I saw Prime Minister’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ last Sunday on February 22. In the 131ST episode of this 30-minute communication with the millions of citizens of India, PM Narendra Modi highlighted a number of feel-good stories from various parts of the country. Initially, Mann Ki Baat was a means to communicate with the people of India through radio and transistor, the most accessible way to reach the remotest part of the country. Now Mann Ki Baat is a visual treat, telecast on all the TV channels and various social media platforms. In the current episode, PM Modi also highlighted the successful conduct of Global AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
Contrast this with the media coverage of the AI Summit by the mainstream TV channels, with their focus on a Chinese robot and shirtless protest by the Youth Congress members. In fact, on the media, entire success of the summit was being negated by one negligent act of a private university. Having seen a large number of TV channels in the recent times, I am constrained to write about the focus, rather obsession of electronic media on political reporting, with little or no coverage to the developmental activities in the country. Many of these TV channels unfortunately have become a pure business entity, with focus on sensational news, most of which centres around politics.
In India, there are 918 private satellite TV channels. Out of these, approximately 400 TV channels are dedicated News and Current Affairs channels, which broadcast in Hindi, English and various regional languages. In addition, public broadcaster Doordarshan offers its own set of free-to-air TV channels. Barring DD news channels, the focus of most of the private news channels is to repeatedly focus on the political climate in the country, with little focus on the growth story happening in the countryside. These private channels glamourise the political coverage with live reporting and prime time TV debates, which again centre around politics of the day.
In India, News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) self-regulates the TV news channels, whereas Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) examines complaints against TV content. The mechanism of self-regulation is drowned in the race towards TRP(Television Rating Points), which fetches the private channels huge revenue through advertising. In fact, the actual news content in a 30 minutes news programme is barely more than 15 minutes, with the balance of time dedicated to advertisements or self-promotion. Obviously, the self-regulation has not worked and presenting news as ‘tamasha’ earns the TV channels more viewership.
A large number of TV channels are watched by the people, particularly the youth, on their smartphones. In addition, there are thousands of private channels on the social media, which peddle all sorts of news. The news in the social media is full of sensationalism, factual inaccuracies and exaggeration. With very little check on the factual accuracies, the content on the social media suffers from objectivity, negativity and fairness. Therefore, it is all the more reason that our private news channels focus on truth and accuracy. For the TV channels, focus on politics is easy way out because no in-depth reporting is required. Most of the news can be created sitting comfortably in the studios.
The reporting on the live issues affecting the people requires detailed research and study. The reporters have to toil hard to see how developmental activities happen in our country. For example, if our media had carefully scrutinised the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) projects on ground, the corruption in the name of Mahatma Gandhi would have been exposed. The government therefore has been compelled to bring a modified VB-G RAM G(Viksit Bharat- Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission(Gramin). The media should now focus on correct implementation of the new scheme, which focuses on strengthening rural infrastructure and increasing workdays to 125 per household.
The primary aim of the media should be accuracy, objectivity, independence and social responsibility. In the age of information overload, the electronic media, particularly the private news and current affairs channels may have to redefine their role and social responsibilities. The focus on petty politics, crime and entertainment has to be reduced. In its place, positive stories which motivate the youth should find prominence. Some private news channels do cover such stories but they are far and few. Instead of sensational stories, the media should focus on the various development projects, quality of governance, environmental issues, health, medical care, education, career opportunities etc. There are many more contemporary issues that the electronic media should be aligned to bring positivity and optimism in our citizens, particularly the youth.
