Drama in news or news in drama?
There was a time in the past, when we had to watch our elders waiting eagerly to see the 8.30 news which was being aired on the National Network. We had to wait for that half an hour news piece to get over so that we can view our favourite serials. But nowadays even the children enjoy watching the news and that, too, for 24 hours. The background music and special effects mixed with the visuals of news have made the news channels more of a dramatic movie channel. Are the news channels trying to compete with the growing popularity of entertainment channels by dramatizing their stories also?
The news nowadays are becoming like a thriller episodes. The news channels are just trying to sell their stories by exaggerating the unnecessary stories and in this process, over hyping the entire news,” says a veteran television writer Pernandu Shekhar. Ajay Sinha, the well known television producer, feels that the news channels have in fact overtaken their serials' TRPs. “They have already beaten the other entertainment channels in pretext of dramatization. The way they talk looks like the dialogues of some thriller film. I think they have some good script writers with them. Maybe the competition between so many news channels is resulting in over hyping every other news. Besides, they have to something new for 24 hours a day, which isn’t easy. So the news has to be created from somewhere”, explains Ajay Sinha.
Who can have a better view point than the news channel itself? “Drama already exists in the news. News is treated as the by-product of drama. The competition between the news channels is growing. Aaj Tak has survived just because of the sensational way they present certain news, while Star News is more of a glamour channel. In Zee News, we try to provide efficient, serious and political news,” Aashish Kaul, PRO Zee News, counters in an attempt to save their name.
Every other day, a new news channel is been launched. Dramatizing the news in order to gain the uppermost position on the TRP charts is understandable. But in this process, are the news channels showing the real content on their channels? Or they are just creating own sensational lines for feeding their 24 hour slot!
“The sensitivity no longer prevails in the news. It seems that they could go to any extent to achieve the maximum eye balls at TRP. Every news channel airs every piece of news for 48 hours and that's for the whole day forgetting to look at any other news; as if nothing else important thing was happening in the world other then that,” rebuffs Pernandu Shekhar. On the other hand Ajay Sinha sounds somewhat positive saying, “Everything isn’t wrong with the news. As with so many channels around, we are also getting a better coverage”. Aashish Kaul feels the content of the news hasn’t changed and it still carries the essential and important content. “In the process of the dramatization, one cannot dilute the essence of the news. If this happens, then the news business will be dead. The news is the same as before. The only thing which has changed is the way it is being packaged. It has become more attractive. At the beginning Star News was just glamour related news channel. Politics was at the bottom. But today, they have reversed their strategy and airing political and crime related news”, comments Aashish Kaul.
Freshness is always welcomed in life. With elapsing times things do change for the betterment. But too many experiments are not always healthy. We can only hope that our news channels don’t forget their basics. The entertainment channels are enough to give the daily dose of drama to the audiences and not hopefully the news channels. -(SAMPURN)
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