Blogging -Will money shape the script?

I was pleasantly surprised when a blogging site where I blog sent me a voucher for Rs.10, 000 for my activities. Another overseas site regularly sends me a small sum in dollars into my Pay Pal account every month. The amounts perhaps aren’t a great deal though for an activity which you haven’t ventured into to get paid, the amount is still welcome. I mean, there are still lots of things you can buy for 10,000.

Although Google’ s Ad Sense model is perhaps the most well known, there are several sites on the net which do not generate their own content like say the CNN or BBC or NDTV but rather depend on a host of people who visit these sites to put up material. Since the advertisement and hits on the site are fully dependant on the quality and quantity of the matter put out by those who have registered to write for it, it probably make sense to distribute the advertisement slice with the registered subscribers. Some sites like Ibibo of course have been aggressively marketing the prize money they give out and it seems to be jacking up the numbers who blog there – at least in the short haul.

Blogging has come a long away from its evolutionary origins as merely an online diary. Projects like Global Voices have tried to capture all that is being said and recorded in blogs from around the world and have begun giving it the credibility that mainstream media channels get. Blogs and podcasts and video casts have become an effective way of expressing dissent, especially in those countries where the freedom of expression through mainstream channels is muzzled. Citizen journalism is emerging as an alternative source of content, especially that kind of content that is often not highlighted in the regular media.

But now this medium is slowly getting commercialized. Of course it can be nobody’s case that that bloggers should not be paid. It is an activity that takes effort, time and although it is unlikely that too many will make enough money to entirely live it; there are a few who do. But in a nascent medium, it is important to try and ensure that the flow of money does not render the medium trite or beholden to interests of this or that point of view. When a web site advertises that people should blog on their site and the top 100 or 200 bloggers would be awarded , it could be promoting not quality expression of creativity but commonplace traffic with writers competing with each other to be most “visited”, not necessarily the most read or discussed.

Unlike mainstream media which is self regulated through various regulatory bodies, the world of alternate media is still largely unregulated. This allows a virtual free for all in the virtual world and when governments in India and elsewhere make ham handed efforts to regulate or gag them, they are rightly opposed. However in the jungle that the blog world is today , without self regulation of some kind and money being paid out – some times injudiciously ,if one may say, there is the danger that the blog writer ‘s pen will pipe out themes that are guided not by the need to express but by rampant and unregulated commercialism and if that day comes, it will be to every one’s regret. Hopefully the day when the lure of money alone shapes’ the blogger’s script will not dawn.

Amitabh short sells Uttar Pradesh

The Congress Party has sought the Election Commission's intervention in banning advertisements, featuring superstar Amitabh Bachchan that glorify governance in Uttar Pradesh. In a series of advertisements carried out in print and electronic media, Bachchan has been highlighting the achievements of the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government. "Uttar Pradesh mein hai dum, kyunki jurm yahan hain kam," the latest advertisement says. But to hear Amitabh Bachchan spout aloud ever so often from television screens that the people of Uttar Pradesh are the most blessed because they have the peace to sleep blissfully at night and that only rumor mongers talk about any jurm in Uttar Pradesh because there isn’t any can impress only the most credulous. Who ever decided that such advertisements should be aired on news channels like NDTV , where minutes after the advertisement has run , news will appear of this sort “Criminals dominate Uttar Pradesh politics” and then “Unchecked abductions in Uttar Pradesh” has to have taken leave of his senses. As for people sleeping well and peacefully, here is another news item, again from NDTV-“Power shortage in Uttar Pradesh”

Now we all know that Amitabh Bacchan has a particular political affiliation and his wife is a member of the Rajya Sabha with the Samajwadi Party tag and Amitabh is the “elder brother” of Samajwadi Party honcho Amar Singh. We also know that Amitabh is a performer and he performs for money. He sells us Reid and Taylor suiting, Parker pens and all sorts of other gadgets. He has in the past also told us about the merits of polio vaccination and other social causes. Along the way, he also earned himself the reputation of being a man of grace, charm and some credibility. His name was and is being suggested as a worthy replacement for President Abdul Kalaam, when his term ends in July. Of course, Amitabh has with suitable humility declined for the moment but he may well be biding his time to see how the cards line up after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and how many seats his “brother’s” party picks up.

After seeing the advertisements that Amitabh is now mouthing, I am aghast. Aghast at the game plan of the party strategists who have chosen to air these kind of messages on news channels. Surely viewers here of news channels at the least will know better than believe the propaganda hear just because Amitabh is the one saying it. And what of Amitabh’s own credibility? Can he really look at any one in the eye and mouth that Uttar Pradesh is now under the current dispensation an Uttam Pradesh and that there is no injustice and no crime that is happening there? Has advertising fallen so much that blatant untruths can be uttered on camera by public figures and celebrities without caring at all about the factuality of the case at hand?
Celebrities’ are able to carry off a lot of advertising because of the integrity they have amassed over time and Amitabh has surely amassed a lot of it because of his iconic status. But such a status has not only to be earned but also to be preserved by demonstrating consistency and discretion in the products and campaigns they allow their name to be used in. once before, many eons ago, Amitabh Bachchan had retired from the film industry to briefly enter politics by winning a seat in parliament from Allahabad constituency in 1984, but within a short span of time, he resigned from the Parliament because he felt that all that he was understood to stand for was getting compromised. It looks that the same thing is happening again and Amitabh if he learns lessons from his own past should withdraw from such an abhorrent campaign