MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • Shruti Pushkarna writes on two “brilliant” films that celebrate differences in the sporting arena

    Shruti Pushkarna: Representation Matters: Why is the media limited to stereotypical chronicling of diverse identities?

    Shruti PushkarnaIf there is one thing I missed growing up, it is sports. My school didn’t really encourage us to take up a sporting activity. I did have my moments playing badminton and table tennis with cousins and neighbourhood friends. Also, I enjoyed skating. But I can hardly say that I was a sports enthusiast, because the only sporting action I got was cricket tournaments on television, a feature intrinsic to most Indian middle-class households.

    So, I never realised what sports could do for the overall development of one’s personality. It was many moons and interactions (with sports lovers) later that I seriously regretted my inadvertent abstinence from physical recreation. In my attempt to make up for the loss, I follow some sports, enjoy fictional and biographical accounts on the subject and of course cinematic portrayals. I’m also married to someone who is happy to trade any indulgence for some gaming action.

    Recently, I watched two films, both inspired by true stories, one in Spanish and the other in English. Both comedy dramas revolve around so-to-say ‘weaker’ teams, constituted of players who are ‘different’, those who don’t fit into our normal (read limited) perception of sportspersons.

    The poster for the film Campeones, Spanish for ChampionsCampeones, Spanish for Champions, is a 2018 film directed by Javier Fesser which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. It is inspired by the true account of The Aderes Basketball team in Valencia, created with people with intellectual disabilities who won 12 Spanish championships between 1999 and 2014.

    Marco Montes, assistant coach of a basketball team based in Madrid, gets fired from the job following his arrogant conduct. Hitting a police car in a state of drunkenness, Marco is ordered to either spend two years in jail or ninety days of community service, as Coach to Los Amigos, a team of basketball players with intellectual disabilities. At first, he is frustrated with this new assignment, unable to relate to players he feels are below normal (subnormales). But as he works closely with the team, he learns about each player’s unique story, strengths and weaknesses. The common thread binding them is persistence and the desire to play well.

    Throughout the film, in the comic episodes, in the tense backdrop of Marco’s troubled relationships (personal and professional), the audience gets to witness the similarities in human narratives. Marco has his own set of hurdles to cross, like the players of Los Amigos. As he coaches them to overcome barriers on the court, he unties several knots in his own marriage, discovering fresh perspectives to look at life and challenges. In the end, Los Amigos place second in the National Championship.

    I watched this film at a special screening organised in the capital on World Down Syndrome Day. What fascinated me the most was the director’s choice of casting disabled actors in the roles of all the players with disabilities. Giving them an opportunity to flaunt their prowess and represent themselves rather than relying on non-disabled actors to simply play the part. An absolute entertaining and hilarious saga, I watched the climactic moments of the final game with my mouth wide open.

    The poster for the film, Next Goal WinsThe second film is a 2023 American sports comedy directed by Taika Waititi. Michael Fassbender plays the lead role of Thomas Rongen in Next Goal Wins. It is based on a documentary of the same name, about a Dutch American coach (Rongen) who is also forced, following a series of events, to coach the weakest soccer teams in the world. It’s the story of the American Samoa soccer team who suffered a terrible loss in World Cup history, losing 31-0 to Australia in 2001. Rongen struggles to work with this infamous set of ‘losers’, turning them into an elite squad. Under his training, the American Samoa team qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

     

    While there are no persons with disabilities in this context, there are characters representing marginalised communities. It is a disparate group of players including a transgender defender (Jaiyah Saelua), a traumatised goalkeeper (Nicky Salapu), and an overweight midfielder (Rambo). Rongen deals with his own weaknesses and fears, as he motivates the team to focus on their strengths. The result is a nearly impossible feat of scoring goals and winning the game.

    In the sporting arena, differences cease to be. And many similarities emerge. In both the films, the coaches traverse complex personal landscapes gaining valuable lessons from the diverse set of players.

    While Champions and Next Goal Wins iterate the power of sports to include and empower, the two cinematic representations also bring out the multi-dimensional human sides of persons with disabilities and diverse identities. Something which helps the audience resonate with episodes on-screen.

    Isn’t it time the India media catches up and goes beyond a stereotypical narrative of diversity? Can celebration of differences replace inspirational porn and ableist chronicling in the mainstream media?

     

    P.S. Bollywood actor Aamir Khan began shooting for an Indian remake of Spanish movie Campeones in January 2024.

     

    Wondering why MxMIndia publishes a disability advocacy column? Well, we strongly feel that the media can dramatically transform the world for persons with disabilities. This series attempts to help bring forth issues that the media must champion to create a truly inclusive and accessible India. Writing  this column is Shruti Pushkarna, a former journalist and now a disability inclusion advocate based in New Delhi. Her views here are personal. To access the archives of her 90-odd columns, please visit: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/ columns/shruti-pushkarna/

     

    If you have a view on the issues raise or would like to align with MxMIndia on this cause, write to us at editor [at] mxmindia.com.

  • The whole idea of journalism is to question, and put governments in spot, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: The battle is in the TV studios, not on the streets

    Ranjona BanerjiIs it just me or is this election season very subdued?

     

    Some people inform me that the battle is now in TV studios and not on the streets.

     

    Others say that people are just resigned to their fate.

     

    A political commentator tweets that election and political analysis makes no sense any more when one ideology/party/alliance is in such a dominant mode that all commentary is pointless.

     

    Since I cannot watch the nonsense that passes for Indian “news” television, this essentially means that the election is passing me by. The one newspaper I do buy – a physical actual literal (to use the nonsensical twisting of language common amongst young trendy speakers) paper newspaper (tautology of a sort since online newspapers are also newspapers) – is not very strong on local election news either. Tucked away in some inside page: the King Emperor visited the other half of the state and swore to keep “fighting” corruption.

     

    The front page had other news like Arvind Kejriwal’s trial and the horrific earthquake in Taiwan. Nothing on electoral bonds in the whole edition.

     

    Which gives one some clue on this lacklustre election season.

     

    I don’t mean that political parties don’t have enough money: the BJP has much more than it needs, that’s for sure.

     

    Rather, the big story this election is the Supreme Court decision banning electoral bonds and that is why the media is so silent on them. Yes, newspapers like The Hindu and the Telegraph have not given up. Occasional articles and investigations in other newspapers cover the changing of textbooks to suit the RSS narrative, or the further sly insertions of religion into everyday laws.

