Media matters

Twenty-four hours a day, an entire generation of young Indians laps up the irreverence, frenetic pace and zany humour beamed into their homes on MTV India, Channel [V] and other pop music stations.
But unbeknownst to these trendy teens and Gen-Xers, they''re also absorbing subtle messages with disturbing and unproven effects – effects which may include a heightened sense of post-colonialist cruelty and classism, and a view of religion that''s nothing more than a collection of gay, glossy and meaningless images.
The man who posits this disquieting theory is Vamsee Juluri, an associate professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco.
Juluri''s no curmudgeon, but a tall, dapper 33-year-old with a burning desire to peel back the glittery façade of Indian music television to reveal the deeper truths within.
"When I was growing up, I was a secret fan of MTV," he confides over beer at a downtown San Francisco pub. "I used to get videos of American MTV sent to me in India."
Juluri became fascinated at the way society – in this case, American society – was portrayed on TV. When satellite TV hit India in the early 1990s, his casual interest became an obsession. He started to wonder, what effect would this new technology have on Mother India?
Today, a decade after the onslaught of Indian satellite TV changed the way the country perceives itself, Juluri takes a sober look at the phenomenon of hi-tech''s effects on an ancient culture in a book, Becoming a Global Audience: Longing and Belonging in Indian Music Television, (Peter Lang Publishing).
Written for the academic market – not necessarily for the MTV core audience – the book is demanding reading. But it''s must-see material for anyone working in television, as it offers a fascinating look into a media phenomenon whose ubiquity is taken for granted – yet whose power is no secret at all to marketers.
"One thing I''ve tried to do is not make the book too obscure," says Juluri, "I''m hoping a smart audience, anyone who cares about the world around them, will be interested."
Juluri based his study on interviews with educated, mid-to-upper class viewers in Hyderabad, aging from their mid-teens to early 30s.
It''s a group American TV execs would call a prime demographic market for advertisers; within India, it''s a group whose future as taste-makers and business and community leaders seems assured.
So what are the leaders of tomorrow putting into their brains anyway? "The images of the ''public'' are to a large extent based on a new Channel [V] and MTV-driven fads of exoticising and ridiculing working class people in promos and videos," Juluri writes.
"The images of the ''nation'' in which participants find their Indian dil are plainly Orientalistic – elephants, soothsayers, princes, and so on."
The Indian TV industry''s revenues, according to an Arthur Andersen report, were Rs 94 billion in 2001.
This is estimated to go up to Rs 220 billion in 2006, Juluri observes, adding that the Indian TV audience consists of close to 80 million households with an average of five viewers per household, while cable and satellite reaches 37 million homes.
This translates to a massive industry with vast potential to influence young minds. "If you talk to media executives in India and ask them, ''What do the people want?'' they''ll reply, ''Violence and mindless entertainment.'' But I think people are smarter than that," he says.
Juluri decries what he sees as the cheapening of traditional symbols of Indian mythology, and the co-opting of powerful symbolism for advertising, entertainment and political influence.
"Indians'' historic culture is being reduced to slogans and sold back to them by corporations," he warns.
Given the huge amounts of money, talent and manpower that go into the television, film and music industries, Juluri hopes that his field of media studies will one day get the serious consideration it deserves.
"Some people consider it frivolous," he says, laughing. "How can they take your career seriously when you''re studying music videos? But it deserves to be taken as seriously as zoology or any other science. Media is the biggest source of how we think in our society."