Most channels fill up airtime based on a series of assumptions that some smart management cookie dishes out to gullible television programmers, producers and editors. Fact is there is just no credible benchmark in this country to evaluate either viewer choices or opinions. Second, there is no accurate data of profiles of people who regularly switch to news television everyday. Third, there is complete absence of any reliable and authentic study of viewer expectations from news television channels. Fourth, there is just no research of what the opportunity costs in the television industry are. For instance, will a corporate executive or a BPO employee ever watch news television when there is an opportunity to catch some sport action or a movie?
And, yet, studied editorial decisions are made on a variety of news programming related issues. To be honest, more often than not, in such situations it is sometimes better to forget what we do and what we stand for. In fact, to keep away from the danger of being mind-****ed, nine out of ten times we should forget who we are and what we are responsible for.
We argue that we are news broadcasters to people who think and converse in English. We address the opinion makers. We claim to be the voice of the builders of the New Progressive India and its New Economy. English Channels are communication continuums of urban India. Come on, I am running out of the marketing glib talk! And then we hit rock bottom with Gere planting 12 wet kisses on Shilpa's Big Brother cheeks. Yes, some news channels counted the kisses as well. Is this what news honchos in India call intelligent television? It is nothing but stupid and double-faced news voyeurism.
At times like this I wonder what kind of audiences editors who call the shots think they are addressing? So whom did the editors have in mind when across the channels they decided to play the Gere-Shilpa kissing story big? The community television sets in obscure Jat villages? Family viewers in Asansol and Vizag? Beer drinking louts in some dark dingy bar? Sex starved men switching channels and then suddenly transfixed by the kissing bonanza from unexpected quarters? Who do we think is/are the audience when we decide to make a huge story out of nothing at all?
On one-hand editors, flushed reporters, angry media commentators were haranguing the vandalism of Hindu fundamentalist thugs on the premises of Star News, saying it's an "attack on press freedom". And on the other hand news channels were incessantly serving loop after loop of Gere planting kisses on Shilpa.
The point I am making is simply this. News is not trivia. News is not trivial. But News channels have made it their business to be both trivia-communicators and trivial-titillates. Also a large section of the media in this country has taken to crass commercialisation to justify its editorial policies. Most editorial questions are answered with 'will it sell'? Or 'Will it bring in the TRPs'?
By degrading content, by excessively dumbing down, by becoming hostage to easy market economics, by failing to realize the truism of content being king and the market being its courtier, the media in India has erased the credibility of the pursuit of journalism. More often than not it is seen as taking sides, it is seen as a tool of political expediency and easy money. The 1990s has been the decade in which the media has fallen from its hallowed glory. And in the 2000s instead of arresting its slide, the media has further slipped from the Imagination of India, into some other kind of disconnectedness. So we have shows on superstitions and haunted houses on news television in 21st Century India. We have stories of snake marrying each other. We have a seductress on a crime show. No wonder media is seen as a crass tool by a crass citizenry. Use it when required and beat the hell out of it when not. No wonder lathis and hathodas were used by college student turned goondas to protest against a Star News broadcast of the marriage between a Hindu and Muslim.
Isn't intolerance modern 21st century India greatest shame? And a large part of it is because the media in this country has become pliant and soft.
And so while we look within and protest loudly against the attack on the press and so on, can we also look at what we have done to the business of news itself? Fact is that media MUST be commercial because it exists, breathes and lives within the market economy. But since its commercial qualities are completely and wholly dependent on an extremely hypersensitive quality-CREDIBILITY-products in news genres, like newspapers, magazines and TV news channels, are not like any other product. There are rules of the game. And these rules have an ethical resonance. So while toothpastes are required to clearly mention its chemical composition and so on, a news product has to be responsible, factual and ethical. But news television is hardly any of these nowadays. And so we have to be reminded by Shilpa Shetty: Why can't you focus on AIDS awareness instead?
So the drama continues. This week channels will hammer down Abhishek-Aishwariya down the throats of its viewers. Sham TRP ratings will prove that YES this kind of news television works. It brings in money. Another myth will be created.
