Media Watch Summary

Henry Petersen

English 100O

November 14, 2010

In the article about our beloved magazine the National Geographic, Shekhar Desphande paints us a picture of India and its inhabitants mainly of how they are portrayed through a western eye. He begins with giving credit to the magazine on how well it has educated the world. Then immediately gets into the intense looking little boy on the cover of National Geographic. As far as photos go Desphande states “The identification that the reader is expected to have with this photograph has to be with the confident and accomplished posture of their own man in India”. So not only are the readers of this magazine seeing something as how India has supposedly changed the men into these symbols of confidence in India, but Desphande goes on to say how the women in the photo are simply being exposed to an alien world. In the article in the magazine, India is depicted as a confident country that has changed many a time, but the women are still used as tools, the men are still all powerful, and still aren’t used to seeing the world if technology. Photographs of the world shown through national geographic are meant to be seen by a variety of age groups, and the people in America that read these articles, expect a certain level of humility towards the readers. They don’t want to see too much of the realism that is happening in our world, but they want to see just enough so that their thirst for adventure is quenched. As Desphande puts it: “It is slick, it is technically flawless or even adventurous, and it attempts to sanitize and universalize the uncomfortable as well as different elements of other cultures.” To see the people of India suffering from poverty or possibly starvation, these camera men are directed to take the best possible shots from which can be shown to the Western Culture with an approving eye. The contrast of American culture and India’s is of astronomical difference. Where America has a happy go lucky “looking” lifestyle, India is just figuring out what the country itself needs to do , in order for it to prosper. It’s as though the people of India are portrayed as lesser mortals in America’s eye’s. Or possibly as savages. Seeing the people and the way they live, and then looking up from the article to see your favorite football game is on, you can’t help but notice the difference. Seeing the world through a camera lens wil only show you so much, but this is what National Geographic wants. Desphande describes what the magazine is willing to do in order to get a good shot, and what the viewer is expected to see. He states “It is quite sensitive to trouble spots and trouble contexts; it does not pretend to evade such situations. But while it covers or represents such issues or situations, it can sanitize and even beautify the blood and the gore of the conflict. This power to transform the most repulsive results of human actions around the world into images that are digestible is what makes for the culture of National Geographic.” To sanitize bloodshed, to beautify poverty, and to make it seem like everything is right in the world is just what America wants. Through our eyes, life in and of itself aren’t all that bad, but if we were to see what the camera man is shooting exploiting the people all around the world trying to get approval from their employers back in the states. Its as though our western culture is not yet ready to see what the world is truly like, if a family is watching national geographic on their television and they donlt like what they see they can simply change the channel. In the magazine the camera men do it for us. Through exposing India through a magazine that is read all around the world, primarily the United States we will only learn what the magazine shows us. All in all Desphande depicts the world of India with an honest eye for detail, not only does he explain how much we are shielded from the true India but of how long this has been happening. We have it pretty damn good in America, but Desphande just wants us to realize that the world isn’t as bright, colorful and happy as we have been seeing it.