Death of the News Media?

By Ranjona Banerji

Just about everyone has had their say on the way the Indian television media covered actor and mega star Sridevi’s death. And no one was complimentary. Media watchers, senior journalists, the general public, the international media, were all suitably horrified and really, what option did anyone have? This is from an editorial in February 28’s Indian Express: “In this electronic version of the 19^th century freakshow, digital wine-glasses are stood on the rims of digital bathtubs, and real journalists are being to slide into real bathtubs, while the dead actor’s height is being measured up against the length of products in sanitaryware catalogues. This is mumbo-jumbo journalism, a ratings game where Mumbo is trying to pull ahead of Jumbo.

“This sport is generating media effluent in toxic volumes and the viewer is drowning under the information overload. We are being forcibly immerse in the story, embedded in the non-story. For now, all we know is that the bathtub did it. And that immersive journalism has gone down the tubes.”

Excellent words, and due caution for journalists everywhere.

However, now that the outrage is over, how quickly are we going to forget all this? Already we are moving on to new dramas – the arrest of Karti Chidambaram, the “surrender” of a BJP MLA for a hit-and-run massacre and the usual “brave BJP against a wicked opposition” narrative. Journalists will step out of the bathtub, wipe themselves down and life will go on.

I have heard and read several comments on where the buck stops. Does a reporter have the right to say: ‘No, I will not speak or report in this manner’? In a normal world, yes. It makes sense for any editor to discuss the flow of a story with people on the ground rather than concoct a story solely on the newsroom floor. But perhaps different people work under different pressures.

What about the editors themselves? It’s not as if print does not have idiotic or ignorant or sensationalist people in charge, far from it. It is all a question of degree. One editor of a Sunday magazine once asked me to write a feature on the “day in the life of a condom”. The sexist nature of this “assignment” apart, it did not take much for me to refuse and demolish the idea. So, it is possible to meet extreme stupidity at higher levels (sometimes par for the course, eh?) and to turn such ideas and people down.

Either way, one has to conclude that the editors bear most of the responsibility and not just the reporter who lay down in a bathtub. Although perhaps the said reporter felt he was doing some ground-breaking journalism?

And then there are the owners. This is the trickiest one of all to dissect. Are the owners interested solely in TRPs or television rating points? Do they really not care if rubbish is shown on their channels as long as the viewership is up and the money rolls in? All available evidence points to yes. The owners may not have asked reporters and anchors to make a mockery out of both journalism and Sridevi’s death. But they have certainly stood back and watched.

What is Bennett Coleman’s take on this, for instance? The Times of India, the Economic Times, the Mirrors, Times Now and Mirror Now all operate on completely opposing ideas of journalism, most of the time. Some erroneously felt that after Arnab Goswami quit Times Now, the channel would have more journalism, not less. The exact opposite has happened and Times Now is currently full competition to Goswami’s Republic TV, sometimes worse.

The India Today group is equally inexplicable. An editor of an opinions website had to quit for a tweet which called for accountability from media owners. But all the editors, anchors and reporters who spread sectarian hatred, who push forth lies and who come up with gems like “Mautka Bathtub” while “covering” Sridevi’s death probably get rewarded for all we know.

These are just the contradictions of two media owners. How far are they encouraging what is going and how many are victims of their rogue employees?

You hope something’s got to give but given that we are going into a general election year, it is likely that things will only get worse.

Meanwhile, here’s journalist Akash Banerjee and his biting take on the death of the media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwNpH6e3yuk

Enjoy!