Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Abhishek Singhvi -- Judicial gag orders - News in the time of Social Media

apr 24th, 2012 CE

i haven't been following the foibles of this singhvi character, so this was revealing.

of course, the powers that be will gag the internet now.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sri
Date: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 2:39 AM
Subject: Abhishek Singhvi -- Judicial gag orders - News in the time of Social Media
To:


The fourth pillar of our society is no longer the press but the internet

News in the time of Social Media

http://centreright.in/2012/04/news-in-the-time-of-social-media/

In Delhi power circles, Abhishek Manu Singhvi is known as suave, glib
tongued and wealthy lawyer cum politician. When the sex CD allegedly
showing him in compromising position with a lady lawyer in court
premises surfaced, this St. Stephen's ,Cambridge and Harvard educated
sophisticated Delhi boy did all the right things. He quickly managed
to get a court injunction preventing television channels from
broadcasting the tape, got the driver (ostensibly villain of the
entire deed) to confess that he was merely a disgruntled employee
taking revenge and got a completely absurd story about his dog who bit
the driver's wife planted in a friendly newspaper. What more could an
exceptionally brilliant lawyer do? Singhvi had all his bases covered
but unfortunately for him the year was 2012 and not 2007. Five years
ago, all these measures would have ensured a perfect burial for the
story. In 2012 when social media websites like twitter and face book
have come of
 age, all the world's 'band aid' was found woefully inadequate.

Hell hath no fury like a scandal broken on twitter. While the TV
channels had a court gag order and could not show the tape, the media
across the board wouldn't even risk the mere reference or discussion
on the issue. In fact the tape had been received by some media houses
much before the court injunction (that much was leaked by the
journalists on twitter) but for the reasons best known to them they
didn't take any action. Had there been no social media, this matter
would have ended right there.

Unfortunately for Singhvi, as soon as news spread on Twitter there was
no looking back. Inspite of the court injunction, the tape was leaked
on you tube and Abhishek Manu Singhvi 'trended' for three straight
days. In an age where attention span of people and life of news item
is terribly short, this was quite a feat. Sure there were 'dog bit
driver, driver bit master' kind of jokes abounding, but the emphasis
was on how could a brazen deed performed in the court premises, where
judgeship was allegedly promised in lieu of sexual favor be swept
under the rug. The anger was palpable, the criticism was razor sharp
and questions asked were very valid. How could an ordinary driver
manage to execute such a sophisticated sting operation of this
magnitude? How did he have access to the media channels? If Singhvi's
story was to be believed where did the driver find enough money to
'morph' the video?

Was the act indeed performed in court premises? Was
 the lady indeed promised judgeship in nine months? Those who had seen
the video swore that the tape was anything but doctored. The
twitterverse was abuzz with questions that had no answers. A raging
debate happened simultaneously between those who thought the act was
between two consenting adults and this really was Singhvi's personal
problem and those who felt that Singhvi was a public personality, a
Rajya Sabha member who had misused his position and offering judgeship
for sexual favor was completely unacceptable. While all this was
happening on Twitter, mainstream media chose studied silence. It was
interesting to see them completely abdicating their space and leaving
the ground open for people to discuss it on twitter.

Eventually inspite of putting the brave face and pretending everything
was hunky dory, the tremors were felt by Singhvi. With BJP taking a
proactive role and parliament session about to begin, Singhvi had no
choice but to resign. His resignation letter is an interesting bit of
legalese which reveals nothing and does nothing to absolve him. In any
case, all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put the
genie inside the bottle again.

Sex scandals are nothing new and have rocked all governments of all
countries across the world. Even in India this is not the first time a
politician was caught with his pants down literally, but the curious
thing this time around was how media reacted and how the grammar of
news has changed. Media in India has forever been an old boy's club.
Few people made it big in Newspapers and TV channels and they dished
out information and ordinary people had no choice but to accept it.
They set agendas and shaped opinions. They refused to reveal their
allegiances and ordinary person on the road had no way of knowing.
Opinions were peddled as 'news' and real investigative reporting had
taken back seat. For the longest time news was a one way street. It
was probably not an exaggeration when Dileep Padgaonkar ex editor of
Times of India was quoted as saying that he has the second most
important job in the country.

Suddenly with the advent of social media and especially with twitter,
ordinary people realized that they had a platform where they could
voice concerns and give opinions. The news was not a one way street
anymore. TV channels decided to boycott Radia tapes but these ordinary
people armed with keyboard and broadband connection, forced them to
debate it and brought the issue out in open. Media houses chose to
show Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi wave in UP elections but ordinary
twitterati knew better. There were numerous such incidents where the
deep distrust for main stream media was evident but till Singhvi's
case there had never been a direct face off. Much of the influential
Media downplayed the Singhvi issue as much as possible and Twitter
took off in an exactly opposite direction. While main stream media
suppressed, Twitter relentlessly pursued the case. In today's day and
age, gag orders and bans mean nothing. Despite repeated efforts,
nobody in the
 government could prevent the Singhvi CD from going viral. Singhvi had
to resign and mainstream media suddenly found themselves playing
second fiddle to the Twitter.

Grudgingly some of them admitted victory of social media while others
screamed that social media had turned rogue and needed regulation. The
agenda for the news had finally been set by people through a medium
which is truly by the people, for the people and of the people.

Does this mean Social media is perfect? Of course not. Social media is
as perfect or as imperfect as the world we live in is. There are
rabble rousers, there are lunatic fringes, there are nuanced voices,
there are passionate voices, and there are rhetorical voices, just as
we have in real world. Social Media reflects the world we live in. The
best part about Social media is that no one person gets to set the
agenda, no one person is able to hijack the discourse, no one person
is able to say 'My way or Highway'. Social media regulates itself
beautifully. Extreme voices find less takers and balanced voices get
heard more. Today I find more nuanced debates happening in cyber
sphere than television studios or op ed columns. Social Media is here
to stay and Twitter is only getting started. Main stream media better
wake up to the new dawn or they get left behind. In an era where
people are increasing turning to twitter for breaking news than
watching
 their TV screens, media houses have much to worry about.

As far as Abhishek Manu Singhvi is concerned, he got caught at a wrong
place in a wrong time, and in the era of Twitter that is unforgivable.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

99% of the Social Media had very little to do with it except some comments and articles: the videos of which practically nothing is visible, were elsewhere. So what are cwe talking about?