The show producer "2 minutes to roll are we getting him or not ,what is this ,where is the guest?" , my phone rings constantly ; Cut to : my boss, his boss ,PCR ,MCR ,input editors ,the Newsroom ,the Anchor...cut to - the VIEWER...zoom in now.. on me ,a real tight frame , all eyes on me...my eyes??
----B L I N K----
"Welcome to 'Face the Nation' the show where we ask you the viewer the big question of the day.." its Rajdeep Sardesai with a new set of panelists evry weeknight at 10pm.Television Journalism in India is at its competitive peak ,with 'N'number of news channels and the same pool of guests - Politicians , lawyers , critics , actors , cricketers , cops to convicts to even bloggers !There is no room for error , you have to get the right people at the right time and this goes for all the news channels in this country .
After the lame introduction to my article , i get to the point - "Journalism in contemporary India" .A pool of News channels ,each with an inclination towards different subjects ,each with its own superstars who run the show .News is now what they think it should be, how and rather how much it should be(keep in mind there are 30 mainstream news channels).Has it always been this way , and is there a problem if it is that way , what i want to look at in this piece.
Back in the day , television(not news) for me was three things Ramayan , The Book of world records and cricket. News was poison , there was this guy who as much as I can remember always use to tell us how much it was going to rain today. Things have changed ,and boy have they changed a News channel now is a one stop shop. Humour to emotion to information its a complete package ,but due to the huge competition we seem to seem to have forgotten what we can and what we should do(at least try for it).Ours is a very powerful medium , we can achieve the most difficult feat known to man - CHANGE. The Indian media today is an energetic body which is probably doing too much , trying too hard not for bringing about a change but for plain TRP.
I was at the India Today conclave(2006),"Bridging the divide" the big banner read. An eclectic mixture of Indian and international personalities were present, a lot was discussed,Multilateralism,the centre state divide to feminism amidst all this,there was the all time cliche debate "overcoming the faultlines" with G M Banatwala (Muslim League) , Praveen Togadia(VHP), Teesta Setalvad and T S R Subbramanium , the session chairperson was Chandan Mitra of the Pioneer . Mitra opened the debate by saying that his colleagues had warned him and advised that he wore a helmet to the session , a clear indication of how serious he was to conduct a meaningful discussion to overcome the faultlines for a secular and harmonious India , Jai Hind. Frankly it was , two hours of Non Stop laughter , people were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes . This was a masala debate with Togadia reading verses from the Quran and Teesta ridiculing all the other panelists. I think the time has come to do away with these non sensical debates and think about something beyond TRP something that builds this nation.You , want to overcome the faultlines ? why cant you have a Swami Agnivesh , a Zakir Naik who would have a much more aggressive debate , aggressive not against each other but against this growing concept of a great divide having set in our country .They would be exchanging notes and explaining to everyone how these lines can be erased by not passing them on to the future generation.
The point is are we now feeding on the frustration of our countrymen , has the News 'Business' taken over news? .We all seem to know or have some idea about what the common Indian would like to watch , we know he is pissed with the system and that he wants someone to pay . More and more of Leader bashing , more police defaming there is a negativity about Indian media today. I am not against the sting operations , or the loads of stories exposing our policemen in fact I am a huge fan of such stories I think they do make a difference . Trouble is , now each channel wants to out do the other and they are really going at it . As a young Indian I really want to see some encouraging stories , some positive realistic stories , stories which give us HOPE .We can show how police officials are corrupt but not how they work , Ill really be interested to know what sort of conditions they work in , why cant we showcase how difficult it is to be a cop in India , id like to know the pressures on a politician and give them some respect.
All in all the balance is missing , and I am not talking about an idealistic balance where everything is proportionate , that is a dream . We should see to it that our power gets harnessed , not in getting a minister out of a party but in getting a young guy to say I am going to be a politician and make a difference . Honestly the road doesnt seem uphill , and I think it can be done easily with a collective effort , our time is here.
