Reaching to the unreached Radio Kashmir, Srinagar connected people when the connectivity succumbed to the nature’s fury SAJAD BAZAZ Soul of Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher of communication theory and a public intellectual, must have experienced peace when Radio Kashmir, Srinagar was playing a yeoman’s role in connecting and guiding people when flood fury was ravaging everything that came its way. Notably, the subject that would occupy most of this greatest communication philosopher’s career was the task of understanding the effects of technology as it related to popular culture, and how this in turn affected human beings and their relations with one another in communities. So far, it stands proved that one of the major disasters which emerged during the catastrophe in Kashmir was the complete breakdown of connectivity – both electronic and physical. The road connectivity succumbing to the natural calamity was obvious, but snapping telecom connectivity was ridiculous. This raised hue and cry among people who had to battle not only to survive but also to locate their near and dear one. Amid this connectivity crisis, it was Radio Kashmir, Srinagar which played a yeoman’s role to keep people not only connected to near and dear ones, but also updated them about the happening around us during the currency of the flood fury. This voice medium simply stole the show by guiding the people in affected areas to safety and at least, it was an attempt to help affected people to negotiate the miseries. Here the phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan ‘The medium is the message’ got into the act as the medium of radio was entrenched itself in the message. And it was this entrenching that led to a symbiotic relationship – an act by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. In succinct, Radio Kashmir Srinagar left an impact on the society in which it played a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself. Over two decades back, my teachers had taught me and had even read in books about the role of Radio in catastrophes, but I had never come across such a role of this voice medium till the current disaster struck us. This heroic effort of the personnel who remained on the mike live for hours together was despite the fact that its studios were also inundated in water and the transmission was stopped for the first time in the history of Radio Kashmir till they resumed transmission on Its FM 102.6 channel from Takht e Sulaiman and main channel from Narbal transmitter. Precisely, Radio Kashmir proved a life saving communication link and kept its listeners abreast of the situation. The role played by the Radio is commendable by all means with such ‘meager’ resources. The impact of its broadcast during the crisis was chief minister was prompted to come on live on the station to reply some very awkward questions. Now there is another side. It was for the first time observed that Radio Kashmir put the mother tongue on the back burner and Urdu was preferred. With valley people as target audience, the proper strategy would have been to broadcast its programmes in Kashmiri language. Talking to commoners who could hardly express themselves in Urdu provided much needed entertainment in otherwise very gloomy situation. Even while speaking in Urdu, one of the ace anchors repeatedly used the phrase toot pada (pounced) instead of toot gaya (Broken) repeatedly while narrating his tale of miseries of the people. There were a few whose pronunciation and accent was simply atrocious. One of the top male anchors used the word logistic instead of logic repeatedly. I may sound harsh in locating these faults committed by the ace broadcasters of the station. But I am sure professionalism and respect to the language is not surrendered even severe crisis situations like the one we are going through. I consider Radio Kashmir as the torch bearer of our mother tongue and believe me any discrimination towards it does not go well with people. But, Radio Kashmir Srinagar still deserves a salute for reaching to the unreached during this crisis. greaterkashmir/news/2014/Sep/27/reaching-to-the-unreached-2.asp
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 03:45:41 +0000
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