Hello Everybody,
This is my concluding blog about my documentary project.....this blog discusses a lot about the content exhibited in the documentary.
Much to my surprise and satisfaction, I found that my research was in sync with my actual observations of the deaf community. One of the most important revelations was that there lies an extreme polarity between the hearing and deaf community in India. The hearing people are keen to make deaf people 'hearing.' They want deaf children to learn to lip read and ultimately talk like 'normal' hearing people.
Deaf people, on the contrary, feel that they have every right to maintain their deaf identity and are proud of their 'deaf hood.' They hope to give birth to future deaf generations and want acknowledgment and recognition for their language, identity, and choice within the larger hearing society. The discrimination and marginalization of the minority deaf community at the hands of the majority hearing world is termed by deaf people as 'Audism,' which can be compared to 'Racism' according to them (discrimination against deaf people because of their inability to hear).
In 1910, George Veditz described 'Deaf' as “first, last and for all time, the people of the eye”. This aspect of deaf life was seen during the shooting of the documentary. While conducting day-to-day activities in the hearing world, deaf people were not scared to travel, or ride vehicles, because they were confident of their visual sense. According to them, the eye contact was extremely important for them in their communication too. Even during the interviews, most deaf people found it impossible to look in to the camera and sign. The eye contact with the interviewer was absolutely necessary for them.
Whenever a deaf person meets another deaf person, he/ she is curious to know whether the other person is 'deaf/hearing'. The world for them belongs only in two parts, 'hearing’, and 'deaf'. The boundaries of religion, country, caste, color do not exist for them.
My two deaf subjects, Sunil and Shweta, could lip read and talk, but they both chose to sign and not talk during the interviews. According to them, it was against the ethics of deaf culture to talk!
Most deaf people follow the 90 % rule in life. Out of all the ten deaf subjects I interviewed, only two had deaf had deaf families. Barring them, all had hearing families. The interviewees spoke about their communication problems with their parents. They also mentioned about their parents' reluctance to communicate with them in sign language.
A deaf girl's parents were awfully worried about her marriage, and lamented that her prospects of getting a 'normal' (hearing) bridegroom are minimal. Heena ( deaf girl), on the other hand, is sure of getting married to a deaf boy only. Hearing parents hoped for a miracle to happen and make their children hearing. I had mixed observations regarding this idea during my interactions with deaf, as well as hearing, parents. A widow mother (herself deaf) of two deaf children in their mid-twenties, wanted at least one 'hearing' child to help her in communicating with hearing world. On the other hand, another deaf couple, who had a hearing daughter, Kimaya, were proud to make Kimaya a part of their community by teaching her sign language. They were candid enough to express that they would have loved Kimaya to be deaf and hoped for their next child to be deaf.
During the shooting of the video, I observed that all deaf subjects were proud to be deaf and wanted to have deaf partners, future deaf generations, and the opportunity for making independent choices like any hearing person.
There are 'imagined' problems in the minds of hearing people while recruiting deaf people. The hearing population is unaware of the capabilities of deaf people due to sheer ignorance and lack of interest in understanding them. Government's apathy and lack of will is one of the many reasons for the poor situation of deaf people.
But the Indian government's apathy towards deaf people has ironically helped the country in preserving deaf culture. For example, in Denmark, the government sponsors cochlear implants for deaf people. Therefore, the deaf population in Denmark is decreasing day-by-day. The Indian government, on the other hand, does not encourage any such measures, which helps deaf people to maintain their 'deaf hood. '
Deaf schools in India have adopted oral methods only. Even media and public places lack a deaf- friendly environment. TV channels and films do not use captions. There are no interpreters at railways stations, hospitals, banks, and in government offices. The only way for deaf people to connect to the hearing world is through text messages on mobile phones. Deaf people heavily rely on mobile phones. One of the subjects even said that he cannot imagine his life without mobiles anymore.
But the hallmark of Indian deaf culture is Indian sign language. The introduction of Indian Sign Language (ISL) has empowered the deaf population, at least in the urban societies in India. However, the awareness and spread of ISL is still in its infancy in the country. The government's lack of will and support to make it nationally recognized and give it an academic status in deaf schools still keeps the language beyond the reach of deaf people in small cities.
The subjects spoke a lot about the lack of support for ISL at homes, too. Their parents refuse to learn the language. People in the majority hearing community do not have awareness about ISL. This divide between a deaf and hearing community has caused deaf people to look for avenues of progress and development in their own community only, which, again, are fairly limited. As an ISL instructor said: deaf people can progress only if they compete within the deaf community.
Conclusion
Beyond Silence is a documentary that is made with an intention of understanding the perspective of the deaf people in India. India, a country with a population of around one billion people, lacks the basic infrastructure and social consciousness to accommodate the “voices” of deaf people. This documentary is made with an intention of understanding these hidden voices in their own “words, language, and culture.” The documentary is made to reach out to a wider audience all around the world through film and video festivals, private screenings, and media workshops.
India is my home country, and my previous experience of working in the media industry facilitated my understanding of the basic societal values and orientation of the people belonging to the deaf community. This video project is a humble attempt to acknowledge the existence of a living, competent, and thinking deaf community that has the ability to communicate “beyond silence.”
My entire experience, close to about a year now, about reading, writing, interacting, and shooting deaf life so closely has brought about lot of revelations and understanding about deaf people in India.
I could observe through the process of making this documentary that these people just expect one thing from the larger hearing community. 'Live and Let Live.' They do not ask for any special favors, but are very vociferously ready to fight for their rights. Having interpreters is their right, and they want the government and the public to support it. Sign language is the mother tongue of deaf people and they want their own families, teachers and society to accept that. The Indian Sign Language (ISL) is the most important characteristic of the Indian deaf culture.
I hope the distribution and exhibition of this documentary helps deaf community in India to strengthen their fight for their basic rights, like the recognition and adoption of sign language in schools and in the society, awareness about deaf culture and motivation of the entertainment media in the country to adopt captioning.
My attempt has been to capture the real emotion that lies in the thriving deaf population in the city of Mumbai. They are all set to establish the first ever deaf college in the country in the year 2009. There is a long way to go, but at least the march has begun. The documentary, Beyond Silence, is an attempt to capture the essence of their struggle, perseverance, and indomitable spirit.
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Dispatches from the World of Deaf--Beyond Silence Part 3
This post will concentrate primarily on all my technical challenges during the shoot.
According to my earlier post, all my interviews barring a few had all the ‘talking’ done through Signs. I did not use any external audio equipment throughout the shoot. My interviews with the deaf subjects were all shot in their own mother tongue, the Indian Sign language.
This is the way we operated: I conveyed the question to my interpreter in English/Hindi, she explained it to the deaf subjects through signs. After my interviewee had understood the question he/she would answer it again in sign, and then I would have the interpreter summarize it for me on camera. This was to facilitate my understanding about the content of their signs.
During my first interview I had resorted to on the spot interpreting, but my interpreter is not a professional yet, at times she took time to understand their signs that would lead to slightly delayed interpreting ( India has 21 official spoken languages, though the country today has a single Indian Sign Language, the ‘dialectic’ version of sign languages are very much prevalent in the day to day communication of the deaf people, this aspect very often poses a tough challenge for the interpreters). Also I intended to have the natural sounds in the background during their interviews to establish the location, situation and general look and feel of the city.This was perhaps the most important reason. Using the mode of on the spot interpreting would have spoilt the entire feel of capturing the natural sound. This documentary will have the use of captions and subtitling all through out. I am still not sure if I am going to use my interpreter's voice as a voice-over for the text on the screen. Personally I feel subtitles, can actually lead to lot of reading while watching the images, I have always found it a bit agonizing after few minutes. For that very purpose, I got all my interviews shot in sign language interpreted again by my interpreter, just for the audio purpose. I have audio files recorded seperately which can give me an option of using or not using it. Lets see!
However, I do have interviews shot in spoken words as well. The interviews with the hearing parents, the interview with Michael Morgan , the Director of Ishara foundation, the one and only one institute in India that works to empower the Deaf in the country through education using bilingual communication.
