Indian news channels orchestrating media circus

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Indian news channels have much to learn from the mistakes of the much older system of the West. The media needs to opt for midway correction path to salvage their reputation and reclaim their lost ground as one of the main pillars of Indian civil society.


RESIDENTS IN and around ‘Prateeiksha’ (ironically translated as ‘The Wait’), Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchhan’s famed residence in Mumbai’s tony suburb of Juhu, are harried by the incessant presence of news media, satellite uplink trucks and photojournalists gathered outside the superstar’s residence perenially.

The bungalow, which is now one of Mumbai’s famous landmarks and a must-visit for hordes of Mumbai tourists, has always been thronged by movie buffs of all hues. However, it has only recently attracted the unenviable stationing of a ‘media circus’ right outside the villa, as the news media is always vying for the most trivial happenings in the saga of Bollywood’s first family, the Bachchans.

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In India, the media has acquired the trappings of the Western media rather late in the day; in the 2000s as compared to 1970s in the West that have led to its description as a ‘Media Circus’. The term ‘media circus’ is used to describe a news event, where the media coverage is perceived to be out of proportion to the event being covered, such as the number of reporters present at the scene, the amount of news media published or broadcast and the level of media hype. By all accounts, the gathering outside Bachchans’ residence caters to the definition of the term as the smallest buzz garners disproportionate gathering of the media in a jiffy.

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Numerous happenings in the recent past have devalued the serious quotient of the news reportings not in the least, the Bachchans’ visits to various temples to seek divine intervention following their financial and political troubles. Anything related to the Bachchans has to be reported; even a minor squabble of the nosy news reporters with the guards posted outside his residence is reported with the gusto of a media carnival. The news anchor is ecstatic and smiles jubilantly at the camera reporting a hike in the Bachchans’ professional fees as if she/he has got a raise in their own salaries.

One is forced to question, ‘How does it matter to me if an Akshay Kumar is charging Rs 10 crores for a project or if a Aishwarya Rai wears a Gucci eyewear worth Rs 10 lakhs?”’ How does it concern the hapless viewer? The famed paparazzi culture of the West has come to dominate Indian news media in such a major way that watching news has become akin to separating the chaff from the grain! News channels are happy only if the news item creates a sensation and robs their rival channels of the precious viewer attention. The famed ‘TRP Ratings’ have come to dominate the workings of the news channels and resulted in a gold rush for suitable newsworthy topics.

As a direct consequence of this culture, serious issues are swept under the carpet and even the main category is dominated by salacious gossip around politics, movies and hyped lifestyles of the rich and the famous. All categories are given the extra fluff to make it ‘newsworthy’ as most editors put it and only the newsworthiness decides it coverage.

The newsworthiness has crept into the coverage of crime; a serious department that has been converted into a voyeuristic pursuit of the victim and the circumstances of the crime by most of the news channels. The victim’s kin is subjected to repeated horrific coverage of the crime using graphic images for a great period, till the news channel has run out of topics and ‘experts’ to discuss the crime.

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Another pattern of reporting that has crept into our nascent news media is amplified reporting of deviant crimes that leads to a spiralling coverage of a topic. “Deviancy amplification spiral”, as it is called in the West, is a media hype phenomenon of an increasing cycle of reporting on a category of anti-social behaviour or other undesirable events.The most apt example of this reporting is that of the issue of closure of ‘dance bars’ in Maharashtra and the ‘bar girls’ associated with them that led to a frenzy of reporting in a senseless fashion. In the case of the bar girls, the media went into a spiral of jerking tears for them and garnering false sympathy for them, without looking at the administration’s viewpoint on the issue. The social nuisance caused by the bars and the nexus between the bar girls and the crime world was conveniently overlooked, as the issue of the bar girls raised more fodder for the news channels’ studio discussion panels.

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Another example of media’s wrong reporting was the case of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt’s possession of an AK-47, where the accused was alternately maligned and glorified to no end, branded as a terrorist or a victim of minority bashing politics and finally charged with a small Arms Act violation.

However, the media was alternately rooting for waiving off his sentence citing commercial concerns of film producers or garnering his fans’ views on such a serious matter; which were naturally biased, resulting into public indifference to the case. It was a pertinent case of the media playing favourites as others charged with lesser involvement in the case were sentenced to higher punishments because of lesser news potential in their cases.

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The media went berserk again, when the actor was released in a dubious fashion using his clout with the ruling dispensation in New Delhi. Instead of criticising his let-off on a technical loophole as was expected of it, the news media welcomed Dutt back, like a prodigal son returning home to his well-deserved rest. This poodle-like behaviour by the news channels swept the inherent details of Dutt’s crime under the carpet making a mockery of the news channels’ commitment to fair play. This example also highlighted the extent to which Indian news media has stooped to curry favour with the power leverage system. A fair and independent approach to the case was missing in the case and became the real failure of Indian news media in executing its primary duty; that of a watchdog of justice and fair play in a democratic society.


Thus, Indian news channels have much to learn from the mistakes of the much older system of the West, opt for a midway correction path to salvage their reputation and reclaim their lost ground as one of the main pillars of Indian civil society.

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