MxMIndia

Tag: Times Now

  • The two would be creating dual, interactive content for both viewers and followers to be a part of t he conversation

    Times Now, Twitter partner for Election 2014

    By a correspondent

     

    Times Now and Twitter have announced their partnership for the 2014 General Elections being held across the country. The two would be creating dual, interactive content for both viewers and followers to be a part of t he conversation.

     

    For the general elections, Times Now and Twitter will introduce several innovative properties which give a real time, updated picture of public opinion. Times Now will leverage its substantial presence on Twitter to provide the audience with exclusive content created specifically for the platform. This will be in the form of infographics and videos, giving the followers a ringside view of election results with updates throughout the counting day.

     

    There will also be a live sentiment analysis of twitter feeds – and participation of viewers in the debate by inviting them to tweet video questions using the Vive app. This will be done by using the hashtag #IHaveAQuestion. This will enable viewers get an unprecedented opportunity to be a part of the political debate and add their voice to it.

     

    This will be boosted by access to exclusive real-time data from twitter which will be presented to both TV viewers and social media followers in interesting formats – adding an entirely new perspective to the election coverage.

     

    The entire election coverage will use the hashtag #WhoWillFormGovt which will bring together opinion makers and influencers as well as common people on the platform.

     

    Avinash Kaul

    Avinash Kaul, CEO, ET Now, Times Now & Zoom said, “Times Now is one of the few TV channels in India which keeps social media at the heart of content and brand marketing. Content on social media platforms is fully integrated with our TV content and that has worked wonders for us. With this exclusive partnership with Twitter we would like to create a truly unique content proposition for our viewers as the country awaits the results of the largest elections the world has ever seen.”

     

    Commenting on the innovation, Rishi Jaitly, India Market Director, Twitter, said, “Twitter is the world’s leading mobile, real-time information network where users follow, share and experience content that is live, public and conversational. Only on Twitter can people connect with and express their sentiments on issues that will be debated and decisive during this election season. We are happy to see Times Now innovating on Twitter by using our platform extensively to share breaking news, tell inclusive, crowd-sourced stories and offer an interactive, exclusive second-screen content experience.”

     

  • It's All Fool's Day and we present you a link to Pradyuman Maheshwari's column in mid-day on the 10 stories he hopes would happen to the world of news television in India

    10 April Fool stories I wish were true: Noose Night @ mid-day

    It’s All Fool’s Day and we present you a link to Pradyuman Maheshwari’s column in mid-day on the 10 stories he hopes would happen to the world of news television in India.

     

    Some of these are headlined:

    More meaningful talk on Arnab’s show.

    Majority foreign stake allowed in news

    NewsX gets more relevant

    The Minister of I&B ensures a free news media

     

    Suggest you visit the column at: http://www.mid-day.com/articles/10-april-fool-stories-i-wish-were-true/15197059

     

    Links to earlier columns: http://www.mid-day.com/news/pradyuman-maheshwari

     

  • The BJP rep's accusation that Arnab Goswami has taken money from lobbies in a discussion on Sec 377 is unacceptable, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Down with Meenakshi Lekhi!

    YouTube screengrab of BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi on Newshour on Times Now on Thursday, December 12

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    I have been both an admirer and a very harsh critic of Times Now’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in these columns. But now I come as an admirer. His equanimity in dealing with an appalling personal comment on the News Hour debate on Thursday night is truly commendable. The BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi accused Goswami of taking money from interested lobbies in a discussion on political reactions to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.

     

    While Lekhi is free to have her personal opinions about homosexuality and morality, she perhaps found herself cornered in this discussion. Her stand was that the whole fuss about the Supreme Court recriminalising homosexuality was “much ado about nothing” – although the media and many sections of Indian society are up in arms. The media has sided with human rights, dignity and the rights of the LGBT community. These may not be the same views as the conservative part of society, which Lekhi’s party represents. But to accuse Goswami and the media of being paid to stand up for Constitutional freedom is unacceptable.