With regards to the technical aspects, some of the other challenges were; adequate lack of space and lighting conditions. Our interviews were shot mostly in people’s houses and in the Ishara foundation. Much to my surprise and paranoia I found on the very first day that the walls of the Ishara foundation were painted with blue color paint! Most of my B-roll was shot in that one room painted in blue. This place was very small and always filled with students, instructors and the staff. The houses that we visited to shoot with the interviewees also did not have the best lighting conditions. I had no extra budget planned to hire expensive lights for both indoor as well as outdoor shooting. We resorted to shooting maximum in the day light. But more than a couple of times we had to shoot very late in the night, at that time we used a very basic tungsten-halogen light. During the day time shooting, amidst those blue walls and not well lit homes, often the cameraman had to keep the iris full open to get the right amount of brightness in the viewfinder.
Most of the shooting for the documentary has happened by using hand held camera technique. Reasons; lack of space and occurence of too many events at the same time. But all along what has been very intriguing and a revelation for me is the bursting of the myth that the interpretation of the sign language is the exact translation of the content. Much later in my production, I realised that not knowing their language has left me to understand only the 'interpretation' of the Deaf's thoughts. Until I learn the language myself I will perhaps never know what did they actually say or rather meant. For the time being I would be concentrating on my views and conclusions about all the communication I had with them only through interpreting.
To be continued................
According to my earlier post, all my interviews barring a few had all the ‘talking’ done through Signs. I did not use any external audio equipment throughout the shoot. My interviews with the deaf subjects were all shot in their own mother tongue, the Indian Sign language.
This is the way we operated: I conveyed the question to my interpreter in English/Hindi, she explained it to the deaf subjects through signs. After my interviewee had understood the question he/she would answer it again in sign, and then I would have the interpreter summarize it for me on camera. This was to facilitate my understanding about the content of their signs.
During my first interview I had resorted to on the spot interpreting, but my interpreter is not a professional yet, at times she took time to understand their signs that would lead to slightly delayed interpreting ( India has 21 official spoken languages, though the country today has a single Indian Sign Language, the ‘dialectic’ version of sign languages are very much prevalent in the day to day communication of the deaf people, this aspect very often poses a tough challenge for the interpreters). Also I intended to have the natural sounds in the background during their interviews to establish the location, situation and general look and feel of the city.This was perhaps the most important reason. Using the mode of on the spot interpreting would have spoilt the entire feel of capturing the natural sound. This documentary will have the use of captions and subtitling all through out. I am still not sure if I am going to use my interpreter's voice as a voice-over for the text on the screen. Personally I feel subtitles, can actually lead to lot of reading while watching the images, I have always found it a bit agonizing after few minutes. For that very purpose, I got all my interviews shot in sign language interpreted again by my interpreter, just for the audio purpose. I have audio files recorded seperately which can give me an option of using or not using it. Lets see!
However, I do have interviews shot in spoken words as well. The interviews with the hearing parents, the interview with Michael Morgan , the Director of Ishara foundation, the one and only one institute in India that works to empower the Deaf in the country through education using bilingual communication.
With regards to the technical aspects, some of the other challenges were; adequate lack of space and lighting conditions. Our interviews were shot mostly in people’s houses and in the Ishara foundation. Much to my surprise and paranoia I found on the very first day that the walls of the Ishara foundation were painted with blue color paint! Most of my B-roll was shot in that one room painted in blue. This place was very small and always filled with students, instructors and the staff. The houses that we visited to shoot with the interviewees also did not have the best lighting conditions. I had no extra budget planned to hire expensive lights for both indoor as well as outdoor shooting. We resorted to shooting maximum in the day light. But more than a couple of times we had to shoot very late in the night, at that time we used a very basic tungsten-halogen light. During the day time shooting, amidst those blue walls and not well lit homes, often the cameraman had to keep the iris full open to get the right amount of brightness in the viewfinder.
Most of the shooting for the documentary has happened by using hand held camera technique. Reasons; lack of space and occurence of too many events at the same time. But all along what has been very intriguing and a revelation for me is the bursting of the myth that the interpretation of the sign language is the exact translation of the content. Much later in my production, I realised that not knowing their language has left me to understand only the 'interpretation' of the Deaf's thoughts. Until I learn the language myself I will perhaps never know what did they actually say or rather meant. For the time being I would be concentrating on my views and conclusions about all the communication I had with them only through interpreting.
To be continued................
Dispatches from the world of Deaf-- Beyond Silence ( Part 2)
The sign language students around me were curious to know about the topic. The answer was pretty simple.
India has arguably the largest deaf population in the world, around 4 million, but the number of interpreters can be counted on fingers! Sign language is still not an officially recognized language by the government.
At the fall’07 semester here in the US, during the welcome speech delivered by the President of the SFSU, I saw an interpreter standing there and signing in front of the audience. In all my 28 years of life in India, I had never ever witnessed any scene like that! This experience was truly new and intriguing for me. I was a bit disturbed and very inquisitive at the same time to know more about why India had no acknowledgement of this language and the community called, DEAF. I wanted to know about these people who are completely marginalized in the Indian society. That was one of the trigger points to take up this topic.
After the first visit on 9th June in that institute, I was privileged to be in constant touch with the deaf community in the city of Mumbai for almost two months. My first ten days were spent only in getting to know them, as in knowing the various members of the deaf community, interacting with them regarding their everyday challenges, aspirations, agonies, and lifestyle.
I started short listing the candidates for my interviews as well, depending on their backgrounds and experiences. It was just fascinating to choose and decide about the content of their individual interviews. To be honest, I was awfully confused in deciding who should be picked and who should be dropped. Each and every individual I met had some amazing stories to share. But I did make some choices there.
Simultaneously I started preparing on the production front. Before even going to India for the shoot, I was aware that my communication with the Deaf was possible only through an interpreter. I thought it would be all fine. But within a week I realized that not knowing the sign language could be a serious impediment in getting the desired answers from my subjects! On the flip side I also felt that my ignorance about their language and culture would help me in my objective to have a ‘peep in their lives,’ intensifying an outsider’s perspective. The objective of this documentary is definitely to peep in to their lives and understand what it is to be deaf in a country like India, specifically in a metro like Mumbai (Bombay).
I was also a bit jittery about their possible consciousness in front of the cameras. To my utter surprise, the deaf community did not have an iota of discomfort in the presence of the camera. I have seen most hearing people get conscious whenever a camera is put on their face, but for all the reasons unknown the deaf people were amazingly at ease with the camera….the camera just didn’t bother them!
I met my cameraman a week before we started shooting. He was excited about the idea as he had never shot anything like this before. My main contact person and also the content expert was my interpreter. So we were a team of three.
I chose to use two cameras for the project: PD-170 and a GS 500. After arriving in Mumbai, I discovered that the city is not the same as it was two and half years back when I left it for good.
The terrorism threat has left no corner of the world untouched, Mumbai also has been a target before being the world’s second most populous city along with the commercial, financial, and entertainment capital of India. The city is under heavy security regulations today. Most public places like the railway stations, beaches, parks etc prohibit using of cameras without permission!
The only way out was to use a camcorder 3CCD GS 500 in such places. Nobody cared about whether it was a 3 CCD or a 1 CCD, just because it was ‘silver’ looking, I could get away a zillion times by saying that I am making just a home video or taking snaps . The PD-170 camera ‘the black professional camera’ would attract lot of attention. So we avoided that in the public places. I had no money to pay for permissions. So the PD was out of question. The PD camera was primarily used for indoors; interviews etc.
Also in terms of matching the footage from both the cameras in the edit, the PD and the GS 500 came pretty close.
I did not carry any sound equipment with me because I did not have any deliberate sound! All my interviews were shot in sign language…..But here was the next challenge, how was I going to know what they spoke during the interviews, how was I going to take a call if the interview was good/bad/average?
To be continued……
India has arguably the largest deaf population in the world, around 4 million, but the number of interpreters can be counted on fingers! Sign language is still not an officially recognized language by the government.
