WSF: Dateline Mumbai, January 16, 2004
Media Is The Message
(By Naeem Mohaiemen --  naeem_bangali@yahho.com)

"Another World Is Possible" says the WSF's slogan, brightly flowing from flags along the highway. "The World Is Not Enough" proclaims an Economic Times' business insert (un-related to WSF). I look at that juxtaposition and find a reflection of the mainstream media's reaction to WSF. Hyper-capitalist, fast-paced Mumbai was an odd cradle in which to host the WSF. If activists are puzzled by the location choice, the Indian media is equally confused by the event itself.

Uncertain how to deal with the WSF, the media has alternated between ignoring the event and condescending to it. The weeks prior to January 16th, the newspapers mainly ignored the press releases flowing out of the Goregaon media center. As the week of the event approached, the statistics forced even conservative papers to take notice. 100,000 delegates from 114 countries are registered for 1,200 workshops and 1,000 stalls. The alternative media is a bold presence here-- 2,000 registered journalists are covering the event, with simultaneous translation into 10 main languages. Faced with these imposing stats, even the staid Time Of India has finally begun covering the event. The first few days, the news-boxes appeared in the Metro section (on a page called "Spicy City"). I kept scanning the pages looking for something substantial. A steady stream of Shahrukh Khan (the Star Academy Awards are this week), Sharad Pawar (new Congress coalition talk), Riya Sen (Munmun Sen's daughter bares bejeweled-tummy), and Salman Rushdie ("I am just here to support Padma") flooded the pages-- but hardly any WSF news made the big headlines.

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)". Organizers 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 on critique. The organizers are seeking alternative forms of globalization and economic development. This is hardly a "red" position in 2004-- in fact, 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. There is even controversy over the WSF's use of Ford Foundation funds for the previous year's WSF.

The opening day of the Forum, the Times finally dedicated a full page of coverage to it. Seeking some familiar image to comfort readers, the Times picked a Bollywood mural for the front page-- even though the mural in question was part of an exhibit critiquing globalization's impact on culture. Inside, 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" (a silly exaggeration), "bewildered videshis" and "the Western Express Highway rapidly turning red". In spite of this tone, there was some grudging respect 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. Special focus was also given to peace campaigners/musicians like Junoon, Indian Ocean and Gilberto Gil. In fact, the safe areas of music, theater and art garnered the most positive media coverage. Finally, in another nod to star power, the Times editorial page ran an interview with Joseph Stiglitz, author of "Globalization & 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 appropriate given his new role as a vocal critic of unfettered free market dogmas.

Even when giving flattering coverage to the high-profile participants, the papers still slip into a tone of "Who are all these people, and what do they want?" In MidDay's special feature, a chart highlighted five star speakers, and then added a section called "Who Has He Pissed Off?" Typical entries in this section are the ones for Stiglitz ("The World Bank and the IMF-- he resigned over disagreements") and Jose Bove ("McDonald's -- he demolished an outlet"). But the more sobering one is for George Monbiot, Guardian journalist and author of "The Age Of Consent." Under "Who has he pissed off?" runs a list of horrendous travails in the line of reporting: "He has been shot at, beaten up by military police, pronounced clinically dead and had a metal spike driven through his foot."

Anticipating the mainstream media's dismissive or lopsided coverage of the WSF, the event organizers have focused heavily on creating their own media infrastructure. Following the model of IndyMedia.org and many other decentralized news groups, there has been a big push to create self-generated press coverage, without depending on the major outlets. Although the opening day of the WSF has at times seemed overwhelming, the Media Center has been humming along like a smoothly oiled machine. Walking into the Media Center for the first time, I faced a bifurcated selection system. There was one room for "Alternative Media," and a much larger section for "Mainstream Media." Driven partially by the better ratio of computers to people, I registered as "Alternative" and headed to the less crowded room. It was clear that technology and media was a key focus of the planning committees. Naresh Fernandes, formerly a fixture of New York's journalism scene, was one among many organizers who worked round the clock to set the center up.

On opening day, we were pleasantly surprised to find the Media Center 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. Even with outlandish requests (one French journalist wanted to install her Palm Pilot software on the machine, until I pointed out she would be using a different machine every time), the volunteers are handling it with calm perseverance.

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. As I was 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?"