     

    It is to Goswami’s great credit that after a somewhat menacing exchange with Lekhi, he continued with the show. However, by then the atmosphere had changed and it was a very subdued and hurried end to what had until then been a lively discussion.

     

    Casual conversation nowadays often refers to “paid media”, thanks mainly to the media itself discussing it. But that does not give licence to people to point fingers at someone’s personal integrity without proof on national television. The idea itself is ludicrous: that the LGBT community will have paid everyone from the media to lawyers to politicians to speak out against a clear attack on human rights. If indeed the LGBT community could do that much, then Section 377 might have been struck down long ago by legislation.

     

    But logic is not part of this argument. The fact is that the Congress, unlike its normal pusillanimous self these days, came out strongly against Section 377. The BJP has obfuscated the issue. Lekhi herself first said that she was happy that Section 377 was not struck down. And then she came up with this “much ado about nothing” line, a blatant misuse of Shakespeare if any. Instead of being feted on news television the way it normally is these days, Lekhi found herself under attack. A mention of the RSS – the mother organisation from which the BJP draws its moral strength and raison d’etre – and Lekhi saw red.

     

    It is possible that Goswami will be the larger person and let Lekhi’s comments go. But they are no less reprehensible for all that and represent an attack on media integrity as a whole. In my view, Goswami should not let it go. Legal action is a possible recourse for him since Lekhi’s remarks can be seen as defamation. But the media and the BJP need to relook at the suitability of Lekhi as a spokesperson. Much as television in India has challenged all norms of civilised behaviour, this one crossed the line.

     

    **

     

    The English media has been, as is evident, ranged against the Supreme Court after this judgment and came out in full support of the LGBT community. Newspaper coverage, from front pages to editorials, has spoken in one voice. So has news television. This is most welcome. Although there is likely to be a backlash from conservative and religious voices – letters to the editor already suggest as much – the media has not flinched. Indeed religious leaders of all colours have been made to explain themselves on TV, much to their discomfiture. Interviews with parents of gay children have given us the human picture of the families and support structures affected by this judgment. The grandmother on Barkha Dutt’s show on NDTV is most memorable, bringing tears to everyone’s eyes. Rahul Eeshwar – who often represents the right wing voice on TV especially on religious matters – was shot down when he tried to present his bogus science on Times Now on Wednesday night. Vikram Seth’s interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate presented the pain of the Indian homosexual in erudite terms.

     

    **

     

    Social media as ever was at the vanguard of the anger against the Supreme Court and Twitter certainly offers a quick idea of how the wind is blowing – even if it is limited socially and economically. For the most part, apart from some absurd tweets which said Sonia Gandhi was against Section 377 because all homosexuals are Christian, the rabid side of Twitter was less apparent.

     

  • With the launch of Times Television Network's Times Now and Zoom on Canada's major cable distribution company Cogeco Cable, the network is now directly available in 45 countries

    Times TV Network expands footprint to 45 countries

    By A Correspondent

     

    Times Television Network (TTN) has recently launched its channels, Times Now and Zoom, on Canada’s major cable distribution company Cogeco Cable. With this launch, TTN is now directly available in 45 countries across four continents on leading cable, DTH, IPTV and mobile platforms.

     

    Indians residing abroad form a substantial diaspora that is keen to stay connected with the latest in news and entertainment content from India. With relatively higher per capita income than most other ethnic groups residing abroad, the Indian and South Asian diaspora also displays a higher propensity to pay for premium content and services. TTN channels are already popular brands among the Indian community residing abroad and by using a mix of localized marketing and programming events in respective international markets, TTN has further strengthened its connect with the Indian diaspora there. TTN will be extending its international presence further this year with its impending launch in Europe.

     

    Sunil Lulla

    Commenting on the success of the international business, Sunil Lulla, Managing Director and CEO, TTN, said, “Times Television Network has found great resonance with the viewers from the Indian Diaspora. Despite having launched only quite recently in some of the markets, the brands have gained the same stature and respect as they have here. TIMES NOW is a daily news habit and zoOm the first port of call for Bollywood. We expect to penetrate more geographies shortly. Increasingly, we are able to bring strong solutions to advertisers for their brands in these respective geographies.”

