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The Indian media is like Bollywood's Box Office - every Friday there's a change of story. The Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption campaign faces a media coverage face-off today as the fourth edition of the IPL Twenty-20 kicks off in Chennai.
THE ‘STAND-OFF’ between anti-corruption protestors and the union government is delicately poised – both politically and on the basis of media coverage. From April 8 onwards this may not be the case because the media is likely to turn their cameras and pens to the glamourous and equally intense IPL.
This is not just a matter of conjecture. One speaks from precedence of how stories reach a crescendo and then taper off when another one breaks.
For the media the question will be how and how much resources should be allocated to two competing events – as both the anti-corruption protests and IPL4 are pan-India as well as confined to the larger cities of the country.
It will be interesting to see how the anti-corruption protest proceed in the face of a fragmented media agenda. Will it be anti-corruption protests in the morning and IPL4 in the evenings? After all, both events, today, boast of ‘star presence’, star support, and numerous talking points.
Since the anti-corruption protests are depending on national media, which has become a via media and a semi-official intermediary between the protestors and the government - Anna Hazare and his supporters will have to vie for attention with the IPL - given the fact that the media’s focus is likely to shift to the IPL, which has become a national and global brand within the mega brand of international cricket.
If what advertisements have been predicting - “India will remain closed because the IPL is on” - come anywhere near coming true - then the fate of the anti-corruption story, in terms of its pan-India daily media coverage, could be sealed.
For the UPA government, which has already acceded certain “breakthrough” demands of anti-corruption and social activists led by Arjun Kejriwal and Anna Hazare - the distraction caused by IPL 4 will come as a welcome breather.
Daily stories beginning April 8 on the IPL will find ready audience in national and local press, and the government might go into a freeze mode.
The point of debate is not why the Indian media drops and takes up stories like a hot potato. The point is the way they go about shifting gears at the cost of staying with an important story – in spite of competing stories. Should Anna Hazare time the timeline of the anti-corruption protest based on the attention span of the India media?
Why should a highly consumerized event displace an event of national importance in media coverage – in case such a thing takes place? In a few days we will know if the IPL steals Anna’s thunder.
