Trying and Failing and Trying again: Work in the Media

This paper is an historical auto-ethnographic account by a middle aged journalist who has worked in the English language media in India for about 20 years. English language media staff is among the best paid in the country. Even so, work conditions are far from ideal, and the pandemic this year has rendered several journalists jobless. This is a personal account of one career trajectory that spans book publishing, work on national radio, newspapers and a news agency. Growth prospects are curtailed for women in the news media; one boss at the Times of India¸ India’s largest English daily, told the author that her “body language” betrayed a lack of interest in work.

An Autoethnography of Child Artists in Tamil Dance Reality Television Production

Reality Television shows that revolve around the lives of children have become popular to audiences of all ages, which is evident in their success across diverse channels and various demographics (Palmer, 2013). With the increase in the number of reality shows and child participants in them, emerges a critical need of questioning the power of those in authority and are in- charge of production over the powerless group (the children) who aren’t of an age to legally possess the right to consent on their work, but have become the primary focus of almost every aspect of media commercialisation. An analysis of the conditions and effects of child participation in reality shows is extremely complex as it is difficult to make a child share his/her experience with others. It is also true that the history of children’s daily experiences are extremely difficult to trace, since children themselves have had little or no access to those public forms of expression (Holland, 2004). This paper is an autoethnographic study that explores Tamil dance reality television's child artists during the period 2008-2020.The bodily performances of the dance reality television’s child artists and crew are studied by focusing on the intersections of body and space and with them developing in this context the concept of Biopolitics, as advanced by Michel Foucault (1979). The qualitative study covers a sample of 8 dance reality shows in five different Tamil channels with a focus on 12 child artists and how they spend their everyday lives in the shooting sets, rehearsal studios and other media production spaces. The researcher, being an insider in the reality television programmes, as a freelance floor director and coordinator for more than ten years now, provides this paper a significant leverage of the same and uses methods of memory work and self-reflexive writing along with in-depth interviews.

A History of the State-Media Link in Kashmir

For decades, the media has been a powerful agency in presenting Kashmir and shaping views in the national and the international imaginations. Recognising the complex multiplexity of the influences on the media that report on Kashmir, this work is an endeavour to examine the history of the media’s relationship with the state through Archival Research. Documents accessed from Srinagar’s Civil Secretariat’s media section of the archives unravel the state’s attempts to establish a relationship with the media in the militarised region since the early 1950s. This research sheds light on the nature of the association between the media and the state, as this understanding is crucial in understanding any conflict region. Hence, it becomes necessary to uncover the trajectory of power, as well as the nuances of histo-political nature of the liaison between the two entities that have contoured the narrative on this region of conflict.

Declining Bargain Power: Streaming, Production, and Entertainment Labour

The fluidity of time and space, diverse collection, and personalized recommendations of streaming (OTT players) would mean a lot to a viewer looking for instant entertainment. On the other hand, such transitions from traditional viewing platforms pose a diverse challenge to everyone involved in entertainment productions. The remote select button is replaced with a scrolling option, but the difference is in the platform's 'thinking' or analytical algorithm, which was not part of traditional TV or Cinema hall. This global shift might be beneficial to a few and yet, lowers the number of personnel involved in productions. This is a conceptual paper looking into the interaction between streaming and the entertainment industry labour.

Book Review: A Book about Hope

Nicole S Cohen and Greig de Peuter, New Media Unions: Organizing Digital Journalists, Routledge, March 24, 2020, [ISBN 978-1-138-32711-5] Pp.118

Toward a Theory of Atypical Media Work and Social Hope

Most media work today takes place under atypical conditions, i.e. media professionals such as journalists, musicians, filmmakers, advertising creatives and game developers generally work without open-ended contracts. In this essay, a theory of atypical media work is outlined highlighting this way of working and being at work from the current culture of capitalism. Further, it also throws light on how dualisms, dominating the discourse on media work – such as contracted versus freelance labour, primary and secondary sector employment, good versus bad jobs, paid versus unpaid work – are not as useful as they seem to be is shown. It also delves into the different ways of making precarity, precariousness, constrained autonomy and lack of agency and highlights themas the key problematic features of atypical work – productive (beyond productivity narratives). Throughout the argument, the reasons and motivations for (doing and studying) atypical media work are articulated with a distinct sense of shared social hope.

Digital Media and Political Communication in Bangladesh

A healthy and democratic political community is built on effective and meaningful communication among diverse political groups and individuals. Political engagement in earlier days was confined to a limited number of people, which often impeded the rational criticism and effective- ness of public policies. In Bangladesh, many people remain outside the boundaries of policymaking. To a cer- tain degree, traditional media failed to bridge the gap be- tween public and political authority. Digital media has re- cently entered into public life and offers various groups a chance to engage in political communication. Even com- munication through digital media has started to deter- mine the fortune of political events in Bangladesh like elsewhere in the world. Therefore, digital media, as a key player in political communication, has to be studied care- fully. In this article, it has been discussed why and how digital media has earned power regarding political com- munication. This study also seeks the state of democracy and political pluralism in contemporary Bangladesh. Identifying three key players of Bangladesh politics: polit- ical leaders, political activists, and grassroots citizens, this article further elucidates the nature of their chemistry in the digital age.

Mirabai in Popular Imagination

The immense popularity of Mirabai, the sixteenth-century bhakti poet-saint, transcends time and space. Beliefs have it that she renounced her kshatriya and royal identity for spiritual pursuits in the public domain. She was challenged, critiqued, ostracised, and castigated within her community and was labelled as a woman of questionable character. Mirabai wandered to various places, singing and dancing to bhajans negotiating the public and the private while becoming both virtuous and promiscuous in multiple narratives. Mirabai has been accommodated within the marginalised and subaltern communities and gradually, a community of destitute women has formed around her. With the revival of Mirabai during the Indian ‘nationalist’ period by popular spokespersons such as Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi as an ‘ideal’ and ‘chaste’ historical character in their public speeches and private letters, the promiscuous image of Mirabai, perpetuated through centuries, witnessed transgressions and she was eventually elevated to the status of a saint. This paper with literary, biographical and hagiographical representations explores the mechanism of the paradoxical plane that allowed the promiscuous image of Mirabai to achieve sainthood and become a cult name in the bhakti tradition.