The Crisis In TV News

The medium, faced with a rapid erosion of credibility, must stand up straight to save itself.

- Rajdeep Sardesai

WE ARE NOW IN AN AGE of the “Ravana school of journalism”: Ten heads peeping out of a television set, each shouting and arguing with the other even as the anchor shouts the loudest. News is no longer about public interest but ratings, not facts but opinion, where studio debates matter more than stories from the ground, where a reporter is often only a bite-gatherer. Many national channels today are doing away with bureaus and investing less in storytelling from the ground. It is easier and cheaper to get four to five people in a studio to argue with each other.

There is a crisis in television news journalism. We have been part of a television news revolution that broke the monopoly of Doordarshan, brought a passionate and infectious energy to the news process. But two decades later, the revolution we were all part of now threatens to devour us.

For 41 days, farmers from Tamil Nadu agitated in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for their loans to be waived off.

They even brought the skulls, or replicas, of their fellow farmers who committed suicide, in the hope that someone will take notice. The skulls made for dramatic pictures, which is why the story was finally covered by the national TV media for at least one day. Otherwise, like the anonymous kisans committing suicide across the country, the plight of these farmers would have been easily forgotten.

TV today is primarily about drama. Contrast our coverage of the Tamil Nadu farmers with the protests over Jallikattu. Every national channel suddenly discovered the ancient bull sport—because the people of Tamil Nadu succeeded in making a spectacle out of it. As thousands, including filmstars, gathered at Marina Beach,the visual appeal attracted television cameras, as did the TRPs, which now showed the Jallikattu protests in Chennai had the maximum ratings.