At the fall’07 semester here in the US, during the welcome speech delivered by the President of the SFSU, I saw an interpreter standing there and signing in front of the audience. In all my 28 years of life in India, I had never ever witnessed any scene like that! This experience was truly new and intriguing for me. I was a bit disturbed and very inquisitive at the same time to know more about why India had no acknowledgement of this language and the community called, DEAF. I wanted to know about these people who are completely marginalized in the Indian society. That was one of the trigger points to take up this topic.
After the first visit on 9th June in that institute, I was privileged to be in constant touch with the deaf community in the city of Mumbai for almost two months. My first ten days were spent only in getting to know them, as in knowing the various members of the deaf community, interacting with them regarding their everyday challenges, aspirations, agonies, and lifestyle.
I started short listing the candidates for my interviews as well, depending on their backgrounds and experiences. It was just fascinating to choose and decide about the content of their individual interviews. To be honest, I was awfully confused in deciding who should be picked and who should be dropped. Each and every individual I met had some amazing stories to share. But I did make some choices there.
Simultaneously I started preparing on the production front. Before even going to India for the shoot, I was aware that my communication with the Deaf was possible only through an interpreter. I thought it would be all fine. But within a week I realized that not knowing the sign language could be a serious impediment in getting the desired answers from my subjects! On the flip side I also felt that my ignorance about their language and culture would help me in my objective to have a ‘peep in their lives,’ intensifying an outsider’s perspective. The objective of this documentary is definitely to peep in to their lives and understand what it is to be deaf in a country like India, specifically in a metro like Mumbai (Bombay).
I was also a bit jittery about their possible consciousness in front of the cameras. To my utter surprise, the deaf community did not have an iota of discomfort in the presence of the camera. I have seen most hearing people get conscious whenever a camera is put on their face, but for all the reasons unknown the deaf people were amazingly at ease with the camera….the camera just didn’t bother them!
I met my cameraman a week before we started shooting. He was excited about the idea as he had never shot anything like this before. My main contact person and also the content expert was my interpreter. So we were a team of three.
I chose to use two cameras for the project: PD-170 and a GS 500. After arriving in Mumbai, I discovered that the city is not the same as it was two and half years back when I left it for good.
The terrorism threat has left no corner of the world untouched, Mumbai also has been a target before being the world’s second most populous city along with the commercial, financial, and entertainment capital of India. The city is under heavy security regulations today. Most public places like the railway stations, beaches, parks etc prohibit using of cameras without permission!
The only way out was to use a camcorder 3CCD GS 500 in such places. Nobody cared about whether it was a 3 CCD or a 1 CCD, just because it was ‘silver’ looking, I could get away a zillion times by saying that I am making just a home video or taking snaps . The PD-170 camera ‘the black professional camera’ would attract lot of attention. So we avoided that in the public places. I had no money to pay for permissions. So the PD was out of question. The PD camera was primarily used for indoors; interviews etc.
Also in terms of matching the footage from both the cameras in the edit, the PD and the GS 500 came pretty close.
I did not carry any sound equipment with me because I did not have any deliberate sound! All my interviews were shot in sign language…..But here was the next challenge, how was I going to know what they spoke during the interviews, how was I going to take a call if the interview was good/bad/average?
To be continued……
Dispatches from the world of Deaf-- Beyond Silence ( Part 1)
Hi Everybody,
Today exactly two weeks after arriving from India, I have decided to write a series of blogs about my creative project for Fall 2008 that I shot in India. I would like to share here some of my views, observations, learnings, and but ofcourse production experiences that I witnessed during the process of shooting this project in India. The title of the project is " Beyond Silence." This is a documentary project based on the lives of deaf people in the city of Mumbai ( Bombay). This video was shot for a period of about 2 months from June'08 to Aug'08.
I landed in India on 7th June'08 and started with the pre-production on 9th June. From there on it was a journey that was fascinating and intriguing filled with surprises, excitement, anxiety,at times frustration and yes of course immense satisfaction and joy too.
Before even my plane landed at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport of Mumbai, heavy rains started splashing the windows of my aircraft. It was 2:00am , and the flight had already got delayed because of the bad weather. The normal air journey to India from CA takes 24 hours and because of the delay, my air travel had got in its 25th hour!!! I was losing my patience.Tired, I sat inside the plane looking helplessly in the 'darkness' outside the window. I could not have ever imagined such a 'teary' start for my project. But I had no right to complain. I had decided to do the project in the peak monsoon season( June-Sept) of India. Amongst many other things, Mumbai is famous for its crowd, and monsoon. And I had planned for a semester now to fly half way across the globe to embrace both. What a timing indeed!
9th June, it was raining too hard, I was lazing on the couch enjoying watching the wet Mumbai around me from my parents home. I was heavily jet lagged, it was a perfect time to sip some chai, laze down in a blanket and chat with my family.
Instead I decided it to be the first day of my pre-production. I had to get on with it. After all it was rainy season, the weather was not going to change for the next three -four months!
My interpretor, Vidya Iyer, with whom I had communicated for the past four months, while working on the proposal, took me to her institute, The National Institute of Hearing Handicapped ( NIHH). Currently, she is pursuing her Indian Sign language studies there. It was late evening, very gloomy,Mumbai was getting beaten by heavy rains, and my heart was beating fast too. I dont know why, but I was a bit nervous about getting in to the actual doing of things. Its a strange feeling, but all through out my spring'08 semester, I was thinking, planning , and imagining about this day. Believe it or not, this was the first time I was actually going to meet deaf people. I had never had a personal interaction whatsoever with them through out my life. What??? well yes, I had only seen them around me, few times while in India. Bollywood definetly was a window at times to peep in to their lives. But never had taken this conscious step to actually go and meet them. Forget about shooting a film with them, my major concern at that moment was, what am I going to " talk" to them?
Within no time I saw myself amidst fifteen young people who were very busy 'talking,' but there was absolutely no sound, forget noise! After 10 minutes or so, that silence was deafening! I was yearning for somebody to talk, as in make some sound.....
It was a second level Indian sign langiage class, where all the students, were 'hearing,'( this is the term used by the Deaf in India to address non-deaf people), but were communicating only through "signs." For the first time it occured to me that I am 'hearing'!
After some time, the interpreter asked me to introduce myself and answer their question about " Why did I choose to make a documentary on the lives of deaf people in India?"
I started 'talking' as a hearing person, and she started 'talking/signing' as a non-hearing person. We continued this mode of communication through out the shooting of this documentary for about two months.
to be continued..........
Today exactly two weeks after arriving from India, I have decided to write a series of blogs about my creative project for Fall 2008 that I shot in India. I would like to share here some of my views, observations, learnings, and but ofcourse production experiences that I witnessed during the process of shooting this project in India. The title of the project is " Beyond Silence." This is a documentary project based on the lives of deaf people in the city of Mumbai ( Bombay). This video was shot for a period of about 2 months from June'08 to Aug'08.
I landed in India on 7th June'08 and started with the pre-production on 9th June. From there on it was a journey that was fascinating and intriguing filled with surprises, excitement, anxiety,at times frustration and yes of course immense satisfaction and joy too.
Before even my plane landed at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport of Mumbai, heavy rains started splashing the windows of my aircraft. It was 2:00am , and the flight had already got delayed because of the bad weather. The normal air journey to India from CA takes 24 hours and because of the delay, my air travel had got in its 25th hour!!! I was losing my patience.Tired, I sat inside the plane looking helplessly in the 'darkness' outside the window. I could not have ever imagined such a 'teary' start for my project. But I had no right to complain. I had decided to do the project in the peak monsoon season( June-Sept) of India. Amongst many other things, Mumbai is famous for its crowd, and monsoon. And I had planned for a semester now to fly half way across the globe to embrace both. What a timing indeed!
9th June, it was raining too hard, I was lazing on the couch enjoying watching the wet Mumbai around me from my parents home. I was heavily jet lagged, it was a perfect time to sip some chai, laze down in a blanket and chat with my family.
