Why does TV news suck so much?

It felt totally like a eureka moment to me at the grounds of Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 soon as my eyes turned and I saw on stage Oprah Winfrey seated for a conversation with Barkha DuttUp until then one had of course followed Dutts work as an indefatigable newscaster best known for lending a human touch to her dispatchesreports Quite literally so sometimes mdash as shed tenderly pat her interviewees on the shoulder gently goading them to reveal issues they faced before a camera Audiences were hopefully moved witnessing the plight of the socially distant otherMany may have had issues with this style of emotionalexploitative newscasting as if it was a Bollywood film But the fact is the penny dropped only when I saw Dutt with Winfrey Its totally my bad that I had misinterpreted her form of communication as journalism alone Firstly given the subject no not gonna fall into the tiring Twittertroll trap that for years has been demonising Dutt and the lot as biasedpaid media As if there can be any otherWhich loser works in a profession without ever being paid for it And does the fact that you cant possibly publish all thats fit to print not indicate bias anyway One only hopes this doesnt veer towards prejudices And that whatever calls a newsoutlet takes dont involve sneaky private deals or peddling blatant lies in publicMaking motivations known only helps consumers make a choice Mahatma Gandhi like Bal Thackeray ran onesided newspapers Neither is accused of bad journalism Do the same arguments apply to news televisionThough all that there is to it are debates and arguments anyway Its odd what the medium grew into given satellite television in India itself owes its origin to a news eventmdashthe 1991 Gulf War that led to an enterprising South Bombay hotel then Taj President placing a satellite dish on the terrace for its guests to access news on CNNThe first TV channel delivering 24hours news of course came up only at the fagend of last millennium For a medium with a history as short as the story of a boy whos grown up on steroids neglected by parents with a much brighter younger sibling Internet and having just about attained legal age for marital sex its impossible to tell where it stands currently let alone where its headed into the futureHere are a few facts still That in less than a decade since the launch of the first Indian roundtheclock news station there were 300 in competition for unique eyeballs often across the nation All these viewers should ideally have been interested in exactly the same visualitem on screen while the importance of news per se is determined by the proximity of the event to the consumerHow does one compete then In 2002 when the medium was too nascent all its three main channels were accused of partisanship in reporting the Gujarat riots mdash ostensibly aimed at their respective viewerships Wherein Zee and Aaj Tak were called out for mentioning the religion of victims in the Godhra carnage but conveniently concealing so while covering the riots that followed Likewise StarNDTV was accused of overplaying the possible complicity of the statepolice fanning negativity against bothBut this is still within purview of news By mid 2000s when the scene had totally exploded with too many channels to keep count the country it was assumed could only be united by cricket and Bollywood Thats what you saw a whole lot of on Hindi channels And that you dont anymore Also religion bhakti and superstition UFO landingssightings reigned supremeThe creative crescendo of this movement away from news though occurred in July 2006 with the fall of a fiveyearold Prince into a 55feet pit in a village called Aldeharhi 150 kms off Delhi For 50 hours that it took for the boy come out of the well several channels had broadcast his rescue or the lack of it for over 24 hours Since general entertainment had possibly failed this was television news acknowledging its competition was reality TV No knockThe turning point for this genre was of course the 2008 Mumbai terror attacksmdashlivetelevision for three days straight involving cameras stationed mainly outside hotels Taj and OberoiTrident but with obviously no fresh footage to upload What do you do then Open live commentary package it as debate express shock rally around pentup emotions 2611 a reporters story turned TV news into an anchors medium with Arnab Goswami at Times Now as its patron saintPretty much all stations feelsound the same since Leader dictates competition Goswami a popculture phenomenon inspiring skits and memes runs his own channel heating up a studio introducing nightly villains firing at folk on multiple windows picking up cues primarily from social mediamdashfeeding off the mob and feeding right back into it But come what may delivering weekly ratings at the boxoffice of televisionIts been 12 years Obviously hes not just a journalist Now he has a rep to protect and expectations of coreaudiences to meet He defined the era he belongs to and people are used to seeing him a certain way Read again Sounds like Shah Rukh Khan to meMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news