Global Grandmasters of Power

Big Tech Global Grandmasters of PowerThe world has seen Big Finance, Big Oil and Big Retail in the past. They have been powerful, ruling and molding the world. But nothing comes close to the power of #BigTech. Silicon Valley is probably the most powerful non-Government in history, with resources from everything from money to political power to influence to data of all kinds. They have unleashed the Culture Wars and know you better than you know yourself.

A collection of articles I have written for the CyberMedia Group, including Dataquest, PCQuest and CiOL.com.

https://www.amazon.in/Big-Tech-Global-Grandmasters-Power-collection-ebook/dp/B0BXQ1SWMC/

The Foxification of Planet Earth

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5tOVY1bzQVpeqtDfivpXIw

Podcast summary…

breaking-news-7613046_1280Most of the media of the world is Left leaning or Marxist in nature. It supports Leftist ideologies, causes, people and parties. All diverse and differing non-Marxist is clubbed together and called the Right and in intellectual opinion is an exception and is usually lost in the crowd. Or it just carves out a niche in some corner and is happy.

In America, like many other countries, most of the national newspapers, news channels, newspapers, radio stations have traditionally been Leftists. It was in such a setting that Fox News was launched in 1996. How would Fox News get itself heard in a crowd and with all the odds against it? Well, it would shout the loudest. It would take an extreme stand. It would never accept that it was wrong and double-down. And it would tell non-Fox News audiences to go to hell. Well maybe they didn’t exactly say that in the launch strategy, but that’s what they ended up doing anyway.

At that time such a thing was difficult to imagine because no matter how high the bias of a media organisation and what their target audience was, they in those days would at least pay lip service to their opponents and pretend that they heard them as well.

I guess a lot of analysts would have said Fox would sink without a trace. But it didn’t and started gaining great traction and became a brand name. A “shouting” Bill O’Reilly on prime time became a staple. Now it may have ended here and Fox would become just another successful media house.

Fox ended up becoming the most demonised media house and was presented as an outcast and an anathema. But a curious thing started happening. Despite calling it the devil and shunning it, all the media houses started aping Fox News. I first started watching TV news with BBC and ITV in London in 1978 as a child and I have witnessed the Foxification of the entire media industry in the last couple of decades.

Today almost every media house shouts the loudest, takes an extreme stand, never accepts that it is wrong and double-downs. And it also tells their opponents to go to hell. Think over it. Every media channel is like that. In fact come to India and every host aspires to be a Bill O’Reilly and shouts and insults all the guests that he calls on his own show. Right wing media has also risen.

If it ended with the media, then itself would be something. It spread to other forms of media. Look at the way Disney and the spectacularly successful MCU has turned out. They have curiously decided to cater to a minority of audiences. They take an extreme stand and if they fail, then they double down and abuse those who don’t like their movies as being racists and misogynistic.

The bug even got to corporations. Now even these have decided that they will only cater to their target audiences in an aggressive way and the rest of humanity can go to hell. On failure they too double down and blame those who don’t buy their products.

The entire political discourse has become like that. You carve out a niche political world for yourself, shout, never admit you are wrong, double down and call your opponents the choicest abusive words. That’s how political parties have become. In the past they used to find common ground. Not anymore. They have all been Foxified.

Think of political discourse in the last century. Then came Bill O’Reilly thundering on his media pulpit. Now think of a few decades back Trump doing the same on the political pulpit. You could say it has been a natural evolution. Everyone hates Fox, Bill O’Reilly and Trump. But the truth is that everyone wants to be like them. You can argue that there may be many reasons for the current state of affairs, but at least I personally saw the change right after Fox News was launched.

Fox News was Fox News. Media became Fox Media. Corporations became Fox Corporations. Political parties became Fox parties. Global discourse went the Fox way. The Social Media era only made this more potent and polarised.

Hate it or love it, Fox has become the most influential brand in the world.

The Dark Side of Bollywood

The Dark Side of BollywoodI am in the process of compiling all my columns and converting them into eBooks based on their themes. I wrote regularly for Sify.com and India Today’s DailyO.in on a wide variety of topics.

