Got an opportunity to attend a session on ‘The Propogation of RTI culture - Role of Media’ organized by The Central Information Comission.  It was disturbing to note that media seems to now realize that RTI backed news story are not ‘SEXY’ enough for the national media to carry.

The power of RTI lies in the hand of the citizen- the “aam-aadmi”, it gives him the power to get the information.  In nine out of ten cases the information would concern specific issues to an individual or a small community.  If every RTI information unearthed large scams then we as a nation would have been in ‘deep shit’.  There would be larger questions on governance.  Well the media is now disappointed and has put the RTI in the backburner. 

Barring the intial euphoria, the traditional media both print and television seem to play a wait an watch game.  Selectively picking information to create bigger news value. Thus all the foreign trip by babus and ministers in the last three years, aggregated using many RTI applications, together became a national news during the seaon of austerity.  But information on delay in the road construction in Mandavali is left behind.�
Fine, the media does not see a lot of news value in the information unearthed by an RTI application. So, why should media be dragged into this?

Yes, it does not deserve a place in the main headines. But the local residents in Mandavali need to know this information unearthed by one of their neighbour. And someone has to disseminate this information.  The media houses have always prided on their role as custodians of impartial information dissemination.  This is thus a challenge for the media to evolve a mechanism of disseminating such specific information in a focussed manner.

The internet as a medium can do that. However, poor penetration of the internet makes it less potent. As the penetration increases in India, this would be the big threat that the new media would have over the traditional.  Similar to what Google by tapping the needs of the local business, mangaed to do in the advertisement space of the traditional media.

The world indeed needs to know a lot to end hunger.  And if 59 million children around the world go to school hungry the time’s long up on us. (more…)