Media Musing

Editorial:-

When the internet exploded on to personal computers and commentators around the world started sounding the death knell for the printed word and television [we are talking news here], there were a few sane minds who pointed out that this would not happen since the worldwide web did not have a business model to translate eyeballs into revenue. No media can survive, leave alone wipe out another, without a revenue model. More than a decade and a half of the web having flattened the world and having now even reached telephones, newspapers and television channels continue to print and broadcast. The reason why advertisements, which sustain newspapers and television, did not migrate on industry-killing scale to the internet is because even though websites offer free information and hence are seen as more accessible, they demand not only technology and some level of tech-savvy aptitude, but more importantly, constant engagement – you cannot be brewing yourself tea while also browsing [at least not properly], but you could be reading, cooking and washing even as you catch the news on television playing in the background. Because the television does not demand unbroken attention, it attracts advertisements which play on a spool and a few decibles louder than regular programming, until, in their covert assault they command the top of the mind recall that advertisers crave. And then again, you can take the television around everywhere with you unlike a newspaper which you could roll under your arms and read whenever you want. Also, an advertisement on print, despite publications being timebound, have a longer shelf life than an advertisement on TV which runs to fixed slots and can be avoided. But then, there are so many channels to choose from, so many claiming breaking news all the time, that to retain advertiser portfolios, it becomes necessary to acquire viewerships. Because television is chosen as a medium of information sometimes to catch news [a lathicharge or budget announcements] as it breaks and most of the times because this form of imbibing information makes no demands on attention spans, given the competition in this segment, the need to entertain takes priority over the responsibility to inform. The need for authenticity is sidestepped because television viewers do not get a chance to rationalise - the rapid barrage of soundbytes and visuals, presented by excitable presenters, jumping from one story to another, leaves viewers no time to mull over the information provided. It’s different with newspapers, where the reader is engaged in the process, questioning, doubting and analysing the information provided as s/he reads. This pressure to entertain makes viewers sit through half an hour specials on a cow that walks in circles or political siblings feuding across TV channels; of political debates reduced to allusions to balloons and toffees and televised debates becoming more about the performance of star anchors than explaining issues. Television does not allow viewers time to think and visual images have a way to ‘leading’ viewers, something not as easily achieved in the print medium. And they have been exploiting this power rather shamelessly and now that entertainment is winning, news is suffering even in print. Print, the dinosaur of information, has been dribbling an awkward game of late as it strives to add zing to the printed word. This is admittedly not easy. Succumbing to sensationalism or exploitative journalism is easy and simultaneously, as journalistic responsibilities towards authenticity are getting dangerously de-prioritised in the race to garner viewer/ readership, media finds itself in a confounding muddle. And while these are our problems to wade through and negotiate, it is a collective worry because not just individual reputations, what is also at stake in this pressure to entertain [and nothing entertains like gossip] is the audience’s need to be informed, and informed correctly. As the bar for basic journalistic ethics to verify gets lowered, the media becomes that much more susceptible to plants and directed misinformation; and this will provide only momentary euphoria in some camps, anger in others, but serve no purpose save to titillate…