Internet in the Local and General Mediascape
So much has changed in the coverage of conflict in Manipur this year across Mainland India. The latest Meitei–Kuki conflict in these peripheral areas is commanding an amount of airtime that the media in Mainland India has never seen...Is there any logic behind this surge?
Back in the Beginning
Journalism 101 always mentions the concept of news values—or the factors that make a matter newsworthy. If we go by news values today, the region and not necessarily only Manipur has all the so-called theoretical values. The only thing that is absent is the return on investment, which the corporate media, aka the Indian mainstream aka metropolitan media, cannot simply ignore. Why worry when you can focus on sensational and entertainment news in the Mainland. That makes a lot more business sense! Who cares about two teeny-weeny groups fighting for their quotas and access to the benefits, privileges, and freebies offered by the modern Indian nation-state.
However, the trend is changing, or at least it seems so in the mediascape. Notwithstanding the negative Mainland media development in the 21st century, the credit goes to New Media. Fast, interactive, immediate, and powerful. New media has redefined this mediascape entirely for reasons good or bad.
Once upon a time, you needed an entire team for outside broadcasting (OB); but not anymore. Nowadays, phone calls are almost free; Covid-19 has made virtual interviews simple as well as trendy; smartphones come with excellent cameras; and the list goes on. We are truly a global village now.
Still we should not take things at face value, and analyse whether this change in the mediascape is holistic or comprehensive? Or is it not? The paradox of a global village is the lack of communication, which is why there is an ethnic confrontation in the first place. Despite all the developments, the media is too detached from reality even if we can feel it in real time. Once again, factors such as political economy and political stability also play a major role.
As far as these two factors are concerned, we are in one of the worst times in India. In the annual ranking of the World Press Freedom Index, India is placed at 161st rank out of 180 countries. According to the Reporters Sans Frontiers, the ranking is based on five contextual indicators, which include (i) political context, (ii) legal framework, (iii) economic context, (iv) sociocultural context, and (v) safety (Norway with a score of 95.18 is on the top of the list).
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| A screenshot of the page on India on Reporters Sans Frontiers |
The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right. — Reporters Sans Frontiers, 8 June 2023
Coming back to the Internet, we can see it has, for the lack of a better expression, democratised the public sphere. This is for all the good reasons but is it enough? The answer is an emphatic no. No wonder then that many people who are a party to the conflict in Manipur are indulging in incessant and incoherent political arguments that have no conclusion at all and nobody knows who can stop the fight and save the place. The ruling class and political elites are just too hopeless and equally clueless on how to stop a fight, which they can do if they have the power or influence. The best example is the ongoing conflict in that state. And all of these reflect clearly in the media. In a way, sociocultural progress depends on the power of its media; while media access and reach do not guarantee growth. Incidentally, within our context today, on the flip side, it is also easy to add any tinge of ethnic colour to any kind of contestation.
Meantime, the first thing you will always notice in this coverage by Mainland media is its requirement to focus on the basics. This does finetune their reports because they are usually unaware of the political and ethnic undercurrents. It is perfectly understandable as long as they know that Imphal is neither in Assam nor China, and that it is also not the capital of Nagaland. Those all-time silly errors apart, we are witnessing a coverage like never before in the history of modern India. In the same breath, it is encouraging to see that the level of parachute journalism—with much thanks to the Mainland corporate media organisations—still exists but the overall condition has improved the standard in terms of reportage and representation by a level one notch up or two.
The evolution of mediascape has also accentuated the flow of information in exponential ways at the local level with the advent of WhatsApps, Facebooks, Instagrams and Twitters. People have access to all the information and speculation as well both misinformation and disinformation. Sometimes it is a challenge to differentiate which one is which.
The present CM of Manipur, Nongthombam Biren is also an active Facebook user, where he usually puts up poses and posts influenced by Narendra Modi. Some people say he has even aped his scraggy beard style from Modi, though the latter had changed his style to a longer and fuller beard in the peak of the white fungus infection during the Covid-19 pandemic. Any way, when we are talking about Manipur, how far irony can be behind? Today, 15 June, the Government of Manipur has issued another order to suspend internet and mobile data services in the state for another five more days till June 20. The ban started on that fateful day, 4 May.
Back in the Town
One of the most visible manifestations of victimhood in a place like Manipur has always been the complaints and grievances that everything-national, and especially, the national media has never taken an interest in the affairs of the local people. That cry has become faint this time, though you must still be hearing it on and off in the 40+ days old conflict between the majoritarian Meiteis and the Kukis in the state. Now what?