Even as I wind up my blog, here's an after-thought. When Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore won an Olympic medal, the instrumental version of the national anthem was played as athletes and spectators from across the world stood up in respect. It has happened in the Asian Games. National Games. At every Ministry of Defence function I have attended during my days as defence correspondent, I can only recollect the instrumental version of the national anthem. In a country where more than half its people still cant read and write, what is this fuss about singing the national anthem? Yet, we had angry debates on what some of us in the media thought was a silly transgression made by the Infosys don, Narayana Murthy. How much more stupid can the idiot box be? He was bang on target. The President was there. Everyone stood up when the instrumental version of the anthem was played. The President sang. So did many others in the audience. Many did not. So? How many people lie on the bed and watch the Republic Day function and slurp tea, as the national flag is unfurled? As a roving foreign affairs correspondent for World Report, Worldview India and Third Eye TV I have chanced upon many Independence Day and Republic Day functions at Indian Embassies and High Commissions in many parts of the world. How do you think we celebrate these official functions with foreign guests? Yes, the instrumental version of the national anthem is played as all the foreign guests, Indian staffers and visitors rise in respect. So why did TV news give so much space to those morons who unnecessarily attacked Narayan Murthy for being unpatriotic?
Media, especially, news television is focusing on the trivia. It is stressing more on information and not on being informative. It has no grand purpose in India. It simply meanders in mediocrity. It is voyeuristic and simply oriented to commerce. It is not oriented as an ethical, profit making enterprise that is in the business of being on the top of the information chain and cutting edge news delivery.
Every single day hundreds of journalists across the country from low-paid-barely-surviving media entities to the well paid-huge networks go out into the world in which they live in the pursuit of truth. Risking their lives and putting themselves in harm's way to inform the nation, hold political leaders, bureaucracy, police and the captains of industry accountable to the citizens of this country. Nothing can be more invigorating than being a participant in a functioning democracy. Yet, editors, the guardians of the Fourth Pillar, fail to live up to expectations of either the viewers or their professional compatriots. Therefore, it is the proprietors and editors of media organizations who are responsible for the manner in which journalists and media organizations are being targetted systematically. No wonder Hindu fundamentalist goons with saffron flags can walk in and smash a news channel's office in Bombay. Tomorrow it will be some other kind of thugs in some other city.
In Nandigram local news channels and some national channels were denied entry into the area and some of the news crews physically intimidated because people felt these channels had become mouthpieces of the ruling Left Front. In Srinagar when bodies were of fake encounter victims were being exhumed, locals pelted journalists and camerapersons with stones because they felt the media was only carrying the propaganda of the security forces and the government. Many media organizations blatantly carried a plant by the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh that Himanshu Sabharwal, son of Professor Sabhawal who was killed by ABVP hooligans, was 'blackmailing' the state government.
Media is increasingly losing its adversarial position. It is no longer the harbinger of progressive and democratic values. It is no longer a defender of the rights of the citizenry It is no longer a staunch advocate of the underdog and a champion of everyday heroes. Across media organizations it is time for the real editors to stand up and be counted. It is time for them to stare down a story and say NO. The market and the citizens who make that market function will be very unforgiving. That market is expanding and so is the appetite for engaging news, views and information. The challenge is not only about delivery, but also of effective, quality delivery. This is the reason why the news television space continues to be competitive despite a plethora of news channels because the market (of which a large constituency is that of more than 500 million young Indians) is waiting for a QUALITY, CREDIBLE, PASSIONATE, ENERGETIC channel that engages with a rising, impatient, discerning and young India. And, therefore, those who take their TRP ordained places for granted may just wake up to a new reality.first published:April 17, 2007, 11:11 ISTlast updated:April 17, 2007, 11:11 IST
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This week news channels that claim to have national reach will showcase how Indian news television can plumb the depths of depravity and idiocy. We the people working in TV news channels have made a superb opening on Monday with the Richard Gere-Shilpa Shetty kissing controversy. According to most news channels this is the most serious issue that the country should be debating this week. And so like the conscientious pimp an array of news channels in India are dressing up a 'not-worth-a-second-look' subject into an ecstatic TRP stimulating exercise. Truly an inspiring moment for the news television industry on a day when the media was bludgeoned into realizing the crucial role it plays as the watchdog in setting the agenda for rising India.
