“I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight for your right to say it” – a famous quote from Voltaire that has been used by liberals like myself while fighting for absolute freedom of speech with no restriction whatsoever. I am very clear in my mind, rather than making efforts to stop a person from expressing him/herself, we must invest energies into how best can we choose to ignore or turn a deaf ear towards unpalatable sound bytes. The solution as well the choice is personal. I often hear people protesting some book, movie or joke citing reasons that it hurt their regional / religious and other sentiments. This does not make sense to me as there is absolutely nothing in this world which will be loved and accepted universally. Isn’t the best response then to choose to ignore things that hurt sentiments rather than try and enforce bans?
But, I digress. Today the topic is media itself. How many of us agree that news channels should not be showing entertainment segments nor should they be beaming spots where some “tantric/ baba” – quack is giving spiritual / medicinal advice to people in the audience. There is a healthy respect for the trade of journalism but in the name of television ratings and advertising money the news media has lost its JQ – journalistic quotient. Editors no longer take the time and employ their deep insights to find a position on the main story which best suits the audience. Today, more often the editorial is looking to find an angle to the story which is most controversial and hence will grab eye balls and in turn bring in more advertising money. Consequently, the 9 PM news becomes a slanging match between political and ideological opponents often not adding any value to the audience who are often frustrated with this nonsense sans news value. Every new item is being made larger than life and projected based on its ability to be controversial and eye catching. In the times when there is agrarian crisis throughout the country more time was spent in discussing about the holiday destination of the vice president of a political outfit and conjectures on how a certain son-in-law made million by finding loop holes in the law.
I ask, apart for voyeuristic pleasure, what benefit do such moronic news items provide to the viewers? We provide a service and there is a demand for it – is often the argument for such abomination. I ask again, there is a huge demand for pornography too so does that mean news channels should be beaming porn clips during the 9 PM “prime time” slots ? Can any news media get away with tabloidization of news because there is a demand for it? There many such pressing issues haunting Indian media today and hence I took the liberty of checking the program listing of BBC and CNN, two international news organizations which have become a brand in the field of news reporting. I found BBC and CNN have so many slots dedicated to human interest stories; issues faced within the country and internationally. They have journalist on the field in distant locations bringing to us the tears, joys, sorrows and accomplishments of people around the world. Compare this to the coverage of Indian media when the PM was travelling to the US or Japan. Instead of utilizing the opportunity to get some human interest story, our media was pandering to lowest common denominator by wall to wall coverage of the PM and his cultural programs. Every shit and every fart was being covered. There were embarrassing moments when the NY times and WSJ wrote an article on how the Indian media was gushing like a teenage girl meeting the movie star. The only reason why BBC and CNN gave 5 minutes each for this story was to report the “coverage style” of Indian media. Almost like saying, we get it!! Now please tone it down.
As embarrassing as the coverage of the “PM travels” was, nothing can make the case more strongly about news media tabloidization as the recent natural disasters – Kashmir floods and Nepal earthquake. In the month of October 2014, Kashmir faced a surprise flood on the banks of Jhelum which brought the capital and the government to a halt. Most government offices were flooded and help had to arrive from outside for rescue and rehabilitation. Given the fact that Jhelum laid siege on the capital, it was obvious the Centre had to help the state fight the disaster and the PM did admirably well. The rescue mission was taken up on war footing and the PM even spent “Diwali” in Kashmir to show solidarity with Kashmiris. There was a major problem despite the admirable work of the armed forces on the orders of the PM, his friends who own media channels either saw this as an opportunity to advertise “Government efficiency” or were advised to do so. Somehow, the narrative in the news media was of a larger than life savior (read the PM) saving people (Kashmiris) from natural disaster and hence they should now be beholden to the savior. Conjectures were being made on foreign policy and how the PM won over Kashmir from Pakistan etc. All this focus on Kashmir, while Assam was facing floods where no help arrived. If you remember Kashmir was to go to polls in December of 2014 and all of sudden it became plainly clear that media was talking at behest of the master for electoral benefits. While rest of India remembers the floods as a case of swift and decisive governance, Kashmiris remember this as cynical move by central government to use a disaster for electoral benefits. Again, I am not sure if the PM meant to put this message across but nevertheless that was the message put across by our tabloid news media.
In April 2015, just couple of days after floods hit Bihar, a 7.9 earth quake hit Nepal and Bihar. Once again, the PM with the help of Army and NDRF started a rescue mission on war footing. This time help was provided to an Indian state and a neighboring nation simultaneously and I must mention that this was the best response to a calamity of this nature, until the media came in. In order to cover a human impact story, the media channels sent 600 media persons to Nepal (ignoring Bihar) for a wall to wall coverage of the calamity. Media persons took too much space in the rescue helicopters – space that could be used for ferrying the injured or for supplying food and medicines. The air force had to run additional sorties for rescue because of space taken up by media persons in each helicopter sent for rescue work. Again, the same old narrative of a savior (PM) coming in Rambo like fashion to save the world was being projected. In addition, reporters were seen asking leading questions to those being rescued – asking if they wanted to thank the Indian PM –something that will haunt the PM for now. Soon, the Nepalese people were nauseated watching the PR exercise of a politician on the backs of their loss and tears. #GoHomeIndianMedia and #GoBackIndianMedia started appearing on Nepalese twitter trends and the Government of Nepal politely asked the media and NDRF to return home as they felt the rescue was completed and Nepal could take care of the rehabilitation by itself. It was a major embarrassment to India in a world forum where 11 other countries worked as tirelessly as India without this PR exercise. Indian media managed to covert a humanitarian aid which could have won us goodwill into a debacle that earned us the ire of Nepalese people and its government.
