DailyPost 3058
ELECTRONIC NEWS MEDIA – SUPERFICIALITY UNLIMITED
If you are the grey hair type you would certainly be remembering the days of 20 mins news. The newscaster would take us through the news, with some video interspersed. There were some programs, preceding and succeeding it, and then the TV would go dormant for the rest of the day. The world of electronic media revolutionised with private players coming, the entertainment mix changed drastically and the user was in for good times. How would the news be far behind? It came for an independent existence, and finally the era of 24/7 news channels started. It began in 1998 with the launch of Star News.
Being live 24/7 was not an easy game, even with recorded programs. The depth and quality of TV journalism was given a fillip by NDTV in its nascent avatar. It had become the gold standard of Indian TV journalism, raising faint hopes that one day India would also be able to create its own BBC and CNN. But that was not to happen and it remains elusive to this day, with nothing of that nature happening in the near foreseeable future. Even CNN’s Indian avatar did not live up to anyone’s dreams. Channels went on increasing with the Hindi and regional channels mushrooming in gay abandon. After all the investments made, they had to live and survive.
Fast forward to 2025, would you be able to provide the name of one investigative TV journalist in this country. Have journalists gained name and fame because of their expertise? The counter question is do they even want to become one? That is not even a goal today. From being the hub of TV journalists the electronic media revolution went on a different trajectory. The newscaster era was over but the birth of a true TV journalist did not happen, specialisations notwithstanding. Investigative TV journalists and pathfinders are a lost species now. What finally happened is that news channels became bereft of news and paved the way for transforming the whole electronic media industry in an anchors game.
While the quality of news or rather news itself is at its lowest ebb, the anchors get salaries that can be the envy of any other professional. They live and feel like celebrities and the TV propagates that culture. Anchors define TV journalism in India. Besides that some reasonable okay talkers in a few cities, and abysmal reporters in smaller cities, if they have any. The TV channel architecture is complete. Any news is primarily a commentary of the worst type, with opinions and statements pushed in between, and catchy visuals playing; good or bad, playing endlessly. A 24 hour news channel can do wonders in educating the nation and making them aware in every way, but what has happened in reality is constricting our vision of the world.
IN A WORLD OF UTTERLY DISPERSED INFORMATION, WHO WILL GIVE US THE NEWS?
Sanjay Sahay