Abstract
This essay investigates how Western media turns human suffering into emotionally charged cultural commodities in order to perpetuate stereotypical narratives of Indian poverty. Dominant media discourses still perpetuate colonial-era stereotypes of India as being poor, chaotic, and spiritually exotic, despite the country’s rise to prominence as a global digital and economic force. In order to present poverty as a spectacle and provide Western audiences with moral gratification while hiding structural realities, these representations employ aesthetic and narrative techniques. Utilizing media theories of representation, ideological encoding, and affective consumption, the research investigates the ways in which the colonial gaze operates in contemporary visual media, and journalism. The study of how pictures and stories are created to arouse empathy without taking responsibility is framed by ideas like cultural hegemony, media imperialism, and the “aesthetics of empathy.” These frameworks shed light on how media portrayals both conceal the structural roots of global inequality and validate Western superiority. The contested realm of digital media, where Indian content producers are increasingly challenging prevailing representations through grassroots cultural production and counter-narratives, is also examined in the paper. However, global platform politics and algorithmic hierarchies shape and limit these efforts. This paper adds to discussions on global media power, cultural representation, and postcolonial discourse by presenting media as both a producer and a reflector of culture. It contends that the colonial framing of Indian poverty is not accidental but the result of a purposeful media process that commodifies suffering for affective consumption.
Presenters
Abhisree BhattacharyaStudent, Communication Science, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—The Image as Advocate: Shaping Cultural Conversations
KEYWORDS
Media Representation, Cultural Power, Postcolonial Theory, India, Poverty Commodification
