Free media: running from one to the other hype

By Dr Manzur Ejaz
The writer is a freelance journalist based in Washington DC

Washington Diary

Normalcy had returned to Washington area a few days after the city panicked due to terrorist attack on the Pentagon. This impression was confirmed further during my recent travel from Washington Dallas to Logan airport in Boston-two airports from where three killer flights ramming into World Trade Centre and Pentagon had taken off. Contrary to media descriptions, the airports were doing their business as usual. There were military personnel standing in different corners of the airports and security checking was a little more intrusive but nothing exceptional. On top of that, my bearded host in Boston came in desi kurta shalwar to pick me. To my surprise no one paid any attention to him as we went around the airport and the city. This portrayal is in direct contrast to US media hype.

It is in the nature of the free media in a capitalist society to run from one to the other hype. Despite a deepening Anthrax scare most Americans are going about their business as usual against the pictures painted by CNN and its competitors. As the story about 9/11 and war against terrorism is becoming uneventful, Anthrax scare has come handy to feed the news media. No doubt new cases of Anthrax are being discovered everyday but the media is blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Different theories of bio-terrorism are being presented in such a manner that it appears hair splitting sometimes.

The way the US media is adding targets of terrorism everyday may give ample ideas to potential terrorists. As a matter of fact terrorist do not have to do much research to find their future targets if they read US newspapers and watch TV. Different sections of the US media, employing thousands of reporters and investigators, are compiling comprehensive lists of possible targets of terrorism. By now the list of vulnerable facilities is running into thousands and probably nothing is left which is considered safe.

Everything from the agricultural farms to drinking water plants is a possible target of terrorism. Depiction of possible future terrorist attacks are horrifying that one may prefer to commit suicide rather than living in a place where every inch of the land is waiting a disaster.

Furthermore, the gory details of future terrorists' possible modus operandi given by the media has provoked many citizens to allege that the media is, inadvertently, providing instructions to the evil doers. Similarly, the media is giving so much information about the military operation in Afghanistan that the Talibans do not need an intelligence service to find out the types of weapons or war strategies the US is employing: They just need a few internet wizards to find all the details. Last week, the media organisations irked US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, by breaking news of nightly ground operation while the special forces were still on the ground in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, such are the hazards of being a relatively open society where media cannot be restricted.

Being part of capitalist economic system, the US media organisations are competing with each other to sell their commodities-the news and views. All the functionaries of media organisations are producers of this commodity (news) and they have to keep up with each other if they do not want to go bankrupt. Therefore, in their zeal to stay ahead of their competitors the media organisations have to dig in for unique pieces of information to have an edge over competitor. Ultimately, the greed to be more profitable (by attracting more users and ads) overshadows many nationalistic apprehensions.

In the process, the consumer of media organisation benefits from such an unhindered competition. Such a competitive media keeps the system transparent too. In the ultimate analysis, having more information is better for maintenance of a democratic society.

The US media has started giving a much better coverage to Pakistan and its problems. It seems that after transmitting catchy sound bites or TV flashes from Pak-Afghan border in early days of the war, the media organisations have improved upon their coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the earlier weeks entire Pakistan was shown through protesting Afghan refugees in a few bazaars of Quetta and Peshawar or through demonstrations of religious parties in other cities of the country. Now when an immediate fall of Taliban is nowhere in sight and no earth shaking war stories are coming by, some media reporters have started venturing to other parts of the country. Now, CNN and other media channels have presented few good programmes to show mainstream Pakistanis. It has started changing the way American view Pakistanis and their problems.

Many programmes are highlighting the economic vows Pakistanis are facing due to the Afghan war. Most Americans realize that they left Pakistan in a lurch after the Soviets left Afghanistan. They also recognize that if the Musharraf government is not helped in a substantial way, the American objectives in the area may be defeated. However, prevailing American goodwill may not translate into buying more Pakistani goods instantly through the US government campaign, as some business entities believe: The US government does not play such a role in the markets.

Pakistan has a window of opportunity to make headway in this most lucrative market by supplying quality goods. If nothing goes wrong producers of Pakistan's textile goods may create a niche for themselves for an expected favourable treatment by the US trade authorities. Indian protests over such a change indicates how the balance can shift in favour of Pakistani textile products. A vertical rise in Pakistan's stock market indicates that Pakistan's business community has already realized the potential of opening of the US markets. It will be a shame if Pakistani business community does not seize upon this opportunity.

[republished with permission by the author from www.jang.com.pk]

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/3/2004 8:06:10 AM

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