Most channels fill up airtime based on a series of assumptions that some smart management cookie dishes out to gullible television programmers, producers and editors. Fact is there is just no credible benchmark in this country to evaluate either viewer choices or opinions. Second, there is no accurate data of profiles of people who regularly switch to news television everyday. Third, there is complete absence of any reliable and authentic study of viewer expectations from news television channels. Fourth, there is just no research of what the opportunity costs in the television industry are. For instance, will a corporate executive or a BPO employee ever watch news television when there is an opportunity to catch some sport action or a movie?
And, yet, studied editorial decisions are made on a variety of news programming related issues. To be honest, more often than not, in such situations it is sometimes better to forget what we do and what we stand for. In fact, to keep away from the danger of being mind-****ed, nine out of ten times we should forget who we are and what we are responsible for.
We argue that we are news broadcasters to people who think and converse in English. We address the opinion makers. We claim to be the voice of the builders of the New Progressive India and its New Economy. English Channels are communication continuums of urban India. Come on, I am running out of the marketing glib talk! And then we hit rock bottom with Gere planting 12 wet kisses on Shilpa's Big Brother cheeks. Yes, some news channels counted the kisses as well. Is this what news honchos in India call intelligent television? It is nothing but stupid and double-faced news voyeurism.
At times like this I wonder what kind of audiences editors who call the shots think they are addressing? So whom did the editors have in mind when across the channels they decided to play the Gere-Shilpa kissing story big? The community television sets in obscure Jat villages? Family viewers in Asansol and Vizag? Beer drinking louts in some dark dingy bar? Sex starved men switching channels and then suddenly transfixed by the kissing bonanza from unexpected quarters? Who do we think is/are the audience when we decide to make a huge story out of nothing at all?
On one-hand editors, flushed reporters, angry media commentators were haranguing the vandalism of Hindu fundamentalist thugs on the premises of Star News, saying it's an "attack on press freedom". And on the other hand news channels were incessantly serving loop after loop of Gere planting kisses on Shilpa.
The point I am making is simply this. News is not trivia. News is not trivial. But News channels have made it their business to be both trivia-communicators and trivial-titillates. Also a large section of the media in this country has taken to crass commercialisation to justify its editorial policies. Most editorial questions are answered with 'will it sell'? Or 'Will it bring in the TRPs'?
By degrading content, by excessively dumbing down, by becoming hostage to easy market economics, by failing to realize the truism of content being king and the market being its courtier, the media in India has erased the credibility of the pursuit of journalism. More often than not it is seen as taking sides, it is seen as a tool of political expediency and easy money. The 1990s has been the decade in which the media has fallen from its hallowed glory. And in the 2000s instead of arresting its slide, the media has further slipped from the Imagination of India, into some other kind of disconnectedness. So we have shows on superstitions and haunted houses on news television in 21st Century India. We have stories of snake marrying each other. We have a seductress on a crime show. No wonder media is seen as a crass tool by a crass citizenry. Use it when required and beat the hell out of it when not. No wonder lathis and hathodas were used by college student turned goondas to protest against a Star News broadcast of the marriage between a Hindu and Muslim.
Isn't intolerance modern 21st century India greatest shame? And a large part of it is because the media in this country has become pliant and soft.
And so while we look within and protest loudly against the attack on the press and so on, can we also look at what we have done to the business of news itself? Fact is that media MUST be commercial because it exists, breathes and lives within the market economy. But since its commercial qualities are completely and wholly dependent on an extremely hypersensitive quality-CREDIBILITY-products in news genres, like newspapers, magazines and TV news channels, are not like any other product. There are rules of the game. And these rules have an ethical resonance. So while toothpastes are required to clearly mention its chemical composition and so on, a news product has to be responsible, factual and ethical. But news television is hardly any of these nowadays. And so we have to be reminded by Shilpa Shetty: Why can't you focus on AIDS awareness instead?
