MxMIndia

Tag: Times Now

  • The theme of YCC 2012 was 'Role of Youth: Transforming Dialogue to Action.'

    Young changemakers talk about Change

    By Insiyah Rangwala

     

    The Young Changemakers Conclave (YCC) 2012 was held on April 14 at the US Consulate, Mumbai. Organized by Samyak Chakrabarty, Managing Director, Youth Media Group and team for the United Nations Information Centre forIndia and Bhutan (UNIC), in collaboration with the US Consulate General, and presented by UTV Bindaas, the Conclave which is in its second year, was being hosted in Mumbai for the first time. The key focus point of the Conclave was ‘Role of Youth: Transforming Dialogue To Action’.

     

    The Conclave was attended by 200 young individuals between the ages of 18 to 35 who were selected from diverse backgrounds of the 5000 who applied, to attend this near-day-long event to discuss, deliberate and confer on a wide array of topics while engaging with current day leaders and started off with an address by Mr Peter Haas, US Consul General, who talked about how change wasn’t meant to be easy.

     

    Thereafter a diverse and interesting list of dignitaries addressed the gathering:

    > Mr Suhel Sheth, Managing Partner, Counselage who talked about change being internal and about understanding yourself and changing yourself before the world.

    > Mr Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-chief, Times Now, spoke about how the fear of exposure is what leads to making people want to control the media and how that is a change that should be stopped

    > Mr Agnello Dias, Founder, Taproot spoke about creativity in finance and business.

     

    Other speakers included Mr Sanjay Nirupam and Mr Anurag Singh Thakur, both Members of Parliament who spoke about the importance of educating the youth about politics, and a mix of celebrities from the arts and cinema, sports, advocacy and hospitality. Masaba Gupta, Leander Paes, Rahul Akerkar, Rajeev Samant, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Asin Thottumkal, and Awista Ayub, Director, South Asia Program for Seeds of Peace, all of who spoke about their respective journeys to make a change in their own way. Musicians like Vishal Dadlani spoke about using music as an instrument for social change and how it is easier to sneak in a message through music. The event ended with a vote of thanks by Mr Keith Alphonso, Business Head, UTV Bindaas.

     

     

    Keith Alphonso, Business Head – UTV Bindass, talks to MxMIndia about what he defines as a changemaker, the channel’s new look and plans for Bindass

    The word change maker is used a lot nowadays. What do you, and the company, think is a change maker?

    Well, Bindass has always been about change. If you look at the brand, it has changed. This country is on the threshold of an immense amount of change across a variety of levels. I really think that for young people, success is a religion and achievers are their gods. Those who have taken the plunge beyond what society told them, they are the heroes for the kids today. Their achievement is what has identified them as a hero.

     

    Who do you believe are the three top Indian changemakers?

    A: I think it would be a gross injustice to name just three. The only thing that comes to my mind isIndiaitself, and the fact that there is a majority of young people today who are heroes. These are the kids who are going to drive the change, so there maybe 3,000 heroes in small towns who actually go out and do something to make a significant difference to the big guys you see on stage. I think it is the spirit of change that exists among the kids today that will be the changemaker.

     

    Bindass has changed their logo, so any comments about the new look.

    This is the third change we are going through because the audience changes at a supersonic level, there is no such thing as a steady state, especially when dealing with young people. The new look is about the change, so the new tag line- Restless – is about change. It’s about the fact that there is so much opportunity out there, that if you get up and do it now you will succeed and that is the message we want to take across.

     

    Future plans for Bindass…

    To start with the idea behind the new logo is that we celebrate the fact that ‘If you rest less rather than sitting ideal you will be successful and you will achieve’. We want to empower that transformation. We have several platforms through which we want to do it – we have two blockbuster shows coming up: Live Out Loud and Fearless. The brand is all about helping you change, helping you make that move to the better life. On ground we have got a whole string of activities- there is Campus, we’ve got something called the Bindass Buddies, a contact program which helps people get admission to college because that’s a huge problem for a lot of people. We’ve got a 5 city music tour that we are doing. So, the idea is not to do a couple of shows and just be happy. We are looking at the Young India and where we can make a difference.

