OUTRAGE: in Designing Political Communication

While multi-step communication is also used exceptionally, most Political Communication is usually a three-step process or a 2-step process of mass communication.

In two-step process, the political leaders and spokespersons of political parties use a one-to-many method of message-relay through public address systems in political rallies or on broadcast channels. (A political candidate speaking to the voters, making an appeal soliciting votes for himself, is a direct or one-step process).

In three-step process, the political leaders and spokespersons of political parties use a one-to-one (or few)-to-many method of message-relay through release of statements to media who in turn recode those statements and relay it to the people/audiences across different media classes, media types and media vehicles. Another version of three-step process includes repeated playback of snippets from the message of two-step process embedded in the content of the media.

Communication managers are working towards maximising the “Reach” and the “Impact” in their design of steps- the general principle being- lesser the number of steps – higher the control on the content but lower is the reach.  

Depending upon the target audience, the themes and contents of message are focussed on what the political party “intends to say” with a view to obtain a “desired comprehension” among the audience. But invariably, the communication uses the appeal of “get outraged” to evoke “desired audience-action.”

Outrage can sow the seeds of a grass root movement which may turn into a new political party. Be it the revolutionary pro-activism of Netaji Bose or the passive resistance of Mahatma Gandhi, both depended upon use of outrage to mobilise mass-support and participation.

Some of the examples of different kinds of outrage noticed over the last few years include:

• Economic Outrage (Garibi Hatao, Narmada Aandolan.. )
• Linguistic Outrage (Hindi Hatao)
• Caste-related Outrage (Tilak Tarajoo aur Talwaar, Inke Maaro Joote Chaar)
• Religious Outrage (Mandir wahin banayenge…)
• Incumbency Outrage (Bias, corruption, failure …)
• Nationalistic Outrage (Vande Maataram …)
• Secularist Outrage (Bhagwaa terror…)
• Intellectual outrage (award waapsi…, Azaadi…)
• Identity Outrage (All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad,  Ma Mati Manush...)
• And so on...

Outrage can culminate into a spectrum of audience-action: from passive resistance against competing political communication to active support for the cause of the political party or even violence against the competitors.

Interpreting Outrage purely as an instrument of political communication, however, is not sufficient. The culture of getting outraged cannot be understood without its psychological context. It is part of a discourse of victimisation which is the very matrix of political competitiveness in India. The enemy responsible for the victimisation of the people may not be just other people, but even the state and the system.

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Voice of Reason

Been thinking about it. What makes a voice of reason? My understanding is that voice of scriptures, voice of traditions and voice of individual experience shapes individual’s voice of reason.

Voice of scriptures and voice of traditions themselves are not universal, there being no universal scriptures and no universal traditions.

While voice of scriptures and voice of traditions could bring in some amount of conformance and uniformity in the voice of reason within a small group of people, it is the diversity and dissimilarity in personal experiences which will not allow emergence and concurrence for any universal voice of reason even within the small group.

Remembering is eminently a personal experience. One remembers what one has done. Through memory one can appropriate and relive one’s past, and learn from experience. These processes of appropriation, reliving, and learning are often repeated by individuals which keeps creating changes in their voice of reason over time.

There is little chance therefore, that an individual’s voice of reason remains unaltered over time and there is no chance what so ever of a universal voice of reason.

No one is illogical or wrong or unreasonable in personal frames of reference. They appear to be so when someone judges them through their frames of logic or reason.

THERE GOES PROPRIETY, REASON AND LOGIC.

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The 'Slow Death' Of MDI in Gurgaon

Every year, more than 20000 bright, young people used to aspire to get admitted into one of the many graduate management programmes of Management Development Institute in Gurgaon. Every year, more than 2000 middle and senior managers from the public and private sector businesses used to throng the portals of Management Development Institute in Gurgaon for updating their knowledge and skills through recapitulating, reflecting, refurbishing and renovating thereby reinventing themselves through Executive Education.

