All of a sudden there are a number of new news channels on the T।V। This has set the trend of a revamping exercise in the existing news channels also. This is not all. One of them the Sahara Group has, alongwith the National Sahara Samay, a number of regional channels. Zee News, English Headlines Today, Star News, NDTV 24 x 7, and NDTV India are all eating into each other's viewer-ship and also creating new viewers. There are some news channels in other languages like Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil. Of course there is DD.There is a growing feeling that this is the right time to put into place some sort of structure and organisation in the working and content of TV journalism. Just as there is a Press Council for the print media, there should be an Electronic Media Council, or alternatively, the Press Council of India should be converted into a Media Council covering the print and electronic media both.
It is necessary to prescribe and enforce some terms for recruitment practices, work ethics, and all that. A large number of institutions have introduced various types of journalism courses churning out young women and men with degrees and diplomas in their hands looking for job openings. True to the spirit of free enterprise, the channels have started exploiting the aspiring and unemployed youth.
It seems time now to make the viewers a partner in the give and take of news. Every channel should have a regular programme every day responding to comments and views of the viewers. This is very necessary since the comment or the view of an anchor is not final. It may even be out of context. It is very interesting that though there are a number of Hindi news channels, most of them are dominated by anchors and reporters who do not seem to be at home with Hindi. Sometimes they don't even understand a response given in Hindi!Much has been made of "the look of the channel". What should be given greater importance are probably the reports, the look of the studio, the mannerism of the anchors and news reporters, the rapport that they establish with the viewers. A sleek studio and smartly dressed anchors looking as if they were coming straight from a dry cleaner look like space station characters. The common people of India feel a sort of relationship with them if their dress, mannerism, and presentation is relaxed. "Designer clothes from Rohit Bal", "hair styled by Javed Habeeb", and "dress code of Birla corporates" can divorce the channel from the common people.
It is interesting to know that no channel, Hindi and/or English, seems to have paid any attention to language and pronunciation. One was amused to note that when the President of Iran was visiting and was the Chief Guest at Republic Day Parade, different anchors and reporters of the same channel were pronouncing his name differently.
Similarly no editors of a Channel seem to notice that "Sushri Mayawati" has become "Susri Mayawati" that "Kshetra" has become "Chhetra". The most interesting is the case of the nuktaa. The purists in Hindi Literature always abhor the use of nuktaa, since it is used in Urdu. The average 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan' patriot has a mindset that identifies Urdu with Pakistan. One does not know whether their patriotism blinds them or they are ignorant of the fact that Urdu was born and brought up in the streets of Delhi and Lucknow.
Secondly, spoken Hindi cannot ignore the nuktaa otherwise, they end up writing 'nyuuz' as 'nyuuj' in Hindi. One is waiting for an anchor or a reporter to pronounce 'Zee News' as 'G News' in Hindi. Spoken language and literary language are two different things.Anchors on some channels indulge in tête-à-tête as if they were conversing in a drawing room. Where the opinion of a specialist or an expert is needed, undergraduate tête-à-tête is ridiculous. Further, we have to remember that TV is a very powerful and sensitive medium. Millions of youngsters who watch the programmes, news or entertainment, on the small screen, pick up attitudes, facts, mannerism, and even pronunciation from there. They even have their screen icons amongst anchors and newsreaders. It is, therefore, necessary to pay attention to what is said on the screen and how it is said. It is noticed that while conversing with experts or talking to experts or officials on the phone, anchors address them by their first name. This is not always desirable. Addressing a DIG or a minister by his/her first name is not appropriate. Apart from this, there is the strange practice of using the suffix "Ji" as a prefix in conversation. This was probably started by some channel and is spreading everywhere. Even when anchors talk to their reporters they prefix and suffix "Ji" to their name!
Perhaps a brief comment on the contents of entertainment channels in Hindi would not be out of the place. Critics have all noticed that Indian women get up in the morning with mascara on, that all the stories concern families living in palaces, so on and so forth. We would like to mention two different issues. One is, and this is partly applicable to the news channels also, that the channels fight shy of even mentioning the phrase human rights. Some channels have programmes depicting cases of Human Rights but they are afraid of labeling them so. Sahara Manoranjan is the only exception. This channel is going to complete 100 episodes of a programme wherein a well known film director gives an introduction and uses the HR word without any hesitation.