     

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, 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

    [MJR] Katju rides to the rescue of the press!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Thursday/Friday was one of those rare news cycles where TV and print appeared to agree with each other – at least when it came to the Supreme Court’s upholding the Right to Education Act and the reservation of 25 per cent of seats for the economically backward in non-government schools.

     

    Arnab Goswami of Times Now right off the bat said any opposition was elitist and demonstrated the deep rich-poor chasm in this country. This line is in keeping with his “simple living high thinking” mantra unveiled a few days ago in a debate about teenage violence. Other channels also presented the same line of thinking. This made life a little uncomfortable for those outraged that rich kiddies now had to sit next to the children of their domestics – although no one said that quite so openly, of course.

     

    Even as opponents of the idea went on about increase in fees and so on, no one quite bought it.

     

    Friday morning’s newspapers followed the same lines – with particularly vociferous arguments in favour of the RTE plan and with some tough words for those against it. For a middle class readership, it is class prejudices which are first priority and the media has certainly picked up on that without pandering to it.

     

    As the judgment sinks in, it can only be hoped that newspapers (TV cannot do it) delve deeper into the implementation of the act and keep track of what is actually going on. Sticky points include minority institutions and boarding schools which are currently exempt from this provision, what happens to a child after Class VIII and improvement of facilities in government schools.

     

    * * *

     

    Press Council chairman Markandey Katju has jumped on to his white horse and charged to the rescue of the freedom of the press. The Press Council is going to the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad High Court’s decision to stop the media from reporting on troop movement. The media, so upset has it been with the temerity of the Indian Express to carry the controversial story about fears of an army coup in some government circles, has remained largely silent on the court decision.

     

    This is an interesting maturity test for the media. Its compulsions to tailor material to reader demands and provide infotainment aside, there is also a larger role regarding the safeguarding of democracy and being a general watchdog. Patriotism in the media context does not mean bowing before every institution – it means quite the opposite.

     

    I cannot say this better than Katju himself: “…the Indian Army is not a colonial army, but the army of the Indian people who pay taxes for the entire Indian defence budget. Hence the people of India have a right to know about army affairs, except where that may compromise national security.”

     

    As Katju points out, the media has this freedom under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution.

     

    Hear hear!

     

    * * *

     

    The media’s role in the Aarushi Talwar murder investigation remains questionable. It has swung from one extreme to another, drawing its own conclusions, dramatising the life and death of the young girl and encouraging the investigators’ own bizarre behaviour as a result.

     

    Right now, some in the media seem to have decided that the parents of the girl are innocent and being unduly targeted. Open magazine has carried a long article by historian Patrick French claiming this (he is a patient of the dentist couple).

     

    Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the courts will base their judgment on evidence collected and presented.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, 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

    For the 100th edition of Freaking News, some TV awards

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Outright, hands down, CNN-IBN wins the award for Silliest Debate Topic Ever On A Monday Night: “Is Yuvraj Singh the next Lance Armstrong?”. For those who have been living on Mars, cricketer Yuvraj Singh has been under treatment for cancer in the US and has just returned to India. A long recovery period lies ahead. Ace cyclist Lance Armstrong, a tour de force on the Tour de France, won his battle with cancer and didn’t let it affect his sporting prowess and achievements. Surely however, it is far too early to comment on Singh’s condition and future at all, although there must be every hope for a full recovery and return to form. Under the circumstances, this kind of discussion appears insensitive and illogical.

     

    * * *

     

    The Earnest Sadness In The Face of Terrible Facts award for Monday night goes to Arnab Goswami and Times Now on the discussion about a spurt in incidents of violence committed by teenagers. Goswami rued that the motto of “Simple living and high thinking” no longer made sense to the post-reforms generation and participants talked about how the drive for money and success had skewed values for young people. There was a pall of gloom all over the Times Now set as actors ruminated on the terrible effects of money and lack of supervision on young people. I had to use at least three hankies. Note to self: keep a box of tissues next to the television.

