I cant get my breakfast digested unless i read a copy of the morning Times, The Hindu or at least the super masala gossip suplement that comes with the Bangalore edition of Times of India - Bangalore Times. Lotta things happen around this little world and theres always this media eye watching and airing it minutes after it happens. The face of media has changed over the last decade. remember those overweight saree clad aunties and suited up uncles with colorful neckties reading out government edited news on the good old Doordarshan? To an average Indian the 8 pm DD news was the only source of information and the unlucky ones who missed it had to wait till next day's morning paper.
Now cable and satellite television have sparked off the birth of umpteen news channels vying for ratings and the top spot. But though the looks and the presentation have improved with corporate style attired newsreaders in their mid-twenties, the standards have terribly gone down especially in the Hindi news channels. These channels compromise on the quality of the news broadcasted whilst trying to reach the top rung of the ratings ladder.
Channels like Aaj Tak, Zee News, Star News(Hindi), India TV and others are ever ready to show utter crap news as "sensation" or "Breaking News" to gather viewer attention. The biggest crap of recent times is the coverage by Aaj Tak of what Mr Great Khali is doing in the WWE rings. If he so much as sneezes, snores or farts the Indian news crew is there to cover it. Wake up news junkies does Mr Khali compete for India in Olympics? Or has he got to do anything with the changing economy or global food crisis to be shown in primetime news overriding other national and international events?? BULLSHIT !!
Another hindi news channel was showing how a giant bald eagle picked up a little goat and soared up to its nest.This was being shown on prime-time and was being "analysed" by a team of animal experts. Now are they gonna compete with Discovery Channel and Animal Planet too?? "Some" news to be aired at primetime with a red tag on the bottom of the screen proclaiming "Breaking News".Sometimes these ratings savvy news channels make such hype out off worthless news which dont even qualify for a 60 second roundup.
And when little kids fall into uncovered pits/borewells and battle for life(now a frequent happening in north india)these channels add background music from Taare Zameen Par and market the news. This is sick. This is not journalism. This is pure moronism.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Very true!! :) What inspired you to write this? Did u watch some horrid , commercialized news?
-Somz.
Remember ..those days when Aaj Tak was aired in Doordarshan .. I guess then it was good. Recently Aamir Khan spoke in a interview about the same stuff ,, how they play music in the back ground ..while reading the news. Just like you have pulp fiction in print media , these channels must be calassified as air fiction.
Somzy i ve been thinking to write abt this everytime I "accidentally" press these channels on the remote. I stick to the newspaper and websites for news these days.No masala or other gimmicks on them :D
yeah georgy..i was a regular viewer of Aaj Tak when it was aired on DD Metro years ago. I think those journalists and producres are no longer running the show now.
Post a Comment