Year 2001,New Delhi
The News Director of the Number 1 News Channel of the country did not ask me , rather he told me a strange thing : I want you to take an assignment for this News Channel.I want you to take independent charge of an half an hour News Programme of this channel…and give it the energy,orientation and the psychology of the Entertainment industry where you work now...He continued..Here in News,We have better stories than the fictitious stories of the entertainment world but here we don’t have an innovative and gripping form of narrative..The connect with the people!! I was surprised but confident about his vision..Unfortunetly,We could not work on his visionary idea.
The News Director,Now the Editor of a big news channel again
told me the same thing :There is a 7 PM show on this channel..I want to
experiment with the form,format and the narrative of it..Again,It could not
happen but,
We made a special series on the on-going war between Raj Thackerey
and Uddhav Thackerey.
An experiment was finally made!!
The larger story was
a political one but It was presented as a human story of a family.Things were
attempted at the micro level of its idea and Script.
If this thought and approach of the News Director could have
been remained available to News
Television, This could have been the beginning of a new phase for Television
News in our country.
The News Director moved on to lead the world of stories in
the entertainment world.He knew the power of real stories..He experimented with
the form,format and narratives of the fictitious stories..He himself became a
great success story.
His success in the entertainment world is an argument in
favour of the fact that..If News could understand the power of form,format and
narrative,If News could understand the philosophy that viewers are a living thing and not a
concept ,If News could understand the responsibility of engaging the viewers
with the usability of the content…The day will not be far when a News channel
can surpass the ratings of a General Entertainment Channel!!
I just asked myself why I am writing this piece on News from
the point of view of this visionary!!
Simple!!
Because I never heard such things again from anyone in the world of Television
News.
So What I got from his vision can be a part of my narrative
today.
POINT NUMBER 1 : The hidden OPPORTUNITY in News was understood by him.Its
still there.
Now comes the second thing:ACCEPTENCE OF THE TRUTHCan you make a five minutes capsule on Entertainment World for my News Channel?
I said, “ There can be a half an hour daily capsule on the
happenings of the world of TV Serials.”
(We were discussing this at a time when no news programme on TV serials
was existing on any News Channel.)
The team in the News Channel was not convinced with the
idea.Many thought that News Channel should not promote the Entertainment
Channels.
The visionary said, “This is wrong.We in News Channels are
nowhere in comparison to the ratings of the Entertainment Channels.We have to accept
the truth and the truth is this , that we get benefited by showing the serials of the entertainment
channels on our News Channels.”
Acceptance!!
That a whole world of communication with the viewers exists
beyond News Channels.
We can study the methods and impacts of this communication
to utilise it in the narratives of the News Channels.
POINT NUMBER 2 : News needs innovation and innovation
can come from outside the world of News also.We have to accept this truth.
Beliefs and Opinions are always personal,So mine are too!!
In the world of Television News,Today
Oppurtunity is there;
Acceptance is not there;
And without acceptance,How can we bring in the change!!
When we look at the News Television today;
We don’t find these elements.Things are same for the last
many years.
When the biggest corporate group of the country has directly
taken control of a News Network;
People are skeptical;
But I feel that this could be the best thing ever happened
to the world of News Television;
It might introduce a new element;
Element of Responsibility;
Business grows on responsibility..and the business groups believe in fixing up the responsibilities;
If the business responsibility to engage and hold the
viewers is introduced aggressively;
Then the News Teams have
to learn the new forms of narratives of their stories and programmes..To
engage the viewers..To hold the viewers.
The disconnect with the viewers has to go;You are a source of hope for the entire world of Television News;
I leave it to you and
intend to end this piece of today.
But!!
We did not talk about the possibilities of various ideas in
News Television!!
Can we innovate? Can we experiment? Can we introduce a new
kind of programming? Why cant it be Useful
News? Why cant we introduce new concepts?
This and more;
In the concluding part of this piece TOMORROW!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment