Mindless media probing
MEDIA
buffs are familiar with the classic heroism of a BBC newscaster who
watched a bomb come through the ceiling as he was reading the news
during World War II. He went right on reading as if nothing had
happened.
War is one thing. Everyday
crisis is another. We in this country have our annual share of train
accidents, air crashes, bomb blasts and road mishaps. By now, our media
channels should have learnt to cope with them. But last week’s bomb
blasts in two cinema halls in the Capital did little credit to our TV
channels.
I shall give two typical
examples. Zee News, ever on the prowl for sensationalisation of news,
went to town, as usual. It dropped all scheduled programmes, kept on
ramming in that it was first in everything and kept following the story
for the rest of the evening. But how it covered the story is a different
matter.
It had a highly nervous,
obviously inexperienced girl on the spot in minutes, which is
creditable. But she totally lost her nerve and kept on talking very
fast, in a high-pitched voice and kept on repeating the meagre details.
This is where the studio end intervened. It kept on asking silly
questions, which neither the poor girl nor Chief Minister Sheila Dixit
and the police were in a position to answer. So the studio decided to
make up its own statistics. At one stage, Zee studio told us that five
persons had been killed although everyone knows by now that only one
person died. Zee’s figures for the injured also went wildly off the
mark and kept on moving up and down.
In contrast, and also
typical was the reaction of NDTV, which stoutly carries on with the
scheduled programmes until it gets its reporters to the spot. It takes
off, cautiously at first, almost irritatingly sedately, and then gives
us authentic news, presented professionally by experienced reporters who
keep their heads. In this instance, Aaj Tak and Headline News also kept
their heads and Aaj Tak was ahead of NDTV with visuals.
Now, we come to the second
instance of panic in news coverage. When the police, and other
government officials directly dealing with the tragedy are obviously
busy going about their jobs, the interviewers, especially those sitting
cosily in the studios, keep on repeating questions the former are not in
a position to answer. "Who is responsible for the blasts?"
"How many people are critically injured?" "Was it a
protest against the film?" The list of ridiculous queries goes on
and on. Although the police and officials keep on saying they do not
know as yet, the questioner, in an effort to get a scoop, keeps on
repeating the same questions and prevents the police and others from
doing their jobs. Media, at such times, behaves both
thoughtlessly and irresponsibly.
I admire the politeness
with which officials cope with eager-beaver reporters. Experienced
reporters, such as Anasuya Roy, keep their heads and their cool while
reporting from the spot. They only give such facts as are available and
the newscaster says facts will be given as soon as they come in. There
is teamwork between the reporter on the spot and the newscaster and
producer, so the viewer and the anxious relatives are not kept on
tenterhooks.
At the time of writing,
the French Open tennis from Paris is in full swing and what a pleasure
to have Ten Sports give us professional coverage, without ads at the
wrong moment and B-grade commentators. Such a refreshing change from
Doordarshan. One is dreading the day when DD takes over the last stages
of Wimbledon and sends us up a tree.
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