     

    For the actual meat and potatoes, it is only the digital media that can be relied upon. The Reporters Collective has two ongoing firebrand investigations: the electoral bonds and the handing over of sainik schools to the RSS and BJP.

     

    https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/centre-hands-sainik-schools-to-sangh-parivar-bjp-politicians

     

    So let’s assume for now that all the excuses non-media people make for these cowardly media outlets are true: o, they are scared of government action, o, their owners are scared of government action and so on. Why people make these dumb@$$ excuses are beyond me. But I suppose as a media outlet, you want a loyal, sympathetic audience which buys into your third-grade pretence of journalism. Forgive me for repeating this, but the whole idea of journalism is to question, and put governments in spot. Now to bow down low every time an emperor looks your way. Or worse, take a selfie with the emperor!

     

    Let’s segue out of these bonds, elections, horse-trading, illegal action against opposition parties, flouting of Election Commission norms and look at another burning issue facing us. Literally (to use another word much loved by trendy with-it young people).

     

    The climate.

     

    Heatwaves across India. No let up until June, according to both the meteorological   department and private players. The monsoon itself, well, who knows. Increasing deforestation and rampant construction activities are both taking their toll. Union ministers speak garbled nonsense on India’s vehicles going all-electric even while they play more expressways through forests. The Prime Minister’s claims of doing more for the environment at international fora stand up to no internal scrutiny.

     

    Instead, we see more devastation. To be fair, the Prime Minister has stated that we have too many rights and is thus working to reduce them. As the article linked below demonstrates.

     

    https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/the-tribal-affairs-ministry-is-surrendering-power-to-the-moefcc/article68024134.ece

     

    Shady stuff and no visible shade.

     

    Enjoy!

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.

  • The Distraction Economy

    The Distraction Economy

    Kunal SinhaIn a revealing experiment, American teacher Mary Garza asked her pupils to leave their phones on loud while they were in class. An unusual request, yes, but she wanted to show them something.

    Every time a phone notification went off, the pupil would then have to put a mark under the correct category for what the notification was for. The result was eye-opening.

     

    In the space of one class that is roughly an hour long, her students received a combined total of over 1,000 notifications from Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, text, email, calls and other social media platforms. That’s a notification coming in every 2.5 seconds.

    So every 2.5 seconds one person in class was being distracted by their phone, which obviously has a huge impact on their attention levels – and education.

     

    A few months ago, I sat in a presentation to a marketing director in Jakarta. Her boss, the country manager, popped his head in and informed us that he had to finish appraisals that evening. Now, they had fixed the meeting time and date. The marketing head had their laptop open throughout our presentation; we realised that they were doing their appraisal on WhatsApp while sitting in the meeting. Were they paying attention? Absolutely not.

     

    I have known CEOs who bring three screens to meetings, boasting they’re multi-tasking. Globally, managers especially struggle to maintain focus, with 683 hours lost to distraction annually. In fact, managers lost more than 100 additional hours of productive time compared to other roles, which averaged 553 hours lost each year – driven in large part by unproductive meetings and administrative tasks. Put another way: lost focus costs companies $37,000 per manager, compared to $21,000 for other roles.

     

    So, while marketing gurus harp on how we’re in the Attention Economy, I’d like to posit that what tech, marketing and entertainment are building is the Distraction Economy.

     

    Infinite scrolling and dopamine

    Today, the fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. You can call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. It’s neither art nor entertainment, just ceaseless activity.

    The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.

    It has already become a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok, an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.

    TikTok has made a fortune by filling our screens with fast-paced scrolling video. And now Facebook—once a place to connect with family and friends—imitates it. As does Instagram, YouTube, and everybody else trying to get rich on social media. So long, Granny, hello Reels.

     

    The advent of infinite scrolling has marked a significant shift in how we consume content. When you watch a video on YouTube, the next video loads immediately. Netflix starts the next episode of your favourite show right away. Browsing Reddit reveals an endless stream of social media content.

    This is more than just the hot trend of 2024. It’s worrying because it could last forever—because it’s based on body chemistry, not fashion or aesthetics.

    Our brain rewards these brief bursts of distraction. The neurochemical dopamine is released, and this makes us feel good. So we want to repeat the stimulus.

     

    It’s human nature to seek predictability and pattern. In their absence, we search for them. So, we pull to refresh. Rewards aren’t guaranteed, and most of the time, we don’t discover anything remarkable. In the same way as we gamble, we continue to refresh in hope of a quick rush of dopamine.

    This is a familiar model for addiction.

    Chart by Ted Gioia

    Although we have endless founts of fun at our fingertips, the data shows that we’re less and less happy, says Dr Anna Lembke, Stanford University professor and a world-leading expert on addiction.

    We’re forever “interrupting ourselves”, as Lembke puts it, for a quick digital hit, meaning we rarely concentrate on taxing tasks for long or get into a creative flow.

    Only now it is getting applied to culture and the creative world – and billions of people. We are unwitting volunteers in the largest social engineering experiment in human history.

     

    Addicted to drama

    Even ‘distraction’ is just a stepping stone toward the real goal nowadays – which is addiction.

    Instead of movies, social media users get served up an endless sequence of 15-second videos. Instead of symphonies, listeners hear bite-sized melodies, usually accompanied by one of these tiny videos, just enough for a dopamine hit, and no more.

    This is the reason why two-minute episodes of “The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband” have been showing up on your content/ social media feeds lately.

    After exploding as a content format in China, micro-dramas are the latest content trend racking up views everywhere, showing in our feeds as we scroll. Delivered in two-minute episodes that have mostly been adapted from Chinese web novels, the market is already estimated at USD 5 billion.

    Thanks to TikTok, younger audiences gravitate towards bursts of content that adapt to their preferences in real-time. To feed this impatience, apps like ReelShort are creating minute-long, mini-dramas that are part TikTok video, part soap opera.

    ReelShort, owned by California-based Crazy Maple Studio and backed by Beijing-based digital content company COL Group, launched in 2022. And its format, which is already popular in parts of Asia, is taking off worldwide. In 2023, 7m+ people downloaded ReelShort in the US, while worldwide downloads surpassed 24m. It’s hardly alone: a slew of other apps – Sereal+, ShortTV, DramaBox, and FlexTV – are all vying for our short attention spans using the same recipe.

