WSF: Media is the message

Since the WSF began, the Indian media has alternated between ignoring the event and condescending to it. The establishment Times Of India started by running news-boxes in the Metro section -- treating it mainly as a cultural event. On January 15, The Times printed, above the fold, a photo of flying pink flamingos at the Sewri mudflats. The caption said, "Pink on Mumbai's Horizon (And The World Social Forum has still to start)". Organisers were puzzled by this crude and gratuitous equation of the WSF with "red", "communism", etc.

In fact, by my estimate, this is a very archaic and ineffective form of critique. The organisers are seeking alternative forms of globalisation and economic development. This is hardly a "red" position in 2004-- many mainstream groups advocate similar reform. In fact, the hard-left is represented by Mumbai Resistance (MR), which is boycotting the WSF and holding an alternative forum. MR says the WSF is too mainstream and dominated by big, "corporate" NGOs-- they even object to groups like Friends Of Earth and Greenpeace, and the 2003 WSF's use of Ford Foundation funds.

The opening day of the Forum, the Times finally dedicated a full page of coverage to it. Among a few good stories, there was still an air of condescension. One piece began, "The world is washing up at Goregaon, even if the local rickshaw driver doesn't know why." The article went on to talk about "hammers and sickles" (an exaggeration), "bewildered videshis" and "the Western Express Highway rapidly turning red". The Economic Times took a more hardline approach, dismissing the entire event as a "Gigantic Kumbh Mela for the Left." The safe areas of music, theatre and art garnered some positive media coverage -- with big colour photos of Junoon, Indian Ocean and Gilberto Gil -- but also reduced a political-economic event into a cultural function.

There was grudging respect given because of the "galaxy of high-profile speakers," including Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, Shabana Azmi, Arundhati Roy, Mary Robinson, Ahmed Ben Bella, Vandana Shiva, and Mustafa Bargouthi. In a nod to star power, the Times editorial page ran an interview with Joseph Stiglitz, author of "Globalisation and Its Discontents" and one of the star speakers at WSF. In the introduction, the writer called him "the outsider who came in from the cold"-- an odd term for a former Chief Economist of the World Bank and advisor to the Clinton administration, but appropriately given his new role as a vocal critic of unfettered free market dogmas. But even when giving flattering coverage, the papers slipped in gratuitous digs. In MidDay's special feature, a chart highlighted five star speakers, and then added a section called "Who Has He P---ed Off?"

Anticipating the mainstream media's lopsided coverage, the event organisers focused heavily on creating their own media infrastructure. Following the model of IndyMedia.org and many other decentralised news groups, there was a big push to create self-generated press coverage, without depending on the major outlets. The alternative media was a bold presence -- 2,000 registered journalists covered the event, with simultaneous translation into 10 main languages. Although the opening day of the WSF seemed overwhelming, the Media Centre has been humming along like a smoothly oiled machine. Journos were pleasantly surprised to find the Media Centre full of two hundred computers, fully wired and connected over high-speed Internet lines. A few technology veterans were being assisted by dozens of young volunteers. As with much technology, the younger the volunteers, the better they were able to troubleshoot problems.

In keeping with the WSF spirit, none of the machines have Microsoft Windows products. Instead, the Free Software Foundation is running Linux-based free operating systems, with open-source software like Open Office (Debian Project) and Mozilla web browsers. Chatting with Danesh, one of the volunteers, I commented on the lack of familiar software. He laughed quietly and replied, "We say another world is possible! Well, how can a new world be created on Windows platforms?"

Naeem Mohaiemen is New York Correspondent of The Daily Star.