Early yesterday evening I was walking down my street after running an errand. The watchman of the Doctor’s house who usually lounged under the shade of the Gulmohur tree was sitting upright, in rapt attention. He was listening to the radio. The 7-o-clock news on AIR. The stentorian voice of the newsreader rattling out one news item after the other with unchanging intonation. That the watchman should shed his indifference and show uncharacteristic interest in something as staid as AIR news amused me.
I remember the days of my growing up, when my father, and all the other fathers of the neighborhood would shush the whole household into silence to listen to the English news on Doordarshan. A calculative burglar once broke into an elderly spinster’s house, during the news time slot, when the whole street was engrossed in the programme.
The average man’s awareness of current affairs was much higher than what it is now. Even with the advent of cable television, where news occupied a fixed portion of the air time, the tradition of not missing the evening news prevailed. Tamilnadu, in particular, where bi-partisan politics rules the roost, saw the warring factions launch their own TV channels, fiercely competing to present lop-sided news, only solace being that one got to see two sides of the coin, although not the whole. The milder and more neutral DD, and its regional tributary, lost their prominence to the flashier newcomers. News now featured special reports, and reporters scanned the remote villages to come up with stories of the ruling party’s lapses, or victories (as the case may be).
The accuracy of the information provided by the news telecasts, was a major but largely ignored causality in this melee. When the revolutionary element was introduced which had daring reporters belting out “scoops” that brought out the “whoops”, news was getting “created”. But still, the discernment of the viewer was allowed to thrive.
In entered the news channels. 24x7x365x eternity(?). The perennially rolling news recaps at the bottom of the screen, competing with another row of share prices. Specialized business news channels. Insights. Cover Stories. Special Reports. Experts speak. Scoops, whoops, more scoops and less whoops. Live reports. FLASH NEWS. Talk shows. Walk shows .BREAKING NEWS (breaking what, besides the viewer’s sanity?) Exam countdowns. News now is just a flip away. Catch it while it happens. Catch it even before it happens. Ash and Abhi engaged? Ash and Abhi engaged ! What does Big B ‘s 3rd standard benchmate think about it ? Ash and Abhi doing pooja to please the stars next month, and exclusive on the preparations.. Will Shahrukh match Bachan? KBC-part II, hit ya miss ?. Big Boss, who will win ?. Lets put a toss. What will be the outcomes of the toss ? Heads or Tails?
When amidst all this “informative” and “ inventive” reporting, something actually happens, the news hungry channels fight over it like common canines at the street bin. Every news channel must run the same story. Make TRPs while the heat is on. If possible, chop the forest down to add wood to the fire. If channel A (I don’t want to mention names, as it is pointless, and there is hardly any differentiator beyond the name.) brings in a Psychologist from NIMHANS, channel B brings in a psychologist from AIMS. The same panel of experts, doling out the same mind numbing “lay-manized fundae”. These news analysis shows lack the incisive intellect that the same people like Pranoy Roy, and Karan Thapar were capable of exhibiting a decade ago. CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai, who was once a charismatic newscaster is now hardly more than a street performer, entertaining the masses to up the ratings. Opinion Polls. Sms your opinion to 1234,6868, @%&*. When the masses are fed with such hogwash for information, one shudders under the weight of their “esteemed opinion”. The analytic individual is reduced to the red eyed bull. Lashing out at the slightest provocation. Or the bored slug. One who flips between the news channels, hardly registering what he has heard or seen.
Issues that merit an in-depth discussion are tugged here and pulled there, and distorted out of proportion to knock the reason out of anyone. The media attempts to doctor public opinion. A dangerous phenomenon, indeed. News channels highlight a particular issue only if it would earn TRPs. Others are doomed to the morgue. The fellow channels follow suit, not to be missed out in the rat race. No one cares to present “information”, as is. The sanctity of reporting is lost. This profession that claims the right to question the moral standards of every walk of life, barely acknowledges its own ethics, apathetic to the decadence plaguing it. People are asked to vote for news. “My news” is what I want to hear. I have the liberty to be blind and deaf to the rest. What a new dimension to freedom of choice!
And Ah, yes. There is this talk about blogs being the fourth estate’s fourth estate. And where do we assume the bloggers get their news from ? Do they go on-spot to gather their news ? Or do they syndicate with Reuters or AFP ? Websites featuring news items, give an outline or a sketch, barely sufficient to form an opinion. Print Articles are yet another story. But the average blogger generally rants and raves about an issue. Facts are hardly discussed, and if they do, their veracity is questionable. We hardly find a moderate voice. The popular ones (featuring in Desi Pundit or PutVote) scarcely seem to differ from the “public opinion”.
Last week, the media affairs column The Hindu’s Sunday magazine featured an article on media watch in the US, especially during the reigning Bush regime. Our own channels which turn west for “creative inspiration” ought to note this.