    These short dramas prioritise quick, oversimplified stories of love, wealth, betrayal, and revenge, sometimes featuring mythical creatures like vampires and werewolves. Stories of marrying into a rich family attract men, while stories with a powerful female protagonist in control of her life appeal to women.

    One of the highest-grossing shows on FlexTV is called Mr. Williams! Madame Is Dying. It’s a corny romance story about a love triangle, ultra-rich families, cancer, rebirth, and redemption, and it was adapted from a Chinese web novel that has nearly 1,300 chapters. The original story has been turned into a Chinese short drama, but FlexTV decided to shoot another version in Los Angeles for an international audience.

    The revenue model for these hits (pun intended) is not unlike that of a drug dealer’s.

    Unlike most streaming services, which require subscriptions, Chinese platforms for streaming and web novels use a business model of paying by the episode or chapter.

    Essentially, the first 10 or so episodes are always available for free, but once users are hooked, they need to pay a certain amount to watch each episode. It resembles the micro-transaction mechanism in mobile games, which Chinese companies, like the developer of the global hit Genshin Impact, also perfected. Users can quickly rack up thousands in payments by buying small items in-game here and there.

    FlexTV has a similar tactic. Viewers can pay $5 for 500 in-app coins, which in return unlock about seven episodes. A whole series therefore can cost around $50, but there are also small tasks users can do in the app to earn free rewards, like watching ads, posting about the app on social media, and doing daily check-ins.

    This is the new culture. And its most striking feature is the absence of culture or even mindless entertainment, as both get replaced by compulsive, repetitive activity.

    Are we going to see 2-minute micro-dramas from brands soon?

    —————

     

    Kunal Sinha is a senior strategy and foresights executive based in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is the author of several books including The Future of India’s Rural Markets and Raw – Pervasive Creativity in Asia. He writes for MxMIndia every other Monday. His views here are personal.

     

    Reference:

    https://impact.economist.com/new-globalisation/in-search-of-lost-focus-2023/

     

  • Using Archetypes & Personification for powering Internal Alignment

    Using Archetypes & Personification for powering Internal Alignment

    Sanjeev KotnalaHave you ever played or watched the game of Tug of War or seen a boat race? If yes, you would know how collective synchronised aligned efforts bring the right results. And if the forces are not aligned, even having the best of the team cannot guarantee success. The same is true about business. Achieving success isn’t only a function of having the right resources or the brightest talent; it’s about aligning these assets effectively. Internal alignment, harmonising resources and human capital within an organisation is one of the pillars of productivity, innovation, and overall success. On the other side, non-aligned resources and human capital can lead to inefficiencies, discord, and, ultimately, business failure.

    Much has been discussed and written about the internal alignment that ensures an organisation’s resources, financial might, technological advantage, and operational assets are strategically aligned with its workforce and market demand. They thus reinforce each other, amplifying an organisation’s ability to succeed in its objective.

    Employees usually work towards achieving the organisation’s goals and objectives. Every employee understands how their work contributes to the mission and aligns their efforts accordingly. This creates a sense of purpose and commitment, driving the employees to work towards common goals with enthusiasm and dedication.

    Still, despite having the right type of people in the right place, we may not achieve the desired result. It additionally needs the right supportive culture and an atmosphere of collaborative teamwork, information sharing, transparency, and adherence to best practices. This gives the organisation agility and adaptability to respond quickly to the external environment.

    However, while focussing on these elements, we miss a critical element for internal reflection that can ensure the whole chain is aligned. We rarely create a picture of the entire ecosystem and the personification or archetype maps of people across the chain of command. We fail to map their perceived personification and archetype in multiple internal and external situations.

    Just imagine a situation when you have a dominant market share, a cracker of a product, a tiger of excellent sales and an after-sales team led by a Goat. Not the G.O.A.T but Goat- where you needed a Lion, a Tiger or a Leopard. And what if this Goat tries to play tiger with the team and is a chameleon of changing preferences and decisions with the top management? If this Goat, though nimble in the challenging market situation, is not as flexible and agile as a cheetah. What if your team is a dreamer led by a magician in a tough market like a desert? You can easily predict where the organisation is headed.

    Moreover, if the leadership shows different archetypes or personifications across stakeholders- it is a sure recipe for disaster. What if the sales head behaves like a tiger before the team and meows before the finance head, is seen as a monkey by the management and is a dog out on the field? Maybe it feels like an exaggeration because one has not tried archetyping and personification of teams and leaders across the stakeholder matrix of interaction.

    What if the management terms an open democratic interface is seen by the internal teams as a dictatorial stance and a ruthless world of illusions?

    Well, it will only lead to misalignment of image, perception and hence reactions to every plan.

    It will be an exciting challenge to do a quick personification and archetype exercise at the organisational level to see the multiple masks worn by different people while interacting within the ecosystem. This exercise will help superimpose the findings with the company or brand’s needs and ensure the gap is bridged through training or recruitment.

    In today’s fast-paced and hugely competitive business environment, organisations must recognise the critical role of internal human alignment beyond resources and directive understanding in driving success and achieving sustainable growth. Yes, this remains true even while organisations use AI for some of their operations.

    In addition to prioritising communication, collaboration, and transparency, articulating a clear vision and mission statement and ensuring every employee understands their role in achieving organisational objectives, they must create a well-aligned team like the Tug of War.

     

    Net-net

    Internal alignment of resources and human capital is critical for driving success and increasing organisational output. By aligning goals, incentives, and resources, companies can enhance efficiency, innovation, and agility, enabling them to thrive in today’s competitive business environment. Additionally, the organisation must look at the archetype and personification of the teams and their leaders to create a unidirectional force to pull the company towards its objectives.

  • The great western newspapers are also unable, six months after the assault on Gaza began, to fairly present the fact it is Israel which is doing the killing, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: What journalism?

    Ranjona BanerjiThe front page of yesterday’s Times of India, Dehradun edition, is an ad from an education company which will help you to study in the UK.

     

    This is a zeitgeist ad – the spirit of the times. It is an ad which is using current trends. That Indians are moving out of India like never before. Occasionally, you will see glimpses of this in news sources, but not at the top of the list. In the 1980s, newspapers screamed about the “brain drain”, how the cleverest and best were leaving India. Today, snippets tell us that more students are moving out than before, more residents are giving up Indian citizenship than ever before, Indians are willing to go to Israel to fight someone else’s war. And Indians are cheated into going to Ukraine to fight wars they know nothing about.