The second thing is that all the serials are based on the stories of Hindu families. There are perhaps only two exceptions, one serial on 'Z TV' and the other on Sahara Manoranjan. Both of these have themes of a minority culture. Apart from these two serials there is, in Hindi, no serial based on the lives and travails of the families belonging to minority communities. This is not all. Very few producers imagine friends, neighbours, etc., of the characters, belonging to minority communities
FROM PUCL BULLETIN
Monday, May 28, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
TELEVISION SOAPS AS A GENRE
“NEWS’ forms the serious part of Television, but a host of prorammes that fill TV time like serials, game shows, chat shows, and the recent entrant the ‘Reality Show’ have enough takers. Thus as a typical programme content serials have always attracted researchers to probe the implications of these ‘unending serials’.
What are the features of a Serial which is supposed to be the staple for the woman viewer segment?
i) Open-ended narrative forms: the format is one which has no ending ( a story that can be stretched to suit the ad revenue!). Not surprising therefore that one sees the same serial occupying the slot in a punishing schedule of “five-days-a-week-as-long-s-you-want” schedule.
ii) Core locations: The story unspools in a familiar locale. In the case of the Ekta Kapoor “Kyunki” variety it is a large joint family with a business presence. This combination usually provides umpteen crisis situations suited for melodrama! There is the constant vying for support of the matriarch by the ‘lesser women’- the daughters-in-law at the home front, while it is a similar tension between the men at the group’s business centre.
In the regional languages the family-based tensions take up more time, particularly in the Kerala serials, probably because few are able to conceive of ‘large business empires’ and how it affects filial ties.
iii) The tension between the accepted conventions of realism and melodrama: While the realism tends to be portrayed through characters who inhabit “recognizable spaces”and “believable situations”. Melodrama comes as a major ingredient through a increased sense of the ‘dramatic’ and with a focus on ‘life’s torments’. This representation is noticed because of
a) the emphasis on expressions, tones all with no restraint,
b) dramatic music, and
c) lingering close up shots
d) story-lines with twists and turns drawn from possible real life situations
all packaged to get viewer involvement.
e)pivotal themes of inter-personal relationship – the ‘mythic’ family is a major theme. Marriages, divorces, acts of revenge, acts of caring, the absence of a male heir(in Indian set ups where inheritance and family name are major elements). All this provide ample situations that can keep adrenaline flows high enough to send the TRPs shooting up!
These are the general traits in most soaps but it would also be important to remember that it has its national and regional variations. In the case of serials on Indian channels it is the sub-culture features that mark out the regional language serials from the Hindi serials on the National Hindi channels.
What are the features of a Serial which is supposed to be the staple for the woman viewer segment?
i) Open-ended narrative forms: the format is one which has no ending ( a story that can be stretched to suit the ad revenue!). Not surprising therefore that one sees the same serial occupying the slot in a punishing schedule of “five-days-a-week-as-long-s-you-want” schedule.
ii) Core locations: The story unspools in a familiar locale. In the case of the Ekta Kapoor “Kyunki” variety it is a large joint family with a business presence. This combination usually provides umpteen crisis situations suited for melodrama! There is the constant vying for support of the matriarch by the ‘lesser women’- the daughters-in-law at the home front, while it is a similar tension between the men at the group’s business centre.
In the regional languages the family-based tensions take up more time, particularly in the Kerala serials, probably because few are able to conceive of ‘large business empires’ and how it affects filial ties.
iii) The tension between the accepted conventions of realism and melodrama: While the realism tends to be portrayed through characters who inhabit “recognizable spaces”and “believable situations”. Melodrama comes as a major ingredient through a increased sense of the ‘dramatic’ and with a focus on ‘life’s torments’. This representation is noticed because of
a) the emphasis on expressions, tones all with no restraint,
b) dramatic music, and
c) lingering close up shots
d) story-lines with twists and turns drawn from possible real life situations
all packaged to get viewer involvement.
e)pivotal themes of inter-personal relationship – the ‘mythic’ family is a major theme. Marriages, divorces, acts of revenge, acts of caring, the absence of a male heir(in Indian set ups where inheritance and family name are major elements). All this provide ample situations that can keep adrenaline flows high enough to send the TRPs shooting up!
