Observing Television – A Blog on Broadcast Media

Television News reporting has undergone major changes in the last few years.  Many issues have been brought out in the open and many scandals exposed.  Even the corruption and underpreparedness for the Common Wealth Games has been highlighted very well by the electronic media.  It has made the govt take notice and act. Hopefully, India should be able to put together a good show as the PM himself has taken initiative.  But suddenly it seems developmental journalism and human interest stories have taken a back seat.  No more is the suffering of the common man or an affected group that much of importance. After all these reports hardly bring any TRP.  The news channels that used to cover such stories are also forced to change their stance thanks to losing out the war.  India TV may have started this run for sensational stories, but the other channels including popular ones such as Times Now and Aajtak have continued to report on sensational exposes. Sting operations, hidden cameras, fake godmen seem to be the stuff channels are interested in.  A couple of days back Headlines Today picked up a subject which definitely was a good subject to cover.  Pesticides are causing cancer to farmers in parts of Punjab. Great stuff, worth highlighting… the channel did something which was serious and away from general sensational stuff covered by channels nowadays.  More such stories will be taken up hopefully in the days to come.

I often keep getting this question… which is the best institute to learn journalism from? The answer however, is not a straight forward one. In fact many aspects go into choosing the right institute or university to do the course from. Also the answer depends on your geographical location for obvious reasons.
Let me  highlight to you some of the aspects you need to consider before taking a media course from a particular institute \ college \ university.
At the undergraduate level (where one does not probably look for a job immediately after the course,) one has to figure out whether what is being taught is going to be relevent in your future career.  This can be figured out by talking to the faculty and the alumni.  Also find out about the about the infrastructure and  whether the specific course is recognised (and from which University).  

At the post graduate level the biggest questions that needs to be considered is the placements after the course.  The faculty, curricula and infrastructure of course are equally important.  Again this can be figured out by talking to the alumni and finding out the placement records.  

The British Universitites are officially ranked for the different specialities.  The list is available on the net or can be accessed from the British Council.  Review of well-known foreign universities are also available on the net now.

So in short do some ground work about the course before joining the course. Don’t just get taken in by the advertisements.

A few months back I saw a Hindi news channel showing on tv a woman being shot dead on camera. Of course the shot did shock the viewers and should not have been shown, at least during prime time.  But the channel not only showed the women being shot but also kept repeating the shot.  In fact the programme stretched for an hour.  Let me just break this one hour programme for you.

• First a background was established.  A jilted lover holding the gun against the woman’s head. It also established slowly that there were policemen around and that the boy had his face in a hood.  Even though the full footage lasted only 5-8 minutes, the channel spent the same number of minutes introducing the scene.  In the process the first minutes of the shot were repeated quite a few times.  The editor zoomed into each person in the frame. Each character was carefully introduced. The boy, the girl, the policemen and the bystanders.  The footage was taken from a mobile phone which meant each time the editor zoomed in, the pictures got pixellated.  But that did not stop the editor from zooming in. With first 10 minutes already over the channel planned the next 10 minutes.
• The next 10 minutes were more or less discussions with an expert on what could have been done by the policeman.  All the while having the first few shots being repeated in the inset window.  Twenty minutes gone
•  The next ten minutes were spent showing the reaction of the policeman.  How he readies himself to pounce on the gunman. All the while  what should have been done by the policeman continued to be discussed.  It was conveniently forgotten that the gutsy policeman actually tried to stop the event.  He may have been under trained to handle the situation, but had tried his best to save the girl putting his life in danger.  Thirty minutes gone.
• The next ten minutes where the actual shooting footage.  Obviously, you can imagine how many times the actual shot would have been repeated. Normal speed, slow motion, zoom in etc etc… Now forty minutes gone
• Another discussion for 10 minutes on how it happened, what triggered the immediate reaction from the culprit etc. There was of course a crucial element of where the policeman goofed up… 50 minutes over and now obviously it was too much. But the channel was not done yet with the subject. 
• The last ten minutes was spent showing the entire sequence in one go. A discussion continued on psychology of the culprit.

Sensational events such as these are now being broken into smaller parts and discussed for hours nowadays on televsion news channels.   However, What is also obvious is there is absence of depth in many of these topics.  The above example highlights the point Imake.  

Looking at it from a TRP point of view, the footage definitely was a stunner.  It did make you stop and look at the visuals.  The footage also forced you to see it again when it was shown.  The comments did force us to think on the lines of what could have been done.  So it would have been a successful programme from the advertising point of view.  

Ethically questions would have been raised about the coverage.  I am not trying to be judgemental here and say whether this should have been done or not, but only highlighting how TV news is changing now.

More than fifty killed from 25 blasts in two days in couple of major cities of India. The impact on the common man in India is obvious. They are a worried, and terrified lot. Obviously there is suspicion as well. Nobody can now be believed. A normal dustbin could be an object of disaster. Your maid needs a verification from police so does your tenant. Should one use wi-fi? After all the terrorists used somebody’s wi-fi and in the process their IP address. In short everybody is scared, suspicious and worried.

The media coverage has done its bit to add on to this worry. The Indian intelligence and police is being questioned time and again on its ability to control such a situation. Their efficiency is being questioned by the media, they wonder whether they are proactive enough and whether they have systems in place to avoid such an eventuality. Images of terror bodies, injuries, bombs everything is shown time and again. BAD NEWS is increasing television ratings. So has the media become insensitive to the viewer sentiments.

Let me just look at it from a different angle. Should media try to also see the hope in some of our intelligence agency work. After all nearly 5 live bombs have been found and defused. Two cars laden with explosives have been located before they could have done any damage. There are people in the police and intelligence who do have the skill to make a difference. This time around after the blasts riots have not broken out. All of this showing a much better situation given the seriousness of the attacks. Yes, I do not deny that the blasts could probably have been handled better. The failures need to be indicted. I am not trying to give a clean chit to the security and intelligence, but just wanting to know whether there is something that the media should do to calm the nerves of the already worried common man? After all most of us cannot run away from these areas.

India is a conservative society. Despite realising the better ratings of adult content most channels have to make do with lesser of it thanks to strictures from the govt. Meanwhile channels are getting into areas which were avoided earlier. One area is being open to trans sexuals on TV programmes. One such programme is Ipadikku Rose in Star Vijay TV. The host is a transsexual who brings controversial participants in the programme. This could be a person who has spent a jail term and is now reformed along with a police commissioner who has an altogether different view. In fact the tamil television channels have taken a lead in this direction. They have been able to get many transsexuals to come in and even perform in the variety programmes.

It is interesting to note that the audience have also slowly started to accept them. Traditionally, transsexuals and eunuchs have been looked down upon in India. For most of them getting a job is very difficult, this is not just because of a obvious resistance to them but also because of the way they have been portrayed. In north India for instance they are looked at as a nuisance. Whenever anybody marries, buys a new house or a child is born a group of eunuchs would gather asking for a minimum sum of money to be paid to them. The eunuchs in such cases are loud and dance in an obscene fashion, harassing the people of indecent exposure. Not surprisingly they are looked at as an irritant or nuisance.

As a journalist I have spoken to some of them and found that besides this tough and irritating exterior image there is a bitter individual who is forced to do things like this as he is not accepted by the society. Nobody would employ such a person. Obviously there is no easy way out for them. Joining a group such as the one explained before at least ensures that they get a square meal. Of course there are those who have been able to get a lot more than a square meal, but there are many others who are just about able make ends meet.

It is to the credit of the television channels that now they are able to bring such people to the forefront. Opportunities given to them ensures that more and more people start accepting them in the society.