Does it also affect the idea of an imagined community as theorised by Benedict Anderson in his seminal Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. In his definition of a nation, Anderson writes that it is ‘an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.’ A nation is imagined such as any organisation greater than a tiny village because the majority of its members will never interact in person but yet believe they are a part of a ‘political community’ that is similar to a family, amongst others, with shared history, common language and origin. The nation is regarded as the sole legitimate power within its defined boundary (sovereign), and its borders are recognised as fixed (limited).
Still, does it mean the level of imagining-ness is improving? It is highly doubtful because we live in a world of echo chambers and filter bubbles. A huge problem for India, as illustrated by the present ethnic contestations in one of its distant corners, is its sheer lack of awareness, which the natives blame that they usually cover up with their prejudice and arrogance. Once in an interview, former CM Okram Ibobi spilled the beans by blaming former Home Affairs and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who reprimanded him with the big, fat Indian ego. It is happening all the time.
At a certain level, a negative theoretical implication always appears when you define a Nation in the contemporary world. Even India and its Northeast, to put it bluntly, have only a few things in common. Anderson’s concept of an imagined community, perhaps, is only best suited to explain the European nations and their histories and formation. Still, a takeaway from his concept is the shared idea of peoplehood. This has never happened with the Indian subcontinent, except for those eras starting from the late medieval period, when a major chunk of the region was ruled by the Muslims and later dominated by the English colonists. And it is even worse in the hinterland called Manipur that was forcefully merged to the Union.
Many people, in a state like Manipur, have a grievance because their voice is completely muted, intentionally or otherwise. They cannot even blame India because this country was created as a result of the diktats from the Mughals and the Britishers, and the general public has very little ideas about what really constitutes India. Seemingly, the text and subtext are changing, though painfully slowly, like never before. In this context, it is critical to note how the Mainland media has completely changed its stance; unlike ever before, and you can see all the Hindi- and English-speaking opinion leaders writing and giving interviews in the so-called Mainland media of India every other day ever since the violence broke out in May last. It’s a different story when we talk about misinformation, disinformation, reductionism and parachute journalism.
Some people say that this is the reason why the BJP has come to power. This right-wing party has a strict organisational hierarchy and the difference is that they have a way with the people though the intentions are always doubtful, because no matter what, they are from the Mainland. Many natives are, incidentally, complaining that the prime minister has not uttered a single word on this present crisis.
Back in the Mainland
Let’s quickly scan through some of the news reports in metropolitan media during the first two weeks of June 2023 about the ongoing conflict (Source: The Indian Express, India Today, NDTV, The Wire, Hindustan Times, Foreign Policy and The Week). These were selected on a daily basis from the home pages of their websites:
A month into the Manipur violence, the death toll has risen to 98 even as firing incidents continue to take place in different parts of the state. An official statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) puts the number of injured at 310 and recorded cases of arson at 4,014. As many as 144 stolen arms have been recovered along with 11 magazines. The recovered arms include 29 Self-Loading Rifles (SLR), 15 carbines, 12 INSAS rifles and 10 grenade-launchers among others, it said. — The Indian Express, 3 June 2023
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday (5 June) appealed to the people of violence-hit Manipur to lift the blockades at the Imphal-Dimapur NH-2 Highway so that a swift movement of food, medicines and other essentials is ensured. — India Today, 5 June 2023
A jawan of the Border Security Force (BSF) died while two Assam Rifles personnel sustained gunshot wounds in Manipur’s Serou in firing between security forces and a group of insurgents on the intervening night of June 5–6, Army officials said. — NDTV, 6 June 2023
A seven-year-old boy, his mother and a female neighbour were killed in Imphal West’s Iroisemba area on Sunday (June 4) evening, while the young boy was being taken to hospital after being hit by a bullet splinter at the Assam Rifles camp where his family was staying. A mob set the ambulance carrying the child and his caretakers on fire, and all three of them burnt to death, The Indian Express reported. “All we could recover were some bones from inside the vehicle,” the newspaper quoted a senior police officer as saying. An FIR including sections related to murder was filed that night. — The Wire, 7 June 2023
Security forces including Indian Army and Assam Rifles on Wednesday launched joint combing operations in Manipur to recover arms looted by mobs from police stations and government armories of the ethnic violence-hit state. “Locals in possession of such weapons are urged to surrender them to the security forces for the sake of peace and harmony,” the Spear Corps division of army said in a brief statement. — Hindustan Times, 8 June 2023
