By Shailesh Kapoor
As I write this Friday morning (June 23), PM Narendra Modi is at the State dinner at The White House. The coverage of Prime Minister’s US visit started last evening on the news channels, and has continued on the other side of the night, with an address to the US Congress punctuating the welcome address and the dinner.
The time difference between the two countries is a bit of a bummer for our news channels, as it takes away the opportunity to gather ratings over a day-long live event. But then, live telecast is not the only form of ratings-generating news in this case, and the coverage will continue over the next two days, including sidelights, such as culinary analysis of the dinner menu.
That’s the nature of our news today, moving from one topic to the other, and almost never really focusing on two at a time. Before the Prime Minister’s US trip, Adipurush was that one topic. On the first two days of the film’s release, most news channels celebrated it. Never the one to miss an opportunity to politicise anything that has the remotest potential, Arnab Goswami even ran the hashtag ‘Hindu Re-awakening’.
But between Friday and Saturday, the social media backlash became increasingly evident, and the narrative shifted to accusing the makers of the film, in particular its rather-vocal dialogue writer who has been flouting his political connections ahead of the film’s release, of not respecting Hindu sentiments.
Any topic like this has a shelf-life of about three days. That suits our news channels quite well too, as it means an average of two such topics a week. But it’s an all-or-nothing approach, and nothing else can find a foot in the door over those three days. Operational Sheesh Mahal, the story on Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s expensive new house, was one such prominent story in recent times. From Thursday, the focus moved from Adipurush to PM Modi’s US visit, and shall continue to be so, till a new topic comes up for selection on Monday.
It is only mildly surprising that most news channels end up picking the same topic, as if they are working in some kind of editorial unison, even as they engage in cut-throat TRP wars. Sometimes, it’s a result of the information fed to them by the political parties (invariably the ruling party). Sometimes, it’s just the knack of smelling a juicy story from half a day away.
In this one-story-a-time, two-stories-a-week model, what doesn’t excite the peoplemeters doesn’t make the cut. Over the last two months, there has been negligible coverage from Manipur, which is by far the most pressing law and order matter in the nation today. It is hard to imagine an equivalent story being sidelined in most free-press democracies around the World, including the one the Prime Minister is currently visiting.
This story selection model is elegant in its simplicity. It also makes journalism look a lot simpler than one always thought it to be. It’s almost like feature reporting of live news. Maybe one should do a year-end compile of the 100-odd stories covered in 2023. It will look like the annual special edition of a political tabloid: Seemingly purposeful on the outside, but largely junk on the inside.