Presentation is based on a paper presented at the International Conference of Media diversity and plurality at Makhanlal Journalism University, Bhopal, India

1. Depiction of media diversity: Thematic
deconstruction of `Pipli Live’
By Archana R Singh

2. .
Cinema on rural life
 Cinema has tackled the issues of agrarian
crisis since Mother India, Upkaar, Dharti
kahe pukar ke and many others to the
latest Summer 2007 .
 one film that has tackled the above issue
through a satire on political, bureaucratic
and media response to the same is Pipli
Live ( 2010, Amir Khan productions)

3. The reviews
 Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film three and a half out of
five stars stating," How smart can Indian cinema get? Exhilarating
answer: Very smart. “And that's the bottom line of Peepli Live.”
 Taran Adarshof Bollywood Hungama gave it four and a half out of five
stars and argues that "the concept (farmers' suicides) would
instinctively translate into a serious, thought-provoking film.
 Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times gave the film four out of five stars
arguing that "the satire is irresistible; the subtext, compelling. And yet
neither shows itself up in any form of self-seriousness.
 Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN also gave it three and a half out of five
stars, calling it "a scathing satire on the country's apathy towards the
rural class, and specifically towards farmers
 The Statesman gave the film 4 out of 5 stars noting that, "Anusha Rizvi
demolishes successfully whatever little faith we had in the political
process. Peepli (Live) is entertaining and inspiring".

4. The media ignores the media
 The film talks about the impending death of a farmer
 It delves upon one apparent and one implicated
death; that of the `mud digger’ being symbolic of silent
death of the poor and impoverished
 More importantly, it manages to metaphorically
announces the death of the rural print media through
the small time reporter of sole proprietor rural
newspaper.
 The film takes a long hard look at the market driven
media environment
 A student of media can discern a commentary on the
dilemma being faced by the Indian media persons in
every dialogue and description.

5. Objectives
 This paper tries to identify the deeper nuances of
media diversity as shown in the film.
 To go beyond the superficial depiction of media
appearing to be only about salability of the story and
the circus created by electronic media pouncing on
`breaking news’.
 To take a concentrated look at the diverse aspects of
media which speak about the changes that the
profession of journalism is going through and the
insecurity being felt by the journalists.
 To conduct a qualitative thematic analysis of the film
through emerging themes and their contribution to the
narrative.

6. Methodology
 The film has been analyzed through qualitative
thematic analysis
 The priori, non content-specific scheme of
coding has been used for the purpose of
analyzing the visual data
 The codes are derived directly by the
researcher from the themes originating in the
film and the data are examined and sorted into
the scheme

7. Unit of analysis
Emerging themes relating to the issue of diversity of media are:
 Urban/rural
 Rich /Poor
 Alert/laid back
 Sensitive/Callous
 Opportunist/idealist
 Print/television
 Sole proprietor/Corporate
 Bureaucratic pressure/market pressure
 Inter-media competition
 Intra-media competition

8. Data Analysis
Media makes an entry
 Natha’s brother is shown listening to a newspaper story
about farmers’ suicide published in `Jan Morcha’ being
read out at a tea stall. ( 1)
 Urban elitist media in the form of English news channel
makes its entry into the frame of the film with a `Shilpa
Shetty’ story in the lead. Farmers’ suicide story is the
third lead in the bulletin on air ( 2)
 Hindi media makes its entry as a viewer of English
Channel. ( 3)

9. Media-politics relationship
 The nexus between politicians with the correspondents
of the English channels is casual, friendly and one of
symbiotic interdependence made clear by their
dialogues about attending each other’s parties
 relationship with Hindi channel reporter is about
sycophancy and feet touching.

10. Print/Electronic
 Print is the first medium to make its entry and
is depicted as a reliable medium. It is also the
first medium to break the Natha story.
 Governmental action in the form of `Lal
Bahadur’
 License of Jan Morcha being revoked.
 Electronic media is hesitant about the
coverage but later attacks it like an army
operation

11. Print media in the film
 Breaks the news at the local level.
 Breaks the first Natha story.
 Is being followed by/referred to local politicians.
 Is represented only by small sole proprietor rural newspaper and
only one instance of an international magazine when the Natha
family makes it to the cover of the Times, with the headline, `The
great Indian tragedy’. It exists in two extremes of hyper-local and
global i.e. either the Pipli newspaper or Time magazine.
 There is no national or regional print media to provide inter-media or
intra-media competition
 Is prone to closure and governmental action.
 Is not considered as competition by the electronic media. The inter-
media competition is visible in the broadcast channels only.

12. Rural/Poor
 The Rural media is symbolized by a sole proprietor
(NavKranti Prakashan) small newspaper called `Janmorcha’,
an aggressive suggestion to the otherwise meek existence
 rural print media reporter turns out to be the only media
person with a `nose for news’. He is first to recognize the
Natha story, first to break it in his newspaper, first to
recognize a good story in the Mahto the mud digger.
 He is also first to notice the futility of Natha story, first to
notice suspicious behavior of police officers who have kept
Natha in a warehouse ,first to reach the spot and find Natha
and first to martyr his life for the cause of a good story. He is
however unaware of his capabilities and is starry eyed about
electronic media.

13. Urban/Rich
 Hindi urban electronic media has been portrayed as
sensationalist, opportunistic and self congratulatory.
They mostly are shown as keeping an eye on the
English Channel reporter and following her lead. They
are shown indulging in sensational journalism by
encouraging superstition asking the villagers to
pretend to be possessed
 The English Channels are insensitive, opportunistic,
TRP driven and unconcerned with human discomfort
and cleverly hide their callousness behind the garb of
professionalism. Crude opportunistic with local
residents and condescending towards local media

14. Sole proprietor/Corporate
 The Natha story is picked up by the English Channel
followed closely by the Hindi channel based solely on
the editorial decision making of the higher hierarchy of
the media establishment and not by the reporters
 The reporters are shown taking decisions on event
oriented news and not on perspectives.
 The sole proprietor is portrayed as scared. As it is he
is struggling with lack of support system, limited
resources and untrained staff, and to add to his woes
are the political and bureaucratic pressures. He
cringes at every question and places the blame on the
correspondent.

15. Conclusion
 The basics of journalism suggest verification
 The small time print reporter dies in the explosion
and everyone assumes that Natha is dead. No
one verifies.
 Natha, the farmer is dead, a fact that media has
not noticed. Natha, the migrant labour has just
been born and nobody perceives.
 A more tragic death is that of Rakesh. He who,
symbolizes, print media, the sensitive media, the
only media with some nose for news, the alert
media and the small grassroots media.

16. Epilogue
 The film for a media student is reflective of the
condition of journalists in the small, sole
proprietor print media.
Unrecognized, unappreciated, dying a quiet
death amid the din of corporate media.
 As they go extinct, the elite urban media blows
dust to the rural hinterland and will return to
the Piplis of India only when they have the
TRP friendly, eyeball catching, `breaking
news’!

17. archana@pu.ac.in
archanarsingh@gmail.com