     

    With over 60 advertisers already on board the channel feeds in the USA, Canada, Singapore, UAE, Australia & New Zealand, TTN’s international business is setting a strong pace in growing its advertising revenue stream. Leveraging the network strength further, TTN is also in discussion with other content owners and broadcasters in India and South Asia for alliances that will see TTN taking their content and channels into international markets.

     

  • While Arnab Goswami may still be big on English news TV, he has stretched his nationalistic debates a bit much, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari.

    Mediaah!: What’s not right with Arnab Goswami

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    Many months back, even ahead of the November 26 terror strike in Mumbai which transformed the English news television landscape entirely, I had written that Arnab Goswami was the best anchor on primetime news TV.

     

    He was different from Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt who were stars of the nightly bulletins. He was direct, he asked the tough questions and didn’t let his guests get away easily.

     

    In many ways, just as Angry Young Man Amitabh Bachchan mesmerized the nation in the 1970s, the Angry Young Man Arnab Goswami grew big on television. Rajdeep and Barkha (and Prannoy Roy etc) were journalists… this guy was like one of us.

     

    November 26, 2008 onwards was when he was at his peak. Some may say he took the easy (and if one may add uncharitably: safer) option of being in the studio as his reporters went closer to the hostage drama. But it was a wise decision. While it’s good to have your trump cards in action  – whether they should be on the field or off is a call that’s got to be taken. By staying in the studios, Arnab ensured that the 60+ hours of the hostage crisis was covered the best on Times Now.

     

    Arnab Goswami

    It’s been no looking back thereafter. He took the nationalistic line and the longevity of the terror discussion ensured that he would go on and on and on. Then there were border concerns in China and immigrant problems in Australia and wherever there was an issue where there was an Indian case to be fought for, Superman Arnab came to the rescue.

     

    A variety of political scandals and multiple scams ensured that there were enough ratings for news on television. Plus a packed sporting season.

     

    However, Arnab appeared to have got greedy. Or was forced to not see reason and hold back. He stretched his nationalistic debates a bit much.

     

    Agreed the nation wants answers and is happy that Arnab asks for them too, but the shrillness with which he goes about his task makes it a charade. There is a hardly a night when there is peace among his his panelists.

     

    There are other problems with the Arnab we see on Newshour and beyond. His body language as he faces the camera shows that he gets in with a view. And he wants to lead the discussion as per that.

     

    He gets carried away. Like he failed to see reason when Anna Hazare was at his peak. Like he did last Sunday as anchored a newsroom discussion through the day for Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s funeral procession. While one didn’t expect him to damn him, the death of a political leader like Thackeray offered enough reason for a debate on his policies and style of functioning.

     

    Arnab’s ‘Frankly Speaking’ with Raj Thackeray may have seen him raise some probing questions, but he let him get away. Raj even had some fun at Arnab’s expense.

     

    Last night (on Tuesday, Nov 20), we had a discussion on the two girls in suburban Palghar being arrested over a Facebook comment. The arrest as well as the vandalism thereafter must be damned. Those who committed both the crimes ought to be taken to task.

     

    I hold no brief for any of the three Mumbai women guests present, but Arnab was being offensive. At least allow Shaina NC to speak and move on if she’s not making a direct reference to the Sena, though later she did make an oblique reference!

     

    Arnab is fortunate that his competition, save Rajdeep Sardesai’s CNN-IBN, is not formidable. The NDTV 24×7 coverage of the Bal Thackeray death and funeral procession was pathetic. Sreenivasan Jain is poor with live news TV. His performance has been consistently below par: he was no great shakes when he was the Mumbai bureau head some years back, on Profit and now with the Thackeray coverage. Yes, on-off documentaries are great as are his exposes.

     

    As for Headlines Today, I think I have the solution to how it can be a force to reckon with. Let Rahul Kanwal be around for interviews et al, but get another primetime anchor-editor.

