The influence of news media on control of global narratives has come into question as China and other countries try to get on top of the news during a pandemic. China has tried to control the news around the spread of the disease. USCIRF downgraded India’s rank and many other nations have tried to smudge India’s face on the international front in recent. How does India plan to fight the misinformation and control narratives? Complete Coverage: Coronavirus
Crux of the Matter
What’s the deal? China is accused of covering up information about Coronavirus. Recently, it added a vetting process for online publication of research related to the origin of Coronavirus. Many foreign and domestic media developed a one-sided image of India through their platforms after India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019. Recent reports published by Indian agencies state that Pakistan’s ISI is involved in a misinformation campaign to accentuate the religious divide in India. Also, a twitter account called “@Pak_Fauj” masqueraded as Princess of Oman and tweeted to oust Indians in Oman if India does not stop the persecution of Indian Muslims. UUS religious freedom watchdog USCIRF downgraded India’s rating to ‘Country of Particular Concern’. India rejected the report, condemned USCIRF for being biased and motivated. All these instances showcsae the power of media in today’s age. Are geopolitical interests passed into the mainstream through investment in media? If yes, what shield does India have?
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act in #India “potentially exposes millions of Muslims to detention, deportation, and statelessness when the government completes its planned nationwide National Register of Citizens” USCIRF Vice Chair @nadinemaenza #USCIRFAnnualReport2020 — USCIRF (@USCIRF) April 28, 2020
FDI in Media In 2019, the Indian government announced that up to 26% FDI is allowed in Digital Media. Digital Media category has come out of the broader print and broadcast media. Before this announcement, there was no limit on FDI in digital media companies. However, the FDI limit for print media is 26% and broadcast media/news channel is 49%. Then, a lot of industry players raised questions on the survival of companies like HuffPost of Microsoft’s news websites that operate from foreign and are funded 100% by non-Indian entities. Other things like is this India’s beginning to ban overseas media as China did popped up as well. However, with the growing influence of Chinese and other media, would India’s move to restrict or filter misinformation from outside through indirectly controlling the stake in the company be of assistance today?
Peeking Beyond Media can be used as a tool to control the narratives. Historically, China has banned outside media to a large extent and recently it banned publication of research papers on the origin of Coronavirus. Chinese media has a significant presence in the Indian digital media industry. ByteDance’s TikTok and Helo, Newsdog, etc. are widespread in the Indian digital media space. American media also has influence in the Indian media with Quint associating with Bloomberg, Wire’s founder hailing from America, and presence of HuffPost, MSNBC, CNN IBN, Network18’s channels, etc. According to a 2019 report, China plans to invest $1.3 bn to increase the global presence of Chinese Media. China Global Television Network (CGTN) has reached 140 nations and China Radio International 65.
Can India’s FDI norm in media help pick out the weeds in the global media placed by notorious agencies backed by nations trying to establish a narrative? Or Will India start developing its own narrative?
Curiopedia
ByteDance was founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. As of 2019, with more than 1 billion monthly users, ByteDance is valued at $75 billion, making it the most valuable startup in the world. Zhang’s personal wealth is estimated at $16.2 billion, making him the ninth richest person in China.
BloombergQuint is an Indian business and financial news organization founded in 2016 by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur. It is a joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media. Within six months of going live, the web portal received one million monthly users.
The United States remains the largest recipient of FDI, attracting $251 billion in inflows, followed by China with flows of $140 billion and Singapore with $110 billion. While India attracted approximately $49 billion in 2019.
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