     

    Sunanda K Datta-Ray, former editor of The Statesman, author and columnist, writes this in his latest column for the Asian Age: “With the India Employment Report claiming that 29 per cent of Indian graduates need jobs, graduates of Lucknow’s IIM and Pilani’s Birla Institute of Technology and Science reportedly also face difficulties.

    “India has indeed made significant economic progress in many sectors.

    The stock market is booming. Property prices are soaring. But investment in human resources is relatively feeble, although one quarter of the population languishes below the official poverty threshold of Rs 32 per day. The World Food Programme reckons that 21.25 per cent of Indians live on less than $1.90 daily. It also says that India is home to a quarter of the world’s undernourished people.”

     

    Is this top of the news?

     

    What is also not top of the news is the upcoming general election. There is some news about Prime Minister Narendra Modi making some random allegations against opposition parties on some campaign somewhere rather than discuss his own towering achievements.

     

    There is disturbing news about drivers falling asleep on the Yamuna expressway, leading to accidents. Indian roads remain a major cause of death in India, whether they are the usual bumpy craters or smooth fancy highways. At no point must the Union government be held to account, even if the National Highways Authority and several falling flyovers and bridges come under its jurisdiction. I would make the excuse that the media has been told that criticizing the Union Government violates the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct but for the fact that criticism of the Union Government is verboten even when the Model Code of Conduct is not in force.

     

    The Hindu, far away from the Centre of India, well not the centre of India but the centre of power, can discuss anomalies in the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and discussions about the attempt to destroy the Aam Aadmi Party by the Union Government’s various departments of arms and ammunition. In other discussions, the media is careful to frame all problems as originating from and because of the opposition parties, leaving an innocent Union Government with no option but to arrest people without any evidence.

     

    I am of course picking up random bits of news from a couple of newspapers. In many of these, you won’t even find any news about the state of Manipur. It is almost as if it has ceased to exist. An article in The Times of India reports Modi saying that “timely intervention by the Centre saved Manipur”. The newspaper itself cannot contest this open lie. Instead, as usual it quotes the Congress’s allegations against the Centre. Courage is tough in tough times when democracy is at its highest flourishing point.

     

    Other newspapers present a very different and disturbing picture:

     

    https://www.deccanherald.com/india/manipur/deaths-destruction-race-for-dominance-turns-manipurs-moreh-into-a-war-zone-2969899

     

    https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/manipur-lok-sabha-polls-2024-campaign-violence-9257249/

     

     

    As in India, so in the great western world. Over 30,000 Palestinians dead thanks to Israel and its “defence forces”. But the great western newspapers are also unable, six months after the assault on Gaza began, to fairly present the fact it is Israel which is doing the killing. Or that students in their universities are being punished for supporting Palestine. Or that they themselves are so deep in the clutches of Israeli propaganda, that they cannot even breathe independently and without permission from Israel.

     

    Thus, journalism what???

    I mean, What journalism?

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.

  • In the Age of AI will Media & Advertising Divorce?

    In the Age of AI will Media & Advertising Divorce?

    Image rendered by ChatGPT given the column theme

     

    Ashoke AgarrwalA few decades ago, I was helping an advertising honcho craft an acceptance speech for a Lifetime Achievement Award. High on the list of reasons why advertising is a social good is that it enables citizens to access information and entertainment by providing media at a reasonable or no cost. Fast forward a few years, and the media veteran Pradeep Guha shocked the world by overtly positioning the primary role of the Times of India (TOI), once India’s newspaper of record, as an amasser of audiences for advertising to address. Pradeep’s honest assertion presaged the fall from grace of TOI and most other newspapers from a necessary read to a toilet accessory, if that.

    In the realm of broadcast and cable television, the relentless pursuit of audiences for advertisers has led to a steady diet of mind-numbing soap operas and shallow news coverage. The once vibrant and diverse landscape of television has been reduced to a monotonous cycle of content, all in the name of catering to advertisers’ demands.

    In the early years, social media was hailed as a tool of enlightenment and revolution, and the Arab Spring and Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution were credited to it. Today, it is seen not just as banal but as an insidious cause of rising depression among the young and tribalism at large. What gave? Once again, it was social media’s marriage with advertising. As Google (Alphabet) and Facebook (Meta) anchored their business model to advertising, they invented and nurtured algorithms that invented hordes of individuals hooked on content that amplified their worst impulses.

    The rise of OTT (Over The Top) television based on a Netflix-like subscription model led to a creative renaissance that restored television content as an art form similar to the movies (the fact that film and music had survived, in the main, as art forms have to do with the fact that advertising played little or no role in their business model). To my mind, OTT’s recent experiment with advertising as a source of revenue is dangerous and could lead to an inevitable creative slide into inaneness.

    The world is now seeing two revolutions.

    There is now a backlash to the increasing irrelevance of traditional mass media and an increasing wariness with social media as a news and information source. As a result, social media like Instagram and, where available, TikTok (or its imitators) have become platforms for content creators across various genres. While traditional social media platforms are becoming forums for content creators aiming at the mass market, niche platforms like Substack, Medium, Reddit and YouTube are becoming platforms for niche content creators in journalism, opinion, reviews and think pieces.

    In the coming years, if traditional media continues its decline, individuals or small, independent teams may take over a more significant share of the content market. While niche content on platforms like Substack and Medium is subscription or micro-payment-supported, content creators of mass platforms like Instagram and TikTok depend upon an insidious form of advertising called Influencer Marketing.

    While the dispersed content-creation model gathers momentum, another revolution is afoot as AI matures and uniquely empowers individuals and businesses. In a decade or two, communication between brands and individuals will be AI mediated with an AI avatar of the brand in communication with an AI avatar of the individual. I have posited this in my MxMIndia column of Jan 2022 titled ‘The Coming Post-Digital Age’.

    This will then result in a divorce between the media and advertising, leading to:

    • A re-emergence of mass media, albeit with a different business model
    • a repositioning of social media as a valued platform for content creators
    • And more effective and efficient brand-building by marketers through direct communication and social diffusion

    What do I mean by social diffusion? Globally, brands like Tesla and Apple have been built chiefly on social diffusion, which involves shared social narratives and the prosaic term unpaid media. Brands like Mercedes and BMW may have had advertising support in developed countries but have been mainly built on social diffusion in India. The guru brands – Sri Sri and Satguru – have been built through social diffusion. If Patanjali had continued to rely on social diffusion instead of relying on advertising to meet vaulting ambition, it would not be in the trouble it is today.

