News Unbridled

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: With over 40 news channels, almost 100 million television homes and over 200 million viewers weekly, 24-hour news channels are on the upswing. A TAM media research conducted in six metros reveals that with television viewership doubling in the past three years, news has emerged as the most sought after genre. While the share of the Hindi news channels has increased by 78%, the English news channels have grown at least four times even as the share of regional news has quadrupled. A rosy picture indeed!

But there’s a flip side to it all. “Studies indicate that the level of public confidence in the media has been on a decline. There are accusations of arrogance, insensitivity, bias, inaccuracies, sensationalism, stereotypes, trivialisation, conflict of interest and disappearing lines between advertising and news on the one hand, and between news and views on the other,” says Dr N Bhaskara Rao, chairman of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), New Delhi.

However, Akhila Sivadas, executive director, Centre for Advocacy and Media Research (CFAR), insists that TV channels are raising important issues even as they test the limits of ethical concerns. “Especially so in the way content is visualised in crime and reality shows,” she says. “They have to be conscious of the fine print of law here, especially in areas like juvenile crime, child abuse, etc.” TAM’s research findings reveal that the TVRs of crime shows have dropped considerably in recent months. “The crime shows are so distastefully done that you can’t watch it day after day. The falling TVRs reflect the resilience of the viewer,” feels Dibang of NDTV India.

Incidentally, NDTV was the first news channel to launch a crime show, which it later “consciously decided to discontinue”. IBN-7 too dropped Giraftar. However, the latter continues with Criminal and Zinda Hoon Main. Ashutosh, managing editor, IBN-7, defends the decision, “We want to sensitise our viewers.” Meanwhile, Vardaat, Sansani and Boundary Paar enjoy their share of airtime elsewhere.