Bollywood is not all happy romance, song and dance. There is a dark side to it and there are many reasons why it doesn’t stand up to the rest of the cinema in the world, especially with regards to its content. From columns like How Amitabh Bachchan ruined Bollywood for good to Why Salman Khan is our most pathetic superstar to 5 ways how Bollywood promotes misogyny are all featured here…

https://www.amazon.in/Dark-Side-Bollywood-Collection-Columns-ebook/dp/B0BFDNRVYC/

 

Did the multiplex culture peak in 2019?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5K1X3KN127bWZCqIvDWVRb

Podcast summary…

red-1556341_1280I read an article which claimed that 1994’s all-time blockbuster Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! had about 74 million footfalls while 2016’s Dangal had 37 million footfalls. That’s almost half. In 1994 India’s population was 945 million as against 134 million in 2016. Globally Dangal made ₹2000 crore while Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! crossed ₹125 crores.

While the global box office has really boosted figures, the domestic ones have been supersized by the multiplex. In the 1980s the newspaper cost around ₹1 and today it is ₹5-7. A ₹10 magazine is ₹100+ today. A bar of chocolate was ₹2-3 and today you can get one for ₹20-30. I remember going for a balcony show in a cinema hall for ₹4, but today it could be anywhere from ₹300 to ₹1000 plus. While many items have seen a 10-20 fold increase, the cinema ticket has increased at least a 100 fold.

That’s thanks to the multiplex and also extra rates for 3D. But time was when multiplexes were great when they were new and were a novelty. The seats, the digital screens and sounds, the five star look and feel. But I think that charm has gone and we have taken it for granted.

Pre-pandemic there were many problems which were festering. For one, as I mentioned, they are too expensive. And it’s not just the ticket price, but the food too. In the 2000s, I read that it was only the popcorn business that saved the industry. It does appear like that. Multiplexes seem to make most of their margins from food and adding that going to the multiplex actually costs many thousands for a family. The food is overpriced and oftentimes bad quality food. Once I saw a huge samosa and wondered how I was going to finish it and I was told I had to take a minimum too. The food is supersized and they will try to empty your pockets as much as possible. Ten years back, I bought a ₹160 tea and found it was a badly mixed milk powder with a tea bag. I asked for a fresh cup or a refund and the seller refused. I threw it in the dustbin in front of him and he merely shrugged his shoulders. This is the kind of arrogance that makes people not want to visit and not lament the decline of the multiplex.

Once the security didn’t even allow a milk bottle for a toddler, they are that ruthless.

Maybe their first line of business is not films and food but giving diabetes. Fizzy drinks are served in 400/500 ml cups and sometimes only half-litre cups are available. What are the ethics of giving half a litre of a carbonated drink to a small child when your machine could easily dish out a 100ml cup?

I think this rich arrogant multiplex habit got broken during the pandemic. Commuting is another problem where people don’t want to get out that often. WFH stands for Watch From Home.

Enough has been said about the Streaming space and how it has taken over the global mindspace. Even if Netflix collapses, there are hundreds of streaming services in the world which will take its place.

In any case Bollywood had become out of touch with the populace with its far Left ideology and blindly aping American progressivism. Hollywood itself has gone woke and is struggling. Nationalism and pride for one’s religion and culture is the new thing. A lot of people became disillusioned after the Sushant Singh Rajput death and the nepotism debate that followed. In fact I read an article where the Marathi film Sairat could have made ₹100s of crores but multiplexes refused to increase the number of shows even though they would have all gone housefull.

People point to Pathaan, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer. There was a Pathaan blitzkrieg, a record number of screens were booked and were given a long run, high publicity and hype. You cannot do that for every movie. The overall trend is downward.

To me a visit to the multiplex is unappealing. The prices. The commute. The security checks to get in. The overpriced bad food. First Day First Show used to be a thing once upon a time. Nowadays most of us can wait for the Streaming release, which usually doesn’t take much time.

Plus I have many bad experiences too. One IMAX hall is so badly designed that you can see multiple heads on the screen. That’s for a ₹1000+ rupee ticket. Once they shut the movie before the multiple MCU mid and end credit scenes.

I remember once I saw Tron Legacy. There was a technical glitch and they did not show us scenes before the climax. After much fighting and shouting, they showed those scenes and then just stopped before the climax, saying you already saw the climax. After that the multiplex staff started pushing the viewers. I have never seen such arrogance in any cinema hall in my life.

I visited that mall after 5-6 years. The mall had shut down and resembled a haunted house. The multiplex chain went out of business and the owner went bankrupt. A sign of things to come? A symbol of the future? Karma? Will that be the fate of most of the malls and multiplexes in the post-Covid world? Or will they make a miraculous comeback? Who knows!