     

    Since I don’t have NewsX piped in through my digitized signal, I don’t watch the channel, but to my mind, CNN-IBN is by far the best English news television channel.

     

    Mind you, Rajdeep also gets shrill at times and Sagorika Ghose is a dozen times his decibel levels, but what makes the channel stand out is that it’s got multiple faces.

     

    Times Now appears happy to have not created a face beyond Arnab. But that’s their internal policy, though I am not sure if it’s a wise one.

     

    As for NDTV 24×7, it’s sad to see a wealth of talent often being wasted. Although I didn’t see much of the channel after a point last weekend, perhaps getting Barkha Dutt on would’ve been better with the Bal Thackeray coverage.

     

    Back to Arnab. If he really wants the viewing masses to find him spending their primetime with, he must switch tracks, get less combative and chill.

     

    A 10-day Vipassana course perhaps?

     

    Mediaah! Is written by Pradyuman Maheshwari, Editor-in-Chief, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. If you don’t want to use the messageboard below, inbox your comments to him at pradyumanm@mxmindia.com. Or BBM 29FEA79C.

    File Photo: Fotocorp

     

  • Leading news anchors and producers will conduct the Studio Talk anchoring workshop for Studio Talk from tomorrow

    Top news anchors & producers to conduct anchoring workshop from tomorrow

    From the MxM Infodesk

     

    Studio Talk has announced the second batch of its TV Anchoring Workshop starting August 4 in Mumbai. “Of the anchors you see on TV, very few are naturals. For the rest, it is an acquired skill set that comes with practice and practice,” said course director Mahrukh Inayet Rizvi, who was formerly Senior Editor with Times Now and is an award-winning journalist.

     

    The workshop trains and prepares one on how to be a television anchor/presenter during an intensive six weekend programme which is designed by top names in the industry, informed Vikram Sawant, director, Studio Talk and senior journalist.

     

    As course director, Ms Inayet Rizvi will personally oversee the six weekend training programmes. She will be joined by Mr Sawant, Mandira Lalwani (Former Times Now, ESPN, TenSports & Star News), Naomi Datta (Author 6 pm slot and Former Anchor & Producer CNBC & Times Now), Tejas Mehta (Mumbai Bureau Chief, NDTV 24 x7), Tanvir Gill (Senior Markets Anchor, ET Now), Juhi Pande (Former VJ, Channel [V]), Ragini Kumar (Former Sports Anchor, Times Now), Shruti Rajkumar (Former Anchor & Producer, Tech Toyz, CNBC), Mikhail Vaswani (Presenter, Neo Cricket), Ameet Sawant (Producer & Director, 96Karatz Productions), Renelle Snelleksz (Former Anchor, Times Now) among others.

     

    Along with teleprompter training, studio simulated exercises, voice modulation and basic make-up sessions, students will receive a certificate at the end of the program and a demo CD which will help showcase their talent and proficiency before the cameras.

     

    The weekend batches happen on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 3pm atSt Paul’s Institute of Communication Education, Bandra (W), Mumbai.

    Telephone: +91-9820125420, +91-9004402661, Email: thestudiotalk@gmail.com, Website: www.thestudiotalk.com

     

    *MxMIndia was a media partner of Studio Talk’s first workshop

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: Anna movement reaches its predictable end

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The news was quick to jump on India’s new Union Home minister after a series of bomb blasts hit Pune the day Sushil Kumar Shinde was appointed. In a revealing interview with Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, Shinde exposed himself as a “family” man and also attributed his political success to his Dalit caste. These are just the kinds of things a new India does not want to hear. Even worse, he then went on to say that he had been an “excellent” power minister – this on the day that North and East India reeled under power blackouts for the second consecutive day.

     

    Fortunately for Shinde and his possible short-comings – and also therefore for the UPA government – escape came from what has been the top news story, especially on television: the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement.

     

    Two days ago, Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami had practically been in tears over the frail but defiant condition of Anna Hazare adviser Arvind Kejriwal. The activist, who is apparently a diabetic, was in a bad way but was refusing to break his fast until all his conditions were met – arrest half the government and so on.

