MEDIA AS A CULTURE CREATOR

"Popular culture and the mass media have a symbiotic relationship: each
depends on the other in an intimate collaboration."

— K. Turner (1984), Postmodern Media Culture

Justice Holmes described the role of media to be a market place of ideas.

Where every individual can share his view and the view best suited for the
society comes out as dominant. In today’s time the media has gone beyond
just being a market place of idea to strongly advocating ideas which form
the culture of any society.

After homosexuality was decriminalized Times magazine published a cover

with two men kissing.The significance of such expressions are greater than
one can think, media in any form print, electronic, digital has great impact
on the culture of any country. The role of media in opinion creation cannot
be emphasized enough. It plays a major role in ‘normalizing’ new
ideas/ethos. Many scholars have gone to the extent that consumerism is an
aspect of mediatization or media fuels capitalism. As media as gained more
and more power with the coming of internet era a very important question
surfaces should the role of media be limited to be a market place of ideas or
it goes beyond that and it should be as strong as being opinion creators.

This paper argues that the role of media must be limited when it comes to
opinion creation especially when it comes to the aspect of consumers, India
being a paternalistic States owes responsibility to guide its citizens and
must exercise greater control over media especially advertisement for the
protection of human health and welfare and environment.

Keywords: consumerism, welfare, environment, environment.

Research Objectives:

1. To understand the role of media in influencing the culture of a society

and creating new acceptable practice vis-à-vis the Freedom of speech
and Expression.
2. To study the reaction required by the State to curtail this power of the
media.

Research Purpose:

The purpose is to study how powerful the media has become when it comes
to opinion creation and the need to regulate it.

Research Questions:

1. Should the role of media be limited to being a market place of ideas or

play a strong part in opinion creation if yes how it should be
regulated?
2. Should the Indian State play a part in curbing consumerism and make
laws to oversee the overall human wellbeing/health and environment
protection vis-à-vis promotion done by media?

Research Methodology
The researcher has followed doctrinal method of research.
INTRODUCTION

Culture can be defined as a web of significance spun between people

through their own social actions.1 Culture is not said to be given but
develops in the process of production, use and advertisement.2
Media has changed the relationship between the State and the people,
between people and the State and the State and the international
community. “Mediated texts mean a great deal for the way people
experience the relationship between self and the surrounding world,
including the world of goods.”3 With the arrival of digital media, national
borders hold no significance as opinions, art and culture is shared
significantly.
This gives a certain degree of cultural power to each individual, more than
the media hold such cultural power as it reaches to the masses it has the
power to change the likes and dislikes of people or to normalize ethos which
were previously seen as unacceptable in the society.
An individual is free to express their views on mass media, even though it
may be seen as unacceptable by the society 4 as one of the role of media is to
maintain cultural democracy. The media has taken to much more than just

1 Clifford Geertz,‘Thick Description’ (1993) 11

2André Jansson, “The Mediatization of Consumption Towards an analytical framework of
image culture” (2002) 2(1) JCC, 6
3 Id at 11
4Khusboo Vs Kaniammal 2010 (4) SCALE 467
being a platform for individuals to voice out their opinion. In the era or exit
polls, one sided news debates and motivated magazine covers the media has
manage to influence the thinking of the people vastly.
The media thus greatly influences the public discourse, “public discourse
refers to those processes of communication that allow public opinion to
serve as the judge of society.”5
The regulation of content becomes necessary to make sure that the society
is truly liberal and people are not being influenced.

Commercial Speech and its influence

Many advertisements have become culturally significant one such example

is the advertisement for the clothing brand Anouk which normalizes
homosexuality by showing two women in such a relationship or the
advertisement for Usha Kitchen appliances which shows that men should
also participate in household work. Such advertisements make the society
more liberal.

However the particular Post believes that these advertisement do not form
the part of public discourse as “it is not designed or intended as a potential
contribution to democratic legitimation” 6 This argument is based on the fact
that the motive of the advertisement is to advance its own commercial
purpose and not to take part in the public life of the nation and second that
it is not followed by any dialogue and third that the aim of these commercial
advertisement is not to make the State responsible for anything but to sell
products.
The fact that the commercial speech is out their available to the people and
making a bold statement itself makes it a part of the public discourse,
moreover even though such commercial speech does not make the State
5Jack M. Balkin, “Cultural Democracy And The First Amendment” (2016) 110 (5) NWULR
1053, 1082
6 Robert Post, “The Constitutional Status Of Commercial Speech” 48 ULR 20-21 (2000)
responsible for anything Balkin argues that even thought that maybe true
such a speech effects the culture of the world around us and becomes a part
of the public discourse.7
Balkin goes on to argue that the commercial advertiser is trying to make a
better world to sell his products and commercial speech is one of the most
powerful influencer of the social culture. But then should such a thing be
deemed as unethical to influence a society’s culture just to fulfill ones own
commercial needs? It becomes difficult to regulate such a practice as it
would not come under the restrictions of Article 19.
.
The cultural influence of the commercial speech is only a byproduct of
selling of products. A film exhibitor cannot claim the right under Article
19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution as he shows the films for commercial
purposes not to incite public opinion.8Similarly if Posts arguments are taken
any commercial speech should not have the protection of Article 19(1)(a).

