Mahatma Gandhi’s Use Of Non-Violent Communication Makes His “Quit India” Speech, Impossible For Media To Ignore.

Gabriel Huerta
COMM 3130
Spring 2011

Mahatma Gandhi’s Use of Non-violent Communication Makes his “Quit India” speech, Impossible for Media to Ignore.
“He was not anyone's idea of a charismatic leader. Just a short, thin, shriveled man, with what Sarojini Naidu called `Mickey Mouse ears’ and a twinkle in his eyes. He talked of ahimsa, or non-violence and ahimsa would finally disarm theBritish”.
(India a site, n. d.)
Introduction:
Mahatma Gandhi had whole world watching and wondering upon his actions. He fought for independence of his country, but fought without violence. To achieve freedom and justice, piece and love, harmony and strength Mahatma Gandhichose the path of non-violence. He started extraordinary nonviolent actions for civil rights for Indians in South Africa, and thereafter in India, particularly since 1920 on a larger scale. (Kumar, 2010) Gandhi followed the concept of Ahimsa (the avoidance of violence) and used it as a main weapon against British during the Indian Independence movement (Das, 2009). Mahatma Gandhi led “Non-cooperationmovement” in 1920; “Civil Disobedience movement” in 1930 and launched “Quit India movement” in 1942. (India a site, n. d.) On August 8th, 1942 Gandhi delivered an address to the All India Congress Committee, commonly known as the “Quit India” Speech. Earlier that day the A.I.C.C.—the main organizational wing of the Indian National Congress—endorsed the Quit India Resolution, which demanded animmediate end to British rule in India; this endorsement provided the occasion for Gandhi's speech. (Jha, n.d.)
He was a believer in everything non-violent, including communication, however he didn’t theorize on those concepts, “he denied being a theorist, he was an actionist.”(Bode, 1995, p. 3). “He did not sit in private and create a philosophy that was later to be distributed to the world.Rather, Gandhi used mass media, such as newspaper and radio, to appeal to his audience.” (Sihra, 2006, p.41). Mahatma Gandhi’s use of nonviolent communication made his actions impossible for media to ignore. In this paper, we will look at Gandhi’s “Quit India Speech” and analyze it, to see how that speech fits all the criteria of being newsworthy, and then we will discuss the impact this speech hadon people.
Concept of newsworthiness:
Not every story, not every event gets covered in the news or media in general. However, there are others which are impossible for media to ignore. It is ultimately up to media to decide which story is good enough to get coverage, in order to do that the concept of “newsworthiness” was developed. The “group of elements by means of which the apparatus ofinformation controls and manages the quantity and type of events that will be the basis of news selection” is called by Wolf (2003: 194-208) ‘newsworthiness’, understood as being “characteristics which events should have (or present to the eyes of journalists) in order to be turned into news”. The definition and choice of what is newsworthy is directed by the “executable nature” of the informationproduct, “being carried out in conditions of restricted time and resources” (Jorge, 2005, p.1). In this paper we will focus on 5 main criteria story needs to met in order to be newsworthy: personal, drama (conflict), novelity, observable occurrence and theme in the news; and see how Gandhi’s speech meets all 5 of them.
Personal:
People like to hear, read about people. If a story occurs where wedon’t read about another person or a group of people it can be a tough one for the editor who would have to find a story that would capture the interest of people and would have to find the right reporter. Gandhi made sure that all his communication was personal and appealing to people. He believed that the purpose of speech was to make ideas known; he was an advocate for sharing, and expressing...