So the drama continues. This week channels will hammer down Abhishek-Aishwariya down the throats of its viewers. Sham TRP ratings will prove that YES this kind of news television works. It brings in money. Another myth will be created.
Even as I wind up my blog, here's an after-thought. When Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore won an Olympic medal, the instrumental version of the national anthem was played as athletes and spectators from across the world stood up in respect. It has happened in the Asian Games. National Games. At every Ministry of Defence function I have attended during my days as defence correspondent, I can only recollect the instrumental version of the national anthem. In a country where more than half its people still cant read and write, what is this fuss about singing the national anthem? Yet, we had angry debates on what some of us in the media thought was a silly transgression made by the Infosys don, Narayana Murthy. How much more stupid can the idiot box be? He was bang on target. The President was there. Everyone stood up when the instrumental version of the anthem was played. The President sang. So did many others in the audience. Many did not. So? How many people lie on the bed and watch the Republic Day function and slurp tea, as the national flag is unfurled? As a roving foreign affairs correspondent for World Report, Worldview India and Third Eye TV I have chanced upon many Independence Day and Republic Day functions at Indian Embassies and High Commissions in many parts of the world. How do you think we celebrate these official functions with foreign guests? Yes, the instrumental version of the national anthem is played as all the foreign guests, Indian staffers and visitors rise in respect. So why did TV news give so much space to those morons who unnecessarily attacked Narayan Murthy for being unpatriotic?
Media, especially, news television is focusing on the trivia. It is stressing more on information and not on being informative. It has no grand purpose in India. It simply meanders in mediocrity. It is voyeuristic and simply oriented to commerce. It is not oriented as an ethical, profit making enterprise that is in the business of being on the top of the information chain and cutting edge news delivery.
Every single day hundreds of journalists across the country from low-paid-barely-surviving media entities to the well paid-huge networks go out into the world in which they live in the pursuit of truth. Risking their lives and putting themselves in harm's way to inform the nation, hold political leaders, bureaucracy, police and the captains of industry accountable to the citizens of this country. Nothing can be more invigorating than being a participant in a functioning democracy. Yet, editors, the guardians of the Fourth Pillar, fail to live up to expectations of either the viewers or their professional compatriots. Therefore, it is the proprietors and editors of media organizations who are responsible for the manner in which journalists and media organizations are being targetted systematically. No wonder Hindu fundamentalist goons with saffron flags can walk in and smash a news channel's office in Bombay. Tomorrow it will be some other kind of thugs in some other city.
In Nandigram local news channels and some national channels were denied entry into the area and some of the news crews physically intimidated because people felt these channels had become mouthpieces of the ruling Left Front. In Srinagar when bodies were of fake encounter victims were being exhumed, locals pelted journalists and camerapersons with stones because they felt the media was only carrying the propaganda of the security forces and the government. Many media organizations blatantly carried a plant by the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh that Himanshu Sabharwal, son of Professor Sabhawal who was killed by ABVP hooligans, was 'blackmailing' the state government.
Media is increasingly losing its adversarial position. It is no longer the harbinger of progressive and democratic values. It is no longer a defender of the rights of the citizenry It is no longer a staunch advocate of the underdog and a champion of everyday heroes. Across media organizations it is time for the real editors to stand up and be counted. It is time for them to stare down a story and say NO. The market and the citizens who make that market function will be very unforgiving. That market is expanding and so is the appetite for engaging news, views and information. The challenge is not only about delivery, but also of effective, quality delivery. This is the reason why the news television space continues to be competitive despite a plethora of news channels because the market (of which a large constituency is that of more than 500 million young Indians) is waiting for a QUALITY, CREDIBLE, PASSIONATE, ENERGETIC channel that engages with a rising, impatient, discerning and young India. And, therefore, those who take their TRP ordained places for granted may just wake up to a new reality.
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