     

    Goswami therefore got into fighting mode as there were indications that the movement was looking for a political solution. Karan Thapar also explored this on his Last Word on CNN-IBN.

     

    By Thursday, it was announced that the anti-corruption movement would now become a political platform. The news was welcomed by all political parties since the fight had moved away from civil society to a battle ground they were all very familiar with.

     

    The media’s relationship with the Anna Hazare movement has been fascinating. TV went overboard last year as it supported the movement wholeheartedly and since most TV journalists are under the age of 11, they must have felt this was bigger than the freedom movement. The print media however remained cautious and in some cases critical. The people of India also get enthusiastic and social media was buzzing with anti-corruption rage. The government helped by bumbling and fumbling in its negotiations. But nothing topped the one lakh people who supported the movement in Delhi last year. The Lokpal bill was passed in the Lok Sabha but did not get past the Rajya Sabha.

     

    Buoyed by its success, the movement went a little overboard in its demands and so TV also started asking difficult questions. No one showed up in Mumbai in December and TV totally turned. All the allegations against people like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal were discussed. Hazare’s rustic ideas on politics and society became public knowledge. The group’s diverse and contradictory views on the politics, on political parties and ideologies were exposed.

     

    This time’s agitation saw the love coming full circle. TV tried to be supportive but the people were not. The movement’s supporters roughed up journalists for reporting the lack of popular support. The government was unmoved.

     

    The result is that the movement has gone political. Media support, which bolstered the movement so much in its early days, is now no longer assured. An interesting tale of how activists took on the government and enthused some people for a short while has reached a very predictable end. The media, they will have to remember from now on, will never be a pillar of support if it has to be a pillar of democracy.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: TV news viewing can be injurious to the lower jaw

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Since president-elect Pranab Mukherjee spoke to almost everyone on Tuesday, it was hard to see why news channels rushed to qualify their interviews as “first” or “better” or whatever. Exclusive, in TV parlance, is apparently when you do the same thing as everyone else, except five minutes before.

     

    Anyway, Mukherjee did not say very much about anything he was going to do as President although he talked about his childhood and his early political career. The silliest question I reckon came from Sagorika Ghose of CNN-IBN who asked whether Mukherjee’s ascension to Rashtrapati Bhavan was a “return of Bengal to the mainstream”. At this point my jaw dropped so low that it fell off and I was so busy retrieving it that I couldn’t pay attention to the rest of the interview.

     

    The best I could get from Arnab Goswami’s interview with Mukherjee on Times Now was that first Mukherjee walked round his garden 40 times, then 33 times and now 30 times and he did not know how many times he was going to walk around the Mughal Gardens. He said he heard the gardens were very large. Anyway, as President he will have ample time to work out stuff like that. Or if he asks someone they might tell him how big the Mughal Gardens are.

     

    * * *

     

    Sunday was all about the presidential election as well as everyone gave us live coverage. Of course, after some time they ran out of things to say because there was very little to say about a presidential election in India, at least not enough that can last a whole day even given TV’s marvellous propensity for waffling on about nothing. The highlight of the day was losing candidate PA Sangma’s losing speech. He started by congratulating Mukherjee and then went into a whine about how the Congress had used bribery, extortion and threats to ensure Mukherjee’s victory and how the North East and betrayed not just him but all tribals and themselves as well. (They didn’t vote for him.) Sangma’s entire campaign was based on pettiness, so nothing surprising here. What was surprising was Navika Kumar of Times Now stating emphatically that this was the best, most gracious and most sportsmanlike speech she has ever heard from a loser. Her guests Krishna Prasad of Outlook and commentator NN Satchidanand tried to point out otherwise, but she would have none of it. Jaw-retrieval is a common affliction for those who watch too much TV news, as I should know by now.