This position shifted in Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd v. Union

of India9 where the court iterated that commercial speech deserves the
protection of Article 19 as there is dissemination of information and it helps
in economic enlightment of the consumers. The current judicial position is
that commercial speech does not enjoy the same protection under Article 19
as compared to political speech.10

Today the line between commercial speech and political speech has
narrowed as commercial speech is used to make political statements. The
courts need to revisit the judgement and form guidelines which could be
used for regulating commercial speech. As the effect of mixing of
commercial and political speech can go in both directions.

7Supra 5
8 Star Video V. State Of Uttar Pradesh 1959 AIR 1012, Hamdard Dawakhana vs Union Of
India 1960 AIR 554
91985 SCR (2) 287
10Mr. Mahesh Bhatt And  Kasturi And Sons V. Union Of India And Anr 147 (200) DLT 561
Exit polls an opinion changer

In the past two decades, media with its tools of communication has emerged
as the dominant means for communication in India. A large number of news
channels and private television have emerged. Today, broadcasting India is
a powerful tool to spread news and information, debate and discuss issues,
entertain and amuse and engage people to action. With the advancement of
technology there have been drastic changes in the traditional methods of
voting or having an opinion about the election. This technological
advancement can be seen with the growing concept of exit polls specially
with the growth of media and the emergence of the strongest medium of
communication to the public i.e the television and news channels, in today’s
society. In a democratic society like India which provide for universal
suffrage, the right to vote for its citizens, elections are considered as an
inevitable part. Whether the constant throwing of the media’s prediction
results has any perceptible impact on the voters is a matter of individual
view. Political parties, candidates, media organization and researchers,
however, are interested to know how people perceive the political
campaigns, which by and large are mediated through mass media. Media
has a great impact on the individual and upon the society at large, as it has
been the only source of extracting information inspite of the same being
believable or not. It is seen as the strongest cannon which is capable of
manipulating a person’s perspective turning out to be either a positive or a
negative one.

Exit polls are method used by the media to foresee elections before all the
votes are in. it is basically having an opinion of the voters about their
preferences on the day of the election. Exit polls play an important role in
manipulating the opinion of the voters. They are the data which is injected
into the public domain and such data sometimes have strong impact on the
people. For example during 2008 amendment, the main motive behind the
amendment was that when the elections are conducted and moved in a
month’s long process, the result of the exit polls viewed and broadcasted by
the media after each distinct phase of polling has a strong affect on the
subsequent process of election. By such a move media have a strong impact
on the voters. It is an established fact that during the run-up to any
elections, not only in India, but in other democratic countries as well, exit
polls often referred as opinion polls are often conducted by different
organizations and agencies.

Exit poll is a reaction of the people who have chosen their candidate but it
has a great impact on people who are yet to decide about the same. As
these poll results during the election campaign are projected on a public
platform which tend to turn the mindset of the voters. When a person who is
updated to the minute to minute information or exposed to the predictions
made by the polls, its effect is a complex matter. This gives rise to the
concept of bandwagon effect, to say that the voters might change the view
of voting a particular candidate after seeing the prediction of the exit poll.
The situation comes where the voters find it more logical and reasonable to
vote for the party who is winning the election irrespective of what his/her
decision was prior to the prediction of the exit poll. The same was seen in
the 2013 Australian election where voters changed their votes to the
winning party after the poll results of the survey made by the ReachTEL. 11

Therefore sometimes because of such incidents, exit polls are considered to

be a growing criticism of media. Therefore sometimes because of such
incidents, exit polls are considered to be growing criticism of media. The
publication of such results of an exit poll, in the intervening period when the
poll in some of the states or union territories or constituencies is yet to be
taken, is likely to affect one way or the other, the mental-makeup or the
thinking capacity of the electors yet to vote and influence the exercise of
franchise by them.

