Professional media in most cases is now not about popularity and circulation only given the huge pressure built up by social media but branding as well. Interestingly, this brand is not only about the content of the media outlet but the owner's profile as well. Owners are as integral to the mosaic of media now as they were at any other time before. Media is no longer about media only.
The reasons are obvious. The role of professional media is not about providing information only but to provide support to the economic eco-system that keeps the owners and their media outlets going. It's about (re)understanding media in an era where information sources have dramatically diversified and traditional media is one not even the main one. But the media and its ownership remain critical.
The declared objective of social imaging and branding of media as a social activist remains there creating a somewhat contradictory position. It's not just the lure of media as a passport to social capital remains high, but that is its essential function. And therefore the media's role has shifted if not changed, creating new space where it must remain present, obvious and functioning, in its new incarnation, wearing older robes if needed.
STATE PAST MEDIA PAST: Media was the primary political tool of the middle class who ran politics before 1971. It gave expression to the aspiration of the waiting East Pakistani economic elite. That could not be achieved under the false central controlled imposed state of Pakistan. It was structurally impossible to accommodate aspirant elites from a margin of what was from the birth not a single state.
Two ruling elites would have threatened the historically impersonator state of Pakistan. The crackdown of March 1971 was a military effort by an elite under extreme stress which would lose monopoly control. It was an enviable last ditch effort by an economic elite trying to retain control of what was historically not meant to be.
On the other hand, in East Pakistan media's main role was to promote the aspirant elite class to achieve what was denied from the first- a state as per the Lahore resolution of 1940. The LR was amended in 1946 by M.A. Jinnah from a "two independent states" arrangement to a single centralized state. A lot of historical waters flew under the bridge that basically wrecked Pakistan but the aspiration for a state of east Pakistan after 1947 began in earnest. And in that the media played a role.
The process or strategy to establish a state once denied but still sought after occurred at several layers both formal and informal : They were : (a) formal legislative politics; (b) informal street agitation politics; (c) mainstream media; (d) protest media; and (e) clandestine activities
Each of these spaces was active and one often overlapped with the other. Media between 1947-1971 was therefore a dominantly political process and not an informational one which made the space between activism and journalism narrow but more significantly legitimate. Thus the principal idea of media spawned in middle class aspirant hearts became the obvious dominant. State making participation was key, not information distribution..
POST 1971 MEDIA AND STATE: Once the state was achieved, the media was no longer in opposition but the establishment. Political party wise, some were in opposition but all belonged to the same state making it a matter of competition for resource control rather than aspiration to form a new state.
The economic system that began to grow was also linked to various power groups as a formal state apparatus failed to take off. This meant there was no agreement on governance patterns, economic systems and transfer of power. Much was written in a constitution but by the time it was finished much was outdated as none of the so -called state pillars had any basis or platform.
Socialism was dying as a state system globally, secularism was perceived as promotion of non-religiosity while nationalism was an abstract concept that served as a slogan of political and cultural convenience. Lastly, democracy of the functional variety had no impact.
It was not just BKSAL or one party rule (1975) gained legitimacy but martial law as well exposing the weakness of the formal state system. The so-called "democratic mechanism" never really took off as it probably never was located in the formal system. Hence till today, power transfer is not an agreed upon method 50 years after the constitution was written but of confrontation and even violence.
MEDIA AND ECONOMICS:What gained traction in Bangladesh was economics. After the first decade, when the state system was being established, connection based capitalism took root deeply. It's not based on free market principles but on various links, social and political. It's not only how economic transactions are made but other social-economic decisions as well. From existing evidence, it seems that this system stretches into all aspects of society. It's clearly the most organic system we have had that has survived all the vicissitudes of history. Hence it's us, it's the system of the state we have brought into being. Connection capitalism based state is our identity.
In that framework, the identity of the pillars of the system is very important because it's not their media outlet that is being showcased but that the system is strong , the ruling class members are robust and together is affirming the nature of the state itself. It has become a confirmation of the legitimacy of the state itself.
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