thevigil.in: public scrutiny of news media

(This piece first appeared at Exchange4Media.com under the Newsmanic Series)

It was some time in 1999. The Internet had just hit the country, sweeping everybody off their feet. Revving up and down that new information highway, everybody was busy announcing the death of the newspaper.

In that period of frenzied crystal ball-gazing, one of Mumbai’s Rotary Clubs decided to hold a memorial service for print media. As Resident Editor of Indian Express, Mumbai, I was the print journalist they would commiserate with.

The question came up repeatedly: Is it over for newspapers?

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(This piece first appeared at Exchange4Media.com under the Newsmanic Series)

Before 26/11, I used to be an Arnab Goswami regular. The ‘Newshour’ show moves fast, the debates are brief, he moderates the debates well and comes prepared with the stuff. But post 26/11 and the attendant success for Times Now, something has changed. Arnab seems to have mutated. The aggression has been replaced by smugness, incisiveness by invective, research by rhetoric and debate by discourse.

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(This piece first appeared at Exchange4Media.com under the Newsmanic Series)

If the quality of the media is a reflection of the society in which it operates, I begin to wonder now, after repeated self-flagellation, if I have been unnecessarily severe on myself and my professional mates.

This philosophical realisation hit me as I was watching TV channels doing their usual breaking news ‘tandav’ on the Modern School mess Thursday high noon. I have often accused reporters and cameramen of lacking decorum when at work. But see what the camera makes even people like us do. The pushing and jostling, the shouting and screaming, the shoving and snatching of mikes… first grown ups behaving like kids and then kids wanting to be grown ups.

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(This piece first appeared at Exchange4Media.com under the Newsmanic Series)

The average TV journalist hates his job or, more precisely, hates what he has to do to keep his job, which is roughly true of any average person in any average job. The dirty, mindless content he dishes out with such passion is not HIM. Much like any average person in any average job, the TV journo, too, has made his peace. He gets by the tough life of the TV newsroom by throwing the protective ring of philosophy around himself.

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If you are reading this you have already lived three days more than mandated by IBN7 and some unnamed expert astrologers. We were all marked for death on July 7. I can’t ask you to celebrate because there is more danger coming. July 22, August 6 and then… Apocalypse!

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(This piece first appeared at Exchange4Media.com under the Newsmanic Series)

One story that news channels should have grabbed and played up was the investigative report of BBC’s Richard Watson on the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. India’s news channels have unfairly been carrying the stigma of helping the terrorists in their mission. Watson pointed out that there was something elementarily wrong about the Government’s accusation and I expected some pick and play to this story even though Michael Jackson was ruling the airwaves.

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