Point to ponder: Is TRP above the Nation
In the early seventies the Television or TV arrived in Indian arena, but as a very feeble and constrained voice, with extremely limited viewership. Until New Delhi Asiad Games of 1982 it was mostly dominated by Doordarshan but only in metro cities with a typical startup tune
tan..a tar….a na...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-7JmGB9BRA
here is the link for you to listen & relish.
This today evokes nostalgia and reminds about the reminiscence of the ‘controlled era.
In those days Indians assumed it to be as olive branches, since the phenomenon used to be presented by the national pulse ambassadors of outstanding quality by some timeless anchors of Doordarshan, whose image forms vivid memory of the past, one of sweet memoirs. TV journalism as a profession was beginning to be recognized, besides the conventional professions of Law, Medicine and Engineering etc. Those were the savoury days and viewers favourite anchors were Gitanjalii Aiyer, Nithi Ravindran, Minu Talwar, Sobhana Jagdish, Sunit Tandon, Ved Prakash and Vinod Dua to name most liked. Could not resist but share details of each, to know more about them please click on the link.
http://abhisays.com/doordarshan/revisiting-20-old-doordarshan-news-readers-and-anchors.html
The News reading used to be pleasure to watch, in fact if anyone closely observed the stoical grace, modest attire, beaming confidence of anchor whose name comes first to mind was Gitanjali Iyer, she was capable of producing million crushes, but then was very amazed to know later on through Savvy magazine that she is a single parent and single handedly raising her two children out of her single earnings from working at Taj Palace Hotel. It was awfully saddening and cause to beget great respect and her talent added adoration for the indomitable courage and determination and dysphoria disappeared instead. The Doordarshan programmes were so engrossing, squarely filled with emotions and thought provoking that viewers had developed attachments for the various presenters, like Neethi Ravindran, Vinod Dua & Pranoy Roy, not because of their smart looks and great dressing sense but for utter admiration out of their journalism talent. The content was evenly balanced, justifiably fair with superior rationale.
People of India were very happy and were gradually getting used to Doordarshan and the atmosphere were at least neutral and if not positive at all times. The subject was all the more fresh and it thus spread aroma of a different degree. Not before it assumed gigantic proportions of really forming mass opinion the changed scenario emerged.
Liberalisation and Globalisation of nineties happened; private investments in Media were allowed, abolishing state monopoly in ‘Information and Broadcasting’ domain as it used to be called those days. Big business houses threw hat in the ring realising it to be a new business opportunity in the horizon with astronomical potential. They lodged their investment into the Media businesses, formed companies. Thus private Media channels including news content providers emerged and new entity was born!
Initial years, the private channels did excellent work worthy of applause. News, Entertainment, Offshore Soap Operas, Music, Cinema, Regional Art and Culture reinvented and came alive afresh with new vigour and vitality and people relished them all with much fanfare and as secure means of family entertainment. Gradually it started to eat up book reading and other alike good hobbies and pastimes.
Those were the days enjoyed which makes one truly nostalgic today, as far as I remember there were hardly any glaring misrepresentation of facts, no undue colouring of events, no theatrical convictions for thousands of ferment viewers, no playing spin doctors, no twisting of simple facts, no glorification of anti-India forces, no playing same shots throughout the day (read Nepal trending #IndianMediaGoBack hashtag after the 2015 earthquake) and absolutely and absolutely nothing of that sort. Major events reported during the intervening period were, Indira Gandhi assassination, India winning 1983 World cup, Kanishka Jet midair bombing, Rajiv Gandhi assassination not necessarily in that order but. The coverage used to be trustworthy, excellent in content, outstanding in quality and truly mind boggling.
Thereafter, it took vicious turn for the sake of liberalisation and freedom of speech after privatization and globalisation when TV channels other than Government controlled bodies entered the scene and cable TV networks flourished since early nineties! The notable events covered during this period was that of Exodus of KasmiriPundits, Air India plane hijack to Kandahar, Kargil conflict, Princess Diana death to name a few.
Vulnerable People of India like ever before without having to realise the imminent danger or peril got used to enjoy some phenomenon called mainstream media.
One such private media organisation was NDTV founded by our adorable Dr. Pranoy Roy, which in collaboration with StarTV started to provide content. During the proxy war with Pakistan over Kargil heights it was the time when Ms Barkha Dutt shot to fame by her extraordinary courageous coverage.
Political parties spotted the phenomenon, devised a strategy to reward many such journalists with national awards etc., probably with high hopes in exchange of favourable coverage. But Journalists as prudently felt should be kept away from the purview of national awards as their activity might influence public opinion either way, their soft power can have negative impact on the society if not leveraged in a matured manner, hence exercising of caution was the need of the hour. It is thus desired that Journalists should themselves have greater responsibility towards the society in formation of an upwardly mobile progressive civilised society. But, due to the myopic vision of our political leadership, none of them could envisage neither the principle nor the actual hazard that had early indications of premonition of impending danger.