About the AuthorSushant Mehta Sushant Mehta is Senior Correspondent (Films) at CNN-IBN. He will be writing about stars, their films, gossip and his day-to-day experiences with acto...Read Morefirst published:March 19, 2006, 17:30 ISTlast updated:March 19, 2006, 17:30 IST
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Tic Toc Tic Toc Ti T t..t , my watch seems to blur ,my fists clinched , i turn to his personal secretary "Saab kahan hai yaar?" my cameraman waits ; Cut to :- the CNN IBN 'Headquarters'
The show producer "2 minutes to roll are we getting him or not ,what is this ,where is the guest?" , my phone rings constantly ; Cut to : my boss, his boss ,PCR ,MCR ,input editors ,the Newsroom ,the Anchor...cut to - the VIEWER...zoom in now.. on me ,a real tight frame , all eyes on me...my eyes??
----B L I N K----
"Welcome to 'Face the Nation' the show where we ask you the viewer the big question of the day.." its Rajdeep Sardesai with a new set of panelists evry weeknight at 10pm.Television Journalism in India is at its competitive peak ,with 'N'number of news channels and the same pool of guests - Politicians , lawyers , critics , actors , cricketers , cops to convicts to even bloggers !There is no room for error , you have to get the right people at the right time and this goes for all the news channels in this country .
After the lame introduction to my article , i get to the point - "Journalism in contemporary India" .A pool of News channels ,each with an inclination towards different subjects ,each with its own superstars who run the show .News is now what they think it should be, how and rather how much it should be(keep in mind there are 30 mainstream news channels).Has it always been this way , and is there a problem if it is that way , what i want to look at in this piece.
Back in the day , television(not news) for me was three things Ramayan , The Book of world records and cricket. News was poison , there was this guy who as much as I can remember always use to tell us how much it was going to rain today. Things have changed ,and boy have they changed a News channel now is a one stop shop. Humour to emotion to information its a complete package ,but due to the huge competition we seem to seem to have forgotten what we can and what we should do(at least try for it).Ours is a very powerful medium , we can achieve the most difficult feat known to man - CHANGE. The Indian media today is an energetic body which is probably doing too much , trying too hard not for bringing about a change but for plain TRP.
I was at the India Today conclave(2006),"Bridging the divide" the big banner read. An eclectic mixture of Indian and international personalities were present, a lot was discussed,Multilateralism,the centre state divide to feminism amidst all this,there was the all time cliche debate "overcoming the faultlines" with G M Banatwala (Muslim League) , Praveen Togadia(VHP), Teesta Setalvad and T S R Subbramanium , the session chairperson was Chandan Mitra of the Pioneer . Mitra opened the debate by saying that his colleagues had warned him and advised that he wore a helmet to the session , a clear indication of how serious he was to conduct a meaningful discussion to overcome the faultlines for a secular and harmonious India , Jai Hind. Frankly it was , two hours of Non Stop laughter , people were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes . This was a masala debate with Togadia reading verses from the Quran and Teesta ridiculing all the other panelists. I think the time has come to do away with these non sensical debates and think about something beyond TRP something that builds this nation.You , want to overcome the faultlines ? why cant you have a Swami Agnivesh , a Zakir Naik who would have a much more aggressive debate , aggressive not against each other but against this growing concept of a great divide having set in our country .They would be exchanging notes and explaining to everyone how these lines can be erased by not passing them on to the future generation.
The point is are we now feeding on the frustration of our countrymen , has the News 'Business' taken over news? .We all seem to know or have some idea about what the common Indian would like to watch , we know he is pissed with the system and that he wants someone to pay . More and more of Leader bashing , more police defaming there is a negativity about Indian media today. I am not against the sting operations , or the loads of stories exposing our policemen in fact I am a huge fan of such stories I think they do make a difference . Trouble is , now each channel wants to out do the other and they are really going at it . As a young Indian I really want to see some encouraging stories , some positive realistic stories , stories which give us HOPE .We can show how police officials are corrupt but not how they work , Ill really be interested to know what sort of conditions they work in , why cant we showcase how difficult it is to be a cop in India , id like to know the pressures on a politician and give them some respect.
All in all the balance is missing , and I am not talking about an idealistic balance where everything is proportionate , that is a dream . We should see to it that our power gets harnessed , not in getting a minister out of a party but in getting a young guy to say I am going to be a politician and make a difference . Honestly the road doesnt seem uphill , and I think it can be done easily with a collective effort , our time is here.
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