So is there a solution to this? First things first, media must stop going after advertising money at cost of journalistic ethics. The media must stop being beholden to the administration or the corporate honchos who own the parent company and the editorial integrity must be maintained. Media must be allowed to take ideological positions but must do so openly by declaring allegiance to a party or ideology. Audience must be aware of the intention before they see the content. Finally, human interest stories must be given precedence over sensationalisation and entertainment.
So long.....
But, I digress. Today the topic is media itself. How many of us agree that news channels should not be showing entertainment segments nor should they be beaming spots where some “tantric/ baba” – quack is giving spiritual / medicinal advice to people in the audience. There is a healthy respect for the trade of journalism but in the name of television ratings and advertising money the news media has lost its JQ – journalistic quotient. Editors no longer take the time and employ their deep insights to find a position on the main story which best suits the audience. Today, more often the editorial is looking to find an angle to the story which is most controversial and hence will grab eye balls and in turn bring in more advertising money. Consequently, the 9 PM news becomes a slanging match between political and ideological opponents often not adding any value to the audience who are often frustrated with this nonsense sans news value. Every new item is being made larger than life and projected based on its ability to be controversial and eye catching. In the times when there is agrarian crisis throughout the country more time was spent in discussing about the holiday destination of the vice president of a political outfit and conjectures on how a certain son-in-law made million by finding loop holes in the law.
I ask, apart for voyeuristic pleasure, what benefit do such moronic news items provide to the viewers? We provide a service and there is a demand for it – is often the argument for such abomination. I ask again, there is a huge demand for pornography too so does that mean news channels should be beaming porn clips during the 9 PM “prime time” slots ? Can any news media get away with tabloidization of news because there is a demand for it? There many such pressing issues haunting Indian media today and hence I took the liberty of checking the program listing of BBC and CNN, two international news organizations which have become a brand in the field of news reporting. I found BBC and CNN have so many slots dedicated to human interest stories; issues faced within the country and internationally. They have journalist on the field in distant locations bringing to us the tears, joys, sorrows and accomplishments of people around the world. Compare this to the coverage of Indian media when the PM was travelling to the US or Japan. Instead of utilizing the opportunity to get some human interest story, our media was pandering to lowest common denominator by wall to wall coverage of the PM and his cultural programs. Every shit and every fart was being covered. There were embarrassing moments when the NY times and WSJ wrote an article on how the Indian media was gushing like a teenage girl meeting the movie star. The only reason why BBC and CNN gave 5 minutes each for this story was to report the “coverage style” of Indian media. Almost like saying, we get it!! Now please tone it down.
As embarrassing as the coverage of the “PM travels” was, nothing can make the case more strongly about news media tabloidization as the recent natural disasters – Kashmir floods and Nepal earthquake. In the month of October 2014, Kashmir faced a surprise flood on the banks of Jhelum which brought the capital and the government to a halt. Most government offices were flooded and help had to arrive from outside for rescue and rehabilitation. Given the fact that Jhelum laid siege on the capital, it was obvious the Centre had to help the state fight the disaster and the PM did admirably well. The rescue mission was taken up on war footing and the PM even spent “Diwali” in Kashmir to show solidarity with Kashmiris. There was a major problem despite the admirable work of the armed forces on the orders of the PM, his friends who own media channels either saw this as an opportunity to advertise “Government efficiency” or were advised to do so. Somehow, the narrative in the news media was of a larger than life savior (read the PM) saving people (Kashmiris) from natural disaster and hence they should now be beholden to the savior. Conjectures were being made on foreign policy and how the PM won over Kashmir from Pakistan etc. All this focus on Kashmir, while Assam was facing floods where no help arrived. If you remember Kashmir was to go to polls in December of 2014 and all of sudden it became plainly clear that media was talking at behest of the master for electoral benefits. While rest of India remembers the floods as a case of swift and decisive governance, Kashmiris remember this as cynical move by central government to use a disaster for electoral benefits. Again, I am not sure if the PM meant to put this message across but nevertheless that was the message put across by our tabloid news media.
In April 2015, just couple of days after floods hit Bihar, a 7.9 earth quake hit Nepal and Bihar. Once again, the PM with the help of Army and NDRF started a rescue mission on war footing. This time help was provided to an Indian state and a neighboring nation simultaneously and I must mention that this was the best response to a calamity of this nature, until the media came in. In order to cover a human impact story, the media channels sent 600 media persons to Nepal (ignoring Bihar) for a wall to wall coverage of the calamity. Media persons took too much space in the rescue helicopters – space that could be used for ferrying the injured or for supplying food and medicines. The air force had to run additional sorties for rescue because of space taken up by media persons in each helicopter sent for rescue work. Again, the same old narrative of a savior (PM) coming in Rambo like fashion to save the world was being projected. In addition, reporters were seen asking leading questions to those being rescued – asking if they wanted to thank the Indian PM –something that will haunt the PM for now. Soon, the Nepalese people were nauseated watching the PR exercise of a politician on the backs of their loss and tears. #GoHomeIndianMedia and #GoBackIndianMedia started appearing on Nepalese twitter trends and the Government of Nepal politely asked the media and NDRF to return home as they felt the rescue was completed and Nepal could take care of the rehabilitation by itself. It was a major embarrassment to India in a world forum where 11 other countries worked as tirelessly as India without this PR exercise. Indian media managed to covert a humanitarian aid which could have won us goodwill into a debacle that earned us the ire of Nepalese people and its government.
So is there a solution to this? First things first, media must stop going after advertising money at cost of journalistic ethics. The media must stop being beholden to the administration or the corporate honchos who own the parent company and the editorial integrity must be maintained. Media must be allowed to take ideological positions but must do so openly by declaring allegiance to a party or ideology. Audience must be aware of the intention before they see the content. Finally, human interest stories must be given precedence over sensationalisation and entertainment.
So long.....
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