Rural Journalism - Notes for BJMC

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.

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.

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[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