[Afire his traumatic experience with Karan Thapar (just watch: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_l0caz78T8>), he has learnt his lessons. He has since devised methods to have purely one-way communications with his audience, no space whatever for impromptu, and maybe unanticipated and hostile, questions. At the most, a few rehearsed interviews (see: 'Modi in Paris Seeks Interview through Speech Writers: Leading French Daily Le Monde Refuses to Entertain' at <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/india-unity/conversations/messages/55944>). No, repeat no, press conference.]
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/talking-terms/medium-is-the-message-how-traditional-media-is-rendered-all-but-redundant-by-modi/ Medium is the message: How traditional media is rendered all but redundant by Modi May 23, 2015, 12:00 AM IST Dileep Padgaonkar in Talking Terms | Edit Page, India | TOI 43 80 0 32 One of the most bewildering paradoxes of Prime Minister Modi's first year in office concerns his attitude to the media. No prime minister since Independence has been as image-conscious as him. That should have normally prompted him to cultivate journalists. Yet no one has shown such relentless contempt for them as he has. Not that this paradox has come in the way of Modi's success. His media strategies, forged in the wake of the 2002 communal riots, worked wonders for him in Gujarat. During his tenure as chief minister he ensured that journalists - especially those who worked for English-language media - were for all practical purposes kept out of bounds of the Secretariat in Gandhinagar. His ministerial colleagues weren't allowed to talk to them. And of course he himself never held proper press conferences, let alone give interviews that would have involved supplementary questions. Journalists had to be content with using press releases prepared by Jagdish Thakkar, his self-effacing PRO. What encouraged Modi to persist in this path of sovereign disregard for traditional media was his string of electoral victories in his home state. During his campaign as BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 parliamentary elections, he reckoned, correctly as it turned out, that he would deploy other means to get his message across: Public rallies by the score - which he addressed in person or with his hologram presence - that he knew were bound to receive carpet coverage. That would spare him the ignominy of interacting with pesky journalists. Another way to avoid such ignominy was to make extensive use of the social media where communication was direct, unfiltered, unidirectional and, not least, accessible to any owner of a mobile phone - for free. The high velocity political marketing, quite unprecedented in democratic politics, yielded an unequally unprecedented result: the spectacular triumph of BJP. No one doubted that the singular factor that accounted for it was Modi's persona, oratorical skills and superb media strategies. All three have been at work since he assumed his prime ministerial responsibilities. Unlike his predecessors, he has given interviews to just a handful of foreign journalists. He has taken only reporters from government-owned media on his visits abroad. In his monthly radio broadcasts, there is no provision for impromptu questions from the audience. And he remains more active than ever before in social media. He has now deployed his ministers to give interviews to put across the government's achievements over the past 12 months. The leitmotif of their interventions is of course the vision and leadership of Narendra Modi. His popularity ratings, though slightly lower than a year ago, are still impressive. The message for traditional media is clear: their claim to be the Fourth Estate of democracy lies in tatters. Modi's medium is his message - and his alone. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
