'Beaming it live': 24-hour television news, the spectator and the spectacle of the 2002 Gujarat carnage.

MUMBAI (India); INDIA

Recently, following the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Bombay, the electronic media itself became the story. While many commended the extensive 60 hour coverage of the attacks, a debate soon began around the relentless live coverage, and its effect on the security operations and the government actions. Most importantly there emerged larger questions about the changing ethics and aesthetics of the electronic media in India. My essay proposes to understand this marked shift in the concerns, politics, and modes of representation by the media by looking at the electronic media representation of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, the first major Indian riots of the 24-hour television age. I argue that it is with the extensive coverage of Gujarat conflagration, the 24-hour news phenomenon forever changed the representation of 'crisis' and its affect within the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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