Abstract
Using India as a case study, this chapter focuses on the significance of cultural participation for the inclusivity of society and following from that for the legitimacy of the state. A sketch of the development of citizenship theory is followed by a discussion of the conceptual novelty of ‘cultural citizenship,’ which serves as the theoretical base for conceptualising the inclusive nature of a society in the deeply-divided, multi-discursive setting of post-colonial India. Situated at the axis of the political and the media sphere, cultural citizenship is understood as a cycle of the cultural production of meaning. In this understanding, cultural citizenship opens up a discursive space in which meanings circulate and are negotiated. Media representation is thus linked to governance, and the engagement of the public in these processes can contribute to an increased sense of belonging to the national community. The role that the ever-growing media sphere in India plays in the representation and identity-articulation of various communities is explored by means of a content analysis of selected television channels and leading newspapers. In addition, archival research and expert interviews constitute the main components of this study of the inclusivity and permeability of the Indian mass media. The chapter arrives at the conclusion that the Indian case could benefit from a ‘trans-policy approach,’ which takes into consideration ideas and role models that have been applied successfully in other countries.
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Notes
- 1.
In political theory, a ‘representative democracy’ is not generally considered to be participatory. The term ‘participatory democracy,’ on the other hand, refers to the participation of citizens in the operation of political systems. It thus advocates a more active role of the citizen than ‘representative democracy’ does. Communication technology is often considered necessary in order to put participatory models into practice. For a thorough discussion on ‘participatory democracy’ and ‘deliberative democracy,’ where deliberation, not merely voting, is the primary source of a law's legitimacy, see for example (Mutz 2006).
- 2.
According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, participation helps to overcome the disruptive division between different sections of society, with the effect that there are few people who, like in Rousseau’s Emile, when asked about their country will reply “I am one of the rich” (quoted in Pateman 1970, 27).
- 3.
Cultural participation is here used as an umbrella term to denote the activities of individuals and groups in the making and the use of cultural products and processes (Murray 2005).
- 4.
This is but one definition of ‘social capital,’ which is a manifold concept that representatives of various social science disciplines tend to interpret differently according to different contexts. For an overview of definitions and approaches to the study of social capital, see for example (Häuberer 2011).
- 5.
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 27:
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts, and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which he is the author.
- 6.
Arguing that the evolution of modern citizenship has been in progress for about 250 years, Marshall identifies the “modern drive towards social equality” as the latest phase. He proposes dividing citizenship into three parts or elements and distinguishes between civil, political, and social citizenship. The civil element to him contains the rights that are necessary to secure individual freedom—liberty of the person, freedom of speech, thought, and faith, the right to own property and to conclude valid contracts, as well as the right to justice. The political element of citizenship has to be understood as the “right to participate in the exercise of political power, as a member of a body invested with political authority or as an elector of the members of such a body”––i.e. active and passive suffrage. The social part finally contains the right to a minimum of economic welfare and security as well as the right to a share in societal wealth, in order to be able to live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in the society.
- 7.
Among these new forms are sexual citizenship, ecological citizenship, cosmopolitan citizenship, economic citizenship, health citizenship, liberal citizenship, republican citizenship, cultural—and multi-cultural citizenship, to name but the most widely discussed. See also (Isin and Turner 2002).
- 8.
The fact that the definition of ‘cultural citizenship’ was absent from an earlier edition of that reference work in which the same author was involved (O’Sullivan et al. 1994) underlines the novelty of the concept.
- 9.
Building on a minimalistic definition by Judith Lichtenberg, ‘mass media’ are here defined as those media which draw mass audiences and have a wide penetration within a given population and which bear responsibility for presenting many sides of an issue. They are distinguished from ‘non-mass media,’ whose purpose often lies in advancing a certain point of view or in promoting the discussion of a few more narrowly defined issues (cf. Lichtenberg 1990b, 123).
- 10.
- 11.
For reasons of conceptual clarity, the significant difference between ‘governance’ and ‘government,’ especially when it comes to cultural policy, deserves elaboration. While ‘government of culture’ has been described as “monoculture, state-centric and elite-driven” (Paquet 2005, 229), ‘governance of culture’ is “multicultural, pluralist, private-public-civic sectors shared, and diversity-driven” (Paquet 2005, 229). It is a democratic space, in which members of a polity can exercise influence (cf. Mercer 2005, 11). Just as ‘cultural planning’ does not mean ‘the planning of culture,’ but rather refers to the process of ensuring that the cultural element, cultural considerations, are there at every stage of the planning and development process, “governance of culture cannot be reduced to government of culture: the latter is only a small segment of the former” (Paquet 2005, 221). In other words, government and governance are not synonymous terms. Governance signifies “our joint and uneven terms of engagement with the complex field of economic, human, social and cultural power relations in which we are all ‘stakeholders’” (Mercer 2005, 11).
- 12.
‘Culture,’ which is a highly dynamic and multi-discursive concept, in this understanding becomes increasingly modified and hence one-sided. Benedict Anderson uses it here to underline the artificial character of a ‘national culture’ where the concept is first constructed and then employed as a homogenizing device.
