Column

Sotto Voce

Not many readers of this paper must be tuning into Doordarshan for their daily dose of television news. In urban areas, DD is no longer the channel of first or even last preference, either for news or entertainment.

There are a sufficient number of satellite channels to fulfil every need and in every possible Indian language, slick and smart and on the ball; DD is fuddy-duddy and old-fashioned, besides which, as we know it is the voice of the government of the day.

But of late I have been feeling a quiet yearning for those bad old days of long-winded stories on government pronouncements and ministerial trips to Uzbekistan.

When grim-looking, sari-clad ladies read out stories about the joys of water harvesting. When we had only two news bulletins at night, interspersed with Krishidarshan and Chaayageet. And when we did not have Breaking News.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a votary of government-controlled news. I can see the advantages of a robust, independent media which uncovers scandals and wrongdoing. But when I see what television news has become and the havoc it can cause, I longingly remember a simpler time when news bulletins were boring, but not harmful.

Many serious observers of the media, from within and outside the profession have pointed out that the events of the last few days, when a small, localised verbal battle between Raj Thackeray and leaders of the Samajwadi Party got blown up to such an extent that it caused death and destruction, can at least partly be blamed on the frenzy generated by the electronic media.

By playing and replaying one or two minor incidents of vandalism and by flashing headlines like ‘Mumbai tense’ when most of the city was quite calm, these channels managed to scare not only locals but also viewers across the country.

Perhaps it is a bit unfair to blame them for everything that went wrong. Thackeray was out to create mischief and he exploited every possible avenue to get the maximum exposure. And it is not as though there used to be no riots way back when in the pre-24 hour news Jurassic Park era. So why bash the poor channels?

True enough, but that still doesn’t let television news wallahs off the hook. Tune into any 24-hour news channel and what do you get?

Trivial news stories blown up to sound more significant than they are, reporting by breathless and uninformed young journos, in-studio discussions where the most inane questions are asked, editorialising in news reports and above all, ‘Breaking News’ that refers to everything from a accident to a political crisis to the engagement/break-up of a star pair. All this delivered in a high-pitched way; sobriety and calmness are obviously passé.

Though television has been criticised the world over for dumbing down news, nowhere is the tabloidisation as blatant as here.

That is mainly because no other market has seen the launch of so many news channels in such a short time as India. This has meant that not only is each one vying for eyeballs and TRPs (Television Rating Points), but also that there is a severe shortage of qualified journalists.

Thus we have hordes of uninformed and untrained youngsters, managed by people with hardly any experience, all rushing to get the story out first and all shouting at the top of their voice to get heard.

Not that the talent situation in print media is any better, but there are several built-in filters which ensure that a story passes through many stages before it makes it to the papers. Cold print cannot rouse emotions the way visuals (especially looped over and over again) can.

Obviously no one is arguing for controls or censorship — any change has to come from within. But if the channels did an honest survey they would find that viewers are quite fed up of these travesties and breaches of professional standards and ethics.

They are appalled when old footage is shown and passed off as fresh. And most of all they resent the trivialisation of news. The government has no doubt sensed that and don’t be surprised if it starts talking about the need to clamp down on such practices.

The public might well support such a move and that would be the thin end of the wedge. So before Priyaranjan Dasmunshi steps in, it’s best that the TV guys clean up their act. Otherwise it is back to Doordarshan and what’s more, viewers might welcome it.
Email: sidharth01@dnaindia.net