    In conclusion, the marketing communication discipline will shift paradigm over the next decade. One dimension of the change will be technology, with the emergence of AI as the vital medium of consumer interaction. The other dimension will be social, with the slow and steady accretion of social diffusion through narratives and word-of-mouth.

    Ashoke Agarrwal is a veteran advertising professional with around four decades in advertising and marketing services. Agarrwal, a chemical engineer from IIT Mumbai and a postgraduate from IIM Bangalore, is a pro-entrepreneur with past and current ventures in market research, advertising, CGI, e-learning and brand consultancy. He writes on MxMIndia every Thursday. His views here are personal.

  • Gig Workers: Charity begins at home

    Gig Workers: Charity begins at home

    With apologies to none at all

    Vikas MehtaBy Vikas Mehta

    Yes, I had ended my last post with a link to the new Pepsi rehash of the old ‘yeh dil maange more’ ad. And had promised to review it. But, hey, promises are meant to be broken. Am actually so disappointed at the ads dished out during the IPL that I refuse to talk about them. Instead, I will narrate two contrasting tales that I picked up over Eid.

    A friend was just settling down to enjoy the Eid holiday when he got a call from a friend who was coming over with some Eid sweets. My friend panicked as he had nothing to offer. But then being a millennial and having acquired the habits of Gen Z, he immediately remembered Blinkit. Sure enough, Blinkit was offering Eid sweets, not the typical Eid sweets like Sewaiyan but Feni Lachha, Agra Petha, Panjeri Laddoo…you get the drift.

    As luck would have it, my friend’s guest and the Blinkit delivery guy reached almost together. The guest was dressed in Eid livery and as my friend opened the door to his apartment, the Blinkit delivery guy too turned up. He delivered the order and then wished the guest Eid Mubarak in a choking voice. While the guest reciprocated heartily, my friend checked on the app and discovered that it was Eid for the delivery guy too. Instinctively, he called the delivery guy who had by then almost reached the lift, and handed over the Blinkit packet to him wishing him Eid Mubarak.

    Taken totally by surprise, the delivery guy burst into tears. It seems he had reported for his job against his family wishes, because he knew that being Eid there would be a shortage of riders, an excess of orders and he could earn better. So, while he ached to be with his family and celebrate the festival, economic compulsions and family responsibility steered him away from it. But, my friend’s gesture bowled him over. Watching all this, the guest too slipped in a note into his palms and urged him to go home to enjoy Eid with the family.

    Now, before we all go mushy and applaud the generosity of the two gents, listen to another incident that I picked up the same evening. My wife’s friend had called her over for a small Eid party. While they laid out a sumptuous dinner, the lady of the house seemed a bit off-colour. On enquiring, she found out that the friend was upset with Myntra. She had ordered an Eid dress for her daughter, a bit late but the delivery date as promised was on Eid. So, she was relieved that she had not failed her daughter.

    But, on the morning of Eid, she got a message from Myntra that due to some operational issues, the delivery will be delayed. Now, this lady was tracking the package and she knew that it had reached Dehradun. So, she deducted, rightly, that due to Eid, there was a shortage of delivery guys. And that upset her. She was angry and upset that her Eid had been spoilt.

    What contrasting tales. Here were two people who had instinctively succumbed to the spirit of the festival. Caring and sharing had come naturally to them.

    On the other hand, was this person who had a narrow selfish view of the festival. Who did not get the spirit of the festival and treated it very transactionally.

    That’s of course, my view. But the diversity of human behaviour never stops to amaze me. And also, the unpredictability of it.

    More crucially it also tells us the indifference we have towards the gig worker. As consumers we have lapped up the culture of home delivery. We marvel at the technology. We are awestruck by the whole process. We are delighted by the speed of delivery. And we are also happy that employment is being generated in the form of delivery guys. But, have we ever thought about humanising the last mile delivery.

    The word gig comes from an early twentieth century jazz slang. When two or more musicians would combine together to perform informally. No contract, no formal agreement, no payment promised. In today’s economy, it stands for any informal job. And that is what I cannot understand. Why is this last mile delivery an informal job? Isn’t it one of the most important parts of the delivery process? When every day, nay, every minute counts in making the delivery happen, why is the role of the delivery boy downgraded to a foot note?

    These people have no formal timings. No structured holidays. No minimum payment guarantee or even a basic pay. Their remuneration is linked to just delivery. Come rain, come extreme heat, come festivals, come illness, these gig workers have to soldier on.

    And please, do not compare them to a train driver or to a medical worker or to a public transport official. All these people have jobs. Not gigs. Fixed pay, not just a variable component. Sick leaves, designated holidays. Either gratuity or pension or both. Even insurance. Nothing of that sort exists for a gig worker.

    Before you accuse me of turning socialist or maybe even communist, all I am actually doing is to draw the attention of us, the consumers, who meet and interact with these people daily, to the fact that delivery people are not robots. They are as humans like you and me. But is our behaviour towards them human?

    I have a theory called the Indian housewife theory. It is expected that the housewife will make tasty meals every day. In fact, three times a day. And rarely do we have a word of appreciation towards the food cooked. Because we take it for granted. But once in a blue moon if the food goes wrong for whatever reason, the whole family rains down on the housewife. No appreciation for the 99% good food. But protest and howlers for that 1% of mistakes.

    And that’s how we treat the delivery or gig workers. We rarely acknowledge them. We hardly notice them. But they become our target if they are late or there is a problem in delivery.

    All I am asking therefore is that we as consumers must change our attitude towards the gig workers. Have empathy. Treat them with respect. It’s getting hotter. We do not venture out but expect them to deliver. On time. The least one can do is ask them if they need a glass of water. Maybe a small snack. An orange a day will not burn a hole in your pocket but it will not only refresh them but also make them feel appreciated and human.

    And some apps like Blinkit now give you the option to tip them. Do that. If you have saved Rs 20 in that delivery, tip it. And if you are really transactional, satisfy yourself by thinking that you save much more than the twenty rupees. You saved the effort of venturing outdoors. Didn’t you? So, nothing wrong in tipping them a small amount.

