When our parents and the people from their generation returned home after work in the evening, they kicked back and watched a television series (most of them had a story line or a moral) and caught up with the events of the day by watching the evening news. In those days, the television series were not overtly religious or blatantly gross but were a healthy mixture of values, morals and had a narrative reflecting the times in which they lived. The news was mostly bland without spice and involved a narration of the events of the day with no personal motive or prejudice. Once in a while, the television studios held panel discussions on important issues of the day by inviting eminent people with immense knowledge of the subject and with no conflict of interest or political leanings. In effect, these discussions were actually initiatives by the news channels to help dispense knowledge and provide a platform to experts of any particular field to connect with the masses and provide in depth analysis. Consequently, that generation of people were more in tune with realities of their era and were very knowledgeable about current affairs. Their vision was seldom blinkered by political leanings and could make a more dispassionate choice during elections knowing which political party stands for what. Take the example of the 2008 presidential campaign in the US or even the 2012 primaries (on currently) and go through some of the debates held by CSPAN, CNN etc and you will know which candidates stand for what along with details about their plan for the US for the next 4 years (in every field) should they be elected to run the country. Apart from normal politicking about personality clashes, the news channels make a serious effort to educate the masses about the candidates in the fray. It does not end there, stands taken by the candidates in these television debates are taken very seriously and the candidates are expected to stand by what they have expressed. The whole things adds a feather into the cap of democracy and makes critical analysis of the regime in power and takes point by point rebuttal from the incumbent on the charges made by the aspirants.
The media is supposed to be the 4th organ of the constitution and a conscience keeper for the other organs. The media must take this job with the seriousness that it deserves and not shortchange the viewers by showing content that's despicable to say the least. Television industry, in general, in the US has very low standards with too many shows purely voyeuristic and setting unhealthy morals for impressionable teenagers. However, they have a very solid television rating system that classifies the content for the viewers and does not go in for censorship (method most used in India). For all the crap that it spews out, the news channels in the US and UK are clearly classified as tabloids and current affairs related programs and the viewers know which one is to be taken seriously. The current affair programs shows nothing but facts with many levels of verification happening before any news item is broken on national television.
On the contrary, Indian media sucks, to say the least. They have no sense of propriety and have no division of content. Every news channel wants to outdo the competitors by mixing current affairs with tabloid news with little demarcation of which is which. Consequently, most television channels have become entertainment channels with no space left for serious news coverage and in depth analysis. On the few occasions when they do hold panel discussions, its mostly the usual suspects from the major political parties who are so predictable and out of sync that they repeat same set of sentences no matter what the topic of discussion is. This leads to a chaos in the newsroom with each party trying to outshout the other and the audience not getting any wiser. To give an example, the Lokpal discussion must have happened at least 50 times in various television studios in the past 8 months. If you ask any viewer today, he/she would be hazy about the details of the said legislation and would only be reminded of the fierce bickering of the various parties involved.
Today, as 5 states of India vote for a new government, no voter is any wiser about where his candidate stands on anti-corruption issue. Every thing is hazy and until the dust settles down, the elections will be over and the voter will feel cheated about the entire exercise. Who is to blame for all this? Political parties? I don't think so, they benefit by keeping things hazy and and shying away from accountability. It is serious indictment of our news television industry. There are no ethics in journalism and everyone functions with an eye to get high TRPs. Basically, everyone knows that appealing to voyeurism and stating controversial things are the surest possible ways to garner TRPs, hence, even the news channels get to the lowest denominator and fight ugly. Every host on the news channel fights to get the politician who are sure to say some controversial thing and they can post it as "breaking news" for the rest of the evening. The entire sham has been going on for years now and whenever anyone objects to this depraving behaviour of news anchors, it becomes a threat to "freedom of speech" and the entire fraternity stands up in unison. Only in India, can a bunch of unqualified individuals use the power of satellite television and display their abject lack of knowledge on any subject and still stand for freedom of speech. We don't need guidelines anymore, we need blackouts for channels that are seen as wasting the time of the viewers by showing who's-who of human crap. If appealing to lowest denominators of the masses is the criteria, then why don't these channels simply telecast soft porn movies. They may end up being educational to a few (sic).
I do not expect a overnight change, but there has to be a movement in the right direction and the new chairman of Press council of India has taken few steps in this direction. News channels should have all the freedom to telecast what they like, but if guidelines are not followed, they must face blackouts for days /weeks/ months depending on the seriousness of violations committed. Unless there are financial implication for their transgressions, the media barons of India will not mend their ways. The news media needs a non governmental head-master to keep a watchful eye on their activities because frankly they are not doing a good job with self regulations. What is true of news channels is true of newspapers and journals too. There the story is even worse with journals after journals vying to be political mouth pieces rather than hiring good ethical correspondents. The quality chasm is so wide, that The Times of India (TOI) looks like a tabloid when you compare it to The New York Times. If Bennet Coleman Ltd. opened a copy the present TOI, they would hang their head in shame. I would not comment about other news papers or journals because it suffices to say that TOI is the best of the lot.
A lot has to change and the time is running out. Are we forever going to appeal to lowest denominators of public taste or are we as a society going to rise above and set new standards for ethical journalism. Will India forever ape the west while it copies all its reality shows and ignore the high standard of ethical journalism that is a norm in all the respected news channels of the west ? Will my father and people of his generation always depend on BBC for news updates because of the Indian media channels dishing out substandard stuff that hardly qualifies to be called journalism ? Only time will tell.
So long.....
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