Category: THE ANCHOR

By Paritosh Joshi

 

David Cameron, under enormous pressure to show decisive action in the face of what was widely seen as egregious behaviour at News International, announced a wide-ranging inquiry into “the culture, practices and ethics of the Press” on July 13, 2011. Headed by Lord Justice Leveson, the inquiry commenced on July 28, 2011 and submitted its final report on November 29, 2012.

 

We are in India, I hear you say, and this topic is irrelevant and irksome. Right then, I will let you go. Here still? Thanks. This merits your attention and patience. The Leveson Inquiry’s Terms of Reference appear as an Annexure but here are a few key points:

 

Part 1
1. To inquire into the culture, practices, and ethics of the press

2. To make recommendations:
a. for a new more effective policy and regulatory
regime (truncated)

 

Part 2
3. To inquire into the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within (truncated) newspaper organisations and, as appropriate, other organisations within the media (truncated)

 

We are no strangers to improper associations between the media and the political establishment. The Radia Tapes and countless other misdemeanours suggest that the issues that Lord Justice Leveson dealt with are pertinent to us.

 

Our news businesses have never been more short-term-orientated and generally myopic to enduring vision, than they appear today. While this should only be expected of the arrivistes who have entered driven by promises of lucre and/or power, it is not restricted to them. Alarmingly, the great and the good of the Ancien Régime too are willing victims of the contagion.

 

Here, finally, is the big idea: A Media Agnostic, Fully Empowered Self-Regulatory Body For News.

 

An interesting dialectic is playing out in these times. On one hand: Access to news and information about people and events anywhere in the world is no further than a click on Google or Tw itt er.

 

On the other : At no time have states, or other sufficiently powerful groups, been more hostile to adverse reportage. Or more prepared to attempt to muzzle it. Within the last fortnight we have seen everything from girls arrested for a Facebook posting and editors being accused of extortion to a whole country, Syria, disconnected from the internet.

 

We can’t do much about despots in distant lands but we have a solemn obligation to the citizenry. Free speech is the best long-term safeguard of our democracy. It is
imperative, therefore that the press does not open itself up to accusations of mendacity. In effect, a self-regulator would have to protect the press against its own worst
instincts.

 

Over the last year or so, television news broadcasters have instituted a self-regulatory body the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, NBSA, presided over by ex- CJI, Justice Verma. NBSA has begun to make some progress but there is still disquiet on both substance and form in which news is delivered. The situation on the print side of the business is less sanguine. The Press Council of India is constituted under the provisions of the Press Council Act, 1978. Its stated objective is “preserving the freedom of the Press and of maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India”.

 

Justice Katju, who took over Chairmanship on October 5, 2011, has managed to keep the Council, and himself, in the news over this last year and a bit. Bluster has its uses but eventually it becomes vexatious. So what is the problem?

 

We don’t have a real self-regulator in place. And more importantly, a medium-agnostic regulator. A regulatory system, however well intentioned, is simply not up to scratch if it operates inside historical silos.

 

There are four generally accepted pillars on which a Self-Regulatory Regime for News Media must stand:

Journalists’ Code of Ethics Defined Standards of Editorial Independence Media Organisations’ internal S&P (Standards & Practices) Guidelines

Formal Complaints Management and Redressal Process with a formally constituted body comprised of:

Industry professionals, both working journalists and editors Representatives of allied professions (advertisers and agencies) Representatives of Civil Society Templates for the first three are available locally or internationally and can be adapted. If templates are needed for establishing the Complaints Redressal Body, that model too is available in the form of the Consumer Complaints Council of Advertising Standards Council India.

 

It isn’t as simple as that. There are huge vested interests to contend with and many apparently irreconcilable positions. An idea like this will take much time to find acceptability but it is an idea whose time has come.

 

And think about it the way Stan Lee, creator of Spiderman put it. “With great power, there must also come great responsibility”.