     

    * * *

     

    Rupert Murdoch has stepped down from several boards which control News Corp’s titles in the US, UK and India. The pressure to do so apparently came from investors, after the phone-hacking scandal led to the closing of The News of the World and all the arrests of News Corp staff, current and former. Murdoch’s rise saw a lot of bile but in his fall are some abject lessons for media bosses and for those journalists who decide that principles are nothing when faced with corporate pressure to perform in a particular manner or to do anything to get results. The Nuremberg trials ought to be required reading for young aspiring journalists: the fact that you got an order is not defence enough.

     

    * * *

     

    I was appalled yesterday and continue to be appalled today about Monday’s front page anchor in The Times of India about a group of Indian athletes that went to the 1936 Berlin Games under a saffron flag singing Vande Mataram and impressed Adolf Hitler enough to give the group a medal. The story behaved as if getting a medal from the 20th century’s most frightening dictator was a great honour. There was not a squeak in the story about Nazism and what the organiser of the group thought of that. The glorification of Nazism in India is restricted to those influenced by the religious nationalism that comes of out of Nagpur. The story, therefore, should have mentioned or questioned the RSS connections of the group. Saffron flags and Vande Mataram were clear giveaways but why not come out openly and say so? And for a journalist – and a newspaper – to ignore the Nazi angle to such a story is criminal.

     

    * * *

     

    Vikram Doctor’s article in The Economic Times on food and the Olympics was extremely readable and well-researched. Try it: http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/onmyplate/entry/thanks-to-french-humour-here-s-best-of-british-food

     

     

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: Times Now = Alternative government on Pakistan?

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    There is a need perhaps for news channels to rethink their positions as far as prime time studio discussions are concerned. One might be so bold as to suggest that they are running out of steam. Sadly, not everyday brings up a topic so incendiary that the nation’s hackles rise one way or another and as has happened over the past few weeks. If panel discussions (debates, fights, yelling matches, whatever you want to call them) are about subjects like India’s team selection for the World T20 Championships (NDTV) or one more interminable inquiry into Air India (Times Now), then who’s really watching?

     

    Times Now however seems to be setting itself up as an alternative government when it comes to Pakistan. Night after night it badgers various Pakistanis (not members of the government) and tries to get them to confess that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism in India. There appears to be some sort of strange naivete at play here. No one in India doubts Pakistan’s involvement. But it is hard to imagine that this kind of TV assault is going to make the situation any better.

     

    * * *

     

    Are newspapers alive or dead? Two takes on the debate are in the links pasted below. Well, the first is certain that death is imminent. The second is one of those “India rah rah” stories which foreign news agencies alternate with ‘India boo hoo” stories. Sadly, the reasons given in these links on why newspapers are dying are as pedestrians as the reasons why newspapers in India are booming.

     

    I have another take: news is not dying. Conventional methods of dispersal are. Any other ideas?

     

    http://listverse.com/2011/07/03/top-10-reasons-the-newspaper-is-dying/

     

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14362723

     

    * * *

     

    Senior journalist Sevanti Ninan of The Hoot writes a scathing piece in Mint on the collapse of newsgathering in newsrooms and the replacement of reporting with hectoring on TV channels. She also lifts the lid of newsroom practices and the ruthless retrenchment policies followed by newspaper managements.

     

    http://www.livemint.com/2012/07/04211735/The-changing-newsroom.html

     

    * * *

     

    Meanwhile excerpts from veteran journalist Kuldip Nayyar’s autobiography show the former editor to be in vicious form as he eviscerates former colleagues young and old. There is lesson here: refuse a former editor a column or suddenly cancel the column and you will pay the price later by being exposed in print.

     

    The link is from the blog sans serif: http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/kuldip-nayar-on-shekhar-gupta-n-ram-co/

     

    Read and enjoy. And may there be a lesson for all those who have refused to give this writer columns…

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: TV lacks training to cover live events

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The fire which engulfed and destroyed large portions of Maharashtra’s most important government building on Thursday afternoon dominated news broadcasts and the newspapers on Friday – hardly surprisingly. TV channels switched from whatever they were covering – mainly the unseemly drama over India’s tennis stars and the Olympics to concentrate on the fire in Mumbai.