     

    * * *

     

    The award for showing Immense Fortitude In The Face Of Severe Provocation is shared jointly by Nidhi Razdan of NDTV and Sagorika Ghose of CNN-IBN as they attempted to control Trinamool whatever-he-is Derek O’Brien as he defended his Supreme Leader Mamata Banerjee from the wicked media. First on NDTV and then on CNN-IBN, O’Brien shouted, flustered and blustered his way through as he got angrier and angrier that anyone had dared to criticise his Supreme Leader. Razdan had him first and she barely managed to get him to stop talking so that the other guests could have their say.

     

    By the time he reached CNN-IBN, he had worked himself into a fine rage. He then “had words” with a CPI spokesperson which descended to phrases like “You are not the king of me” being bandied about. He then called Lord Meghnad Desai ‘Lord Swarj Paul” which led to another bout in which O’Brien emerged bloody. Then he and Desai got into another spat.

     

    All in all, Ghose was out-shouted and had to use her diplomatic skills (come on, we’re all born with them) to stop her guests from killing O’Brien. Even Dexter seemed kind and gentle after all this.

     

    * * *

     

    After all that, Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show on Comedy Central gets the award for Restoring Sanity to News Analysis as he took on the shooting of American teenager Trayvon Martin by a Neighbourhood Watch member George Zimmerman in Florida. Stewart asked all the questions that anyone following the case wants answers to.

    Phew.

     

  • Every Thursday, Ranjona Banerji will write about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    [MJR] Breakfast with Bollywood and other abominations

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Suppose (warning, blasphemy follows) you’re the kind of person who doesn’t manage to read a newspaper in the morning before you leave for work so you keep the TV on to get the latest through “breakfast news”.

     

    This is what I found out today: Katy Perry sang and danced and was looking for curry and something in India, said NDTV.  IPL season 5 starts with a match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Ravi Shastri said Chennai was going to win and Moody said Mumbai was going to win, both on Times Now. Headlines Today said that Akshay Kumar is acting in a new film directed by Prabhu Deva called Rowdy something.

     

    Given the high drama on TV the night before over the $10 million bounty on Hafiz Saeed’s head placed by the US, I foolishly thought (it’s amazing how foolish I feel when I watch TV) that there would be some more on that. Not on Times Now at any rate.

     

    NDTV had a thought-provoking report on trafficking of young girls and women from West Bengal, being led into brothels in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. Anderson Cooper 360 was largely focused on the Republican primaries. The BBC was on Newsday, so that’s bits from here and there, with plenty on China and something on the new James Bond film (I didn’t stop long enough to watch that, had had enough of films thanks to Headlines Today).

     

    That left CNN-IBN who told me everything I wanted to know about Hafiz Saeed and Pakistan’s reaction to the US bounty.

     

    My grouse therefore is that I was wrong yesterday for castigating newspaper websites for being too full of cricket and Bollywood and giving TV a clean chit. Or is my grouse that websites are deceptive? Something like that.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, 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

    [MJR] The big wound in Indian newsgathering covered with Kareena Kapoor’s bandaid

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Even three years ago, my father couldn’t tell the difference between Kareena Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan, if he even knew who they were. Now he can recognise every single Bollywood star and can even talk knowledgeably about their new films and their goings-on. He has not watched a film, I must clarify, in I-don’t-know-how-many years. But he is a news junkie. Therefore, when he told me on Saturday that the biggest TV news of the day was that Kareena Kapoor had a band-aid on her leg, I believe him.

     

    I think I also take back every criticism of Markandey Katju I ever made. I opened the e-paper of The Times of India this morning, to have a look at what was happening in the world. The front page of the main edition and the front page of Bombay Times opened next to each other. I have not read Bombay Times since Medianet began, so I did not look further. Why should I, when I already knew from opening the TOI website that Sajid Khan thinks that the Shah Rukh Khan-Farah Khan fight was meaningless and that Sachin Tendulkar had handed over the captaincy of the Mumbai Indians to Harbhajan Singh.

     

    Actually, it said ‘Bhajji” but by now we all know who that is. Should they have called Sachin “Tendlya” to keep the casual tone consistent? Maybe you’re not allowed to get casual with Sachin.