 

By Deepa Gahlot

 

The question comes up sporadically, why don’t the newspapers and general interest publications carry reviews or in-depth pieces on culture? The answer is invariably a) who’s interested in reading about it?  b) where are the experts to write on art and culture?

 

These two issues are linked- if nobody writes, how can interest be created? And if no interest is created, who will read?

 

In the Indian media, Bollywood has almost wiped out everything else that has value, beauty, intelligence. If crass films that make 100 crore are cited as the ultimate goal to be achieved, slowly all difference of opinion (already mainstream critics are becoming apologists for bad commercial cinema) will be smothered and anything that cannot be measured with money will lose its worth.

 

Already, large parts of the country exist in a cultural vacuum and in cities, for the middle and upper classes, malls and pubs are the new temples of ‘timepass.’

 

The print medium seems to have abdicated its role as thought leader and influencer. It happened when most publications abruptly dropped their culture and books pages, and, to ostensibly rope in young readers, filled pages and pages with Bollywood trivia. Now India has a young generation of Philistines, who think Bollywood and TV talent contests is all the culture they need, because who will teach them any better? Not schools burdened with percentage-oriented education; not parents, unless they are exceptionally enlightened.

 

If the next generation’s taste has to be developed and the onslaught of idiocy halted, then the mainstream media-mainly print- has to bring back the culture and books pages and also encourage a climate of informed criticism and connoisseurship.

 

–The writer is a senior journalist and an award-winning film reviewer. Her column, Reviewing the Reviews, appears on most Mondays

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

Content testing is now an established norm in the television industry. Channels test new programme concepts or pilots among consumers with the purpose of content development, or to take green-lighting decisions. We have tested more than 150 programmes across genres in the last four years. This industry-wide need also encouraged us to create a proprietary tool for this purpose, called True Value. There is conclusive data to prove that pre-testing content can reduce failure rate by almost 30-40%.

 

I believe that as we step into the next stage of television content, we can’t be satisfied with involving consumers only with content testing and post-launch feedback. The consumer’s mind is a fascinating melting pot of heterogeneous ideas, and tapping into them can throw up stories and formats that trained creative minds may not necessarily be able to conjure up.

 

Of course, the process of content generation using the consumers can’t be “random” in nature. Often, when I speak about this topic, the first broadcaster reaction is: “But consumers are not creative people.” But that’s the whole point. Because they are not “creative” people, they think like “normal” people. What we need to bring into the process are tools and devices that stimulate their thinking; some kind of a structure using which their rich minds can be channelized into concrete ideas.

 

We have been focusing on building such tools over the last year, and are happy to announce that 2013 should see definitive progress in this direction. I’m looking forward to working with like-minded channels and production houses to change the way content is generated, not only in India but also across the world.

 

Of the consumer, by the consumer, for the consumer!

 

– The writer is Founder-CEO, Ormax Media Research. His column, TV Trail, appears on MxMIndia every Thursday

 

By Anil Thakraney

 

I think time has come to do away with the traditional creative department in the ad agency. There should be just one creative director in each office, and he/she must assign work to experts from different fields on various campaigns. This will bring in fresh, relevant energies to the brands, and it will lead to sparkling work. Need a long copy press ad with a serious tone? Invite a journalist to write it. Need a totally filmy treatment for a wood polish TVC? Invite a Bollywood script writer to work on it. Need a 360 degree campaign for a shampoo brand? Invite a funky hair stylist to do the honours. Need a campaign for a real estate project? Invite a Hafeez Contractor to your office. And so on.

 

This will not only help agencies cut the cost of huge salaries in a big way, their brands will benefit from new ideas and new ways of approaching communication. From professionals who would naturally know a great deal about their field of activity. The main problem with the current format is that creative personnel in ad agencies work on multiple brands at one go, and therefore their knowledge level and interest in many product categories is very limited. Many don’t even possess the desire to dig deeper for insights, and this leads to predictable, uninspired work. Even the hotshot names are able to deliver only one or two good ads in a year. This rotting system needs to be demolished.

 

The ad world needs to look outside for solutions. It’s time to quit being insular.

