Is this what we call entertainment?

My parents are back from the UK.  Along with them, my sister and my little niece also have arrived in the country (my baava who too had come along, has since returned owing to his work commitments).  Despite my work pressure I'm trying my best to spend some time with all of them - most importantly with my 'sose' Tanvi - the darling of everyone at home.  

Thanks to the return of parents I have been getting to watch a lot more TV than usual (which says a lot as I rarely watch TV beyond the mandatory news on NDTV 24X7 once, the odd sports and English Movies channels).  While watching the TV viewing pattern of folks at home and those that visit our place, I was dismayed at the level of attraction the serials held for all women and men (yes, men too).  Possibly because all these serials reinforce the 'Aadarsha Bharatiya Naari' image most men lap them all up more eagerly than women (and possibly secretly encourage their women to watch them and even emulate them). 

However, what is even more shocking (and dismaying) is the kind of 'news' covered by the local (local language and English) news channels.  I caught myself staring open-mouthed at these incidents being graphically depicted:

1.  A woman who's been thrown out of her husband's house berating, crying and alternately trying to re-enter the husband's place, along with talking to the guys from the news channel and relating her story.

2.  Another woman was shown crying and relating her harrowing experience of having to live with a husband who wanted her to perform in the bedroom a la women in porn.  

In order to grab more eyeballs and keep their audiences salivating for more the news channels seem to have stooped to a place from where it is near impossible to come back and make amends.  They had not even made any perfunctory attempt to blur the face of the 'victims' that they were trying to create sympathy for.  

What kind of news coverage and reporting are these?  How do they help the victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse?  Don't we have any standards for these news channels to adhere?  I don't see anyone protesting.  And, I see the viewership of these channels growing and their revenues doubling (and with each passing day one finds that more news channels are cropping up on the TV horizon).  

Is Justice (retd) Markandeya Katju listening/watching all this?

Ordinary Day Ordinary Thoughts

The first thing I saw on TV (and I saw it pretty early too) was that Shilpa Shetty won the Celebrity Big Brother Show. Now that didn’t actually come as a surprise (after all the ruckus the show had kicked up and the brownie points Shilpa had earned with her tears). What surprised me was that it was the ‘Breaking News’. What’s wrong with our media?

Switch to any News Channel on TV and you’ll see the absurdity of these channels glaring into your faces and numbing your senses. Zee News orchestrates the latest developments in the serials aired on Zee TV! NDTV 24X7 has ‘Chhupa Rustum’ (the show that makes hapless citizens victims of a hidden camera with disgusting acts by the anchors). The channel also hosts debates between school and college students on various topics – including ‘Is Media Intrusive?’ News Channels have also started astrological forecasts on a daily basis. One channel even had a numerologist trying to convince the audiences of the possibility of an impending earthquake in the North-East some time back!

It’s not just the programs. Even the coverage leaves a lot to be desired (one great desire of course would be to shut these channels off permanently). On January 1st, NDTV 24X7 had this headline, “New York Rings in New York” in place of New Year. The newsreader also said the Australian government is upset with the Shiv Sena (on the day when Warne announced his retirement) instead of the Maharashtran government. Forget about the spelling and grammatical errors. They abound like mosquitoes in a gutter.

I had thought that some of these channels were good – particularly NDTV and Aaj Tak. I admired the talk shows, interviews and features on NDTV. I even condescended to bear with the ‘Double Take’, an at-times witty puppet show mimicking the newsmakers (mostly politicians, cricketers and film stars). However with each day my belief has crumbled like the proverbial cookie. I really wonder if these channels take themselves too seriously as ‘entertainers’. If one wants entertainment, one would watch any other channel but not a news channel. Who would take this news to these channels?