Impact of global media

Media is a powerful institution in modern society. It has enormous power. Its power now far exceeds that of the proverbial "Fourth state". Development of information and communication technology (ICT) has multiplied the power of the media several-fold.

It has the power to control governments, mould public opinion. In a sense it has become an agit-prop. It offers its services to whomsoever that needs them. It is not only governments and political groups that employ the media in pursuance of their goals. There are also many civil society organizations, commercial establishments and even insurgents and terrorists that employ the media. We also see drug cartels and underworld mafia manipulating the media.

In this situation media has a decisive role in shaping the destiny of society. Such an enormous power could be used both positively and negatively just as nuclear technology could be used for both peaceful and destructive objectives.

Not only has the media gained enormous power it has also enormous means at its disposal. The world has come a long way in the development of technology that the 20th Century has dwarfed all ages preceding it. The ICT revolution that began in the middle of that Century is still developing.

Sri Lanka is not immune to these global developments. Actually the local media has been considerably strengthened due to the induction of new technology. What we are concerned here is not the technological aspect of the media industry but its cultural and political aspects.

It is no secret that the global media empire is controlled and dominated by few large corporations whose task is to impose Western cultural hegemony on developing countries in the Third World. The world wide sweep of neo-liberal globalization has unleashed forces that try to bring about cultural homogenization obliterating national and regional cultural hiddenites and values. For example the Hollywood culture dominates the film scene. An attempt is also made to cast Bollywood also in the Hollywood dye.

It is most unfortunate that the Sri Lankan media is yet not conscious enough to see through the hidden motives and agendas of the imperial media, their distorted and biased coverage of Third World countries, their projection of Western morals and political concepts throughout the world.

There is hardly any positive news from the developing countries that are distributed by the wire services. Majority of their news feeds from the Third World are negative stories. Suffice to say that the CNN telecast an old archive picture from the Gaza strip to show "Palestinian children rejoicing" at the destruction of the WTC on September 11, 2001. It was an attempt to show them as barbarians.

The West not only monopolizes the local media through their news feeds, scholarships and orientation programs for journalists they also get their 'fifth columns' to infiltrate the media.

The Western tilt is easily seen from the foreign news coverage of local print and electronic media where Third World news agencies like PTI, Xinhua and Prensa Latina are eclipsed by Reuters, AP and AFP. The African continent gets hardly any coverage outside civil conflicts.

It is time that the media in this country sets a national agenda, one that promotes national values and not imitate archaic concepts from alien cultures. It has a huge task in nation building, fostering native tradition and culture and promoting a spirit of national renaissance which is both modern and culturally indigenous.

Death on the road

The collision of three passenger buses few days ago at Wadduwa should be an eye opener to the authorities. Our roads have become a killing field for motorists and pedestrians alike. Not a single week passes without a major fatal accident. Sometimes they happen on a daily basis. Apart from those who are killed on the roads a considerably larger number gets maimed and disabled.

For the pedestrians even the zebra crossings are not safe. For the motorists it is a hassle to avoid colliding with pedestrians who cross the roads anywhere at their will and leisure ignoring flowing traffic and even signalling motorists to stop.

Poor condition of the roads, disregarding road rules by drivers, poor technical condition of vehicles and weak enforcement of law all contribute to this unfortunate state of affairs.

That the authorities are slow to react could be seen from the frequent accidents that take place in what are identified as accident prone zones. Wadduwa is one such place. Another contributory factor is the impotence of the police to deal with powerful politicos and moneybags that intimidate them and let the culprits go Scot free. Widespread corruption is also another cause.

The sad thing is that most of these accidents could be prevented if motorists, pedestrians as well as the police followed to the letter the law of the land. How many deaths could we have prevented and how many would have been spared of being maimed and injured?

It is time to initiate a coordinated drive by the police, the provincial authorities and community organizations to educate the public and motorists on road rules and discipline before our roads become the Numero Uno killing fields, even overtaking the mined fields in the war zone.