    We, the customers have to start this movement. One may call this socialist thinking but frankly I don’t care what it’s called as long as it helps us be humane. Can we at least make a beginning?

  • In a highly heterogenous Hindi market, what is ‘compelling content’ is a far more complex question than a far more homogenous (and better educated) market like Kerala, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Hindi cinema takes a summer break, even as Malayalam cinema soars

    Shailesh KapoorWe are in the thick of the elections season, and in the middle of a typically exciting IPL. It is set to be a fertile summer for the media and entertainment business in India, but for one sector. The theatrical business in Hindi language will see an unusual lull, lasting at least a couple of months, if not more.

    Two films clashed on Eid this week, and from now till at least early July, all we have is a line-up of low-budget, non-starcast releases. While South cinema continues to have a somewhat busier lineup, Hindi cinema is going to be on a break of sorts. It’s an unprecedented occurrence in my living memory, except when the industry was impacted by extraneous factors like demonetisation or the pandemic.

    2023 was a strong year for the theatrical business, and four Hindi language films (Jawan, Gadar 2, Pathaan and Animal) headlined the post-pandemic recovery of the Indian theatrical business, which touched an all-time high domestic gross of INR 12,226 Crore. The follow-up in 2023 started on a fine note, and the first quarter grossed about 900 Cr, which is only about 10% lower than the same period last year, despite no mega film like Pathaan (Jan 2023 release). But the second quarter could struggle to be even close to half of the first quarter’s number, and one will have to wait for the second half of the year for catch-up.

    This uneven release cycle is reflective of the general lack of confidence in the Hindi film industry on viability of mid-range films at the box office. With the arrival of streaming, such films have struggled at the box office, even as the bigger films have gotten bigger with time (see this analysis). This has led to several projects being revisited as OTT films, or being shelved altogether.  Theatres in the Hindi markets simply won’t have enough viable software to play over the next three months.

    In sharp contrast is Malayalam cinema, which is on a dream run in 2024. Manjummel Boys, which released in February, is the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all-time, having grossed about 160 cr in India, and still going strong. It has been supported by a slew of compelling Malayalam films, and the share of Malayalam cinema stands at the box-office currently stands at about 18%, which is a staggering three times its share in 2022 and 2023.

    Malayalam cinema is high on content (theme, concept, story, etc.), and relies far lesser on stars than its Telugu, Tamil and Hindi counterparts. As on date, Malayalam cinema has grossed 80% more than Tamil cinema this year, a unimaginable finding, given that Tamil theatrical audience in India in 2023 were 2.5 times that of Malayalam, and Tamil footfalls were three times those of Malayalam.

    In 2024, this could be the emerging theme at the Indian box office: Mega blockbusters will gross big numbers, but compelling content will drive growth and consistency. But in a highly heterogenous Hindi market, what is ‘compelling content’ is a far more complex question than a far more homogenous (and better educated) market like Kerala. But that’s another story, for another day!

  • Ranjona Banerji: Media trapped in a cage of its own making

    Ranjona BanerjiWhat is reader interest and how does one best save it?

    Take the case of a yoga teacher-cum-ayurvedic medicine business house. Baba Ramdev has been popular and unpopular in Uttarakhand for some years now. He shot to national fame during the India Against Corruption movement in 2011, when he joined hands with Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and others to take on the then UPA government over corruption charges regarding spectrum auctions, the Commonwealth Games, coal allocations, and renew demand for Lokpal courts.

    He was also known at the time for running away from the police dressed a pink salwar kameez, disguised as a woman, and for being hospitalised after only a few days of fasting.

    But it was after the Narendra Modi government came to power that Ramdev gained power and prosperity. And how. Patanjali products were everywhere. From ayurvedic potions and lotions to instant noodles and biscuits.

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, Patanjali claimed to have found the cure for the virus, which it widely advertised with some help from Union ministers from the BJP: Coronil was the answer, according to Patanjali, Ramdev, government ministers. False claims were made that the medication was WHO-approved, from which Baba Ramdev had to backtrack.

    The sordid details are all here:

    https://thewire.in/health/the-business-of-godmen-how-ramdev-was-protected-and-even-promoted-by-the-system

    Over two years later, the long arm of the law has caught up with Patanjali, over its “misleading ads”. The Supreme Court has rejected Baba Ramdev’s apologies and warned of further action against Patanjali.

     

    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/misleading-ads-case-sc-rejects-patanjalis-apology-warns-them-to-be-ready-to-face-action/articleshow/109185292.cms

     

    Let’s now get back to the question: how is the media to cover such a case?

     

    Because of the times we live in, news channels have acted as out-of-court defence attorneys for Ramdev and Patanjali. As the company and its owner has wept in court, Ramdev has wept on screen, full of contrition and a bit of anger at the strictures of the court.

     

    In that other world to which I sometimes refer, where journalism is practised as it usually is, Ramdev and his company would have gleefully been ripped apart. The media is vicious when you are down. But in India, it depends on which side of the political spectrum you fall. As a friend of the ruling BJP, there is only comfort and garam chai for you with jalebis on the side. Fraudulent claims, outright lies in the middle of a terrible pandemic, these are not important enough for the mainstream media to focus on. And yet, some of these media houses did revert to journalism for a while during the pandemic; perhaps the scale of suffering forced them to.

     

    Answers to the question about reader interest are therefore manifold. If your prime audience is only interested in glorification of the BJP and its chief leader, then clearly, criticism of Ramdev is not going to happen. The Union Government has not fully distanced itself from Ramdev and his problems, so media houses take that as an instruction to support him. The glee of taking down a big personality – a media staple – is denied to them. The audiences that demand sensation, thrill and/or facts and the truth have to play second-fiddle to the prime audience who want adulation of power. The media is thus trapped in a cage of its own making.

     

    We are now in the quietest election season ever. The media continues with the Modi circus, amplifying the Prime Minister’s statements without question. What price this very significant letter by the Constitutional Conduct Group to the Election Commission on its favouritism and the lack of a level playing field?

     

    https://thewire.in/government/former-civil-servants-write-to-eci-on-lack-of-level-playing-field-before-polls

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal

  • Molley’s MasterClass in Customer Relations

    Molley’s MasterClass in Customer Relations

    Representative photograph

    Sanjeev KotnalaSometimes, roadside vendors can teach you a lot more than any business school or training session can. And if you keep your eyes wide open to observe and question everything you observe, trust me, the class is on every time you take to the streets. This morning was one of the best demonstrations of trust and customer relations. It was not an AI-based digital service provider with fancy algorithms working for it but a vegetable vendor with an open mind.

