News profession is organic in nature, requires responsibility and discipline, and there is no room for mistake. To maintain high standards of accuracy you need discipline and hygiene in the newsroom. Sudhir Chaudhary, editor in chief of Zee News, Zee Business and Wion, has said that a TRP-driven business model of television has led to a lack of discipline and responsibility in newsrooms.
“Unfortunately these days the more irresponsible you are more TRPs you will get. For conscientious media houses these are testing times and they need patience.” He said.
Chaudhary was in a live webinar with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now, on Thursday in the 13th episode of the Visionary Talk Series held by the public policy and governance analysis platform.
Terming the business model of news TV “flawed”, the veteran journalist said it does not allow investment beyond a certain limit. He said that though a news organization is running a business yet people in our country consider news a free commodity and unlike entertainment do not want to pay for it.
Watch the video:
Likening the role of a TV news channel editor to a film producer where the fate at the box office is decided every Thursday, he said, “You are compelled to think of success formulas.”
Chaudhary also said that since its origins the definition of news has changed and people look for gossip and entertainment in news. The ambit of news has increased to include, gossip, entertainment and theatrics, and it is hoped that it comes back to its originality. He added that like news, the consumer taste will take time to evolve in our country.
While speaking on journalism of “appeasement”, Chaudhary said that for 60-70 years there was “Padma Shri type of journalism” in our country when different governments obliged journalists and media houses in various ways, offering different types of grants like plots of land, houses and awards.
“If I support and talk about good work of the government, instead of considering me a government spokesperson you have to check if there a hidden benefit or underhand dealing with the government or if the government is trying to get some benefit out of me. You have to see if such people have taken benefits from the government or if there is an underhand dealing between a journalist or media house and the government. If that is not the case questions should not be raised,” he said.
“In earlier days journalism was considered a good platform to gain access to power and governments would oblige their favoured journalists. Such people would feed pro-government news and become parliamentarians, ministers, get a Rajya Sabha seat and even a Padma Shri. Bigger the award, more respect a journalist would get. Slowly journalists started influencing transfers, postings, allocation of cabinet berths, creating alliances for political parties and becoming a bridge between government and corporates. We have accepted this for six-seven decades. Instead, if these journalists had given a thought of empowering their readers we would not be doing that work today,” said Chaudhary.
He criticized earlier political leaders and said they were not interested in giving access to education as people would then start questioning them; so they wanted them to remain uneducated. He gave the example of farmers and said that successive governments had given promises of loan waivers to them before elections but never empowered them to repay their own loans, so they always felt obligated to ask for loan waivers.
Responding to a question if news journalism is being dictated to drive a particular narrative, the senior editor said that in fact for the last five to 10 years news has got liberated and achieved its freedom. “Unlike earlier when only one side of the story made news and people didn’t know the intentions of Pakistan, history of Kashmir …, today a common man knows the meaning of Article 370.”
He, however, added that while media is free as never before, it is also driving agenda as with all types of views, it is an ocean where you will have to dive deep to find the truth. He lamented that these days awards are given for doing “negative journalism”. “When you are dividing the society you get awarded for uniting society. In such a situation how long can you go on competing,” asked Chaudhary.
Oracle has showcased new AI-powered capabilities within Oracle Analytics Cloud. Leveraging the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service, the new capabilities assist analytics self-service users to more quickly and efficiently conduct sophisticated analysis and make better business decisions
The domestic aviation industry has witnessed a remarkable surge in passenger traffic during the first eight months of 2023. According to the latest data analysis, the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines from January to August 2023 reached an impressive 1190.62 lakhs, marking a substantial inc
A function was organised in the Central Hall of Parliament on Tuesday to commemorate the rich legacy of the Parliament of India as the Members came together to bid adieu to the historical building before stepping into the New Building of Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha sp
As politicians and policymakers make speeches at the United Nations during a high-level summit next week to assess the lack of progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), people’s leaders representing some of the world’s most marginalised communities have come toge
The fourth G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) meeting held in Mumbai during September 14-16 concluded with members agreeing to work towards the vision of universal financial inclusion under the new G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan.
Over the course of three days, discuss
Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now