and, in the case of the main sponsor, an opportunity to meet the chief guest privately in an ante room for a few minutes before or after the session. Corporate CEOs are unabashed in the demands they make in return for event sponsorship.
Since such events help raise revenues through sponsorship, media organisations classify them as ‘profit centres’. The Times of India, India Today and Hindustan Times took the lead in hosting such media events. Many others followed suit.
There are two types of such events hosted by media. First, the talk shops where speeches are made through the day and an opportunity for networking is offered over cocktails and dinner. Second, award events where media give out all manner of awards, often aimed at massaging the ego of the chosen political, bureaucratic and business leaders.
A jury of eminent persons is tasked to decide the awardees, but sometimes the host organisation indicates its preference to helpful juries. While some reputed media organisations ensure transparency in the selection of awardees, even they view the entire initiative as one that helps raise revenues and enhances brand equity.
I am aware from personal knowledge that in some media organisations professional journalists keep their distance in raising sponsorship funds and leave this task to be performed by managers. There are others that actively seek journalists’ help in this task.
Whatever the business logic of media events and awards the fact is that we now have far too many of them and most events have become networking opportunities. There has been a devaluation of the awards presented given that the truly deserving are few and have already been awarded. But then, the revenues being raised are still not that small because every new generation of CEOs, ‘influencers’, social butterflies and celebrities want an opportunity to rub shoulders, or at least shake hands, or even do a Bharatiya namaste, to the nation’s power elite of the day, and be photographed doing so.
While some media organisations have unabashedly declared themselves to be in the business of business and not in the business of news and analysis, even those that claim to promote ‘journalism of courage’ have become platforms for the powerful to voice their opinions to select elite audiences.
Ministers in the Modi government have become so careful about where they speak and what they say that such media hosted interactions have become nothing more than opportunities for free and uninterrupted propaganda and publicity. Why pay for advertising when the news pages can do all the ego-massaging one seeks for free?
Tailpiece: In 2007, when CNN-IBN awarded the then prime minister Manmohan Singh the “Indian of the Year Award”, he refused to attend the award event saying that a prime minister should not be grateful to any media organisation for such recognition. Rather, he said to me, if he is being recognised as such by the media then it must be because the media had a positive view of his leadership. For this, he told me, that I should be getting an award! So, on his instructions, I went to the CNN-IBN awards function and, as his media advisor, thanked the jury for it.
Sanjaya Baru is an economist, a former newspaper editor, a best-selling author, and former adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