Instead I decided it to be the first day of my pre-production. I had to get on with it. After all it was rainy season, the weather was not going to change for the next three -four months!
My interpretor, Vidya Iyer, with whom I had communicated for the past four months, while working on the proposal, took me to her institute, The National Institute of Hearing Handicapped ( NIHH). Currently, she is pursuing her Indian Sign language studies there. It was late evening, very gloomy,Mumbai was getting beaten by heavy rains, and my heart was beating fast too. I dont know why, but I was a bit nervous about getting in to the actual doing of things. Its a strange feeling, but all through out my spring'08 semester, I was thinking, planning , and imagining about this day. Believe it or not, this was the first time I was actually going to meet deaf people. I had never had a personal interaction whatsoever with them through out my life. What??? well yes, I had only seen them around me, few times while in India. Bollywood definetly was a window at times to peep in to their lives. But never had taken this conscious step to actually go and meet them. Forget about shooting a film with them, my major concern at that moment was, what am I going to " talk" to them?
Within no time I saw myself amidst fifteen young people who were very busy 'talking,' but there was absolutely no sound, forget noise! After 10 minutes or so, that silence was deafening! I was yearning for somebody to talk, as in make some sound.....
It was a second level Indian sign langiage class, where all the students, were 'hearing,'( this is the term used by the Deaf in India to address non-deaf people), but were communicating only through "signs." For the first time it occured to me that I am 'hearing'!
After some time, the interpreter asked me to introduce myself and answer their question about " Why did I choose to make a documentary on the lives of deaf people in India?"
I started 'talking' as a hearing person, and she started 'talking/signing' as a non-hearing person. We continued this mode of communication through out the shooting of this documentary for about two months.
to be continued..........
Friday, May 18, 2007
Damn this cultural policing!
Vidyut Latay
I am an immigrant in the USA studying here at SFSU. Along with the American news, I watch online streaming news clips aired from my country of origin – India to keep myself updated of what’s making news there. A recent news flash shocked me beyond belief. An extremist group barged inside the Fine Arts Faculty of The Maharaja University of Baroda (a.k.a. Vadodara) and forced the police to arrest a resident student, Chandramohan in that faculty. He was arrested and sent to the jail for the crime of “obsence art.” This religious group claims that the student in question had caused pain to the religious sentiments of the Hindus by depicting Hindu God and Goddesses in a derogatory fashion through their creations.
The surprising fact is that the paintings of the student in question were not for public display. The paintings were arranged in one of the faculty rooms for the examiners assessment during the examination in the faculty. The student in question was held in police custody for 5 days before being released on bail. The dean, supported the student, and was suspended by the University immediately. In a public interview the dean broke down and said that this is a battle that needs reinforcements. The entire Arts fraternity in the country has shown solidarity and supported his stance. They have got together to lend their support to these student. More than a fight for “fair and just” treatment for these students, this is one for the artistic expression and freedom in the world’s largest democracy – India!
This issue disturbs me very much for a reason… I am an alumnus of the same university. I have fond memories of my alma mater. The fine arts department is one of the most prestigious in the country, where people from different parts of the country come to hone and learn the art of creative expression. While I was a student there, I had great regard for the department, and I got the feeling that I am in the midst of great thinkers and artists. To see the same place making headlines (for the wrong reasons!) enrages me.
Artistic expression needs to blossom without any restriction and/or attention. In the last few years, this extremist group has dictated its terms in the university. This group shows zero tolerance to other religions and resorts to violence frequently. Such “cultural policing” will definitely take its toll on the quality of artists and their creations in India. Creations cannot be done to please one group or another. It is done to express ones talent and ability and has to be “free flowing”.
India has been the land where majority of the religions have originated from. History books will reveal that the people of India have been extremely tolerant to “difference of opinion” especially in the case of religion. The teachings of Buddha are a case in point. Gautam Buddha’s (Siddhartha) preachings were very different from the ones taught in the mythological scriptures of Hindus. The people of India were so tolerant that they let people choose the religion of their choice.
Artists are in a limbo due to this incident. An artist is known by his creations and exhibitions are a must for this. The limelight makes the creations most accessible and vulnerable! Apparently an exhibition with a provocative name in a big city makes it more vulnerable to “moral police” attack.
In conclusion, I feel such extremists should never be allowed to have it “their way.” In a democracy every individual has a right to express oneself. I strongly feel that no intervention is needed to safe guard the sentiments of the people and the sanctity of the religion. God is so vast and pure. Religion (supposedly) gets one closer to God. Religion should bring people together not force them to bash up people. Furthermore, a religious and extremist group has no business interfering in the matter of an educational institute – its autonomy is at stake and we should do everything to save it from such vested interests.
References:
Art Controversy: Chandramohan speaks out
www.ndtv.com
http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/15/stories/2007051515401200.htm
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070511&fname=vadodaraart&sid=2
I am an immigrant in the USA studying here at SFSU. Along with the American news, I watch online streaming news clips aired from my country of origin – India to keep myself updated of what’s making news there. A recent news flash shocked me beyond belief. An extremist group barged inside the Fine Arts Faculty of The Maharaja University of Baroda (a.k.a. Vadodara) and forced the police to arrest a resident student, Chandramohan in that faculty. He was arrested and sent to the jail for the crime of “obsence art.” This religious group claims that the student in question had caused pain to the religious sentiments of the Hindus by depicting Hindu God and Goddesses in a derogatory fashion through their creations.
The surprising fact is that the paintings of the student in question were not for public display. The paintings were arranged in one of the faculty rooms for the examiners assessment during the examination in the faculty. The student in question was held in police custody for 5 days before being released on bail. The dean, supported the student, and was suspended by the University immediately. In a public interview the dean broke down and said that this is a battle that needs reinforcements. The entire Arts fraternity in the country has shown solidarity and supported his stance. They have got together to lend their support to these student. More than a fight for “fair and just” treatment for these students, this is one for the artistic expression and freedom in the world’s largest democracy – India!
This issue disturbs me very much for a reason… I am an alumnus of the same university. I have fond memories of my alma mater. The fine arts department is one of the most prestigious in the country, where people from different parts of the country come to hone and learn the art of creative expression. While I was a student there, I had great regard for the department, and I got the feeling that I am in the midst of great thinkers and artists. To see the same place making headlines (for the wrong reasons!) enrages me.
Artistic expression needs to blossom without any restriction and/or attention. In the last few years, this extremist group has dictated its terms in the university. This group shows zero tolerance to other religions and resorts to violence frequently. Such “cultural policing” will definitely take its toll on the quality of artists and their creations in India. Creations cannot be done to please one group or another. It is done to express ones talent and ability and has to be “free flowing”.
India has been the land where majority of the religions have originated from. History books will reveal that the people of India have been extremely tolerant to “difference of opinion” especially in the case of religion. The teachings of Buddha are a case in point. Gautam Buddha’s (Siddhartha) preachings were very different from the ones taught in the mythological scriptures of Hindus. The people of India were so tolerant that they let people choose the religion of their choice.
Artists are in a limbo due to this incident. An artist is known by his creations and exhibitions are a must for this. The limelight makes the creations most accessible and vulnerable! Apparently an exhibition with a provocative name in a big city makes it more vulnerable to “moral police” attack.
In conclusion, I feel such extremists should never be allowed to have it “their way.” In a democracy every individual has a right to express oneself. I strongly feel that no intervention is needed to safe guard the sentiments of the people and the sanctity of the religion. God is so vast and pure. Religion (supposedly) gets one closer to God. Religion should bring people together not force them to bash up people. Furthermore, a religious and extremist group has no business interfering in the matter of an educational institute – its autonomy is at stake and we should do everything to save it from such vested interests.
