Hot on hype, cold on feeling

In tehelka.com, SANTOSH DESAI writes:

MAYBE SOME GOOD CAN COME out of it. The new definition of news on television, that is. Last week, all channels played the horrific Bhagalpur footage and ensured the Bihar overnment’s prompt action.The relentless need to create visual news has some advantages: any citizen armed with a camera is now a potential breaker of a story.

But it also begs the question as to what would happen if someone merely reported an event without any visual material. Would it still be news if the footage was not gruesome? News celebrates the pornography of the gruesome, even as it may put it to some good use.

It is revealing that the other big story of the week, the Hyderabad blasts, was covered extensively in both television and print but already seems a somewhat distant news event. While part of the reason for this is the unfortunate fact that we have seen far too many of these attacks, it is also true that the wall-to-wall coverage that gets unleashed in the immediate aftermath of such events tends to expend itself far too quickly. Also, with everything getting the high-pitched and hysterical treatment, channels seem bereft of real emotion when something truly horrifying occurs.

A good example of this hysteria is in the way the Salman Khan jail episode was covered. Every step of his journey to Jodhpur was breathlessly followed as if it were a film’s climax. What was specifically newsworthy about the trip is still unclear. Every element of his stay was analysed, including a channel speculating on the symbolism of the white top worn by Katrina Kaif (a sign of peace?).

The N-saga limps on, having moved from a state of high suspense to one of soggy compromise. Virtually all mainstream opinion seems ranged against the Left, a situation it has no doubt grown comfortable with. In this context, it was interesting to read Sudheendra Kulkarni’s defence of the Left in The Indian Express. Signs of a nuclear hell freezing over, perhaps.

Kapil Dev has taken up residence in our homes via television. He moved in a couple of weeks ago and has resolutely refused to leave. He uses inarticulateness and emotional blackmail as chief weapons in mounting a surprisingly effective case for the ICL, and the channels have been happy to go along.

I missed the “teacher prostituting students” story but found it amusing how some English channels immediately raised questions about how teachers’ antecedents are not verified before they are hired. Easy outrage comes easily to the media, and most often it comes with the benefit of hindsight.

(Desai is the CEO of Future Group)