The prestigious global news agency, Reuters, had written some positive story about Andhra Pradesh, after a damaging news a couple of weeks ago.
The Reuters had carried a story stating that the Kia Motors is planning to shift from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu and the report created ripples in Andhra Pradesh political circles.
The report came handy for the opposition TDP, which targeted the government and held it responsible for the investments running away from the state after Jagan took over the reins.
Though the Reuters withdrew the report from its official portal and carried a rejoinder, the damage was already done for the state government.
The Jagan government has several top journalists on its panel as media advisors. Some of them have wide connections in the local and national media as well and can match the media network of the TDP.
Unfortunately, none of these media advisors have acted as they were expected. Or they failed to act when the TDP was acting fast lobbying with the media to come up with special stories and editorials in the national media against the government.
However, the Reuters had written a special story on February 25 on AP, giving some positive image to the government particularly on the decentralization proposal of having three capitals.
The report was published in popular online portal (livemint.com) which advocates distribution of the urbanization.
The article deals mostly with the migration of the people to the urban areas and highlighted the increasing urban problems which will reduce by the decentralization proposal of the capital.
The article indicates that Jagan government had done some desk work to “convince” and “educate” the Reuters to look at its initiatives in different model – the development model.
While it is not clear whether the media team had done this desk work or the bureaucrats lobbied it, this is what is expected from Jagan’s team, as the majority media in the State is politically-motivated against his government.
The media, which is loyal and known to Chandrababu Naidu style of work, has to be made to look at issues from Jagan’s style of work.
Unfortunately, majority media looks at the issues from Naidu’s style and which is against the government and is critical.
It takes time for the media to look from Jagan’s eyes rather than Chandrababu Naidu’s eyes, as it is known for decades.