     

    I then went to Google to have a look at Hindustan Times. “Click for the latest Bollywood and cricket news” said the link. Ah well. I already know that, I thought. Kareena Kapoor has a band-aid on her leg and Sachin is no longer captain of the Mumbai Indians. Of course I was wrong. The most viewed story on the Hindustan Times website is “Akshay Kumar, John Abraham in a brawl”.

     

    I had foolishly thought that the Myanmar elections and Aung San Suu Kyi’s imminent victory was big news but couldn’t find it on the home page of these two worthy websites.

     

    So I went to the Times Now website and that is where normal service was resumed. Arnab Goswami, in save-India mode, looked at me sternly and I then knew all about Jaganmohan Reddy’s yatra as the CBI noose around him tightened, the fact that Team Anna was now taking on the BJP over Himachal Pradesh and the Lok Ayukta Bill, that the prime minister had refused to meet army chief VK Singh. I also saw Mynmar there.

     

    I hereby humbly take back all the nasty things I have ever said about Indian television. This I predict will last three days. Because I just remembered Kareena Kapoor and her band-aid.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, 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

    Freaking News: Making sense of the army revelations

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Not surprisingly, the extraordinary revelations coming out of the army have consumed most of our days and nights. Kudos must go to DNA for first carrying the letter, which the army chief sent to the prime minister, about our lack of defence preparedness. Of course amidst all the high-decibel hot air about “high treason” and calls for sacking, we have as usual wandered into all kinds of marginal territories and taken a little time to put matters in perspective.

     

    Arnab Goswami on Times Now felt great shock that former prime minister Deve Gowda’s son Kumaraswamy said that arms dealers had tried to approach his father through him. Twitter took this as a joke with someone pointing out that Deve Gowda probably never took up the offer because he was asleep at the time. The innocence of television – is it endearing, annoying or just so put on?

     

    On NDTV and CNN-IBN, there were sometimes back to back discussions on the same subject with different anchors and guests. No great purpose was served by any of these – people who once wore uniforms claimed that the uniform-wearers were all purer than the driven snow, defence analyst Ajai Shukla said everyone always knew that India was badly prepared except probably Parliamentarians. Tarun Vijay of the BJP took great exception to being called ignorant but was told that he didn’t know what he was talking about for all his troubles. Brajesh Mishra felt that this government had spent too much money on development and “giving money to villages” and other unimportant stuff like that instead of presumably spending it all on national security. Luckily there was very little Chandan Mitra in all this.

     

    It, therefore, took the newspapers to explain to us the inner workings of the Tatra-Vectra-BEML deal, the connection between Ural trucks and army chief VK Singh and the problems with defence procurement. To be fair to Mishra however, he also said that the armed forces wasted time testing equipment in the snow, desert, mountains, plains, wind, water and so on till everything had become obsolete. All former uniform-wearers blamed the bureaucracy for the same.

     

    At the end of it all, you had to read the papers to find out who was who and who was doing what to who. This is a familiar pattern now and perhaps TV continues to be the saving grace for newspapers which have to make sense of the sound and fury. We now need some comprehensive stories on what appears to be some sort of internecine warfare within the army. It would also be good to know where the other service chiefs stand on all this.

     

    * * *

     

    As a break from all this, was the BRICS summit which just concluded in Delhi. TV did focus on that as well but sometimes when the reporters babble on and on saying the same thing in 16 different ways to guarantee their 2 minutes of air time, your eyes just glaze over. The business channels, however, had more focused coverage, including interviews with industrialists and so on. BBC and CNN were also more interested in the summit than in our military mis-manoeuvres.

     

    * * *

     

    A quick look at Pakistani papers this morning showed that in spite of all the fears of our former generals with moustaches quivering with rage, the Indian army’s lack of preparedness has not consumed them.

     

    * * *

     

    The Hindu has written a very welcome editorial, if a little late, slamming spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for his ridiculous comment that government schools are breeding Naxals. Does the media usually treat them too kindly?

     

    * * *

     

    The felicitation for Sachin Tendulkar by Mukesh Ambani provided the relief factor. TV, of course, pointed out that Bollywood attended in full force, leaving out the industrialists, politicians, artistes, literati and other movers and shakers in evidence. Where Bollywood ends, India ends I guess.