    Introducing Molley, a lady who sells primarily green and fresh vegetables just across the gate of a public school.

    If you ever doubted the rule of location, location, and location for such a business, this demonstrated it.

    Molley sits cross-legged on the mat, and her vegetables are spread on a bori– the woven sack placed on the road. She uses fresh banana leaves to line the road outside the area covered by the sacks.

    She is at the corner diagonally opposite the school gate. You would think there is nothing special about the location. However, if you stop there, you will soon realise that primarily, women from nearby societies and her core catchment area come to drop their children at school every morning. Some women walk to the school; many come in their cars and two-wheelers to drop off their children. Most of them buy vegetables for the day on the way back home.

    With time, Molley, a plump-looking, sweet-natured vegetable vendor, crafted and nurtured her customer base. A large section of these ladies buy vegetables from her, even though there are a few vegetable carts just a few meters away and one big, well-stacked shop that even promises home delivery.

    So, I stood there, taking a ringside view, as my wife bought vegetables from who else but Molley.

    She has an ongoing crisp banter with another set of ladies, who address her by name. She replies to them by their name and suitable didi (elder sister), aunti or taayi (elder lady-normally paternal aunt) prefix or pronoun.

    This is Molley’s loyal customer base, which she has cultivated through her personalised service and warm demeanour.

    Now, the first magic realisation. There is no weighing scale. Everything is sold on a per-unit basis. It was not only Palak (Spinach), Methi (fenugreek), Kheera (Cucumber) and Nimbu (lemon) which are anyway sold per unit, but also included things like Baigan (Eggplant), Gaajar (Carror), Mooli (White Raddish), Lauki (Gourd) and Mattar (green peas) too.

    One of the ladies picks up some carrot and places them in a polythene bag. She claims it is 500 grams, but Molley disagrees. She takes the bag, removes two pieces, and gives the bag back to her. She joyfully announces, Taayi– this is now aadha kilo (500 grams). The ladies contests her action, and Molley challenges them to weigh it at the nearby shop. They also threaten to do it one day and unanimously agree that they should do it. Molley smiles. The deal is done, and payment is received.

    You realise the weighing threat is harmless banter; it will be a while before anyone does it.

    The other magic realisation hits you harder. Molley is not digitally connected. All cash, no UPI/Gpay or Paytm. She is okay if you are not carrying cash and are even buying from her for the first time. You could pay her tomorrow. Complete trust in a stranger. And the regulars know. So they carry cash.

    Another lady’s bill is Rs 310, and she pays just 300. Her excuse is that she does not have a change of Rs 10. Molley jokingly says to her: ‘Bhabhi- 10-10 bacha kart oh iPhone legi kya‘ (Bhabhi- by saving 10-10 rupees- will you buy an iPhone?). Everyone laughs. The light-hearted banter adds a charming touch to the morning interaction and makes everyone smile.

    She adds: ‘Aab iss week ka tees ho gaya… pachaas hojayega toh le lungi’ (This week, you have saved thirty when it will add up to fifty, I will collect).

    You know it is not going to happen. It is Molley’s investment – a reminder- so everyone must understand that the lady has paid less and is not a discount.

    While these exchanges may seem like jest, they subtly reinforce the idea of mutual trust and respect in the business relationship.

    Meanwhile, she addresses a somewhat elderly lady- ‘Kaka theek hain? kaisi tabiyat hai?’ ( is uncle well… how is he now?) and further ventures- ‘Kai baat nahi, saab theek ho jayega’. (Don’t worry- things will be okay soon).

    Net-net

    Molley’s vegetable stand is not just about selling vegetables; it’s a MasterClass in customer relations and trust-building.

    Her approach highlights the importance of personalised service, trust, and community engagement in fostering long-term customer loyalty—an invaluable lesson for aspiring management professionals and more so in the digital world.

  • As with the cowardly Indian media, so with the western media when it comes to Israel, Gaza, Palestine and now Iran, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Deep lies the bias

    Ranjona BanerjiWhat is going on in Manipur? For those who may remember this state in the Northeast of India, almost a year ago there was a massive eruption of violence. It reached a point where the violence seemed like civil war. Both the state and the Union Governments – part of the BJP’s boast platform of a “double engine” government – did almost nothing. Deaths and rapes continued. Police and military arsenals were looted.

     

    The national media found itself torn between its everyday job – news coverage – and its special assignment – bowing to the BJP and Narendra Modi, and made the easy choice, the same one it has made for the last 10 years: ignored Manipur. Although episodes of violence, largely between the Kuki tribes and the Hindu-dominant Meiteis have reduced in the past 11 and a half months since the first week of May 2023, violence has not stopped.

     

    Into this arena, have stepped the Prime Minister of India and the Union Home Minister, with their electoral campaigning. The Prime Minister claimed that his “timely intervention” had prevented further violence in Manipur. The Union Home Minister declaimed that he “won’t allow Manipur to be torn apart”.

     

    The mainstream media has seen fit to report these two claims without question and context.

     

    Why Manipur is being torn apart and by whom is left largely unanswered by the media, which took almost two months after the violence began in 2023 to even cursorily report on the state of anarchy in the state. It is therefore completely unsurprising that both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can claim anything they want about Manipur. The Election Commission is like one of those wise monkeys.

    And ignorance is bliss as the wise person once said and the media is in a permanent state of blissful, adoring ignorance.

     

    Or maybe, it’s “what I don’t know can’t hurt me?”

     

    Something like that.

     

    This two part report by the Reporters’ Collective includes an analysis of the violence by the Assam Rifles, the Central paramilitary force responsible for border security and law and order in the Northeast. The official inquiry found that part of the problem lay with the political ambitions of Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh of the BJP. Some may remember how Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had to resign after the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, after massive media outrage that he changed his clothes three times in one day. Not so much for the failures around the attack itself. But Biren Singh was applauded by his party for the violence and thus the media too had to leave him alone.