Dr. Pranoy Roy who showed India what saphology is all about during elections since eighties had very competent and courageous colleagues in Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai, Srinivasan Jain to name a few in NDTV, but the group realigned as a result of internal storming & norming process and opportunities existing elsewhere in ever expanding media business. This resulted in exodus of Talent to a certain extent. Rajdeep joined CNN- IBN and Arnab headed for TimesNow a Times of India’s first initiatives in the electronic media domain. This gave rise to competition amongst peers and pressure build up.
In the meanwhile, so much so was the media euphoria then that even Jessica Lal murder case, which initially was determined by the court in favour of the accused, people hoped to get justice through the initiatives taken by NDTV through SMS campaign. All SMS from viewers were presented to the then President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and the honourable Supreme Court had to intervene and judgment altered in favour of justice for the family of the victim. This placed media as the savior of justice and voice of democracy.
People of India reposed faith and trust in Media and rhymed “if there is no media then, we, the people of India shall be denied our legitimate and fundamental rights.”
Thereafter, may not as a result of that incident but as a sheer coincidence, ampteen numbers of Hindi and English channels surfaced. Competition not only to become ‘numero uno’ started but for survival for some as well, began!
One such measure of success for a media house was Television Rating Points or TRP in short, are the measure of particular TV channel viewership data which assesses the popularity of a channel based on a thirty day viewership generated by a channel due to its content and performance. This TRP got directly related to commercial value of the channel and based on which it attracted advertisements and ‘ten second slot’ rates. More popular the channel higher would be the per ten second rate. Television rating points (TRPs) quantify the gross rated points achieved by an advertisement or campaign among targeted group of individuals within a larger population of viewers having TV sets with satellite signal connection. TRP is derived out of the overall TV owners in different geographical and demographic sectors. The new device termed as ‘People's Meter’ in Media circles.
Now this something new innovative term called TRP started to make sound waves in the employee performance appraisal systems in the Media houses. In order to survive different channels devised different strategies.
In the meanwhile “We People of India” started to believe in resurgent Indian Mainstream Media and thought indispensable at times to counter uncontrollable, arrogant, corrupt and believers of hypocritical manipulative political class of the country.
Once the media gained the trust of the viewers it also could not resist the temptation to obtain disproportionate gain and encashment if it's thus earned goodwill. That is what the onset of the current problem was.
Cunning demography of the populace observed dish antennas on top of all houses irrespective of whether it is a independent house, bungalow, housing complex or a slum which got covered by frog umbrellas of dish TVs, a thought process started to exploit the new trend.
News and reality shows initiated SMS campaign and collected huge sums of money via SMS and profit was distributed amongst network provider and TV channels and palpable, immature Indian audience started to get duped. This continued until consumer court gave judgment that the SMS campaign is illegal and lead to wrongful gain and criminal breach of trust and punishable under Section 409 of Indian Penal Code. Thereafter, all SMS voting in reality shows stopped after the court intervention.
In the quest for TRP and revenue generation, Media houses started rat race. In the initial days many organisations suffered huge multi-million dollar losses. However, they devised strategy to make up and brought the channel operations to profit making venture level, at times by wrongful means. In the meanwhile Government controlled media took back seat and in order to regulate the broadcasting policies of the Government, National broadcasting Standards authority was formed and enacted various laws since 1995 the major objective relevant to today’s discussion is that it is the twofold primary duty of the Broadcaster to ensure impartiality and objectivity in reporting and ensure neutrality.
Conversely, every broadcaster disregarded the Government dictates and started the awful manipulation instead; anchors who turned into celebrity overnight reportedly began their mission to generate wealth in exchange of favouring a particular political party in power. Initially they succeeded in swinging public opinion in their own pre-destined direction because of earlier reposed trust. Government assumed the role of a mute spectator!
But, yet another revolution that was to happen, hovered around the horizon beyond anybody’s imagination was something called Internet, followed by Windows, Blackberry, Apple, Android, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, etc., benefited out of quantum jump and rapid advancement in technology domain. Obsolescence of technology became order of the day. All software programmes started to be available on hand held device called Mobile Smart Phone. This is the starting point of individual empowerment and Reliance India rightly picked the most appropriate tag line ever, “Kar Loo Duniya Muthii mein.” Meaning, “Hold the whole world in your fist.”
And gradually with time when the Social media emerged as the people’s media and the individuals started to feel to have unwritten sanction to express their opinion in social media and started to raise questions and doubts about the authenticity of anything and everything including the news, content etc., whether free from contamination and free from bias, oblique or loaded, criticizing reality show Judgments, even Supreme Court Judgments etc., etc., the list is unending. The so called ‘fist’ of the people started to be visibly felt. This went on despite IT Act 2000 Section 66A, which with the intervention of honourable Supreme Court was later declared unconstitutional in 2015. This section of the act was said to have been draconian as it gave sweeping power to Governments to arrest individuals, for posting objectionable content online; not before this was misused on quite a few occasions.