11 http://theconversation.com/how-political-opinion-polls-affect-voter-behaviour-60554
However, many a times it has been observed that the actual results are
completely different from the predictions made in the polls. For instance
such observations can be seen in Indian elections. Taking the example of
the general election happened in the year 2004, the opinion polls predicted
that the National Democratic Alliance will be ruling the state yet again..
However, the actual position stood on the result that the Congress
happened to form the government. Also during the 2007 state elections
which happened in Uttar Pradesh, not even a single opinion poll predicted
that Mayawati will come into the ruling by Bahujan Samaj Party forming the
government. All the predictions made by the opinion polls were proved to
be wrong.

representations were often made to the election commission by various

political parties that the conduct of such exit polls and publication of their
results, particularly when the polling process was still on, should be
stopped, so that no political party or candidate suffered adversely or gained
undue advantage, because of the dissemination of results of such polls. The
matter was discussed between the political parties and the Election
Commission, almost all the parties were of the view that such polls are
unscientific and there was considerable bias in the size and the nature of
the sample drawn to conduct such polls. further the parties alleged that
they tend to influence the voters in an unbecoming manner.

Globalization and Media

Indian culture has changed drastically after the LPG policy came out in
1991, India has become prone to westernization. This change could be said
to be good in many aspects as thinking became more liberal. Though many
conservative people believe that westernization is the reason for deprivation
of the society.

These western idea has been brought in by the media, now platforms such
as Netflix,Amazon prime which are foreign entities have lot of foreign
content on their platform. This has vastly westernized the culture especially
the youth.

The State cannot regulate this content as these platforms have the right to
freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 of the Indian
constitution. Even though they are companies and thus not citizens 12 and
Article 19 cannot be explicitly claimed if they have an Indian Subsidiary
company a suit can be filed by any majority shareholder of Indian Citizen
claiming Article 19 rights.2

The State cannot regulate the content, the next question is should the State
think about regulating the content based on moral or ethical grounds as
India is a welfare. A welfare State could be said to be a combination of
Democracy, Welfare and Capitalism.13 The main role is to reduce poverty
and a State cannot choose to regulate the culture of a country as that will
diminish the basic liberties and freedom of choice.In Hadiya case the SC
said that the State cannot interfere in choices made by an individual.14

Media and Consumerism

In the twentieth century India the people had wealth but they had low key
lifestyle, as minimalism was popular, now people have dreams of foreign
vacations, big homes, high end technology, what changed this. The sudden
emergence of capitalist culture can be attributed to the media. As economic
liberation has taken place and advertisement have increased people have
become more consumeristic.

As advertisements have increased, people have become more materialistic

as liberalization gave way to access to foreign products. These Foreign

12STC vs CTO AIR 1963 SC 1811

13Marshall, Thomas Humphrey, “Citizenship And Social Class: And Other Essays” (1950)
Cambridge University Press
14Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M & ORS 2018 SCC Online SC 343
products have significantly Indianized themselves by using celebrities,
songs and sponsoring famous sporting events.

Media not only influences the polity of a country but also the economy, as
more and more foreign companies enter the market and use their vast
capital to advertise about them, this has given rise to capitalist culture.

Even though the State cannot regulate the individual choices of any
individual it has become imperative to regulate the advertisements or to
have disclaimers. As this encouraged capitalism has vastly harmed the
environment of the country and also the human health as more and more
fast food chains are becoming popular.

In a similar way that the Government mandates disclaimer on tobacco in a

similar way it should be levied on advertisements which encourage
environment and human health degradation. Under the DPSP’s it is the duty
of the state to protect human health and environment.15

Conclusion

In the earliest days the first market place of idea was people discussing
their opinions in coffee shops. Now this market place of idea has changed
vastly as any opinion can be shared with ‘N’ number of people. Cultural
Democracy needs to precede political democracy. “The development of
public opinion and a public sphere gave rise to media, institutions, and
practices adaptable to an emerging form of democratic politics.”16 Media
itself is a creation of public opinion but is now in a position to influence this
public opinion

The change in lifestyle of people can be attributed to media as they have

become more consumeristic. The State being a welfare state has a duty to
15Leela Fernandes,” Nationalizing the global: Media image, cultural politics and the middle
class in India” (2000) 22 (5) MCC <
http://mcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/5/611> accessed 30 October 2018
16Supra 5 at 1075
ensure a decent standard of living for each and every citizen, it may be
tempted to regulate the media which encourages capitalism, even though
that would be in favour of human health, environment and a minimalist
society the freedom of choice of an individual, but disclaimers should be
attached to such speech encouraging consumerism.