The More The Merrier?

I agree with all the abovementioned maladies ailing the electronic media in present times. But on a further note, the newly arrived electronic media boom in neighbouring Pakistan is no good either. There seems to be an endless and mindless glut of bringing in new channels in a country with limited if any scope for such a phenomenon. I mean Indian consumerism can perhaps and for sure support a bevy of channels but in Pakistan with its limited market and target audience every channel vies for piece of the spoils...
What saddens me no end is the crass quality of journalistic standards these 24 hours news channels have sunk into, it is out and out sensationalising non events and making it into news...things you would not even bother reading in low rate eveningers and that would not even hope of making a decent space in quality mainstream newspapers.
It isn`t a question of print versus the electronic...each has its advantages but to see the latter succumb to such base things in attempts of wooing viewers...its demeaning to the profession.
I took up journalism not as a profession but as a cause, a mission, to educate the masses, refine their perceptions and ideas, identify issues and suggest pragmatic solutions to it, act as the society watch dog... and now being myself in the electronic news media I see all of my cherished ideals being chucked down the drain.
There is no news sense. More and more noveau riche are taking up the electronic media and dream of becoming media moguls. What happens in such places? Private endeavours such as these, I know from personal experince, are at times reduced to wanton massages to bloated egos and vanities of bosses who have not an inkling of what should be news...
We may have a choice of news channels but there are no clear policies, everything is at the whims and fancies of seths, a proper and respectable news organisation is what is lacking in these times. And what a sad lack that is...

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While pouring out our angst against decline in journalistic ethics is perfectly fine, I feel we should hold our tongue a bit in this regard. I know of many tireless Indian journalists who work in remote areas of the country and therefore aren`t seen or heard that much. But they go on crusading against a degenerating system and many a times even bring about healthy social/political changes. So let`s not malign all Indian journalists on the basis of just the `seen` and the `heard`.

Tehelka CEO Tarun Tejpal earned his credentials as a journalist while working in mainstream media. His mistake was to take on the establishment -- regardless of its ideology, religious and otherwise. The result would have the same (undoubtedly) had he launched the campaign against any other ruling party. Because power corrupts. At least in India it does.

So let`s not use this forum to spew out venom against the whole flock of Indian journalists. I believe this platform is meant for healthy interaction, no? Not for uttering obscenities.

Peace to All! Amen!

Indian journalism? What kind of animal is that? where it is found?

The people who call themselves INdian journalists are the most baysharam and bayghairat people I have ever seen in my life. No morals. No ethical vaues. No principles. They are an insult to the word ``journalism``.

......and tehlka.com, I think, was just a genetic annomolly. The fascist Hindu religious nuts who are currently ruling the country have made monkeys out of tehlka people by destroying their lives and businesses; making sure that such kind of annomolly doesn`t repeat itself for at least next half century.

Ms. Ghosh,

``So the point is that media and other agencies are all part of an attempt to cash in on sensitive emotions across their particular country.``

That`s what the propaganda machine is for. To dehumanise the other side. I don`t know if you`ve been to Wagah but the daily flag carrying parade by the citizens of both countries is one of the most distasteful spectacles ever. Ordinary people are reduced to a rabid frenzy of hostility.
There was this clever little film we saw at a festival last winter in Karachi about two newscasters - one Indian, the other Pakistani (played by the same woman) - reading the same piece of news to their respective audiences. The incident was a trivial, if not ludicrous, one involving some chickens or something like that, but the language and its imprecations conveyed two entirely different messages.
You`re right; we are held hostage to the information provided us by our respective agencies. And it`s time we break through and get to know the other.

I agree about new Indian cable news channels` skewed priorities about sensational news - but - their proliferation is a good thing finally.

There are many language news channels all trying to make a commerical success of it and they are interested in covering local news, as well, which is also good.

The lack of monopoly over news, if this can become commercially viable in the long term, is also all to the good. It was the same shiny private channels who kicked up a big fuss some months ago about starvation deaths in 2 or 3 states and and cover the story from the spot- leading to CMs and PM to be asked questions about this.

Lastly, on cable news, one sees a wide variety of sights and sounds of India which one might not see on national DD - which was also good.

Hopefully journalistic standards will improve with time. IMO, Indian news channels should aim to rival BBC/CNN/Fox in the international arena- these networks have the resources, the working business models, the journalistic traditions, and the intrepid reporters, but finally they largely report only what their n/w bosses want to see. There is thus plenty of scope for channels like Al Jazeera (and hopefully one or two Indian n/ws in future say rediff or NDTV) to fill the current vacuum between news perception and news reality :) .