When certain incidents were reported, the Anchors at times presumably took sides at the behest of their employer’s line of thinking and at times under the direct instruction of their employers and not necessarily aired their own first hand view.
The matter became contrary to factual position and apparent while broadcasting and coverage of Dadri, Uttar Pradesh incident where a person died due to violence in a state ruled by opposition, but central Government was blamed from all corners and made culprit in all respect and it was reproduced to be a national issue of intolerance. Law & order is state subject, and centre cannot be held responsible for something they are not accountable for; instead rationally speaking states should have been subjected to such level of criticism as lapses happened at the State’s end. But media succeeded in imposing the opposite view!
On the contrary while reporting Malda communal violence of West Bengal concurrently taking place with Dadri, the coverage was so minimal that it did not assume the right dimensions it deserved. Intolerance debates in national media turned out to be hoax after real exposure and critical examination of incidents, their sequence and involvement of parties. One particular anchor spoke its mind by quoting others or putting word in the mouth of the panelists during live TV shows. Many divisive incidents were dramatized like church attacks before 2015 Delhi elections and no attacks thereafter. Award ‘Wapasi’ brigade returned national awards before 2016 Bihar elections on intolerance issues but refrained from doing so immediately thereafter.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy was yet another example of live slugfest for and against the Nation as well as Government of the day and distasteful mudslinging exercise. Whilst certain section propounded that Anti-India slogans are within the limit of freedom of speech, argued that there is no definition of Anti-nationalism, Patriotism is not mentioned in the Constitution and many TV anchors favoured these arguments, whilst the factual position is, any Anti-India utterance falls within the ambit of reasonable restrictions on statements against Sovereignty & Integrity of India under Article 19(2) enshrined in the constitution of India by our founding fathers. Fundamental right of ‘Right to freedom’ and the sub article of Freedom of Speech & expression is not an absolute right and subject to reasonable restrictions, that laymen not bothered to understand. Further students were charged with Sedition under Section 124A of Indian Penal Code, many TV anchors and some faculties of JNU advocated that Students are small kids and they may be exonerated and one professor rhymed that Kashmir, Chattisgarh, Nagland and Manipur are illegal occupation by Indian Army, please view video in this link below:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfQf01fBtxk
All these beyond reasonable doubt tantamount to disaffection & hatred towards the Government established by Law and disaffection meaning disloyalty and all feelings of enmity towards Government duly fulfilling conditions of seditious charge.
Thus the voice of MEDIA was played in such a fashion to immature million of hotbed Indian viewers that all these unfortunate events started to affect their lives adversely and attempt was being made to polarize the society in communal lines. Our politicians for decades have played this age old trick of dividing the society in religious, caste, creed and all possible lines to create vote banks. Indians being not educated enough, even if educated not literate enough and being not grown enough in their wisdom to understand this malice, conspicuously fell prey to these series of events. Accusations and counters, agreements and rebuttals occurred forgetting the main focus of Indians which was Development, Development and Development.
However, despite Press, Television news and programmes playing to dangerously divisive tune, helping to evoke prejudice in sections of society and producing hatred amongst vulnerable citizens, judging and defaming popular celebrities with theatrical conviction at times by main stream media and encouraging witch hunts on selected persons of high stature, all that unpleasant media trials took place, irrespective of Governmental intervention and appeals.
The political leadership for a moment appeared incapable to handle such manufactured crisis, so the need of the hour for India is requirement of more patriots than just casual habitats and more so we require a true leader who can evoke the feeling of true nationalism, selfless service who should be able to take National Consciousness to a such level that embodies progress, development and paramount matters of Unity, Integrity and Sovereignty of our beloved motherland. Our elected leaders should be devoid of any motivation whatsoever to stash money in Swiss Banks as alleged in the past. Corruption free India is the pre-requisite for transformation of this great country to Developed nation. Time will tell whether we have got such leader in us as yet.
Overall going by the Nation’s mood in 2016, nothing much seems to have crystallized irrespective of the valiant initial effort by practitioners of yellow journalism, believe people are on the right path of graduation to maturity and transformation to elevated wisdom in this age of advanced wireless technology. More it fails because the entire effort of the Main stream media is built on the false premise that negativity sells & not on ever enduring foundation of Satyameva Jayate or Truth Conquers or Veritas Vincit.
The lesson learnt from this entire transformation is that do not jump to conclusions as peddled media lies at times and whatever they utter is not sacrosanct and lacks credibility.
It therefore makes all of us to reaffirm with serious conviction that, Strength certainly lies in the voice of ‘We the People of India’ and we shall come victorious one day and not allow TRP to raise above our motherland India, our Nation that we love as so dear to us.
#JaiHind #BharatMataKiJai #VandeMataram
