Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

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Dumb, dumber, dumbest

August 13, 2013 at 12:08am

A lot of people are of the view and rightly so, that we get what we deserve.  Case in point is the quality and content of the 24x7 News Channels. It’s TRPs that tell the media barons that us dumb Indians want entertainment of the most bizarre kind.  I believe TRP is measured through a very constrictive process, in a limited catchment area. If memory serves me right it is just a few thousand ( 6000 +) households across the country who have been provided with devices that count what these people are watching and for how long. By inference it is concluded that this is what they WANT to watch! How did these 6000 or even 60000 people come to decide what the rest of the Indians want to watch? Why do media houses care so much for TRP based decisions on content and quality, when they for one know how shallow this system is? Surely there’s a more intelligent and better informed way to generate revenues.

While there can be no doubt that everyone wants entertainment, it is no body's case that 24x7 news channels are in the business of entertaining people. Their business is to INFORM the public about matters of public interest. That’s serious business. I am sure that if the news channels were to raise their monthly charges, the quality of news will improve, as also the quality of viewership. Also, why should news channels be clubbed with the "bouquet" of entertainment channels? Is there a difference between Saas-bahu sagas and mandir-masjid-sand-mafia issues or not? Entertainment channels dedicated to saas-bahu sagas or whatever genre is the current flavour of the day, can remain in the
space they occupy and entertain their committed clientele. I have nothing against them. As one friend put it long back, these Saas Bahu serials are a great safety valve to the stay-at-home moms/ homemakers and but fror them we might have huge vagrancy in this fast evolving society. Having said that, the media moghuls should have some pity on the people who want real news, maybe with some views.....

After all, these 24x7 news channels have been in the public space for far too long to now start looking more maturely at themselves, respect the intelligence of their current and potential viewers and stop imposing a lop-sided, ludicrous and shallow interpretation of events on the viewership.  I know too many people who have given up their decades’ long habit and stopped watching news, as it’s just not worth it. This dumbing-down of all stakeholders has to stop and the sooner it happens, the better it will be for our democracy.  Because they have a “time slot” of 24 hrs to fill up, instead of the good-old 30 minutes that we had in our growing years, 24x7 news channels have by definition spread their content horizontally and thinly to cover as many topics as they can. In-depth, penetrative and vertical examination of different cross-sections and dimensions of newsworthy events is given a go-by. What is paraded as investigative reporting or in-depth analysis, is at best one side of the story and because you need to be seen as “Breaking News” you don’t care how lop-sided it is and what consequences it can have. It’s like carpet-bombing, cover the whole damn space, sab kuchh tabah kar do, culprits ke lag gaya to lag gaya, nahin to koyi baat nahi. We don’t need carpet-bombing, that’s oh so World War II vintage. What we need is precision-bombing, please.

 As truth is invariably the biggest casualty in this setup, the 24x7 news channels would be doing yeoman’s service to the nation by self-regulation and moderation in their reportage, instead of Breaking News all the time in an attempt to increase their TRPs. How can the same item amount to Breaking News at 12 noon and then again at 6 PM or even 9 PM? if you broke news at 12 noon, surely its dead news at 9 PM?  I mean you could still report it without having the OCD of calling it Breaking News through the day! Is there a shelf-life for the term Breaking News in a given context or it’s like a perennial river running its course through the day? And pray, enlighten me, why are experts called on talk shows when the anchors have no intention to allow them to speak? Or is that why they are called, to be used as punching bags, till one runs out of steam and retires, only to rise again and play out the same monologous, yet chaotic and cacophonous, fish-market style assault on viewership.

 Thank God for small mercies, I'd rather wait till the next morning to get my news from some excellent newspapers and magazines. Although the contagion of 24x7 news channels is fast spreading to the century old print media as well.

Btw, the impact of the high decibel level shrieking by the anchors and guests on 24x7 news channels, on the increasing incidence of stress, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders in society also needs to be measured, even if it is done in a limited catchment area, similar to the TRP system.