     

  • The senior editor (news) at Times Now who recently resigned has set up Studio Talk which aims to prepare young journalists in all areas of TV journalism.

    Mahrukh Inayet quits Times Now, starts school for anchors

    By Archita Wagle

     

    If you thought anchoring was just about sitting in front of the camera and talking, Studio Talk, a finishing school for those looking to make their career before the cameras, will prove differently to you. “A lot of youngsters believe that anchoring is not serious journalism and I want to break that myth. It’s time one understands that anchoring is impossible without knowledge,” said Mahrukh Inayet Rizvi, Course Director, Studio Talk, who recently resigned as senior editor (news) at Times Now.

     

    Ms Inayet was part of the core team at Headlines Today, that helped set up the channel. From the TV Today group, she joined Times Now, again as part of the core team that set up the channel. Her 72-hrs non-stop reportage from outside the Taj Hotel during 26/11 earned her much acclaim and was appreciated as an example of unbiased coverage of the Mumbai terror strike. She has reported extensively on national politics with special focus on the Kashmir imbroglio.

     

    From the breathlessness of breaking news to understanding the nuances of business and sports anchoring to the intricacies of entertainment and live events anchoring – Studio Talk aims to prepare the young journalists in all genres. ‘This programme is a must for anyone and everyone looking to work before the cameras in the television,” said Ms Inayet.

     

    Ms Inayet believes that journalism schools teach you how to be a good journalist. But few teach what to do before the cameras and fewer prepare you for what to expect once the cameras start rolling. That’s exactly what Studio Talk aims to do- prepare and polish newbies with an intensive 14-day program on how to be a television anchor/presenter.

     

    The course is aimed at teaching youngsters how to anchor news, business, sports and entertainment stories. The course will have studio simulated environment and the students will be taught how to work in front of the cameras and connect to the audience, ‘either as an on-field reporter who has 60 seconds to connect to the viewer with his/her story or as an anchor who has to present the final product to the audience. The students will also be taught basic make up skills so that they don’t look washed out in front of the camera.’

     

    “The camera is ruthless and does not allow you to rewind and press record the second time. Being on television is hard work. Anchors and presenters have to face all kinds of situations. From just one-line information on breaking news to anchoring in live situations,” Ms Inayet added.

     

    And, Ms Inayet definitely knows what she is talking about, given her rise from a reporter to being among the senior most anchors at Times Now. It is this extensive experience that has allowed the former Times Now Senior Editor to develop perhaps the only such training program in the country.

     

    While Ms Inayet, as the course director, will personally oversee the 14-day hands-on-training program, Studio Talk will also have some of the best names from the television industry such as Mandira Sawhney Lalwani, former presenter, Times Now, ESPN, Ten Sports & Star News; Prerana Thakur Desai, Producer, Aamir Khan Productions; Ragini Kumar, former sports anchor, Times Now; Mikhail K Vaswani Presenter, Neo Cricketer and Ameet Sawant, Producer & Director, 96 Karatz Productions as guest lecturers to share their experiences on topics like Inside A Television Newsroom, Teleprompter Training, Fundamentals Of News Anchoring, Handling ‘Breaking News’, On Field Reportage and other such relevant topics.

     

    At the end of the 14-day course, the student will be awarded a certificate and a demo CD on completion of the workshop. “Earlier we could learn from our mistakes on the job. But now there is no time to make mistakes. The demo CD ensures that the recruiters realise that the person knows what in required to be in front of the TV,” concluded Ms Inayet.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, 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

    Freaking News: SP goes UP, Times Now went down

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    What a mouth-watering cornucopia of choice, you think, as you settle down to watch the election results unfolding at 8 am on Tuesday morning, what with so many TV channels to choose from. In a couple of hours of course, you’re weeping at the cacophony, the grand, sweeping statements and the sheer confusion caused by so many channels.

