Rural Journalism in the Indian context
The term ‘Rural
Journalism’ is basically meant to define journalism that addresses issues in
the rural pockets of India. These issues include coverage of rural news that
deals with farmers, tribals, the economically backward in rural areas, agrarian
issues both good and those that need to be addressed, agrarian crisis,
socio-economic inequalities that exist in rural India, issues that deal with
industrialisation that deprives people of their land and their basic rights in
the rural pockets, etc,. Rural reports by journalists can contribute massively
to development of Indian rural areas and can lead to Governments taking notice
of the situation and reaching out with helps to these pockets.
A very ideal
example is that which was given in the Hindu 'Business line' online paper wherein
a story is mentioned about Basheer Ahmed Peer. The article says, “Rural
reporting had the same kind of effect yet again when young writer Basheer Ahmed
Peer drew the attention of the world to the harrowing experience of the people
of Shumaryal village in Kupwara who were daily forced to cross a makeshift
bridge of tree logs and wooden planks. During floods, crossing this bridge
became that much riskier for school-going children, as well as the elderly
population. Peer’s story spurred the State government to build a proper bridge,
making life so much easier for the villagers.”[1]
This was the effect of Rural Reporting. Journalism can work wonders if it
begins to stand for the rights of the people.
The same article
further states the benefits of Rural journalism by saying that “Other rural
reports have also led to schools and toilets being constructed where there was
none. Widows who were reduced to begging have got their pension and supply of
medicines to a remote public health centre in Salotree, in Poonch, was
restored. At Manghar village of Poonch district, where many lives were lost due
to lack of transport, Bashart ul Haque’s article fetched an ambulance service
to the region. That’s the kind of empowerment rural journalism is making
possible.”[2]
Alternative media and Rural Journalism
Another sign of
hope for Rural Journalism is of certain alternative media like Khabar Lahariya,
Janavani, Gaon Connection, PARI are striving to serve the purpose of rural
journalism in India. These are all medias that cater to Rural journalism at the
grassroots level.
Khabar Lahariya identifies itself solely as a rural media. It
highlights the fact that it provides of those news stories and reports which
are not highlighted by mainstream news channels. It does the hardcore job of
searching the truth about schemes that are introduced and the mannerism in
which they are practiced.
Janavani, a newspaper, was initiated in 2004, to highlight the
issues of the rural poor in Orissa and had addressed varied issues of
corruption, primary school education, sanitation, status of women, child
rights, rights of the indigenous and the Dalits, etc. This was another
initiative to highlight the problems in the rural areas which did not find
coverage in main stream media.
Social Media and Rural Journalism
Certain Social Media forums are now taking the trouble of atleast contributing a few articles on Rural journalism. Social media news forums like 'The Quint' have journalists who travel to different corners of India. There are other Social media outlets that help circulate the demands of those suffering in the rural areas. However, these are very few and their intentions not very clear.
Rural Journalism in today's context
However, Rural
journalism seems to be receding in India. While local newspapers do provide
local news. Rural areas are often not covered
by mainstream media, be it the English newspapers or the numerous news
channels broadcasted as main stream media.
One reason for Rural areas not being
covered is that they are hard to reach and cost the media houses a good deal of
money to pay the journalist and his travels. Rural areas are often deprived of
resources like electricity, health, sanitation, education and even their basic
rights of housing and food. Malnutrition is high in many rural pockets.
Medication is a luxury in these pockets as people have to travel kilometers to
access a hospital.
Even in today's arena, where mobile technology has developed,
many interior places do not have towers and one has to walk a distance to get
some network to be able to communicate. Some remote villages in places like
Uttarakhand are being abandoned as development has barely trickled in those
areas. Travelling to such places hold a lot of challenge and many media houses with their corporatised scenario that focuses on increasing profits, do not aim to provide news such as these.
Journalism today, is mostly done in the precincts of city
offices and are often fed news by news agencies. A few local newspapers do
carry local stories. Certain channels find extremely silly stories to garner
TRP ratings, which by itself is a gimmickry to gain advertisement revenue and
is itself faulty.
Journalism in
India which was meant to be watchdog, has turned into a ‘Couch’ Dog journalism,
where journalists barely travel out of their office, and those who do are very
few. Most are involved in lapdog journalism appeasing the politicians and
Corporate firms who have invested in their channels. For the rest, they debate
vociferously with various politicians, and civil society members to reach the
ultimate aim of a debate very often pre-decided as to in whose favour the
questions should be raised. The worst scenario that has started as a trend is
the aspect of Pretentious photo and video shoot of Politicians, who to garner
votes travel by rich cars and helicopters to rural areas, click themselves
feeding the poor or working in the fields with them as part of their publicity
stunt and return back to their rich domains after getting media coverage. There are very few channels, especially the English channels that actually cater to rural news. And if they do, it is very rare.
