By IndiaTomorrow.net,
Mumbai, 07 May 2015: “Indian media today lives and thrives in what I call a “punishment-free” environment. We can say what we like, defame whoever we like, make false accusations against whoever we like – and nothing happens to us. Our defamation cases take 20 years to settle – and even then, the verdict has rarely punished any media house,” said India’s one of the most respected journalists and co-founder of NDTV news channel Prannoy Roy. He said that this fact is one such thing “that most of my fellow editors don’t want me to speak about, because it hurts us.” He was speaking at the RedInk Awards in Mumbai where he was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mumbai Press Club last week.
Talking about the result of “punishment-free” environment for media, he warned that India media will lose credibility if the decline in quality continued. “The result is we are getting slack – forget research, we don’t even need to check our facts, we don’t care if we wrongly defame anyone – the bottom line is we are dropping our standards. If this decline in quality continues, three years from now, Indian media will have no credibility left.”
“We need tough defamation laws, and we need verdicts to be decided quickly (not 20 years). With possible punishment hanging over our heads, we will be more careful with our facts, be more thorough in our research, and only then will we retain credibility and the trust of our viewers and readers.”
“This punishment-free-zone we live in today is lovely for us in the media today – but very damaging three years from now. Let’s push for a change voluntarily – take the lead and set an example. I want to make one thing clear however, tougher defamation must come from our courts and our legal system – not the government. There is absolutely no role for the government in the media – no role at all,” said Roy.
“Tabloidization is the death of good journalism”
Speaking on the topic of “The Tabloidization of Indian News” veteran journalist Roy expressed serious concern at the fast growing tabloidization of Indian media.
“Perhaps the biggest danger we face today is the tabloidization of our news. Every advanced country with a developed, mature media has a wide spectrum of news – from credible and serious journalism to the tabloid – in England, from The Times and The Economist to the Sun and the Mirror; in the United States, from The New York Times to the New York Post; and in television news, from BBC and CNN to Fox News. But in India there is this dangerous slide to one end of the spectrum. Why has every news channel – English, Hindi or Regional – turned tabloid? Why are we trying to emulate Fox News? And why does every news anchor want to be another Bill O’Reilly?…I have heard a woman anchor on one Hindi channel saying, “break ke baad aapko ek Rape dikhayengey” (after the break, we’ll show you a rape”).”
“Tabloidization is the death of good journalism. But I don’t blame our anchors or journalists for this tsunami of tabloid news. I also strongly disagree with the widely held hypothesis that blames the Indian viewer – Indians love tabloid sensationalism … Indians have base, tabloid tastes. So if our anchors are not to blame, and it’s not about viewer preferences – why is India becoming “no country for honest journalism”?
Advertisers’ role
Dr Roy asked advertisers in India to distinguish between tabloid news and serious news
“Many feel that the advertising fraternity must carry part of the blame. The advertising pie is distributed based entirely on numbers – many in the advertising fraternity tell me that our media buyers are essentially eyeball-chasers (the media equivalent of ambulance-chasers).”
“While our advertisers and media buyers are as skilled as those in the West in their media modeling skills, for some reason they have not created methods that enable them to evaluate news on factors others than just numbers of eyeballs.”
This is not the case in developed media markets. The circulation of the London Times is 400,000 – while the Sun has 5 times that at 2 million – and we all know that Fox News has 3 times the viewership of CNN. Yet the advertising rate for The Times is much higher than for the Sun, and the advertising rate for CNN is much higher than for Fox News.
Do the eyeballs justify that? Of course not. But the advertisers and the media buyers place a premium on the ‘quality’ of The Times journalism and its credibility.
The higher ad rate for credible journalism, and lower rates for tabloid news, has meant that both ends of the news media spectrum have survived and prospered.
Unless we model quality and credibility into our advertising rates, and not go just by the eyeball count, we shall go headlong into tabloidization – with no place for news that is at the serious end of the spectrum.
Think about it – do advertisers in India really want their product to come immediately after “break ke baad aapko ek rape dikhayenge”? “The day advertisers in India distinguish between tabloid news and serious news like it’s done all over the world, India will see the growth of better quality media and an end to the mushrooming of eyeball-chasing tabloid TV. Don’t blame the viewer, let’s look inwards and do our research.”
“Let’s not chase profits without purpose”
He urged media fraternity not chase profits without purpose, not to turn into insiders, and voluntarily accept legal discipline
“So we, the media in India have so much going for us – we have democracy in our DNA, we can, and do, question everything, we are at the cutting edge of new technology that bypasses government controls and frees our wings, our media is more vibrant than anywhere in the world – let’s not throw it all away and commit hara-kiri as we are pretty good at doing. As journalists, let’s not chase profits without purpose, let’s not forget the Heisenberg principle and turn into insiders, let’s voluntarily accept legal discipline when we defame and fail to do our research – and let’s embrace the new world of the internet with imagination, and leverage that democracy in our DNA,” said Dr Roy.