     

    For once, the loser is perhaps Times Now. The channel, which so often knows what India wants to know, appears to have overplayed its hand. Its bizarre desire to clock 100 hours of election coverage meant that it started long before the results day and created unnecessary boredom for the viewer. Plus an enormous range of “guests” some of whom were colour-coordinated (Vinod Mehta and Meghnad Desai on Monday night and Meghnad Desai and Neerja Chowdhury on Tuesday morning) and too much on-screen graphic hysteria made Times Now distracting and the remote more appealing.

     

    CNNIBN made large generalisations even as early trends were being reported and then hopped back and forth to little avail. If Times Now had too much, CNNIBN did not have enough.

     

    In the English news segment, the battle seemed to be between NDTV and Headlines Today. NDTV had Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwalla, the old and trusted team, bolstered by words of wisdom from Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta. Headlines Today had Mani Shankar Aiyar to add his considerable wit to the mix apart from a very eager energetic Rahul Kanwal.

     

    I have to be honest here – I preferred NDTV until Barkha Dutt arrived, which is when I switched to Headlines Today – which by the way also claimed that only its exit polls were correct (more on that in a bit).

     

    Of the Hindi channels, Aaj Tak was professional and easy to watch – although they all have a better ground presence in terms of reporters than the English channels. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha channels both had serious debates and less fluff than all the others combined.

     

    Mid-morning, the confusion between the channels reached its climax as each of them showed different trends, some almost at odds with each other. At which point, I switched everything off and went for a walk!

     

    **

     

    It’s now 12.55 pm and we have no results yet but some very strong trends. Most exit polls had decided that the Samajwadi Party would win UP, but the feeling was for a hung assembly where the permutations and alliances would be paramount. Right now, it seems like a clear win for the SP. The BJP has not done as well as it must have expected and nor has the Congress – but it has done better than before. Most channels have been debating this “failure” of Rahul Gandhi in UP although the numbers show a Congress gain.

     

    Punjab was tagged as a clear Congress win but instead the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance has retained power – although the BJP’s losses have been the Congress’s gains.Uttarakhand is still too close to call – but again, it was seen as a Congress win.

     

    Manipur has gone to the Congress – as expected and Goa seems to be heading to the BJP, again as expected.

     

    **

     

    Which means once more, the Indian voter has done her own thing and flummoxed everyone.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Time for media to not get jingoistic

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    After all the tears and threats, Salman Rushdie appeared on NDTV and said whatever he wanted – including praising his controversial Satanic Verses – in an interview with Barkha Dutt. So that’s a lot more potential viewers than at a literary festival – so much for fears of riots and violence.

     

    It is amusing to see that “liberals” are now a legitimate attackable category of people in India. Religious and social fundamentalists on television have a field day since liberals uphold the Constitution and other wishy-washy stuff like that. In print, several Muslims, prominent and otherwise, have said that this whole “ban Rushdie” idea is unacceptable – The Times of India has a report – but these presumably “liberal” Muslims do not usually find their way on to TV. The reasons are clear – they may not provide enough provocative drama.

     

    While Rushdie was calling Deobandi’s “dreadful people” on NDTV, Rahul Singh wondered on Times Now whether many Sikhs in the UK were not former Khalistanis! Everyone now in the mood to call spades shovels? TV has got needlessly exercised about this whole Jay Leno-Golden Temple fracas; today’s newspapers tell us that Sikhs in the US are not bothered by it. We also learn that Vylavar Ravi, Union minister for Indian overseas affairs, had not even seen the Leno show and did not know exactly what offence had been committed.

     

    The media needs to stand up and take a call about not getting all jingoistic about perceived insults. I have to side with Markandey Katju here – surely we have other things to worry about?

     

    **

     

    Republic Day tomorrow and I fear it is my cynicism, long years and grey hair which makes me feel like newspapers are really paying lip service and doing nothing new. The last week told us that our children are educated, our babies and young mothers are dying and we have no sanitation or hygiene systems to speak of. But we have to periodically be told what a great and wonderful country India is. The marketers and the believers in “good news” will get upset otherwise. O dear, I sound like Katju again.

     

    **

     

    The upcoming assembly elections are taking up newspaper space but not TV time. The reasons for this are obvious – TV in India thrives on sensationalism, so unless Mayawati sends another aeroplane to Mumbai to buy shoes, we will have to read not hear what she’s up to.