 

– The writer is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia

 

By Ritu Midha

 

Context is the new key to ‘right’ communication. Content and consumer – what you want to say, and to whom, no doubt, continue to be the most important elements of communication strategy.

 

However, the context needs to be given far more importance than it is usually done – more so on television. More often than not advertisements stick like sore thumbs in ad breaks – what if a little more attention is paid to the content of the programmes, in which the ad is appearing? Would it benefit or harm an ad, if it is shown in a more apt programme at the loss of a few ad ratings?

 

The content also determines the audiences, and also their mood. Agreed that an ad does not appear only once in a day, and hence it is difficult to find correct matches – but is finding the correct context also that difficult? Most certainly not.

 

No doubt an ad has to be good enough, has to have the pull power to capture the consumers’ attention. Having said that, it being presented in the right context would make all the difference. At the risk of stretching my neck out I would say, a slightly weaker (which definitely does not mean dull and boring) ad might work better for a brand, than a ‘cool’ ad presented out of context.

 

By Vidya Heble

 

The big idea in media and advertising cannot be anything other than Clarity. Clarity in communication, thinking and action. Whether it is a news item or an advertisement, the aim is to communicate, and effective communication begins with clear thinking.

 

The outcome could be an easy-to-understand Tanishq Solitaire TVC, or a slightly more involved Vodafone Birthday commercial with an old man and a small boy. As I write, the air rings with “Hello honey bunny, honey bunny, toko toko.” It doesn’t matter what it is; like Kolaveri Di, it has stuck. For me, this is effective and if the purpose of the commercial is to make a tune and a brand sticky, then it has worked. I like ads that don’t pretend to be something they are not.

 

This goes for news, too. When a leading daily sang the praises of an industrial baron without touching on the negative aspects of his business practices which were even then in the news, a puzzled member of my family said, “This reads like an advertisement.” That, I explained, was probably because it was just that – a “news item” that had been paid for. Such obfuscation is the downfall of media. And the enemy of clarity.

 

This concept of clarity is in sync with MxMIndia’s credo of integrity, because clear thinking stems from straightforwardness of purpose. It’s not a new thing – Bill the Bard said it, back when: “This above all, to thine own self be true.” If you make compromises at the thinking stage itself, this reflects in the communication chain, be it advertising, PR or media.

 

And when effective communication is the goal, accuracy goes hand in hand with clarity. It is no use sending out a message if you have spelt the client’s name wrong, or misrepresented a fact. Which is why getting it right is important. Also.

 

By Alok Kapuria

 

It was interesting to have launched MxMIndia around the time when the slowdown was just beginning to set in. But having experienced troubled times in 2008-09, this one appeared to be smooth sailing. Thankfully, marketing spends haven’t come to a stop as media companies have been advertising, albeit with care.

 

The first item of consumption that is normally axed is marketing. Compromises over content comes next. And payroll third. When adspends reduce, it’s natural that media companies will be impacted first. However, cutting marketing expenses can be self-defeating as competitive pressures require at least some salience of a brand. It’s hence vital that when funds are available, media brands do not exhaust all their resources in one burst. That’s possibly the easiest way to survive the slowdown. It’s vital that the right buying decisions are taken… consume only what offers maximum bang for the buck.

 

As a sales person with relationships with clients built over the years, it’s my endeavour to ensure the good health of a brand and hence the longevity of the communication. There have been times where I have even advised clients to spread their spends. For, it is in the success of a client that my (and our) success lies.

 

Digitization, more advanced telecom and computing technology and manifold use of digital devices are sure to effect tectonic changes in the media over the next few years.

 

Adspends in India will be the 10th highest globally by 2017, as per the forecast from Magna Global. This could even happen earlier. But only those who are fit and have sound leadership will survive and thrive.

 

By Tuhina Anand

 

The media and advertising sector needs a major shake-up to bring back their shine. This can only happen if the industry is able to attract the right kind of talent and most importantly is able to nurture its existing talent. The industry is made by its people and if you have best of talent it will reflect on the work that the industry will produce. Most importantly it’s not just enough to attract that talent but also being able to retain and nurture the talent so that there is constant motivation and encouragement to continue doing the good work.