References:
Art Controversy: Chandramohan speaks out
www.ndtv.com
http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/15/stories/2007051515401200.htm
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070511&fname=vadodaraart&sid=2
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Children's Television
Vidyut Latay
In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy lots of discussion are being held about how and why a lonely student at the campus just succumbed to the idea of killing so many innocent lives? From where did he derive this idea of “complete freedom” through a mass homicide? During this period of tragedy, in one of the “bold initiatives” of the media, to investigate a killer’s mind, Anderson Cooper, from CNN, interviewed an infamous homicide convict, who is currently serving a rigorous sentence for his crime in a county jail. The man was asked how he arrived at his idea of carrying such heinous act. He answered; it was the video games that gave him the idea. The sheer pleasure of the bullets popping out of a cartoon hero, enhanced by the animation sound and visual effects seem to have made a terrific impact on him. His answer and his case, though is a one in million case out of all the viewers of this popular format; video games, the answer certainly cannot be overlooked and forgotten as some random blabbering of a mad man. It is no harm in deriving some intelligence and sanity through such insane and intangible actions in our society, of which media is an integral part.
Video games and Animated cartoons form the core content of today’s children programming.
Millions of children all around the globe today, before even uttering “Mummy” and “Daddy” properly know the names and titles of their programs and television channels on which their “best friends”-the cartoon characters meet them. Parents are more than happy to see their child “glued” to its baby chair and also “glued” to the television or the PC monitor, and why not? The child’s concentration helps the elders to stick on to their life and everyday activities without any interference from the children. So basically the child’s concentration helps them (parents) to get less distracted while carrying on their own work. But the larger issue here is whether the today’s children program content really is the best content that we can offer to its consumers- the children.
Children programming has always been a matter of great concern and debate all over the world. As there is no magic formula yet discovered to stop a baby from crying, similarly we adults still have not been able to strike that magic formula to make a vulnerable, innocent child smile and laugh! Today’s loud cartoons and violent animations seem to be the only formula we have been able to crack to entertain children. Children’s programming since decades now has been confined mostly to cartoons. These cartoons, most of them are extremely loud and violent. Perhaps to make the message absolutely loud and clear and to avoid the little viewer’s mind to waver to other activities. These cartoons are made loud and “larger than life” in every aspect, to completely capture the children’s attention. I always have had a curiosity about what is it exactly in these cartoons that the children like? Do children really want to see these “unconventional looking human beings?” Has anybody from the programming division of a children’s channel ever thought that there could be some other form of entertainment too which a child would equally appreciate? Is it any psychological solution, or mere a convenient economic solution to arrive at a worldwide consensus on cartoon programming? Thanks to globalization and the heavy syndication of English programs in non-English speaking countries in the world, the characters as Scooby-doo, Tom and Jerry, One Piece, Pokémon Battle Frontier, and others have reached the living room of almost all children in the developing countries.
I had a very unsuccessful debate with a friend of mine regarding these cartoon programs. She had two school going children. These children were always glued to their TV cartoons at any time of the day! They even did not have the time to greet me whenever I entered their home, needless to mention my greetings to them also went unanswered. I debated with her so many times saying that this whole cartoon world, which is bizarrely unreal, is taking away children’s time, energy, and making them live in a complete make believe world which is awfully unjust to them. Not to mention the social habits of these tiny tots have completely gone for a ride. Parents, instead of being concerned about their children’s passiveness, are in awe of their children not blinking their eyes while watching this spate of cartoons. Parents attribute their non-blinking habit to that of their children’s unbroken concentration. I was stunned seeing her least bothered about my concerns! I could imagine as a child, I doing the same thing when my grand father narrated me stories of real life heroes like Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda. Perhaps I also did not blink my eyes at all while paying attention to his stories. But today’s children do not blink their eyes while looking at a TV monitor and these strange loud cartoon characters! Can my experience be equated with theirs? I asked one of the siblings about his favorite program on television. This five year old was quick, as the speed of the light, to list in front of me some of the names of programs that sounded as some extra terrestrial language to me! I felt as if I belong to a generation in which the human language was yet not discovered. I plainly asked him, “What is that you like in them?” He could not answer me even a word, his younger brother came to his rescue. He said that he likes those guns going around and all the jumping, chasing and shouting from the buildings. The mother looked at me completely satisfied and happy with her child’s intelligent answer.
I was surprised. If today’s programming cannot develop a child’s reasoning then what is the point of the whole content? How is the child going to grow if he is just going to just stick to that TV chair while watching his cartoons?
The children’s act of 1990 in the US says that “A central goal of the FCC's new rules is to provide parents and other members of the public with greater information about educational television programs. This will help parents guide their children's television viewing and also encourage an ongoing dialogue between the public and TV stations about TV station performance under the Children's Television Act.”
Also, in the essay “Changing the way we think” Minnow and Lamay explain the basis about the formulation of this Children’s act. The act was formed by the joint consensus of ideas between child advocates, parents, industry representatives, and other concerned citizens.
There is no doubt that only an adult can make or influence any law in a country, but thinking of ideas for a children’s program is not similar to any process of law making. So why do the network stations have to restrain themselves to an adult group of thinkers to formulate the content for a children’s program? Can’t we take the help of kids’ themselves for formulating a children program content?
HUNGAMA TV, India’s premier kids channel was launched in 2004. The channel has a panel of children that approves the programming. These children members addressed as “Captains” meet every quarter, discuss new ideas, and present their feedback on all the aspects such as, content, marketing, and distribution of the channel. The channel, recently bought by the Disney in India, is perhaps the only channel that has programming that is not loaded with cartoons and animation only. The content is heavily driven with interviews, quiz shows, and fiction programming.
I have always been amused to know whether children really appreciate these cartoon characters. Do these cartoons appeal to the children, or is it the advertisers, who find it as the best choice for the children? Children’s programming unfortunately today does not give the children any idea about the real world outside their TV boxes. I feel it is all right to keep the kid in the nice fairy land of dolls and fancy dreams, but during their growing years they need to get a glimpse of the happenings in the grown up world too! There is no constructive activity happening all along when the child is watching the current programs. Parents feel cartoon to be the safest option, as they are too uncertain regarding the “adult human content” on television and the internet. They are always wary about the depiction of bold visuals, which in most cases is improper for a child, and also the adults are too pressed for time to sit with the child and help him/her out to understand the content. I am not a psychologist, but I often wonder, is the child interested more in the visual element of the cartoons , or is he attracted to the amazingly loud and the jarring sound effects attached with these images.
I don’t want to unduly criticize children’s programming. But I certainly feel that today’s programming is training the kids to become mere “couch potatoes”, utterly passive, lacking the sense of initiative, and completely making their senses numb with loud, extremely violent and jarring images and sound. Some new methods need to be thought of to entertain children. The Centre for Media Literacy in the US has proposed lot of ideas and actions that can be simulated at home by parents to help children understand media better. For example: shooting home videos, discussing with children about their favorite characters and stories on TV.
Video games, cartoons, internet sites, and the new media; all together contribute towards a child’s passive viewing. The children’s act recommends “educational” and “informational” content for children. Children today are anyways loaded with other class and homework learning. I wonder how any kind of formal “educational content” through television would ever help children. What perhaps is the need of the hour is a broader outlook towards children programming. The programs need to make these children feel important, and most importantly children need to get entertained, in a way where they are free to form their own perspectives and opinions on each and every aspect of life such as, art, music, politics, science, education, and sports. In the current scenario of programming, the child is only absorbing the visuals/information without any guidance about what to do with that gathered information.
As a content developer for television program, I think the creators need to make a child think, to reason, to assert, to opine, to discuss, to question, and most importantly to experience the “real” life. I would be happy to see a program where a group of 3-4 kids between 10 and 14 years old, question the future presidential candidate of the US about their idea for the development of children, the history of the US, and their overall ideas for children’s education and development. Apart from the content of human history, geography, animals, and travel on channels like Discovery and National Geographic, the children do not have any other avenue to watch similar content being spoken and made to understand at their level through any of these children’s networks. Would it not be fascinating to see a child in a program, carrying his/ her pet to a vet, to understand the perfect way of managing their pets? The art world today is fast getting eroded with the computerization and the invasion of the technology in every sphere of our life. Today’s children should not lose the opportunity to understand the by-gone, glorious era of paintings, dance, and music. The children programs need to develop interesting ways and means to attract these sharp and stimulating minds in the age of computers and internet to appreciate the field of arts.