- 13.
Doordarshan was set up in 1959 with a first experimental telecast. Regular daily broadcasting did not start until 1965.
- 14.
An in-depth account of the Indian television landscape is beyond the scope of this chapter. For a thorough discussion of the broadcasting policy and content of Doordarshan see, for example, (Ghose 2005). For the continuing expansion of television in India and its significance in the social and political life see, for example, (Mitra 1993); (Ninan 1995); (Rajagopal 2001); (Mehta 2008).
- 15.
This refers to an identity articulation beyond party politics. In some cases, advocacy for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Castes (OBCs) exists, for example in the form of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which has its stronghold in Uttar Pradesh.
- 16.
Content analysis is a research method commonly used in the social sciences in order to determine the frequency of the presence or absence of pre-selected categories in media texts. The categorization itself is the most problematic part of this method. While the proponents of this method stress its objectivity and repeatability, it is also argued that the selection of categories is based on value judgements and hence influences the results (see also O’Sullivan et al. 1994, 62).
- 17.
Aam admi is a term frequently used in Indian social discourse to refer to disadvantaged sections of society, largely from a rural background. These people, although they form the vast majority of Indian citizens in terms of numbers and are also increasingly becoming consumers of audio-visual media, possess very little purchasing power. As a result, the overwhelming majority of television news and reports caters to the interests of a minority of the population.
- 18.
The newspapers analysed were the Hindustan Times (Delhi), the Patriot (Delhi), The Statesman, (Calcutta), Amrit Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), National Herald (Lucknow), The Hindu (Madras), and the Free Press Journal (Bombay).
- 19.
As far as the sampling is concerned, for the purpose of the study every fourth issue in the given period of time was used, which gave a sample of twenty-four issues of each newspaper for the period between October 1969 and 1 January 1970. The newspapers were sampled to synchronize with the dates of night radio bulletins, as it was assumed that the news in the night bulletins would appear in the following day’s newspapers. With regard to AIR, since it puts out four major English bulletins every day in the morning, afternoon, at evening, and at night, it was decided to take a time sample of these three-month news broadcasts, similarly taking every fourth bulletin chronologically.
The total newspaper sample consisted of 1,19,472 column inches of space and the sample of radio news bulletins consisted of 1,21,607 words.
- 20.
The Director of News Services Division (D.N.S.) of All India Radio is usually a member of the Central Information Service (CIS), which handles all information and public relations work of the Government of India) and is responsible for the entire news output. While working with the Director General, AIR, the D.N.S., who has the status of Deputy Director General, enjoys a considerable amount of autonomy. In many matters, he or she deals directly with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (cf. Baruah 1983, 72).
- 21.
The All India Kisan Sabha or Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (AIKS) is the peasants’ front of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)).
- 22.
The NESC & H does not define media bias as such. However, it is safe to assume that this term refers to the under-or misrepresentation of north-easterners in the urban mass media.
- 23.
The regional newspaper Nagaland Post reported on 24 October 2011 that the niece of Subhas Chandra Bose, the founder of the Indian National Army (INA), criticized the Union government for not acknowledging the contribution of the people of Nagaland to Bose’s cause and that of the INA.
- 24.
To substantiate her point, Lichtenberg in this context discusses two landmark judgments by the US Supreme Court: Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC [Federal Communications Commission] of 1969 and Miami Herald v. Tornillo dating back to the year 1974. The so-called Red Lion case concerned a Pennsylvania radio station that in 1964 aired a broadcast by the Reverend Billy James Hargis as part of a ‘Christian Crusade’ series. Hargis attacked Fred Cook, the author of a book entitled Goldwater—Extremist on the Right about the former Senator from Arizona and Republican candidate in the 1964 presidential elections. Hargis accused Cook of having written “a book to smear and destroy Barry Goldwater.” The author demanded free reply time, which the broadcasting station refused to give him. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the FCC’s requirements that under the fairness doctrine radio and television stations provide free reply time to those attacked in station broadcasts.
In the other case, the newspaper Miami Herald published editorials criticizing Pat Tornillo, a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives. Tornillo demanded that the paper print his replies, which it refused to do. He brought suit, relying on a Florida right-of-reply statute that provided that if a candidate for nomination or election is attacked “regarding his personal character or official record by any newspaper, the candidate has the right to demand that the newspaper print, free of cost to the candidate, any reply the candidate may make to the newspaper’s charges.” The Supreme Court in this case, however, held that such statutes violate the First Amendment guarantee of a free press. It failed to even refer to the ‘Red Lion’ case (cf. Lichtenberg 1990a, 2–3).
- 25.
Interview with Professor Hemant Joshi at IIMC, New Delhi, on 18 May 2011.
- 26.
Interview with Dr. Vipul Mudgal at CSDS, New Delhi, on 14 April 2011.
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König, L. (2015). ‘Cultural Citizenship’ and Media Representation in India: Towards a Trans-Policy Approach. In: Flüchter, A., Schöttli, J. (eds) The Dynamics of Transculturality. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09740-4_7
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