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Knowledge – An Aid to End Aid

M U R A L I SH A N M U G AV E L A N , M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India.

ABSTRACT

I
t has been increasingly acknowledged that poverty
eradication is the single most important issue and
challenge in this new millennium. At the same time,
the developing world is experiencing globalisation,
which is often associated with market expansion. This
affects subsistence and established rural livelihood
opportunities. Market driven consumerism aggravates unequal
distribution of resources and unsustainable consump-
tion. Governments under the pressures of liberalisation
and privatisation are forced to cut certain entitlements
that have a direct bearing on the ultra poor. Globalisation
has also affected the media industry which might lead
to pro-market agenda setting. The growing market
dominance in the media is not a good sign.
in providing opportunities for oppressed children, then it Figure 1
is expected to communicate these concerns to the public Rural children learning computer
to change attitudes. In my view, the following issues touch skills in a coastal village in South
Profit-making organisations realise the importance of media important aspects of sustainable food security. India (Veerampattinam Village)
and (mis) guide people in making priorities and choices.
“The agenda of globalisation requires public acceptance Figure 2
of that model as the only viable strategy for economic growth. E NGENDERING THE ME DI A A Village Knowledge Centre in
The architects of the new global economic order need to Every third child in India is malnourished due to South India set up by M.S.
market this message; that’s the role they’ve assigned to women’s poor health. It is worth noting that more Swaminathan Research
the media. Media outlets have become willing promoters Foundation (Kizhur Village)
of globalisation and consistent attackers of its noisy
critics. The media not only spin global news to hype market
values but are themselves purveyors of products, which
they bring to the world market. They sell as they tell.” [1]
There is an immediate need to work out strategies to promote
debate within society on issues related to human devel-
opment, gender equity, poverty and sustainable consumption.
This is important in a country like India, where media forms
an important decision-supporting system. Free access to
emerging knowledge will increase the capabilities of the
poor. Open discussion on various sensitive gender and devel-
opment issues in the public domain will lead to the right
public policy, empowering people with knowledge.
In a country like India, access to knowledge and oppor-
tunities still runs along caste and gender lines. Whilst
hundreds of development projects are successfully managed,
they don’t all reach out to the wider community level
including policy makers. Many development agencies do
not consider that communicating their concerns to the wider
public is their responsibility. This is because they are all operated
within project mode. For example, if an NGOs is involved

S U S TA I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L 187
MEDIA A ND C ONSUMP TIO N
Media promotes consumption. According to ACNielsen,
the media research company, “Advertising expendi-
tures in China, already the largest in Asia, climbed to
a record RMB59 billion in the first nine months of
2000, driven by continuing strong growth in advertising
aimed at Chinese consumers who seek lifestyle improve-
ments” [3]. Global spending on advertising has been rising
three times faster than population [4]. By contrast,
sustainable development thinkers argue “…over-
consumption among rich communities can lead to
under-consumption among poor communities” [4].
What is worse is that the media also influences poor people
to become consumer freaks. While the war on obesity
is suddenly becoming the exclusive news with colour photos
in Indian media, news on death due to starvation tends
to get passed over. Media and multinational companies
are clever in promoting consumerism in the name of a
“freedom of choice” philosophy. Both NGOs, and
specifically, development communicators, have the
responsibility to draw up strategies to persuade media
Figure 3 than 70% of Indian women are anaemic. Maternal to publish more stories on responsible consumption.
Native people in Jaipore – includ - rights and entitlements are virtually non-existent for women
ing the excluded: MSSRF volun - working in the unorganised sectors. These women
teers discuss with native people comprise 90% of the total working women population THE POL ITIC S OF LANGUAG E IN COMMUNI CAT I O N
in Orissa, India on conservation
in India. Yet these facts are never addressed in the Language reflects ingrained perceptions, conceptions,
mainstream media. By contrast, the media portrays attitudes and patterns of likely decisions and actions.
women as urban, arrogant office-goers and discourages The shift from a basic needs approach to a human rights
women from entering into the workforce. The media does approach requires a change of language to reflect the
not find health issues, for example, as sensational as rape paradigm shift. This does not seem to happen with Indian
or murder. They are commonly referred to as “soft media, which is conservative, patriarchal and not
issues”. In the Indian context “hen-pecked husbands” v e ry concerned with poor people. India still has
are the ones who wash clothes and dishes at home. A proverbs that suggest women should eat less; that
recent study [2] quantifying relative space devoted to one should be content with what one has [by believing
women’s issues in two English dailies concluded that in Karma], that men are important to society and so
women’s issues ranked 10th in a list of 12 issues on. These attitudes are widely internalised both by media
covered. The most space was devoted to covering and by the general public.
cricket, and the least to children’s issues (Figure 4).
Another example is how media handles female infan-
ticide in this country. Media deserves credit in exposing CAN THE NEW ME DIA D ELI VER?
this issue, thus opening up a debate. Yet sensation- The UNDP Human Development Report 1999 says,
alism ruled the stories. While most of the stories were “…while knowledge goes online, the internet divides
narrative, to interest the readers, they also located issues the educated from the illiterate, the rich from the
with a caste and class focus. Violence against women is poor, men from women, young from old and urban from
the single reason for this brutal act. It is very clear from rural.” The Digital Divide is talked about everywhere.
the National census (Figure 5) that the female popula- The present Indian Telecom Policy does not include rural
Figure 4 tion is decreasing regardless of education, caste, class and areas under its priority. In a measure to increase the
Relative space devoted to economy. Yet, the poor and poverty were “discovered” cellular mobile phone use (the service is available
women’s issues in English by the media as reasons for female infanticide. only in urban areas) the Telephone Regulatory Authority
of India’s (TRAI) telecommunication tariff order 1999
stipulated free incoming calls for cellular users while
the charge would be paid by fixed line callers.
What I consider the more serious problem is
content divide. Even if a person from a developing
country is connected, s/he is connected to western infor-
mation. Pornography has reached its height, thanks
to new media. Technology cannot change attitude
whereas focused communication methods can. The M.
S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has been testing
a model Knowledge Centre in South India to inves-
tigate whether ICT could affect the lives of the poorest
of the poor. Volunteers are trained and involved in
creating locally relevant content. The outcomes are
revealing. The rural poor are fast learners; they take
less time to learn computer and learn software skills
than an urbanite whose main task is to unlearn before
learning. Traditionally literacy meant reading and
writing. For the first time, multimedia can include text-
illiterates, thus providing an opportunity for redefining
literacy and taking it to more people. There is a great