     

    **

     

    Mid-Day turned into a broadsheet for the day, for marketing reasons, but it actually looked quite nice.

     

    **

     

    India’s run in Australia has clearly upset our media so much that cricket is now restricted to the sports shows and pages. This is some change from the usual. Having said that, some very good daily cricket analysis from Ayaz Memon in Mail Today – he doesn’t hold his punches but given his experience, doesn’t fall into our current
    mood of patriotic funk! Insightful and scathing both.

     

    While on sports, it’s good to see tennis and the Australian Open sharing news space with everything else. (Go Federer!)

    Ranji matches have also been getting a fair run in newspapers.

     

    **

     

    And, Happy Republic Day!

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers.

    Journalists’ covenants on cricket and more

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Aging batsmen, an arrogant captain making bad choices, indifferent performances, the Indian Premier League and the Board for Control of Cricket in India- all or some of these are to blame for the Indian cricket team’s unfortunate performance in Australia.

     

    Television, which was building itself up, started in a slow frenzy at the start of the weekend but it was all out there – foam, fits – by Sunday evening. Arnab Goswami of Times Now, amply helped by his alter ego Boria Majumdar inAustralia, was extremely saddened as only he can be by Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni in particular. Had Dhoni denigrated Test cricket by suggesting that he might retire from that version of the game? Was this the end of civilisation as we know it and so on? He was supported by Bishen Singh Bedi who was sputtering at the mouth with anger and by the cynical observations of another guest who got Goswami and Bedi even more enraged.

     

    Newspapers are still more circumspect but try ‘Shame Old Story’ and ‘Disgrace’ from The Times of India, ‘Perth Pangs’ and ‘India blunder, Oz plunder’ from Hindustan Times. Sunday Mid-Day tried to put a spin on it with ‘Bright Spark’, referring to bowler Umesh Yadav getting five wickets but the strap line below the headline emphasisedIndia’s batting collapse.

     

    Luckily forIndia’s beleaguered cricketers, a week is a very short time in journalism. Just before the India-Australia series started, I seem to rememberAustraliabeing hammered for losing toNew ZealandandIndiafeeling all pumped up because of its enormous talent and at-home victories. A couple of days atMelbourneand all that moaning and hype was completely reversed.

     

    My journalist friends and colleagues tell me that I should not be so hard on my fellow journalists and that it is the job of journalists to get hysterical and to have no memories at all, especially when it comes to sport. There is apparently some mysterious covenant signed by sports journalists (us general purpose journos are not privy to this procedure) by which they have to swear that they will make every effort not to remember what they had said or written the week before. Also that every loss by a sports team or person has to be portrayed as the end of the world and every victory had to be the best ever. I know this to be true from my experiences as a tennis fan (empirical evidence!).

     

    We already know that TV people have their own covenant which makes them swear to try and “save” Indiaat every opportunity and know as little as possible about any subject which gets them all excited.

     

    The cocktail of these two covenants makes for some very dramatic viewing and for those with longer attention spans, there are newspaper articles. Some sober commentators in print will try to look at the larger picture and to extrapolate future courses of action from past experiences. They may be chucked out of the Lodge for breaking the covenant unless they are long term offenders. But in these times, the hysteria will win. Except of course tillIndiawins something!

     

  • Continues to dominate the genre for the fourth consecutive year.

    Times Now tops English news channel genre once again

    By A Correspondent

     

    Times Now,India’s No.1 English news channel maintained its stronghold on the English news genre for the fourth consecutive year. The channel has yet again reinforced its leadership position, dominating the genre with its unmatched news, views and analysis.

     

    Times Now lead the genre with a channel share of 33 per cent (TAM: All India 1mn+; CS Male AB 25+ years; All day, 24 hrs; 2011 data till week 53), whereas CNN-IBN and NDTV 24×7 garnered 28 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.

     

    The channel continues to provide sharp, precise and comprehensive news. With a viewership of 2.3 million, Times Now has emerged as the trusted voice of the people.