Finally, the content developers, in the business of devising content for children need to appreciate and accept the limitations of their intelligence in today’s age to fully understand the demands of a child in the 21st century. The world has moved much faster than anybody imagined. Television was not even present when I was born; today the development of a fetus can be studied on television.
The emphasis on violent actions is the most worrisome factor of these current cartoon programs. Violence through cartoons leaves an indelible mark in the minds of these tiny tots. While growing up some of these young ones are inspired to enact the stunts of their “unreal” heroes seen on the television and video screens. And one moment of adventure with some intrinsic insanity of an individual can shake this whole civil society. Media cannot perhaps find answers to treat this “mental insanity,” but what it could definitely do is to mellow the depiction of images that can prevent an insane from expressing his “media inspired insanity.”
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Television_Act
2. http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k7/apr/apr397.php
3. http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article482.html
In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy lots of discussion are being held about how and why a lonely student at the campus just succumbed to the idea of killing so many innocent lives? From where did he derive this idea of “complete freedom” through a mass homicide? During this period of tragedy, in one of the “bold initiatives” of the media, to investigate a killer’s mind, Anderson Cooper, from CNN, interviewed an infamous homicide convict, who is currently serving a rigorous sentence for his crime in a county jail. The man was asked how he arrived at his idea of carrying such heinous act. He answered; it was the video games that gave him the idea. The sheer pleasure of the bullets popping out of a cartoon hero, enhanced by the animation sound and visual effects seem to have made a terrific impact on him. His answer and his case, though is a one in million case out of all the viewers of this popular format; video games, the answer certainly cannot be overlooked and forgotten as some random blabbering of a mad man. It is no harm in deriving some intelligence and sanity through such insane and intangible actions in our society, of which media is an integral part.
Video games and Animated cartoons form the core content of today’s children programming.
Millions of children all around the globe today, before even uttering “Mummy” and “Daddy” properly know the names and titles of their programs and television channels on which their “best friends”-the cartoon characters meet them. Parents are more than happy to see their child “glued” to its baby chair and also “glued” to the television or the PC monitor, and why not? The child’s concentration helps the elders to stick on to their life and everyday activities without any interference from the children. So basically the child’s concentration helps them (parents) to get less distracted while carrying on their own work. But the larger issue here is whether the today’s children program content really is the best content that we can offer to its consumers- the children.
Children programming has always been a matter of great concern and debate all over the world. As there is no magic formula yet discovered to stop a baby from crying, similarly we adults still have not been able to strike that magic formula to make a vulnerable, innocent child smile and laugh! Today’s loud cartoons and violent animations seem to be the only formula we have been able to crack to entertain children. Children’s programming since decades now has been confined mostly to cartoons. These cartoons, most of them are extremely loud and violent. Perhaps to make the message absolutely loud and clear and to avoid the little viewer’s mind to waver to other activities. These cartoons are made loud and “larger than life” in every aspect, to completely capture the children’s attention. I always have had a curiosity about what is it exactly in these cartoons that the children like? Do children really want to see these “unconventional looking human beings?” Has anybody from the programming division of a children’s channel ever thought that there could be some other form of entertainment too which a child would equally appreciate? Is it any psychological solution, or mere a convenient economic solution to arrive at a worldwide consensus on cartoon programming? Thanks to globalization and the heavy syndication of English programs in non-English speaking countries in the world, the characters as Scooby-doo, Tom and Jerry, One Piece, Pokémon Battle Frontier, and others have reached the living room of almost all children in the developing countries.
I had a very unsuccessful debate with a friend of mine regarding these cartoon programs. She had two school going children. These children were always glued to their TV cartoons at any time of the day! They even did not have the time to greet me whenever I entered their home, needless to mention my greetings to them also went unanswered. I debated with her so many times saying that this whole cartoon world, which is bizarrely unreal, is taking away children’s time, energy, and making them live in a complete make believe world which is awfully unjust to them. Not to mention the social habits of these tiny tots have completely gone for a ride. Parents, instead of being concerned about their children’s passiveness, are in awe of their children not blinking their eyes while watching this spate of cartoons. Parents attribute their non-blinking habit to that of their children’s unbroken concentration. I was stunned seeing her least bothered about my concerns! I could imagine as a child, I doing the same thing when my grand father narrated me stories of real life heroes like Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda. Perhaps I also did not blink my eyes at all while paying attention to his stories. But today’s children do not blink their eyes while looking at a TV monitor and these strange loud cartoon characters! Can my experience be equated with theirs? I asked one of the siblings about his favorite program on television. This five year old was quick, as the speed of the light, to list in front of me some of the names of programs that sounded as some extra terrestrial language to me! I felt as if I belong to a generation in which the human language was yet not discovered. I plainly asked him, “What is that you like in them?” He could not answer me even a word, his younger brother came to his rescue. He said that he likes those guns going around and all the jumping, chasing and shouting from the buildings. The mother looked at me completely satisfied and happy with her child’s intelligent answer.
I was surprised. If today’s programming cannot develop a child’s reasoning then what is the point of the whole content? How is the child going to grow if he is just going to just stick to that TV chair while watching his cartoons?
The children’s act of 1990 in the US says that “A central goal of the FCC's new rules is to provide parents and other members of the public with greater information about educational television programs. This will help parents guide their children's television viewing and also encourage an ongoing dialogue between the public and TV stations about TV station performance under the Children's Television Act.”
Also, in the essay “Changing the way we think” Minnow and Lamay explain the basis about the formulation of this Children’s act. The act was formed by the joint consensus of ideas between child advocates, parents, industry representatives, and other concerned citizens.
There is no doubt that only an adult can make or influence any law in a country, but thinking of ideas for a children’s program is not similar to any process of law making. So why do the network stations have to restrain themselves to an adult group of thinkers to formulate the content for a children’s program? Can’t we take the help of kids’ themselves for formulating a children program content?
HUNGAMA TV, India’s premier kids channel was launched in 2004. The channel has a panel of children that approves the programming. These children members addressed as “Captains” meet every quarter, discuss new ideas, and present their feedback on all the aspects such as, content, marketing, and distribution of the channel. The channel, recently bought by the Disney in India, is perhaps the only channel that has programming that is not loaded with cartoons and animation only. The content is heavily driven with interviews, quiz shows, and fiction programming.
I have always been amused to know whether children really appreciate these cartoon characters. Do these cartoons appeal to the children, or is it the advertisers, who find it as the best choice for the children? Children’s programming unfortunately today does not give the children any idea about the real world outside their TV boxes. I feel it is all right to keep the kid in the nice fairy land of dolls and fancy dreams, but during their growing years they need to get a glimpse of the happenings in the grown up world too! There is no constructive activity happening all along when the child is watching the current programs. Parents feel cartoon to be the safest option, as they are too uncertain regarding the “adult human content” on television and the internet. They are always wary about the depiction of bold visuals, which in most cases is improper for a child, and also the adults are too pressed for time to sit with the child and help him/her out to understand the content. I am not a psychologist, but I often wonder, is the child interested more in the visual element of the cartoons , or is he attracted to the amazingly loud and the jarring sound effects attached with these images.
I don’t want to unduly criticize children’s programming. But I certainly feel that today’s programming is training the kids to become mere “couch potatoes”, utterly passive, lacking the sense of initiative, and completely making their senses numb with loud, extremely violent and jarring images and sound. Some new methods need to be thought of to entertain children. The Centre for Media Literacy in the US has proposed lot of ideas and actions that can be simulated at home by parents to help children understand media better. For example: shooting home videos, discussing with children about their favorite characters and stories on TV.
Video games, cartoons, internet sites, and the new media; all together contribute towards a child’s passive viewing. The children’s act recommends “educational” and “informational” content for children. Children today are anyways loaded with other class and homework learning. I wonder how any kind of formal “educational content” through television would ever help children. What perhaps is the need of the hour is a broader outlook towards children programming. The programs need to make these children feel important, and most importantly children need to get entertained, in a way where they are free to form their own perspectives and opinions on each and every aspect of life such as, art, music, politics, science, education, and sports. In the current scenario of programming, the child is only absorbing the visuals/information without any guidance about what to do with that gathered information.