Most leading
National news channels have very few on-foot journalists who go to interior
pockets to cover issues. In most cases, these rural beats are not covered at
all as rural journalists barely exist.
However, there are international channels that do cover certain Rural news from across the world, These news stories are not just about rural areas, they also relate to human interest stories. Channels like Al Jazeera have highlighted these stories from around the globe.
However, there are international channels that do cover certain Rural news from across the world, These news stories are not just about rural areas, they also relate to human interest stories. Channels like Al Jazeera have highlighted these stories from around the globe.
P Sainath and Rural Journalism
In India, Journalist P Sainath is considered to be the Father of Rural journalism.
He has these words to say, “You see it in the simplest and most direct way: the organisation of beats. Many beats have become extinct. Take the labour correspondent: when labour issues are covered at all, they come under the header of Industrial Relations, and they’re covered by business correspondents. That means they’re covered by the guy whose job is to walk in the tracks of corporate leaders, and who, when he deigns to look at labour, does it through the eyes of corporate leaders. Now find me the agriculture columnist – in most newspapers, the idea doesn’t exist anymore. If you lack correspondents on those two beats, you’re saying 70 per cent of the people in this country don’t matter, I don’t want to talk to them.”[3] In other words, P Sainath has pointed out how rural journalism on broadcast media and traditional media has drastically diminished.
Santosh Kumar Biswal says, “It is quite apparent that rural journalism remains a grey area in Indian journalism. Journalists working in urban areas are not nuanced enough to understand and report rural problems. The paucity of reporters at grassroots level, less space or time allocation, and shoddy newsroom management have further damaged rural journalism.”[4]
It was a
relentless effort by Sainath some years back to cover thousands of kilometres
by various means of transport including walking for long distances, to cover
stories from, five extremely backward rural pockets of India. This was
precisely at a time, when the economic reforms led by Manmohan Singh, an
economist of very high calibre brought about a dynamic change in India’s
economic history leading to a growth in urbanisation. Which further meant that Journalism,
especially News Journalism began covering urban issues. Economic prosperity and
added challenges due to the growth in magazines and their writings further
challenged the Newspapers to revamp themselves to add customers which mean to
newspapers resorting to cover elite lifestyles.
It was at this point of time, that
journalists like P Sainath contributed massively to bring news reports of the
real India in the rural pockets which most papers did not wish to cover due to
expenses involved. He worked for the ‘Times group’ for a brief period while
doing those articles. He set an example
with his stories which are evident in his popular book, ‘Everybody loves a good
drought.’ His writings pose a challenge to the current journalists and media
houses of today, who fail to cover most of the news in Rural pockets.
Santosh Kumar
Biswal in his article ‘Rural journalism in a shambles’ in ‘The Statesman’,
writes that “The reportage that romanticises farmers’ suicides has now become
passé in India. The role of media as the harbinger of new ideas for rural
development is yet to be pragmatically explored and sensed. Unfortunately, the
empowering role of journalism has been weakened as priority is being given to
making profits. Often news is commoditized and manufactured. Bad practices of
journalism are driving away the good. Growing skewed proportion in terms of
production, distribution and consumption of news between rural news consumers
and urban consumers is widening. Who is to be blamed for the precarious
condition of rural journalism in India? ”[5]
Conclusion
It is a known
fact that a majority of our people are from the rural areas. While there are
local newspapers that cover news. The mainstream channels have failed to cater
to rural news and address the problems of the rural population. Rural
journalism does get a boost through Social media when a particular news goes
viral. However, alt media needs to be boosted. Rural journalism that can
question the inadequacy of schemes and highlight the plight of rural citizens
needs to find space on mainstream media. This should be made mandatory as part
of development journalism by the Government.
Media can become watchdogs and
help the government to reach out and transform our villages for the better
through the noble service they can render through Rural journalism. The
Government should also permit genuine Social media websites catering to Rural
news to work as NGOs providing them help to uplift the society around them by
showcasing their issues and also providing the news of what benefits were
provided. This will prove as a boon both for the rural areas and the Country.
[1] Usha Rai, The power of rural reporting, December 05, 2014, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/the-power-of-rural-reporting/article23031352.ece,
downloaded on April 9, 2019.
[2] Usha Rai, The power of rural reporting, December 05, 2014, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/the-power-of-rural-reporting/article23031352.ece,
downloaded on April 9, 2019.
[3] "Interview with Raghu Karnad in Outlook Magazine".
Outlookindia.com. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
[4] Santosh Kumar Biswal, Rural journalism in a shambles, Pune,
December 2, 2018 11:47 am,
https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/rural-journalism-shambles-1502712969.html
[5] Santosh Kumar Biswal, Rural journalism in a shambles, Pune,
December 2, 2018 11:47 am, https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/rural-journalism-shambles-1502712969.html