Miscreants hurl bomb at MLA's residence in Imphal West amid violence: Amid the violence in Manipur, two bike-borne miscreants allegedly hurled a low-intensity Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the gate of MLA Soraisam Kebi’s residence on June 9, police said. — India Today, 9 June 2023
Kuki group blocks NH2 again after fresh deaths. The blockade along the Imphal-Dimapur national highway 2 (NH2) in Manipur was temporarily lifted on June 4, has been reimposed again by a Kuki organisation following fresh violence in the state, which claimed three lives and injured two others, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday. — Hindustan Times, 10 June 2023
Curfew relaxed, internet ban extended till June 15: In the wake of militant attacks and arson, the state government on Saturday extended the ban on internet services for five more days. The order issued by the home department said that the internet ban would be effective till 3 pm on June 15. Earlier the ban was extended till Saturday. — The Week, 11 June 2023
‘...over 50,000 people have been displaced and are living in 349 camps,’ Manipur information and public relations minister RK Ranjan said on June 11. The Wire visited nine relief camps of both the communities scattered across various villages of Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Imphal East, Kangpopki and Kakching districts of the state. — The Wire, 12 June 2023
Since early May, the Indian state of Manipur has suffered from destructive violence that has barely registered a blip on the global radar. More than 130 people have died in the state, and another 60,000 displaced from their homes. People have ransacked 4,573 weapons from police armouries and destroyed 250 churches. — Foreign Policy, 13 June 2023
At least eleven villagers were massacred in a late night attack at Khamenlok in Imphal East district of violence-hit Manipur on June 13, police said. Several injured persons have been admitted in government and private hospitals. — The Hindu, 14 June 2023
As far as news stories are concerned there have been newspapers like The Hindu, The Telegraph and The Statesman that regularly cover this region, regardless of how sketchy those are. Among the TV channels, NDTV has been a prominent media organisation to cover the news in this corner of the globe. Now, there are also The Wire, The Quint and other digital-only platforms covering the region. They don’t have to depend on minimal and politically correct reports from public news agencies anymore.
One exceptional example in the latest development is The Interview with Karan Thapar, in which this prominent journalist has been taking the interviews of several stakeholders in the Meitei-Kuki conflict. Thapar must have to watch so many things around to get the subject experts! On the other hand, it is easy to catch up with politicians who are too close to Delhi and are always there in the capital (excluding Andro Shyamkumar). Thapar can as well easily set up an interview conveniently on Skype or MS Team and grill them! Two decades are too ephemeral for a society, but the point is in the phenomenon of the previous large-scale conflict in Manipur all the way back in 2001. Back then, only NDTV and CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) from the mainland covered the news. Yet again, not anymore.
At the end of the day, we can see the coverage has scaled several levels because of ever-developing information and communications technologies. That has also made journalistic work convenient and gotten rid of all the problems with location and time. However, the question remains whether this phenomena makes any difference on the ground. Finally, one thing we cannot ignore is how the Internet has put the current conflict in a continuous loop just as cable TV did in the wake of the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. CNN became a global force in an economically radical media business. It is The Internet this time.
— Concluded.
Postscript All said and done, it is not right to conclude unilaterally; in fact, it is so impossible. The Govt of Manipur’s decision to withdraw from the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreements signed with Kuki insurgent groups. This has also been one of the triggers, along with the circus involving Manipur High Court’s order that directs the State to consider inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list. All of these are long gone now in two months. Now the war continues, for which we have to pay the buddu fine in the future, because so many things related to communities, ethnicities and geography are set to change.
Breaking News 15 June | The United Kuki Liberation Front opened a pandora box yesterday (14 June 2023) by releasing a memo signed by its chairman SS Haokip and addressed to Home Minister Amit Shah. It says that the UKLF, which is also a part to the SoO agreements, had been helping the BJP to ‘win’ elections. Briefly, the government has been caught with its pants down, and this includes not only N Biren but also Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma who is the regional boss of the BJP, and Shah, the national troubleshooter of this right-wing party.
Similar posts on the topic:
- Media as the Message: A reflection on insurgency, local media, conflict resolution and media intervention
- Media in the Limelight: Liberal democracy has been hailed as the system of choice with media playing a critical role in its functioning impartially yet the role or the effectiveness is under scrutiny in a conflict society where the military, the state and non-state actors have their own concepts of power structure.
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