As a content developer for television program, I think the creators need to make a child think, to reason, to assert, to opine, to discuss, to question, and most importantly to experience the “real” life. I would be happy to see a program where a group of 3-4 kids between 10 and 14 years old, question the future presidential candidate of the US about their idea for the development of children, the history of the US, and their overall ideas for children’s education and development. Apart from the content of human history, geography, animals, and travel on channels like Discovery and National Geographic, the children do not have any other avenue to watch similar content being spoken and made to understand at their level through any of these children’s networks. Would it not be fascinating to see a child in a program, carrying his/ her pet to a vet, to understand the perfect way of managing their pets? The art world today is fast getting eroded with the computerization and the invasion of the technology in every sphere of our life. Today’s children should not lose the opportunity to understand the by-gone, glorious era of paintings, dance, and music. The children programs need to develop interesting ways and means to attract these sharp and stimulating minds in the age of computers and internet to appreciate the field of arts.
Finally, the content developers, in the business of devising content for children need to appreciate and accept the limitations of their intelligence in today’s age to fully understand the demands of a child in the 21st century. The world has moved much faster than anybody imagined. Television was not even present when I was born; today the development of a fetus can be studied on television.
The emphasis on violent actions is the most worrisome factor of these current cartoon programs. Violence through cartoons leaves an indelible mark in the minds of these tiny tots. While growing up some of these young ones are inspired to enact the stunts of their “unreal” heroes seen on the television and video screens. And one moment of adventure with some intrinsic insanity of an individual can shake this whole civil society. Media cannot perhaps find answers to treat this “mental insanity,” but what it could definitely do is to mellow the depiction of images that can prevent an insane from expressing his “media inspired insanity.”
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Television_Act
2. http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k7/apr/apr397.php
3. http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article482.html
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Towards a Deeper Democracy
Vidyut Latay
Electronic media has a distinction over other mediums of communication. It is commonly perceived to be objective, true, and catering to millions of people all around the globe with their news and views. The television’s capacity in being “live” and creating realism has made this “idiot box” in our living rooms irreplaceable by any other means!
Today both fiction as well as the non-fiction programming on television caters programs covering almost all the genres of edutainment. The niche and the mass channels broadcast all the subjects on the face of this earth. There is no experience that you cannot see or feel on television. It’s indeed an age of “television movement.” We all grew up listening to our elders saying that, “Books can be your vehicle of transport to any corner of the world.” Today these books have been replaced by television, from the Statue of Liberty in the US to the Taj Mahal in India, to the world of breath taking romantic emotions to utter deprivation and agony of the same world, television has set us all in motion, motion of constant pursuit to know more and more about the world “beyond our mental and physical” vision.
Unfortunately this “movement” of our society through the media has been primarily very horizontal, catering to the variety and taste of a particular high class section of the society. The lowest common denominators of the society have unfortunately been left behind in this race of observing objectivity and seeing the world through the television’s “broad” interpretation. It is difficult to expect of these people to broaden their horizons by watching these television images. This broadening of the spectrum of television has in fact led the television media to lose its attention towards the specific problems of the marginalized class. The primary reason for the media not being able to cater to the lowest common denominator is because of the lack of these lower community people’s participation in the programming process. Media, barring a few exceptions, belongs and is controlled by high profile elite powerful conglomerates in the society. And it’s a fact that these power elites are incapable of getting deeper insights of the classes deprived of the basic means of existence as, education, information, health, finance, and communication. The reasons are but obvious; revenues, business, the economy, and market forces drive the content at the end of the day. Reasons whatsoever, today’s media has only been able to depict and exhibit the issues concerning these marginalized people through a bird’s eye view only. It’s time to get a much “closer shot” towards an attempt of deeper penetration in these societies through television programming. Media can be instrumental in creating a “deeper democracy.” And it is possible only through “active” participation of people from all sections of the society, most importantly the marginalized, less educated, less wealthy classes.
Arjun Appadurai in his essay “Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the horizon of Politics” suggests that “Roots, anchors, intimacy, proximity and locality are important associations.” He has sighted out a real life successful example of attaining participation and inclusion of the under privileged classes in the city of Mumbai that lead to the betterment in the life style, health and educational facilities for the people. The concept of deep democracy was practiced and shown to be affecting positively to the millions of underprivileged people not only in India, but also all over the world, with the UN Secretary General also recognizing this initiative.
Electronic media is an integral part of the same society in which the other types of tried and tested media have existed over the years. Electronic media has merits of covering a range laterally, but it is time to realize that the current media is not capable of encouraging vertical participation. Participation of equal voices and sentiments are the hallmark of this vertical participation. Alternative media programming could serve the purpose.
Folk media seems to me the right alternative. The synthesis of the elements of the folk media and the popular electronic media seems to me the best possible option to make the today’s popular media deeper and more democratic. The folk media today is often sidelined as a cheap entertainment tool to reach out to the less privileged classes and is often an entity of amusement amongst the school children. Popular forms of folk media have got restraint in the gamut of tourism industry: used for the entertainment of tourists in explaining history and traditions.
One often forgets that it is the folk media that actually sowed the seeds of participation and democratization of media. The major difference between folk media and the other media is that the folk media is more direct; in terms of its address, accessibility, and content. The characters, the news anchors of the folk media reach out to the people physically: “live,” in “reality” which is a lot different than reaching out to people through any kind of “live realism”—the TV monitor. No media other than the folk media has the power of catching its target audience. The performers of folk media talk and perform in context, the context that falls in to the social and cultural realm of their audience.
Folk media primarily uses tools that are used by today’s popular media like the television and film. Tools like poetry, dance, songs, choral music, drama, skits and story telling are “the” universal tools to convey messages. The messages are relevant and cater to the masses with a specific objective of attaining social awakening, health, nutrition, and education. Popular electronic media does not have any different intention in terms of the content. Its intention is pretty much the same as the folk media. But what makes television and the folk media different is basically the medium’s intrinsic difference in propagating their views and the viewer’s acceptance of the views.
Television, as folk media has the potential of reaching out to the masses in real sense. Television’s domesticity makes it reach people in much large numbers, but that is exactly where television has lost its grip. From a television studio in the US, the medium performs an arduous task of catering to the wide audience that encompasses every nationality, religion, class, creed, and gender on this planet. The time has come for us to collectively think that does it really help for a viewer in Nepal to know what is happening in America when his/her own life is not getting sorted by the media in the US. Media’s intention is appreciated but is the end justifying the means? Is this broad information really serving any substantial purpose? In the spree of encompassing the whole world in the news room, are we losing the grip of the television’s content and precision of its messages? Complaints sighting this loss of command over the content needs a thorough introspection. Folk media fortunately does not have to perform the task as television media. It can actually “see” its audience and that is where it scores on “seeing thorough” its audience and in effect touching the audience’s sentiments. Folk media generates the active relation of the audience with the medium, and gets a better grasp of the content meant for them.
Television can imbibe some of the characteristics of this medium. Television can have more participative programming that invites the viewers of a particular section of the society and community not only to give its feedback but instead to become an important part of their editorial team. For example: A program that has been made to assess whether a community of daily wage workers are getting health benefits needs the participation of a person belonging from the community to be on board of that channel. The logistics of his participation can be worked out but the idea is that his voice should not be seen only as a “complainant” or a “poor victim” but instead he should be the one contributing towards the content of such story. The idea sounds too far- fetched but by just appointing a “stringer” to cover the views and get some agitated voices do not serve the purpose and intention of the program/ news story, and it certainly does not derive any change. As folk media, television news need to have the attitude of causing a change through substantial activity and not only through agitated reporting. The content needs to have the participation of lot of varied voices in it. As in folk media, the community members, the NGO’s, and the performers sit together and form the content as well as the performance that is targeted towards a cause and a particular audience of the community.
