The ability of Nepali mass media, especially the big media houses, to set public agenda is beyond doubt. Nonetheless, this capacity tends to be grossly exaggerated at times.
Nepali media comes under a lot of flak for giving ‘undue’ space to politics, at the cost of other important social causes. The Nepali journalistic community, apparently, is so obsessed with politics, it even refuses to consider people might be interested in other ‘lesser’ issues. In this view, the ‘manufactured consent’ in favor of the ‘political’ has trivialized all other important concerns.[break]
But some recent developments suggest Nepali mass media, instead of always setting the agenda, is as often shaped by public feedback. For the past few weeks, the public demand for stories related to Occupy Baluwatar (which has now morphed into a larger ‘Baluwatar satyagraha’) has grown exponentially. So much so that any mainstream media outlet that didn’t cover this grassroots movement risked losing a big chunk of its regular audience.
I’ve witnessed this shift firsthand. While hardcore political news and analysis have traditionally dominated the hit count in Republica’s online edition, the most read stories these days tend to be related to Occupy Baluwatar and the other women-centered movements it has inspired around the country.
Unsurprisingly, Occupy Baluwatar converge is up in Republica, as it is in The Kathmandu Post, Nagarik and Kantipur. The greater the public interest, the more on the issue they get from the media in this self-perpetuating circle. Right now, Occupy Baluwatar has sparked tremendous interest in the personal lives of its real heroes: the victims and their families. Even a casual overview of our media outlets shows that it is exactly what people are getting.
There are a few ways to read this change in Nepali media landscape. People, particularly the youth, seem to be getting sick of the never-ending political drama, and round-the-clock coverage of meaningless sound bites. Most of them are also discomfited by the growing (manufactured?) geographical and ethnic divisions in the country. In Occupy Baluwatar, they seem to have found a common cause everyone can relate to, irrespective of their socio-cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
They have set aside their differences and come out united with a clear message: ‘Enough is enough!’ Their combined voice is making the mass media sit up and take note. No case of rape or violence against women goes unreported these days. For once, the question on every consumer of mass media in Nepal is not who will become the next prime minister but what the current prime minister and his government, as well as the relevant state actors, are doing to protect our women.
People are interested in knowing if Sudha and Sushila, the two daughters of Chhori Maiya Maharjan who has been missing for the last 10 months, will get to see their mother again. The people want to know if Uma Devi and Khadka Prasad Adhikari, the elderly couple whose young daughter lost her life under mysterious circumstances, will ever get to hear the truth. If Sita Rai, who was raped and robbed by state officials, will get justice. More than anything else, they want to know what the state is doing to make the lives of Nepali women more secure. The mainstream media has now been persuaded to ask the same hard questions of the powers that be.
The success of the Occupy movement hints that in the days ahead, more and more national agendas will be set by social media. Were it not for the thousands of summons sent out to the people asking them to join the Baluwatar movement, it is hard to see how such a massive undertaking could have been pulled off. As the role of social media in bringing meaningful change grows, any mainstream media outlet that fails to co-opt it risks losing relevance.
In the wake of the overwhelming support for the Occupy movement, no one should be surprised if there are similar social media-based campaigns against pervasive ills like corruption and impunity in the near future. If fact, the Baluwatar movement has already incorporated the question of impunity in its charter of demands, as it seems to have realized the importance of ending the culture of impunity to give justice to victims of gender-based violence.
Whenever I attend the ongoing Occupy movement, I am struck by how the victims, rather than attention-hungry rights activities or politicians, are driving the campaign. This, I believe, is what lends the campaign its moral strength. These victims of horrific acts of violence, admirably backed by youth activists who are being born in Baluwatar by the day, are sending an important message: even in a semi-functional democracy, it is impossible to subvert justice if the people are willing to speak up.
The writer is the op-ed editor at Republica.
biswas.baral@gmail.com
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