There’s only one thing in life that’s permanent – change. As times change, a lot of things go up side down – specially the ones that are out in open – the ones that are already exposed and superficial. We happen to live in dynamic times, in fast-paced cities, where almost everybody gets bored too soon and longs for a change. But, when the inevitable change hits us, mostly unannounced, how many of us are already prepared to face it?
I work in one of the most volatile industries, where everything after a point boils down to “what next?” Sometimes i feel that the great Indian media circus thrives on these two words, and everything that we do, we say, we write or we show using various means is often a derivative of this never-ending riddle.
Like any other profession, even in journalism there’s a fierce competition. In every medium, be it print, TV, radio or digital, there are feisty recruits, who make sure that their competitors bite the dust. Well, that’s business and no one complains. But, is it fair to label journalism like any other B2B segment of the society, where the only thing that matters is constant inflow of money?
So lot of times, people ask me about does it take to be “featured” in any given section of a newspaper or a TV show? When i was a newbie my answer used to be “your achievement in life.” But, good Lord! I was living in prehistoric times, until I realized that half the people I read or hear about are not even worthy of being in the news.
So, thanks to the hard-working PR machinery and heavily sponsored biggies, people with truck loads of money are apparently people who are news-worthy. And, who are these people again? They are important individuals who give us ads on TV, print and whatever medium you subscribe to.
To some extent the print medium has still maintained its sanity, but TV has gone berserk with the crazy money coming in through advertisements and sponsors. For instance, take a prime time news show on any popular channel, where each second is worth lakhs of rupees. The basic plot is more or less same for all – get a screaming or shrieking anchor, put four people on air (preferably old, aggravated and disillusioned), provoke them till you get some gibberish comments to run with “exclusive” tagline for the next 24 hours. So, whatever happened to quality over quantity? A concept long forgotten, I guess.
In the process to fill empty slots in papers and news channels, do we forget that we are perhaps glorifying petty issues and dragging them to an extent that they lose all interest value among the audiences? Years, ago when I took up this career, I wasn’t prepared to see this change in such short time. I am sure there are many like me, who get sick at the sight of some popular news channel playing demented replays or reconstructions of some crime case or celebrity chase.
Could we please stop tolerating this and tell the pseudo journalists to stop pretending that they are doing any good to the society? I really hope that someday I get to see a meaningful change in my own industry, and the suit guys who run the news business understand that true journalism was never about ads or TRPs, it was always about ethics and being bold enough to call a spade a spade.
~JB
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