Over the last 5-years the number of applicants to the graduate programmes is down to less than 8000 and the Executive Education participation is down to a measly few hundreds.

While Management Development Institute is constantly increasing the number of Professors among its faculty through inbreeding and “gratis promotions” in the garb of career advancement; the competitive forces in the business education space have hammered the institution out of any reckoning in teaching, engagement, relevance and impact. The loss of favour is unprecedented, thereby triggering a sinking whirlpool of morale and commitment of the faculty and staff.

There has been a relentless subversion of transparency, objectivity, fairness and ethical behaviour in decision making resulting into a vehement subversion of legitimate processes and administrative-action directed mostly against the majority of honest, competent and fair academics. As part of this campaign against legitimate work and legitimate academics, several initiatives and innovations have been closed.

The world grows through the contribution of the majority of progressive people but is brought down to its knees by a few terrorists. Majority is never able to rein in such minority. Likewise, institutions are built through the contributions from the majority, but they drown due to caustic selfishness of the minority.

Management Development Institute in Gurgaon is being subjected to ‘slow death’ by the handful of illegitimate appointees on the faculty who owe their legitimacy, allegiance and identity to one former Director of the institute who has not been able to come to terms with his superannuation.

If a gangrenous limb is not amputated, the death is imminent. Same is true for Management Development Institute in Gurgaon. If these malignant tumours inside are not excised and expelled, the death of the institution is a certainty. The road to such death is like the “boiling frog” story.

[The boiling frog is a fable describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly; it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.]

Is Management Development Institute in Gurgaon slowly getting into hot water?

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Remaining Relevant in the World Obsessed with Disruption and Obsolescence: Challenge for Business Schools

In formulating strategy, shaping communications and improving their impact in the world, B-Schools, must answer two big questions: "What is important to our domain?” and "What is important to the world?”

B-Schools should ask, “What is important to the world?” And in asking this question, B-Schools must adopt broader timeframes, usually next 10-15 years at the minimum. Any existential challenge for humanity must be among the top priorities for any B-School. No B-School should end up with a short-sighted view of what will challenge its future — its students, its staff, its access to resources, and the societies in which it operates.

B-Schools must always delve deep enough to work with sufficient perspective and avoid serious blind spots. In today’s highly specialized environment, preventing blind spots requires a much broader inquiry. For example, a huge chunk of the value created by sustainability (and a big portion of the entire enterprise value in most sectors) lies in submerged value which normally represents around 80 percent of sustainability’s value contribution — or four times the apparent value. B-Schools should not overlook ‘submerged value’ — the dozens of hidden, unmeasured secondary and tertiary economic gains from sustainable practices, such as voice from their neighbourhoods, former students (alumni) and ex-employees, (willingness to talk to others about the B-School), staff loyalty and engagement, ordinary citizen’s emotional connection and the “clock speed” of innovation and operational improvement.

B-Schools miss dependencies — domino effects that can radically change the answers to the question, “What should this B-School work on?” Many of these dominoes are not immediately obvious. For example, a standard materiality assessment may not uncover the connection between gender inequity and media consumption — or even suggest that such a connection exists. Yet a complete assessment would reveal that, “If someone needs to stay home to care for the family or infirm household members, this will most likely be a girl,” thus preventing her from going to school and exacerbating gender inequity. In this case, day time tv viewing and consumption of media by the younger female audience would go up.

B-Schools miss time delays. Some issues have consequences that are years out but must be worked on far sooner than that. Delays are also frequently overlooked because materiality analysts don’t ask the right questions, such as the obvious: “How soon can our project achieve the desired results?”

[This is based on the results and outcomes delivered by the author as the head of top-ranked business schools, in India (2012-14) and in South Africa (2005-06). In either case, the path to accomplishment had hurdles and speed-resistors set up only by the internal stakeholders due to their inertia in breaking into a run from the usual crawl and their lack of foresight.]

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