http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR2007091102293_pf.html
The Long Reach of India's TV News
Local Stories Reign In Booming Market
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 12, 2007; A15
NEW DELHI -- Two weeks ago, a TV news channel here broadcast an expos?
alleging that a math teacher at a local school had forced young girls
into prostitution. The public reaction was swift and harsh: Within an
hour, hundreds of enraged parents had stormed the school and a crowd
had found the teacher, ripped her clothes and beat her.
The mob then went on a rampage, damaging vehicles and blocking traffic
for several hours in the capital. The teacher was suspended and a
state probe was ordered into the allegations made in the expos?,
though police later said they believed the story had been staged.
Such is the emerging power of TV news in India, where there has been
an explosion in the growth of 24-hour news channels in the past two
years.
For the first time, much of the growth has been in Hindi-language
channels, such as the one that broadcast the recent expos?. Meanwhile,
many of the channels are challenging traditional elitist notions of
what deserves to be on the air and bringing legitimacy to local
stories that previously would not have been covered.
In one case recently, a TV channel broadcast shocking images of a
policeman tying a suspect to a motorcycle and dragging him around
town. Within hours, the officer was suspended and an investigation
ordered. In another case, a TV report about a cobra that tried to
attack a 12-year-old boy became a national phenomenon last year,
attracting millions of viewers.
"TV news is possibly the biggest form of reality show to hit India,
whether it is a sting operation, or a boy who falls into a well, a
snake's revenge or a domestic quarrel," said Sundar Raman, managing
director of MindShare, a media research group. About 120 million
Indian homes have a television, and the media market overall is
growing at about 19 percent annually.
"News is the fastest-growing genre on Indian television, much more
than entertainment," Raman said.
TV news was opened to private players a little more than 10 years ago,
after five decades of state control. Today, India has 60 news channels
in 16 languages, and the number is expected to double in the next two
years.
Analysts say India's diversity of languages and cultures, coupled with
burgeoning economic growth in small towns, is driving the boom. New
channels in Hindi and regional languages are reaching beyond the
English-speaking middle class of large metropolitan cities. This year,
regional language channels grew by 20 percent, attracting local,
first-time advertisers.
The Business Standard, an Indian financial newspaper, has called the
boom the "channel gold rush." Print media, politicians and business
people are all seeking ways to get involved in the growth. So, too,
are entrepreneurs with no experience in the TV industry.
Madhur Mittal, a third-generation home builder and an automobile
dealer from the northern city of Agra, said he wants to set up four
news channels by next year.
"The whole push is to go local, to the smaller towns. To be
successful, you have to wear their clothes and speak their language
and deliver news that is relevant to them," Mittal said.
The low cost of setting up TV stations is also helping fuel the surge.
Seven years ago, it cost about $10 million to set up a national
24-hour news channel, according to Sanjay Salil, who heads MediaGuru,
a consultancy that has helped set up seven low-cost news channels in
South Asia. Today, it costs about $7 million.
Regional channels are even cheaper to set up, at about $4 million.
"And they break even in just two years," Salil said.
The rush to capture small-town audiences is also affecting news
content. Stories that are hyper-local or sensational, which never
would have made it on to the air, are now finding audiences in small
towns where the appetite for news about Parliament or government
policies is limited.
"The stories of the snakes, ghosts and the witches have always been
there in India. What was folk, private and obscure has now been
brought into the open by TV, and it appeals to the small town. Culture
and market are being tied together very cleverly by TV channels," said
Shiv Visvanathan, a social scientist at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute
of Information and Communication Technology. "TV news is creating a
new myth of mobility for the small towns."
Critics have accused TV news channels of preying on people caught in
traumatic circumstances. A man in the northern state of Punjab
recently set himself afire in front of TV cameras to protest a
government policy, sparking criticism that media workers should have
rushed him to the hospital. Five demonstrators who consumed poison a
month ago, to protest a government drive to evict them from their
shops, were encouraged to do so by two TV reporters, according to
police.
A new documentary film, "Grabbing Eyeballs: What Is Unethical About
News Television," examined recent TV coverage of some popular events
and blamed TV channels for "lowering standards" and neglecting "basic
ethical norms."
The government wants to establish a code of ethics, but the nascent
television news industry is wary of allowing its newfound independence
to be stifled. Supporters argue that TV news has ceased to be elitist
and is empowering Indians living on the margins.
"If people in positions of authority are completely deaf to your
grievances, there is an accessible alternative now. You can call your
local news channel and they will come to you. The officials listen if
it is on TV," said Uday Shankar, who heads Star India, which offers a
number of news and entertainment channels.
"People may rubbish it as drama, as reality TV," Shankar added. "But
Indian TV news industry is still a toddler who sometimes runs,
sometimes trips."
--
Homer: He has all the money in the world, but there's one thing he can't buy.
Marge: What's that?
Homer: (pause) A dinosaur.
-- Homer J. Simpson
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