These are the general traits in most soaps but it would also be important to remember that it has its national and regional variations. In the case of serials on Indian channels it is the sub-culture features that mark out the regional language serials from the Hindi serials on the National Hindi channels.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
TELEVISION AS TEXT III –WAR NEWS
Our memories are still fresh with visuals of Barkha Dutt in Kargil, helping an injured soldier with one hand while she was bringing the News from the war front to our drawing rooms. Yes, News was bringing the War closer to us. Stop for a moment to think of whether all the News that came to us could in any way generate public opinion strong enough to make the two governments to bring to a close the costly war (lives lost and money).
The reality is that NEWS from the front was only another reportage which provided us with “Our daily dose of information about the War through TV”. Natural therefore that many analysts describe it thus, “War is yet another programme on TV.”
Where else can we find a better example of such a programme than the CNN (1991) telecast of the Gulf War. What is the lasting image in our memories-that of aircrafts landing and taking off from Saudi airfields, and large stretches of desert. But the supporting commentaries told us that ‘smart’ sophisticated weapons would ensure hitting just the target and thus less damage to civilian life. So we sat back in this game because few human lives would be lost. (Could we do anything else?)
Like all truths, there is your truth and my truth. Going by that, the CNN said this, but there is another version which says that the tonnage of bombs used to ‘carpet bomb’ was more than that used during the Second World War. Few remind you on CNN about the fact that many of these ‘missed’ their targets, implying it did hit civilian targets!
It was 24 hr live coverage of War that became the USP, News as it Happens was the CNN punchline. Remind yourself that most of images that were not from the Studio were from military Press briefings, hardly any action of the battle!! Therefore staged press conferences and military tapes defined ‘NEWS’.
P Sainath, the Indian journalist’s take was that in countries like India where strong opinion existed against the War, it always happened that in debates on TV , while the voices present anti-war, the visual were those supporting the War. Thus we realize that War became an event and little was done to analyse and pursue the event for its causes, progress and possible solution. Instead it was “Kudos’ for live coverage of War. Thus “War became a programme on TV” putting in the background the real issues and concerns.
A journalist sent to the region is supposed to have said (during the Iraqi conflict later), “I see no war here.” The response was –“You send us the report, we’ll make the War.”
Any wonder at least some crisis reporting has acquired the label, “teddy bear syndrome.”
If that makes sense, we surely know that visuals will be received and, and remembered, and all that the newsreader mouths will vanish into thin air.
The reality is that NEWS from the front was only another reportage which provided us with “Our daily dose of information about the War through TV”. Natural therefore that many analysts describe it thus, “War is yet another programme on TV.”
Where else can we find a better example of such a programme than the CNN (1991) telecast of the Gulf War. What is the lasting image in our memories-that of aircrafts landing and taking off from Saudi airfields, and large stretches of desert. But the supporting commentaries told us that ‘smart’ sophisticated weapons would ensure hitting just the target and thus less damage to civilian life. So we sat back in this game because few human lives would be lost. (Could we do anything else?)
Like all truths, there is your truth and my truth. Going by that, the CNN said this, but there is another version which says that the tonnage of bombs used to ‘carpet bomb’ was more than that used during the Second World War. Few remind you on CNN about the fact that many of these ‘missed’ their targets, implying it did hit civilian targets!
It was 24 hr live coverage of War that became the USP, News as it Happens was the CNN punchline. Remind yourself that most of images that were not from the Studio were from military Press briefings, hardly any action of the battle!! Therefore staged press conferences and military tapes defined ‘NEWS’.
P Sainath, the Indian journalist’s take was that in countries like India where strong opinion existed against the War, it always happened that in debates on TV , while the voices present anti-war, the visual were those supporting the War. Thus we realize that War became an event and little was done to analyse and pursue the event for its causes, progress and possible solution. Instead it was “Kudos’ for live coverage of War. Thus “War became a programme on TV” putting in the background the real issues and concerns.
A journalist sent to the region is supposed to have said (during the Iraqi conflict later), “I see no war here.” The response was –“You send us the report, we’ll make the War.”
Any wonder at least some crisis reporting has acquired the label, “teddy bear syndrome.”
If that makes sense, we surely know that visuals will be received and, and remembered, and all that the newsreader mouths will vanish into thin air.
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