DailyPost 353
ELECTRONIC MEDIA EXPERTS
The mass invasion of electronic media changed the rules of the game. News formats of yesteryears became a thing of the past & brand new formats started tumbling down the electronic media giants stables. News became a game to be played 24/7 basis, entertaining enough to keep the audiences glued, with a final aim to garner TRP ratings, translating into bountiful of cash. All TV channels got onto the bandwagon, in differential micro formats, defining their brands & their existence.
Few coverages that have hogged media limelight internationally recently have been the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370, the Russian hacking of US elections 2016 & most recently the Hurricane Irma. The top channels besides being truthful to the facts, relied on objective analysis on practitioner experts. The aviation experts as in the case of flight 370; either renowned pilots or renowned researchers & in the case of continuing Hurricane Irma coverage; FEMA officials past and present & other acclaimed experts. These are the experts who also appear on the electronic medium.
The electronic media is an Indian staple. The Indian talk shows are by far the most entertaining. Instead of experts coming on electronic media, we have created a whole new breed of electronic media experts, representing different factions, sections & entities and have the capability to handle any topic with ease. Facts & objectivity are the casualties in the process. The pace of opinion creation is undoubtedly bewildering but the exposition leaves you in complete amazement, both by the moderators of such shows & the participants in equal measure. We can call it truly an Indian Debate.
These electronic media experts make a significant contribution to clamour & the cacophony being persistently generated in the narrative of the nation. The desired narrative & objectivity is in a permanent hijacked status. Post Truth era has begun.
SOONER THAN LATER ELECTRONIC MEDIA EXPERTS BUBBLE WILL GO BUST.
Sanjay Sahay