Television needs to lose its elusiveness. The awe factor has to be lost. And it can be lost only if the people from all sections are included in the active content development process. The “objective” reporting is distancing the people and making them see the reality only through a monitor’s glass. It will be argued that television needs to be unbiased and cannot entertain the voices of every person .Agreed, but it can have a representative of the marginalized section to make the programming and content strong and effectual for the people it is meant to be. Such attempt will help television from being mere a “visual chewing gum.”
Television aesthetically, as well as technically has come of age by imbibing elements of films, print media, and also integrating the today’s internet and new media. All these mediums have contributed towards making television what it is today. It will not be a mistake for television to try and adopt some of the forms of the past –the folk media to make it wider, deeper, democratic, and truly effectual in its intended messages.
References:
1. FOLK MEDIA AS MEANS OF ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY...
http://www.ee4.org/Papers/EE4_Theuri.pdf
2. Opening Media in Transition: Connections between Folk and Digital Cultures
www.snurb.info/node/654
3. www.aico.org/v2020resource/files/folk_media.htm
4. “Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics”—Arjun Appadurai
Electronic media has a distinction over other mediums of communication. It is commonly perceived to be objective, true, and catering to millions of people all around the globe with their news and views. The television’s capacity in being “live” and creating realism has made this “idiot box” in our living rooms irreplaceable by any other means!
Today both fiction as well as the non-fiction programming on television caters programs covering almost all the genres of edutainment. The niche and the mass channels broadcast all the subjects on the face of this earth. There is no experience that you cannot see or feel on television. It’s indeed an age of “television movement.” We all grew up listening to our elders saying that, “Books can be your vehicle of transport to any corner of the world.” Today these books have been replaced by television, from the Statue of Liberty in the US to the Taj Mahal in India, to the world of breath taking romantic emotions to utter deprivation and agony of the same world, television has set us all in motion, motion of constant pursuit to know more and more about the world “beyond our mental and physical” vision.
Unfortunately this “movement” of our society through the media has been primarily very horizontal, catering to the variety and taste of a particular high class section of the society. The lowest common denominators of the society have unfortunately been left behind in this race of observing objectivity and seeing the world through the television’s “broad” interpretation. It is difficult to expect of these people to broaden their horizons by watching these television images. This broadening of the spectrum of television has in fact led the television media to lose its attention towards the specific problems of the marginalized class. The primary reason for the media not being able to cater to the lowest common denominator is because of the lack of these lower community people’s participation in the programming process. Media, barring a few exceptions, belongs and is controlled by high profile elite powerful conglomerates in the society. And it’s a fact that these power elites are incapable of getting deeper insights of the classes deprived of the basic means of existence as, education, information, health, finance, and communication. The reasons are but obvious; revenues, business, the economy, and market forces drive the content at the end of the day. Reasons whatsoever, today’s media has only been able to depict and exhibit the issues concerning these marginalized people through a bird’s eye view only. It’s time to get a much “closer shot” towards an attempt of deeper penetration in these societies through television programming. Media can be instrumental in creating a “deeper democracy.” And it is possible only through “active” participation of people from all sections of the society, most importantly the marginalized, less educated, less wealthy classes.
Arjun Appadurai in his essay “Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the horizon of Politics” suggests that “Roots, anchors, intimacy, proximity and locality are important associations.” He has sighted out a real life successful example of attaining participation and inclusion of the under privileged classes in the city of Mumbai that lead to the betterment in the life style, health and educational facilities for the people. The concept of deep democracy was practiced and shown to be affecting positively to the millions of underprivileged people not only in India, but also all over the world, with the UN Secretary General also recognizing this initiative.
Electronic media is an integral part of the same society in which the other types of tried and tested media have existed over the years. Electronic media has merits of covering a range laterally, but it is time to realize that the current media is not capable of encouraging vertical participation. Participation of equal voices and sentiments are the hallmark of this vertical participation. Alternative media programming could serve the purpose.
Folk media seems to me the right alternative. The synthesis of the elements of the folk media and the popular electronic media seems to me the best possible option to make the today’s popular media deeper and more democratic. The folk media today is often sidelined as a cheap entertainment tool to reach out to the less privileged classes and is often an entity of amusement amongst the school children. Popular forms of folk media have got restraint in the gamut of tourism industry: used for the entertainment of tourists in explaining history and traditions.
One often forgets that it is the folk media that actually sowed the seeds of participation and democratization of media. The major difference between folk media and the other media is that the folk media is more direct; in terms of its address, accessibility, and content. The characters, the news anchors of the folk media reach out to the people physically: “live,” in “reality” which is a lot different than reaching out to people through any kind of “live realism”—the TV monitor. No media other than the folk media has the power of catching its target audience. The performers of folk media talk and perform in context, the context that falls in to the social and cultural realm of their audience.
Folk media primarily uses tools that are used by today’s popular media like the television and film. Tools like poetry, dance, songs, choral music, drama, skits and story telling are “the” universal tools to convey messages. The messages are relevant and cater to the masses with a specific objective of attaining social awakening, health, nutrition, and education. Popular electronic media does not have any different intention in terms of the content. Its intention is pretty much the same as the folk media. But what makes television and the folk media different is basically the medium’s intrinsic difference in propagating their views and the viewer’s acceptance of the views.
Television, as folk media has the potential of reaching out to the masses in real sense. Television’s domesticity makes it reach people in much large numbers, but that is exactly where television has lost its grip. From a television studio in the US, the medium performs an arduous task of catering to the wide audience that encompasses every nationality, religion, class, creed, and gender on this planet. The time has come for us to collectively think that does it really help for a viewer in Nepal to know what is happening in America when his/her own life is not getting sorted by the media in the US. Media’s intention is appreciated but is the end justifying the means? Is this broad information really serving any substantial purpose? In the spree of encompassing the whole world in the news room, are we losing the grip of the television’s content and precision of its messages? Complaints sighting this loss of command over the content needs a thorough introspection. Folk media fortunately does not have to perform the task as television media. It can actually “see” its audience and that is where it scores on “seeing thorough” its audience and in effect touching the audience’s sentiments. Folk media generates the active relation of the audience with the medium, and gets a better grasp of the content meant for them.
Television can imbibe some of the characteristics of this medium. Television can have more participative programming that invites the viewers of a particular section of the society and community not only to give its feedback but instead to become an important part of their editorial team. For example: A program that has been made to assess whether a community of daily wage workers are getting health benefits needs the participation of a person belonging from the community to be on board of that channel. The logistics of his participation can be worked out but the idea is that his voice should not be seen only as a “complainant” or a “poor victim” but instead he should be the one contributing towards the content of such story. The idea sounds too far- fetched but by just appointing a “stringer” to cover the views and get some agitated voices do not serve the purpose and intention of the program/ news story, and it certainly does not derive any change. As folk media, television news need to have the attitude of causing a change through substantial activity and not only through agitated reporting. The content needs to have the participation of lot of varied voices in it. As in folk media, the community members, the NGO’s, and the performers sit together and form the content as well as the performance that is targeted towards a cause and a particular audience of the community.
Television needs to lose its elusiveness. The awe factor has to be lost. And it can be lost only if the people from all sections are included in the active content development process. The “objective” reporting is distancing the people and making them see the reality only through a monitor’s glass. It will be argued that television needs to be unbiased and cannot entertain the voices of every person .Agreed, but it can have a representative of the marginalized section to make the programming and content strong and effectual for the people it is meant to be. Such attempt will help television from being mere a “visual chewing gum.”
Television aesthetically, as well as technically has come of age by imbibing elements of films, print media, and also integrating the today’s internet and new media. All these mediums have contributed towards making television what it is today. It will not be a mistake for television to try and adopt some of the forms of the past –the folk media to make it wider, deeper, democratic, and truly effectual in its intended messages.
References:
1. FOLK MEDIA AS MEANS OF ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY...
http://www.ee4.org/Papers/EE4_Theuri.pdf
2. Opening Media in Transition: Connections between Folk and Digital Cultures
www.snurb.info/node/654
3. www.aico.org/v2020resource/files/folk_media.htm
4. “Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics”—Arjun Appadurai
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