188 S U S TA I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L
need for replicable models and policy advocacy
campaigns to launch a massive location-specific
content creation plan by using ICT. A strong lobby is
required to mobilise funds and organise projects for
small language groups to develop content.

TAKING THE SCIENCE TO S OC IETY – T HE RO LE OF


THE M ED IA IN THIS NE W SOC IAL C ONTRACT
The new social contract between Science and Society
is possible if communication strategies are deployed
at their best. In a society like India, the general public
depends on most of their information about science from
the media. Unfortunately, science journalism is not flour-
ishing in India. This country’s communication history
has seen many closures of science magazines and
journals. While all leading newspapers have “dedicated
space” for Astro l o g y, very few have columns for
science and technology. Leading articles on latest
science issues are often “subscribed news” fro m
Figure 5
foreign journals (mostly from North America and
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Females per 1000 males in India
Europe). These imported stories bring in borrowed mood
and debates regardless of Indian perspectives. Debate Murali Shanmugavelan has been working with
based on developing countries’ perspectives needs to M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation for the past 5 years. He
be mooted. In a recent workshop at MSSRF, on Media is with The HINDU Media Resource Centre for Ecotechnology
and The Gene Revolution, many leading Indian media
and Sustainable Development, which is involved in promoting
practitioners urged scientists to part with information
public understanding of science and issues related to sustainable
relevant to developing countries’ issues such as ending
hunger and malnutrition; increase in access to and control development. He is involved in training media practitioners on
over the food; and upliftment of food security of poor the use of internet, developing briefing documents etc., He
and assetless women, children and men. Language press developed audio and video materials on issues related to
hardly covers science issues, unless they are sensational.
women's rights. His current interest is therole of the media in
Even if they wish to, they lack materials in the local
language. There is a great need to fill this gap. poverty eradication.
Otherwise, the poor, landless and non English-speaking
f a rmer will not be a part of the decision-making
process. I F Y O U H AV E A N Y E N Q U I R I E S R E G A R D I N G T H E
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is a good example. C O N T E N T O F T H I S A RT I C L E , P L E A S E C O N TA C T:
Indian IPR has a lot to do with the traditional knowl-
Murali Shanmugavelan
edge of rural and indigenous people. They need to be
oriented in a language which they understand. This means M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation
developing more local language material and appreci- The HINDU Media Resource Centre, Taramani
ation of local forms of communication. This is possible
Institutional Area
only if local language is used to reveal the political
ramifications of this issue. 3rd Cross Road, Taramani
Man-made inequities reflect attitudes of the people. Chennai 600 113
So, development agencies must communicate for social
India
change. Such efforts will take issues to the people,
open up debates, reconstruct the semantics of poverty
and development, and orientate the media to be Tel: +91 44 2542791
concerned with the poor and marginalised. Otherwise,
Fax: +91 44 2541319
the market and consumption will dominate the public
information domain. E-mail: murali@mssrf.res.in

REFERENCES
[1] Covering the World Economic Forum, How the
Goliaths of Globalisation Groom the Media, by
Danny Schecter (www.mediachannel.org).
[2] Women in India, How Free? How Equal? By
Kalyani Menon-Sen & A.K. Shiva Kumar, UNDP,
2001 p. 10.
[3] www.ACNielsen.com.au/China AdEx _ Top 10
advertising categories, Jan-Sep 2000.htm
[4] Norman Myers, Consumption in relation to popula-
tion, environment and development, The
Environmentalist 17, p. 44 (1997)

S U S TA I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L 189

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