     

    It’s self-evident that TV is the best medium to cover live events. However, this is where lack of training – both anchors and reporters – gets exposed. Having shown viewers the fire over and over again – which really points to the camerapersons being able to locate the targets – TV reporters then appear to be at a loss. Instead of hundred several of them “standing by” at various locations around an incident, news channels might be better served if they trained some reporters to collect information while others dealt with on-camera duties. This way, viewers would get some news instead of having to hear: “The fire is still raging and as you can see people are waiting anxiously and if my cameraperson could show you…” over and over again.

     

    This is an aside: Instead of concentrating on emulating some fancy foreign accent, reporters who appear on English channels might spend more time on their grammar. A young girl on Times Now kept talking about the “backside of the building.” Backside however refers to the derriere, posterior, bottom, buttocks, bum – that is, the rear end of humans. She could have just said “back of the building”. This would not have been so jarring – or amusing – if she had not acquired an ambivalent pseudo-foreign accent.

     

    * * *

     

    Incidentally, local channels usually win at times like this and Times Now, being the only major English news channel located in Mumbai had the clear upper hand.

     

    * * *

     

    And the same can be said of The Times of India. For the past four years now, Mumbai’s largest English newspaper has been flexing its muscle when it comes to local coverage. With the Mantralaya fire, they covered just about every angle. Since they have employed a large proportion of the city’s reporters, they also benefited from the expertise their staff has picked up in other papers!

     

    In order, Mid-Day comes next and the tabloid newspaper has done a comprehensive and detailed job, then the Indian Express and finally, Hindustan Times. It is at moments like this that Hindustan Times seems to pay the price for concentrating more on packaging than substance. The Times of India has dispensed with packaging to provide material and this seems to be a winning strategy. Undoubtedly, a commendable achievement for a “product” from a group which is also responsible for some of the worst practices in the media today?

     

    “Sabotage” asked the Economic Times in a boxed item on their front page, thus emphasising the suspicions that almost everyone has about this fire.

     

    * * *

     

    Eminent heart specialist Ramakant Panda’s defence of the medical fraternity (obviously still feeling hurt by Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate) on Times of India’s edit page was not just weak, it was quite funny. Imagine using the incredible service provided by Prakash and Mandakini Amte to the tribals as an example of how great doctors are. If other doctors bothered to even do half of what the Amtes have managed for years, our healthcare to the poor would not be so despicable. Most doctors in Maharashtra however refuse to do their rural stint since it severely cuts into the ka-ching of big city cash registers. Please.

     

    * * *

     

    This is just a personal note. My rage against biased coverage of the tennis fiasco led one young (am assuming young from the way it was written and the handle Poopsonurface) person to call me a “Calcutta partisan presswalla”. Amused as I am, I must humbly declare that I have never worked in Calcutta or Kolkata in my career which spans almost 30 years. Other than Mumbai, the only other place I have worked in is Ahmedabad. As to his or her’s other suggestion that I “get a life”, I have taken that under advisement!

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: Media double faults in Paes-Bhupathi match

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    After years of working with city reporters, I accepted the fact that many grappled to understand the concept of “presumption of innocence”: If the police made an accusation against someone, why then it had to be true. But, of course, every accused has the right to defence. And while reporting a story, journalists are supposed to be objective. If they cannot provide both sides of a dispute, they must explain to the reader why they have failed.

     

    But in the initial rounds of this rather unfortunate fight in Indian tennis, where Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have refused to partner India’s top tennis player Leander Paes in the 2012 London Olympics, the media started out batting for Bhupathi alone. In what appears to be a well-thought-out campaign, the doubles pair of Bhupathi and Bopanna sent out a series of letters and emails signalling their refusal to play with Paes even before the All Indian Tennis Association decided on the Olympic team. Several newspapers and news channels did not even make a willy-nilly attempt to contact Paes.

