DailyPost 2439
ELECTRONIC MEDIA – MINDSET & THE LANGUAGE
The electronic media transformed media and not it is in the process of being transformed. The social media is bound to give a body blow to this media, but that would take some time, if it were to happen in totality. The back-end content fluidity and its management would lead to a combination of media, wherein the exact source may also not be relevant, but for its authenticity. Some signs of this process can be seen now itself. For the time being we are less concerned about the tech and its interplay on different media, but the transformation of the electronic media, moving away from news, even when the said channels are news channels.
The capability of the electronic media to create a 24/7 content for the screens out of nowhere has been the killer sauce which is being thrust down our neck. The Doordarshan style news has become history for sure and so is the story of the early days to TV channels. News was one component, which was dealt deftly and with precision, accepted that it did not have the multimedia finesse of the day. How much has the corporatization of the media houses impacted the present mindset, language and the content, needs independent research.
We find editorial independence is a few print media houses by way of the headlines and edits; pungent, sarcastic and giving a body blow to the issues in the right manner. Electronic media mindset is most deplorable and is in the midst of outright criticism, even on their faces, still they carry with elan. Though most of them are news channels, none of them have 10 pm news type slots, strictly news, when everything has become a program. It clearly gives us feeling that the news is being peddled. The language of this mindset in visible in the programming and its bias to things which make least difference or are detrimental to people’s lives.
Transforming news into a Bollywood thriller is the most commendable feat of the Indian electronic media. Nothing is expressed as fact. Opinionated to the core. Tall claims to the contrary. How and why a reporter keeps giving his views? From the hashtag to the setting the stage for the program, there is nothing news like there. While they talk about others toolkit and playbooks, their toolkits and playbooks are all too well known. This language added with talks of strategy in every protest or crisis, is just deplorable. The myopic vision in a given trajectory has to be a calibrated one. The bountiful ads have their own story. One tweet can be sufficient enough to pass a day with crores of ad revenue. Mindset with strings and no effort to make any worthwhile impact is the crux of their existence. While cash registers keeps ringing, with the purpose defined for themselves, necessarily the language, content and presentation are destined to follow suit. It is not delivering what the fourth estate was cherished to deliver.
BEING THERE WITH SOME ACTION ON THE SCREEN WITH NO PUBLIC PURPOSE, IS THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA OF TODAY.
Sanjay Sahay