     

    https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/15/manipur-bjp-cm-inflamed-conflict-assam-rifles-report-on-india-violence?traffic_source=KeepReading

     

    https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/16/behind-indias-manipur-conflict-a-tale-of-drugs-armed-groups-and-politics

     

    Drugs, power, money, tribal demands, majoritarian oppression, political ambition and Hindutva have all played their role to keep Manipur on the simmer for the past year. The mainstream media cannot and will not see it. Especially now, as we are on the edge of one of the most important elections either.

     

    As with the cowardly Indian media, so with the western media when it comes to Israel, Gaza, Palestine and now Iran. It is clearly almost impossible for the western media to go against the official lines in democratic nations like the USA, the UK, Germany and so on when it comes to Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza. The deaths of over 41,000 Palestinians are easily overlooked, masked in language which does not blame Israel and the intent is clearly to make Israel look like a victim which is forced to be aggressive and kill thousands. Positions taken by other European nations like Spain or Ireland and presented almost as traitorous to the “cause” of Israel and the non-white world is largely ignored.

     

    This note supposedly from senior editors of the venerable New York Times to staff on how to report on Palestine, published by theintercept.com, suggests how deep the bias lies and how low the most looked up to publication in the world has fallen:

     

    Leaked NYT Gaza Memo Tells Journalists to Avoid Words “Genocide,” “Ethnic Cleansing,” and “Occupied Territory”

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Dehradun. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.

  • Are we set to redefine access and inclusion for cinema lovers?

    Are we set to redefine access and inclusion for cinema lovers?

    Screengrab from Pathan on Amazon Prime Video

    Shruti PushkarnaIn my last column, I featured two brilliant foreign films that dealt with the subject of disability in a sensitive as well as an entertaining manner. Moreover, persons with disabilities were truly represented and their challenges highlighted in both productions for mass consumption.

     

    Sticking to cinema, let’s circle back to India. Recently, three exciting events caught the attention of disability inclusion advocates. It’s been good news for people like me who keep pushing for better (if not equal) media access and representation.

     

    A President Awardee, an RJ and a person with vision impairment, Divya Sharma’s interview of Karan Johar at the Cinevesture International Film Festival in Chandigarh was widely shared across social media platforms. She asked some pertinent questions on the vision of Bollywood vis-à-vis inclusion of disabled folk, normalisation and the role of cinema in shaping mindsets, insensitivity and ridicule at the expense of persons with disabilities onscreen and more. The seven-odd-minute interaction between a visually impaired girl and a leading filmmaker and influencer will hopefully open up more opportunities of constructive exchange of ideas.

     

    You remember the SRK starrer ‘Pathan’ that made headlines even before its release? Yes, I’m referring to Deepika Padukone’s controversial orange bikini and the Besharam Rang song. A lawyer filed a complaint in Muzzafarpur district court of Bihar against the leading actors and the objectionable song that allegedly offended the sentiments of the Hindu community.

     

    We are familiar with the legal trajectory of that complaint as well as the political clamour in different states, seeking a ban on the film. But there was another case filed in the Delhi High Court against ‘Pathan’, which perhaps didn’t grab as much public attention.

     

    A visually impaired student at the National Law School, Bangalore filed a petition along with three other persons with disabilities, out of whom two are visually impaired practising lawyers and one is a hearing impaired professional working as the Executive Director of the National Association for the Deaf. The complaint highlighted the lack of equal access to audio-visual entertainment in theatres and on online streaming platforms.

     

    In response, the High Court issued an interim order directing the producer (Yash Raj Films) of Pathan to make the film accessible with audio description as well as subtitles and closed captions in Hindi before its release on the OTT platform (Amazon Prime Video). And after seven hearings, the court pronounced its final judgment on March 15, 2024, setting a new precedent for accessible cinema.

     

    Why is this case or judgment important? And what are these accessibility features?

     

    The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016, includes a provision on media accessibility which states that the government must take measures to make electronic media accessible. In October 2019, an advisory was issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to persuade producers to make movies accessible. But this was hardly a mandate to ensure compliance. And so, nothing changed, up until now.

     

    The filmmaker, producers and the media fraternity are focused on the 99% able-bodied audience, insensitive to the needs of persons with disabilities. The cost of accommodation is misconceived, seen as an additional burden on the filmmaker. Imposition of access features are also arguably perceived to interfere with an average movie-goer’s cinematic experience. These arguments are a clear reflection of a lack of empathy and sheer ignorance that have led to a systemic exclusion of the disabled community from channels of mainstream entertainment.

     

    But with this recent judgment on Pathan, things are going to change. The judge also directed the other respondents/ stakeholders in the matter to work together and formalise standardised guidelines to ensure accessibility for all future productions. This means that the CBFC will need to include accessibility requirements in its certification process.

     

    As for the cost of providing accessibility features, Yash Raj Films incurred an additional expense of INR 6 lakh, a tiny drop in its Rs 1,000 crore ocean of earnings!

     

    As per Section 42 of the RPWD Act 2016, all persons with disabilities have an equal right to access information and communication technology. The government has to ensure that all content available in audio, print and electronic media are in accessible format. And that persons with disabilities have access to electronic media via audio description, sign language interpretation and close captioning.

     

    Audio Description is a verbal depiction of key visual elements in media and live productions, involving description of the visuals on screen to enable imagination by person with vision impairment.

     

    Subtitling provides a text alternative for the dialogues on screen, by characters, narrators, or any other vocal participants, in the language of the production.

     

    Closed Captioning not only supplements the dialogues but also other relevant parts of the soundtrack, describing background score, phones ringing, noises, or any other audio cues.

     

    The court has ordered for these accessibility features to be included on OTT as well as theater screenings. For now, the cinema halls and producers can work with certain mobile application providers (XL Cinema, Shazacin) which offer access to an audio described track that synchronizes on the user’s smartphone as the movie plays up on the big screen.

     

    And lastly, a movie trailer starring Rajkumar Rao as a visually impaired person flooded WhatsApp groups and LinkedIn feeds on April 9. Set to hit the cinema halls on May 10, this is a biopic of industrialist Srikanth Bolla, the first international blind student in management science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Srikanth endured several challenges, rejection and apathy in life, before he set up Bollant Industries with the objective of providing employment to others like him.

    Whether it’s bold activism, asking for equal access and a normal portrayal, ensuring compliance through workable measures or recounting real life struggles of successful persons with disabilities, the case for inclusion is strengthening by the day.

     

    What is preventing the media to initiate baby steps and add disability inclusion into its overall agenda?