The dynamic definition of good content

One often hears the phrase: “We are in search of good content”, by creative people including publishers, writers, those in cinema, television, journalism as well as in academia. How we define good content depends upon the demand of the medium the content is going to be used in. This is because content is largely designed by the writer for a target audience. Content for cinema, television, and newspapers is for the masses.

On the other hand, some content is targeted at a set audience. For e.g., the content in academic journals targets a small and highly educated audience, often requiring some technical knowledge of the subject. Because of this very nature of the content, its public scrutiny is low and therefore doesn’t often leave an instantaneous impact on society.

However, content produced for the masses does tend to impact the ‘psyche’ of the target audience. This leads audiences to also start demanding better content. In India, good content for the masses has seen a roller-coaster ride in the past few decades. If one looks back at the history of great content produced in India, one would certainly include classic texts written by our political leaders in the Indian Freedom Movement, for e.g., The Story of my Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar’s The Annihilation of Caste. One also mustn’t forget that often good content was passed down orally. Stories from mythological texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata were known by the masses, even the illiterate, who then passed them down to the next generation. That’s the power of a good text.

Indian cinema, especially Hindi cinema, has contributed tremendously as a content provider to millions of Indians for over a century now. Movies, though, with sub-standard content might make money in the short run, but they certainly don’t leave an impact on society in the long run. In the ‘Golden age of Hindi cinema’, films like Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa and Mehboob Khan’s Mother India left a message for society, not by being preachy, but by their sheer power to entertain audiences.

The next shift in mass content was from cinema to television, especially in the 1980s, often referred to as the lost decade of Hindi cinema. Doordarshan (DD) and television were synonymous. TV shows like Hum Log, Buniyaad, etc were hugely popular and even brought families and neighbours together to watch them.

When DD’s quality went down, the focus shifted to cable TV channels in the Nineties. Gradually the urban middle class shifted to cable TV. Fresh content like Bournvita Quiz Contest, KBC-1, Hip Hip Hurray etc were some landmark shows of that era.

The next shift has been from television to the Internet. People are now glued to their laptops and mobile screens on platforms like Amazon, Netflix and YouTube.

The shift of good content has always happened because of the changed expectations of the educated urban middle class which constantly demands fresh content.

Amidst this shift, some content also becomes timeless classics like Ghalib’s poetry or Rabindranath Tagore’s works.

To sum up, society is always in need of good content. Those who create it do a great service to society, as it often has the power to make ordinary humans extraordinary.

The author is a junior research fellow at School of International Studies, JNU