News - Then & Now

When I was in school, in one of my classes we were asked to maintain a 400 page notebook and write in it nuggets of the days evening news & submit it to the teacher the next day. I remember how petrified I was at the thought of it. Dad would religiously watch the news those days, and it was he I turned to, to help me in understanding & making sense of the news. He would make quick notes of the news being read out (bear in mind that those days we only had Doordarshan news, wherein the news was read out by a newsreader.) and later mom would help me write them in the 400-page book in a meaningful manner.

The teacher’s objective through this exercise probably was to get us young minds to see the goings on in the outside world & thereby improve our general knowledge. However the everyday checking slowly reduced & eventually stopped one fine day and with it, my ordeal of sitting through the evening news bulletin. Dad probably was glad that he could watch the news in a relaxed manner.

I’ am not aware of any school doing this today. If any school is indeed doing this, I feel it probably wont be one bit as difficult as it was for me. Today news is no more the boring kind. The newsreaders have been replaced by presenters & news anchors who not only present the news but add a line or two of their own opinion at the end of the ‘story’. Ever seen NDTV, especially Prannoy Roy & his senior Journalists? More specifically the task of writing the News in my News Book (if I could call the 400-page book that) would be much easier today because all the news channels have the main news as a ticker at the bottom of the screen passing through all day. All I would have to do is replicate the same in my book.)

Over the years I have become one of the avid news TV watchers. I can go on & on watching the same news over & over again without really getting bored. I attribute this largely to today’s generation of news channels, which present the various interpretations & perceptions of a case, so that the individual can ascertain for himself what is right or wrong.

Things have changed a lot otherwise. Remember, the male newsreader on the Doordarshan news would only wear a tie & no blazer or suit. The female newsreader would default have a bindi on her forehead & wear a saree. Today’s news anchors wear a bindi & a saree only during National festivals & events like may be a holi, diwali or Independence Day & Republic Day. The men are always clad in a blazer or a suit.

A few days back yet another news channel hit the Indian Television. Apparently there are around 20 odd news channels today trying to grab eyeballs so that they can grab the pockets of the advertisers. When you have a case of plenty, you invariably get a variety as well. So you have regional news channels, business news channels, and current affairs/consumer affairs channels. The latest news channel claims that their news stories are aimed at the urban viewer. So that means we have news for urban viewers & rural viewers as well. And in this variety we get crap.
In the desire to be the first to tell the world the news and to grab those eyeballs & pockets, there have been cases of the News Channels crossing the line. Remember the telecast of the breakfast meeting of President Pervez Musharaff with the leading media personalities of India, during the much-hyped Agra Summit a few years back. That telecast apparently derailed the talks. Or a recent case of a news channel showing the unedited version of a rape by a senior police officer.

Of course, on the other side we also have the brave attempts of the coverage of the Kargil War & the sting operations that have led to many resignations & terminations.
News today is simple & easy. Simple & easy for the viewer to see & keep track of and simple & easy to get those eyeballs by showing whatever, however.