 

The industry needs to look beyond the predictable places from where they usually get talent. There is a need to come out of the boxes they have created for themselves within which they try to fit in a person’s skill and qualifications and if that doesn’t happen it doesn’t work. But that should not be the case. Instead, scout for talent at the most unlikely places and then nurture them to become the future leaders. The idea being that the industry needs to give up their biases when zeroing in on a talent and they will be amazed with the quality of people that might emerge from their unconventional approach.

 

By Shruti Pushkarna

 

When I was asked to write this piece, I was totally blank. We keep complaining about the industry and how things are but when confronted with the question, “What’s my one big idea for the media sector?” I couldn’t put my finger on any one thing in specific.

 

I have been part of this industry for around seven years now and much has changed over the years, technology for one has changed the way we function at various levels. While there is hue and cry over how Internet is the next big thing or not even next, ‘Internet’ is the big thing, the reality is still very different in some aspects.

 

Talking from my personal experience, whenever I have approached industry people for video interviews, (and I have shot quite a few for MxMIndia in the past one year), their first response is of excitement, excitement from being featured on camera, but the minute you tell them it’s for the Web, the excitement levels go down a bit because the web is not ‘television’.

 

Somehow television still remains the bigger medium (while that is true in terms of visibility) but for change to come, there needs to be a change in perception, of course apart from infrastructural development for other mediums to thrive and become as popular. The Media needs to be more neutral in approach I think, the content should matter more than the medium. If people in the trade will differentiate between formats (web vs. TV vs. print), then how do we expect to reach a level of convergence for the mass consumers?

 

By Johnson Napier

 

An idea, it is said, has the innate ability to strike when one least expects it. If we were to go back in time over the past few years and look up ideas that were discovered by its inventors, most could be attributed as being born at the spur of the moment. But while the basic premise for an idea is for it to be converted into an actionable force, not many go on to achieve that milestone. If we consider the realm of media and ponder over ideas that have managed to bring about a change in the recent past, the list would be an endless one. But ask anybody who comes from a media background in India about ideas by individuals/organisation that have changed the business environment and one name that would find a quick mention is Zee Group. Not that the others have not done enough but we don’t need to be told what the Subhash Chandra-led Zee Group managed to do when it bought in digitisation in the early 90s thereby pioneering the Indian cable and satellite television industry or the changes that it bought about in the woefully cluttered broadcast environment by flagging off its direct-to-home initiative.

 

Like Zee, there are several examples that one can boast of to drive home the point that our industry indeed has what it takes to get us going. But then the thing about ideas is that they need to keep evolving constantly and cannot be stopped even momentarily. After all, the industry has leapfrogged many a milestone to reach where it is today and to be ready to embrace the future it has to stay prepared today. And, as we’d all like to believe, it is only by the power of one big idea can we rise above the horizon and be an example worthy of emulation.

 

By Rafiq Barak

 

As someone who is into design, for me the way things look is very, very important. Thankfully, in the last two decades or so, Indian media companies have started concentrating on the look-and-feel of their properties. Remember Doordarshan… it appears now that no one was really bothered. The news background, the ‘Rukawat ke liye khed hai’ announcements were all-so-pedestrian.

 

Most newspapers too didn’t care too much design, and it was left to the magazines to offer jobs to art directors. Things changed dramatically from the early 1990s, as competition grew stiffer.

 

And it’s interesting to see design virtually driving content, along with advertisers who have grabbed the opportunity to play around in the hitherto-sacrosanct editorial space.

 

At MxMIndia, I am happy to see a fair amount of importance given to design. Our homepage is clutter-free, with very easy navigation. Although it’s an internet news portal, the approach is magazine-ish. Every morning, or the evening before, we work on the Big Story image. Often there is no clear visual possible. It’s tough, it’s fun. Like the life and times we live in.