What is Behind the Bodice (Choli Ki Pichhe)? Narratives of Simulacra, Rape, Forced Whoredom: A Critical Analysis of Mahasweta Devi’s Behind the Bodice

Media is not a charitable organization rather a profitable institution. Media often fails to publish important national issues and success to publish the non-issues for escalating the mercantile gains. Interestingly, media often adopts simulation, simulacra, hyper-reality to printed or digitalized news applying their unethical de-realization or yellow journalism. I, therefore, theoretically and thematically will show in my paper how this paid journalism and unethical media using a false representation of Gangor’s breast doomed her life. This ‘Simulacrum’ gives birth of narratives of violence, gang rape, and forced prostitution in Mahasweta Devi’s story Behind the Bodice. Jean Baudrillard defines ‘Simulacra’ as something that replaces reality with its false representation. According to him, it refers the false reality of the image and misrepresentation of true reality actually. In the story Behind the Bodice, Gangor’s breast feeding of her child is a natural phenomenon. But this true reality, ‘save the breast’ (simulacra) is represented with erotic code which sells abroad by Upin Puri at huge prices. This ace-photographer exhibited the nakedness of India to the West for his journalistic prosperity. His false representations of Gangor’s breasts germinate the tales of violence, eviction, male gaze, narratives of forced prostitution and finally, a tragic doom. I will highlight in my paper how this subject is appreciated by then. On the other hand, ‘Behind the Bodice’ introduces the narrative of simulacra, rape and forced whoredom by the power, politics and apparatus of the repressive state.

COVID-19 Pandemic, Personality and Geriatric Population: Proposed Pragmatism

Elderly people are the most sensitive and delicate part of society who must bear the major burn of disruptive social behavior of human being amidst the 2019 coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Our aim was (1) to find out the root of disruption of societal integrity and self-centeredness by analyzing spokes of HEXACO; 2) to delineate its possible relationship with the formation of Neuroticism and eventually Psychopathy, and 3) to search for the potential ways to get rid of this darkness. Human civilization is experiencing unique psychosocial problems through emerging COVID 19. Depression, panic buying, herd behavior, yellow journalism, “infodemic” spreading through social media, immense sufferings of marginalized people, children and elderly, a surge of addictive behavior, racism, domestic violence, rape, divorce, financial constraints, and stigmatization, all possibly stem from a constellation of different negative human behaviors which probably originate from negative deflection of components of HEXACO model of personality towards the genesis of the dark triad. COVID-19 and surge of the dark triad in form of Neuroticism, Narcissism and Machiavellianism are causing major mental health threat. Cultivations and practice of positive emotions and triumph of honesty, humility and humanity are utmost desirable to save Earth and its habitants from the cruel claws of this pandemic.

Conflict in Private Land: The Role of “Yellow Journalism” in the Turmoil of Batu Ceper, Tangerang 1934

This article discusses the conflict and social unrest in the Batu Ceper private lands. The events in Batu Ceper was an example of anti-extortion movement erupted due to the Cuke and Kompenian problems against the background of the socio-economic issuessince the late 19th century. This study identifies “yellow journalism” concept which succeeded in uplifting the Batu Ceper event with a bombastic and sensational headline in the form of an exciting debate between the newspapers of the landlord’s defender (the white press) and the peasant advocates (press Indonesier). The victory of the white press in the court did not mean the end of potential chaos, because the anxiety which became the factor of chaos never faded away due to a mere court ruling. This article reflects the field of social history, in which the study uses mass media as its primary focus. It shows the characteristic of disruption in a historical perspective.

Fake News and Related Concepts: Definitions and Recent Research Development

Fake news is an emerging field of research that attracts much attention from academic communities as well as mass media practitioners. However, the concept of fake news is still ambiguous, and the boundary between the definition of fake news and other relative concepts, such as news satire, yellow journalism, junk news, pseudo-news, hoax news, propaganda news, advertorial, false information, fake information, misinformation, disinformation, mal-information, alternative fact, and post-truth is blurred. The present study aims to identify the meanings of fake news and other related concepts, and explore the recent trend of research on them. By searching the journals listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) database, the present study found 387 articles on fake news. Through analyzing these articles, the present study maps the trend and reveals the highly influential research articles, as well as theories and concepts that are used. The results may provide fundamental insights into the development of research on fake news in recent years.

NEW HISTORIES OF AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

Will Irwin worked as a reporter and muckraker for ten years before he wrote The American newspaper (1911). Published by Collier's magazine over fifteen issues, it was a pioneering study of ‘journalism in its relation to the public’, and it has been much cited by historians. Irwin argued that American newspapers in the early twentieth century had come to possess enormous power; indeed, ‘no other extrajudicial force, except religion, is half so powerful’. Newspapers had been significant influences on public opinion since the early nineteenth century and had become even more important and popular with the rise of ‘yellow journalism’ in the 1890s. But Irwin worried about conflicts between ‘the business attitude’, which insisted that newspapers were commercial products above all, and ‘the professional attitude’, which identified journalism with civic education and the public interest. He was especially anxious about ‘the advertising influence’, on which newspapers depended for economic survival, and which necessarily damaged their journalism. For when advertisers wanted stories spiked or editorials altered, they generally had their way. And when publishers courted businessmen over drinks and dinner, they grew fat and corrupt. So ‘the perplexity of free journalism’ was that ‘so long as our American capitalism retains its insolence and its ruthlessness of method, commercial publishers of million-dollar newspapers must recognize this [advertising] influence whether they like it or no. And many of them do like it.’ Irwin's sense that newspapers claimed to be the people's tribunes but often served their owner's interests made him think that ‘the system is dishonest to its marrow’. Thus his study raised some enduring questions for historians: why were newspapers so powerful? How important were their publishers? Is free journalism ever possible?