Doctored and inaccurate reporting can mis-shape the face of the world and dictate the way history gets written. Its time our media becomes conscious of this.
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6 comments:
Quite a long rant, i must say !! Well i have commented,cribbed, read lots of cribs about the Media - but the fact of the matter is this - People like what they are doing and hence u get more of the same !! Well i accept the fact that news shown in Channel A and B are the same - but A has better looking newsreaders and i am hooked onto A - it's as simple as that !! There's a more dangerous trend which is taking place - the boundaries between news and entertainment are blurring away !! One channel which starts with H and has two words - has these outrageous programs - in the name of surveys !! And there are other channels like the one which starts with T and has two words - which take a sensational issue and beat it to death !! Look at the way they handled this Shilpa affair - it was the most stupid coverage i have ever seen !!
Well - my rant seems longer - Bottomline - we get such newschannels beacuse that's the kind of society we are - armchair critics who love to talk talk and talk !!
I was amazed to see kind a crappy.. substandard news in BBC too...
The whole topic is very contentious and have invoked numerous endless arguments...
i guess the media portrays what the "majority" of the public prefers to hear.. and nothing else.
i just want to make a mention of DW (Deutsche Welle - german news channel) here.. most of the programs in that channel are based on creating an awareness of the poverty and sickness in the less privileged part of the world.. primarily including our very nation..
our own countrymen, our neighbours dont have proper food and education and we dont have an awareness of that..
what our news channels are showing are wealth and splendor and ostentation that just some 10-20 % of the population share.. where are the base realities..? what happens to the poor farmer in the barren lands of AP who tries to commit suicide? do we have awareness of that?
civilisation is never sucessful if even a single man does not get the food or education he deserves.. and the priority of media should be to create this awareness among to more privileged and get them to bring the less privileged along with them.. and not leave them to the vultures..
and yes..ofcourse there is politics and sports and cinema which can fill the gaps :)
this could only be a reality if we have a selfless autocrat who could follow flawless communism..
@somebody : Thanks. :-)
@ karthik : Beg to differ. I tried to give a sketchy timeline of how news casting has grown in india. Our society has a wider outlook and higher literacy than what it was a couple of decades ago. The media is grossly flawed in sensing the pulse of the nation.
I was initially lukewarm about writing here.. , for I need to track the media to write about it..
But then, if many share my anguish, it is proof enough for some potent action...We are NOT a society that deserves this, we never were, and we never will be.
And I am sure, most of us wouldnt want to identify ourselves with such a mindless group of any scale. It isnt always prudent to live with the system. Especially when the system is something that needs you to exist.
@geetha :
BBC,CNN are 24x7 channels. BBC started out as the Information Provider of Britain, and had to re-invent itself time and again to cope up with competition. But BBC doesnt do sensation. At least not 24x7.
vishnu :
Red isnt the only color... But sure, amidst the all this hoopla, red is pushed to the background. Frontline from the The Hindu group is doing a lot of pro-commnunist coverage, but i am not sure how effective they are. News media's primary objective is to provide information. Information can disseminate in several forms. What news is , becomes debatable in the current scenario. But what it isnt, is pretty clear. It aint grapevine, it aint word of mouth, and it is not gossip. It is reliable information which has impact on the life of the individual. And that makes its authencity critical. Even the TV coverage given to the downtrodden, and the voice lent to the oppressed, is done only to create sensation. The emptiness of its purpose, is glaring.
Sol: you say "...Even the TV coverage given to the downtrodden, and the voice lent to the oppressed, is done only to create sensation. The emptiness of its purpose, is glaring..."
I actually dont care the ends the TV folks seek while doing such stories. Like the young boy and the marooned starfish story, he cannot save all of them; but atleast he makes a difference to *that* starfish he throws back into the water. Similarly, the change these channels are seeking are not sustainable and broadbased. However, to that one man, it perhaps makes a difference. All I'm asking of these TV channels, is drop the holy attitude and stop the pretensions; dont insult our intelligence.
The real change could only be through the politic and govenance. The rest: judiciary, 4th estate etc can only be tools. They themselves cannot be the widespread and sustainable change. The problem is these folks communicate and portray themselves as that.
Hmm - So we agree on the fact that present news channels are no good.. But then something must explain their popularity rite ?? Why are so many news channels making so much money and why is there such a big queue to launch more channels ?? One more thing i observe these days in my office is - people discussing stuff which the news channels highlight - i.e. the flavour of the day .. But the discussions are so hollow - like theres no stuff in it at all - its become more fashionable these days to watch a 24 hr news channel and consider that u are socially aware!! And there's nothing abt this which we can do - as long as there exists a market, these people will keep doing more of the same !! And u will find more and more talented journos becoming news anchors - coz its the ticket to instant popularity and recognition !!
P.S - BTw, my desktop wall paper is a news reader(oops it's news anchor )!!! :D :D
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