Following up on last week's class

Last week in class we covered Structure and Framework. We discussed various types of media ownership (state owned, privately owned) and the impact this can have on content.

This week you can read a profile of Saad Mohseni, described as Afghanistan's first media mogul.

You can listen to the NPR interview with the author, Ken Auletta, here.

You can find the full story here:Saad Mohseni, Afghanistan’s first media mogul: newyorker.com

And a link to Tolo TV's website here.

What are the implications of controlling such a large percentage of the television market-share in a country that has a literacy rate between 20-30%?

What pros and cons do you see to the funding structure of Mohseni's television shows? Specifically the U.S.A.I.D. produced reality show described in the piece?

This article likens the difficulty of "cracking down" on programming that is being accused of negatively impacting Islamic values to the same difficulty faced by the Chinese government when attempting to oust Avatar (which we discussed in class). What commonalities do you see between the two situations? What differences do you see?

What are your thoughts on the idea that "old media systems" are still working in countries like Afghanistan?

Indian Politician Narayan Dutt Tiwari

Last week the a scandal involving 86 year old Indian politician Narayan Dutt Tiwari broke. You can listen to a version of the story that aired on NPR's morning Edition here: 86-Year-Old At Heart of Indian Political Sex Scandal

Another version of the story in The London Times: Narayan Dutt Tiwari, 86, resigns after 'cavorting with three young women'.

While in America it is common practice to air the sexual lives of our public figures (Tiger Woods, David Letterman) and even our public officials (Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford) this is not standard practice in India.

As India continues to grow and develop as a nation it's media systems are intricately tied to this process. Some critics have indicated that broadcast of a scandal of this type, designed to humiliate the politician, are a sign of the extremely competitive market that Indian news and television media find themselves working in.

Possible discussion points:

How do you view the Indian news media for it's coverage of this scandal? Do you feel they were remiss in not exposing the sexual exploits of their politicians sooner? Was their news industry in a better position to inform the public by not breaking scandals such as this?

How does this compare to the media system in the U.S? If you grew up outside of the United States or lived outside of the United States for a period of time how does this compare to that other news market and media system? Are breaking scandals such as this common? Are politicians more scandalized by stories tied to direct government corruption (taking bribes, spending government money on political favors, etc)?

Your own discussion points.