     

    Enjoying prime time viewership, Times Now garnered a channel share of 34 per cent (Prime Time: 19.00 – 23.30; TAM: All India 1mn+; CS Male 25+ AB; All days, 24 hours; Week 1 to Week 53 ’11) as against CNN-IBN and NDTV 24X7 with 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

     

    The Newshour anchored by Arnab Goswami is the most watched English news show. Garnering a share of 42 per cent with the genre (All India 1mn+; CS Male 25+ AB; Week 1 to Week 53 ’11), The Newshour enjoyed an immense viewership as against 28 per cent and 17 per cent by CNN-IBN and NDTV 24×7 respectively.

     

    By capturing pertinent news like the uninterrupted live coverage of the Anna Hazare movement or breaking the story on the infant deaths inWest Bengalor even bringing a bird’s eye view of the action during the Parliament’s winter session, the channel has been relentless in highlighting issues and debating key developments that impact the nation at large.

     

    Times Now has set itself apart as a strong news brand that delivers relevant, insightful and an unbiased reportage of news inIndiaand around the world.

     

    Times Television Network informs and entertains over 100 million urban affluent audiences acrossIndiawith ET Now, Movies Now, Times Now, & zoOm. The network is available in 21 other countries across the globe. Times Television Network is part ofIndia’s largest media conglomerate, The Times Group.

     

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews the content on news television and the morning papers

    Electoral politics or keeping people happy

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The poor BJP must be quaking in its shoes. There it was, happily chugging along on its collision course with the Congress over corruption and the government’s inept handling of the Lokpal Bill. And then, wham! India’s star TV anchors have turned against the party for a little transgression – nothing more the usual games played in electoral politics.

     

    But were Arnab Goswami and Rahul Shivshankar of Times Now and Newsx, to name just two, willing on Wednesday night to accept that election compulsions made strange bedfellows? Of course not – by admitting Babu Singh Kushwaha, recently chucked out of the Bahujan Samaj Party by Mayawati on corruption charges, the BJP had walked into indefensible territory. In television land, at least, where no person is too unlikely to be made into a saint if an anchor desires it and what goes up can also come down.

     

    On Times Now Meenakshi Lekhi screamed in defence of the BJP and though Goswami gave her time enough, he did not accept her explanation that the Congress was more corrupt or that Kushwaha was admitted into the BJP to help with the elections and not because there were corruption charges against him and that the Congress was also to blame for the CBI filing charges against Kushwaha.

     

    On Newsx Dr CP Thakur was far more subtle and distinctly un-hysterical as he provided the cynical explanation for the BJP – this was the way things were done during elections. You looked for the caste and community politicians to push your party’s case forward. Like Goswami, Shivshankar was also unsympathetic.

     

    They both refused to accept that politics was a dirty game, in spite of what everyone else said. The BJP, they said, had sworn to fight corruption. LK Advani, they said, had gone on a rath yatra against corruption. The BJP had supported Anna Hazare and the anti-corruption movement. And now the BJP had taken into its fold a man sacked by Mayawati on corruption charges and they were supposed to accept it as part of electoral politics? Never!

     

    If I were the BJP, which depends a lot on TV to keep its middle class supporters happy, I would be scared. Is winning UP more important that losing the hearts and minds of middle India which watches TV news? I wonder.

     

    **

     

    Newsx and Shivshankar went a step further than Times Now and put Anna Hazare’s committee in the dock as well. Mayank Gandhi tried to explain how Team Anna (which is what it calls itself now) was not looking at individual cases but systemic change, although it condemned the BJP. This was not good enough for Shivshankar and definitely not for Team Anna supporter and former bureaucrat Arun Bhatia who slammed Gandhi for being mealy-mouthed in his condemnation and his explanation.

     

    To make matters worse, on Thursday morning, Headlines Today carried a detailed report on the rifts within Team Anna over the Mumbai fiasco and support to the BJP.

     

    **

     

    One small sliver of hope for the BJP and Team Anna is newspapers are still slightly more balanced. And the only thing that can save them is if the eagle eye of our anchors shifts to India’s remarkable performance on the playing fields of Australia.

     

    Otherwise, hell hath no fury…