Media's Power to Shape Third World Images

[icernet-admin at listserv.cddc.vt.edu]

When people watch "The Dammed" on PBS this month, most will see a story of
plucky tribal villagers in India putting their lives on the line to resist a
giant dam that threatens to wipe out their land and livelihood. Behind the
David and Goliath tussle, however, is the unseen story of how media
influence the events they portray.

Sardar Sarovar, the most infamous dam in Indian history, is actually the
largest in a series of 30 large, 135 medium and some 3,000 small dams across
the Narmada river. The dam has already spawned at least eight films and
angry protests as far away as California and Canada. When celebrated Booker
Prize-winning author and current anti-war/globalization prophet Arundhati
Roy waded into the controversy, media attention went through the roof.

Audiences may see the tribals as simple people superstitious about eclipses
and river gods, but the onslaught of media attention has changed them
irrevocably. Even a film that tries to tell their story to the world ends up
changing who they are.

Source:
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=076a0d3b6b378af361c015a56550e31c