     

    The exceptions are possibly DNA and Headlines Today, who got in touch with Paes’s father. But for the most part, it was about the terrible wrong that was about to be done to Bhupathi and Bopanna – being forced to play with Paes for the Olympics. Mail Today and The Times of India seemed like they had stakes in Bhupathi’s career.

     

    These pressure tactics appeared to have failed and the AITA decided to pair Bhupathi with Paes. This is where objectivity completely failed India’s sports journalists. Bhupathi came on air and was quoted in print making all kinds of allegations against Paes. The Times of India at last informed us that they could not contact Paes. Therefore, the story remained one-sided.

     

    Bhupathi and Bopanna meanwhile, perhaps emboldened by this out-and-out media support stated firmly that if either had to partner Paes, they were willing to forgo the Olympics. Despite the media’s usual pattern of extreme jingoism, even this display of lack of country love, did not deter the pro-Bhupathi-Bopanna journalists. One cannot state that sports journalists are less jingoistic than the rest – we see what they do to cricketers regularly. In fact I can guarantee that any top cricketer who refused to play for India because he did not like his team members would be hung, drawn and quartered by the media. By the way, cricket is not even an Olympic sport and technically, when Indian cricketers play, they represent the board. Not so for tennis, where professional players put aside career considerations to play Davis Cup and the Olympics.

     

    However, as the week of allegations by Bhupathi and Bopanna came to a close, the media slowly started to turn. Paes may have contributed to that by issuing a statement that he was willing to go by the AITA’s decision. The Indian Express and Mid-Day started to look at being fair to all concerned. The Hindustan Times later also presented a larger picture. The Times of India came to the party last – but more on its edit pages than its sports pages.

     

    Where a reader should have been given perspective on this battle and information to negotiate through this unseemly fight, he or she got a minefield of accusations from only one side. Now the villain of the piece is apparently the AITA as Bhupathi has approached the sports ministry to step in. Bhupathi has accused the selection committee of being a bunch of bureaucrats who know nothing about tennis. To me they appear to be former players – perhaps not of the stature of Bhupathi but tennis players nonetheless, a fact which needs to be pointed out in the media.

     

    Monday night saw Times Now’s Arnab Goswami ask Mahesh Bhupathi some tough questions – some of which he struggled to answer. This is the first time that Bhupathi’s accusations were questioned. Later, the fathers of Paes and Bhupathi were on Times Now, where Paes Senior pointed out that Bhupathi was not blameless in this battle, while Bhupathi Senior tried to shrug that off and say the Olympic riddle had to be solved not the mistakes made by the boys.

     

    Appalling as this ego battle between India’s top tennis players may be, the media’s partisan stand has been as appalling.

     

  • News anchoring is all about credibility. The more you establish your substance, the more the viewer will notice your style, says Mahrukh Inayet

    The Anchor: Mahrukh Inayet on 5 reasons why anchoring is more about substance than style

    By Mahrukh Inayet

     

    1. News always comes first

    Viewers want the news first. Rest, very little matters. Your style has little bearing on the viewer nor does it alter the impact of news on the viewer. Facts are sacrosanct. Information rules. It needs no garnishing.

     

    2. The new age viewer

    Today’s viewer is a global citizen. Aware, informed, educated and opinionated. More importantly, s/he is consistently running against time. They get their news and boom – they are out. Your personality might make them stop, but it is the news that will make them stay.

     

    3. Credibility

    News anchoring is all about credibility. The more you establish your substance, the more the viewer will notice your style. But remember, substance comes first. Think about it – most well known TV faces have been around for years. In theUS, the average age for prime time anchors is 60. Larry King, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather – the list is endless.

     

    4. Journalism v/s Style

    News does not come in fancy packages. It’s hard hitting and raw. Floods, drought, bomb blasts, terror strike, petrol prices – can you even imagine viewers bothering with anything but the information.

     

    5. News, not the newsreader

    In broadcast journalism school you are taught to conduct yourself in a manner that takes attention away from you and highlights what you are presenting. News anchors only disseminate the news – they are the medium, not the message

     

    Mahrukh Inayet is Former Senior Editor, Times Now