There is absolutely no intellect in India. This is the conclusion I have come to on returning to India after 20 years in the U.S.. People wear their ignorance like a badge of honor. Mindless imitation of all things Western is the name of the game. If anyone thought that a body can surivive and even flourish without a head, they should observe India from a distance to be proved utterly wrong.

The more I think about it, the more my admiration for Mahatma Gandhi grows. How could the man work with such poor human material to take on the British at their own intellectual level and win? He should be given the Nobel prize just for that.

A very good article on Indian News channel
which are always finding new ways to exploit
situations.Most of them are like Fox or wanabe`s
for sure...the first word you hear is `Aatankwad(Terrorism)`
followed by bais reporting .....ghuspaitayay always on the lips!
where as leaving the State Run PTV the new Pakistani Channels
are rather mature and responsible when it comes to reporting
and don`t brand Indian`s as terrorists and not always shows
the poor and bad side of Indians....unlike Indian Channel
which are filled with hatered ..and one sided propaganda
News+Bollywood + Mellow Drama+CNN+BBC= Indian News....

Way to go!! But have you seen how the print media babas and baby log are falling over each other to be on Indian television lately?

````They```` would never let you get this published in the Indian print media, for sure. As one who has been there done it all, print, tv, electronic and still refrains from calling oneself a ``journalist``, I know, I know. I mean, if anybody writes against tv in the print media (except Amita Malik), then s/he will not have a job. Likewise, if anybody writes against the electronic media in print (except MJ Akbar), then s/he will not have a job.

TV news channels often end up thinking that they are the news. Thus you have acres of coverage on CAS, when everybody I know has taken their old yagi antennas out and will watch DD directly till the dust settles down. Likewise, the Nisha Sharma & Shilpa Shetty episodes are into overkill on regional Delhi/Bombay kind of metro gossip page-3 fillers, while out in the rest of the country they can`t seem to understand the fuss. I mean, in large parts of the country, the Hindi film industry is viewed en passant and as for dowry, what`s that lately with the educated middle class?

How long will these multiple news channels last?

Let me put it this way, being recognised as part of media has a value that cannot be calculated. Ad revenue is fine, but the intangibles come from cavorting.

`Nuff said!?

There`s always the Internet! And then, there`s always life, too?

Hi everybody,

It`s me the author of this piece, in case you got confused by the nickname! Thanks for all your comments.

Agreed that the media here tends to take sides on touchy issues but that`s true of the media on the other side of the fence as well. We too are exposed to the news that comes from that side and the content is prettty much one-sided. So the point is that media and other agencies are all part of an attempt to cash in on sensitive emotions across their particular country.

We, the people from both sides need to interact more at platforms like this one and reinforce that we can coexist and that too without any prejudices. We hardly need any agency to tell us that!

i agree with dybutt.. the indian electronic media is largely alarmist in nature

electronic media, more so television broadcasting in pakistan has recently arrived with `independant` channels like geo and indus and ary... of these channels, geo (owned by the jang group of newspapers) is almost exclusively urdu, ARY is a mix of english and urdu and indus news focuses mainly on english in news bulletins and talk shows... discussion based shows on all channels are usually bilungual... the quality of the news bulletins is very good.. as part of my t.v production class i had to watch 6 hours of these channnels daily, do content analyses on the same as well as intern at one of them...i saw there was extreme emphasis on getting the facts right during the news writing, bulletin compiling phase.... after that anchors discuss, read out and practice three times with the news producer before going on air...prononciation, expressions, tone, accents are all checked.. (initially, indus news had hired people with strong british accents which was very irritating as they were a particularly obscene brit accent... theyre all toned down now)
also, television pays a LOT.. i got paid exactly 13 times more for a measly peasly 3 week internship at a new channel in comparison to what the leading english language newspaper pays... but print is still nicer

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Interesting article. I liked the way you have talked about the dowry girl. The media made her into a hero, and sidelined/suppressed the news about the fact that she called the cops on the behest of her father. I think most of the thinking Indian news watchers are sick and tired of such kind of news. If you have seen the latest ads of Aajtak, you can see the face of the dowry girl spalshed across as a model.

It is sad that the anchors, some of them right from the TV soaps, are more concerned with their looks than their news reading skills. The news content is equally pathetic.

I guess soon the news channels with come up with slogans such as Channel X: Filmi, Very Filmi, and Channel Y: Sexy, Very Sexy. There is already Radio Mirchi here: Hot, Very Hot.

#2dybbut
they generate hatred..well said.
india is a big country,big nation .so as have the big propaganda machine
media.when ever i found some discussion panel on air,they are fieryand hyper.ithought vegetarian are cool and calm.