Why prime time news is turning into Bigg Boss
The English TV news media is really a four-horse race. Arnab, Rajdeep, Rahul and Rahul. I’m basing this on top of mind recall and not official ratings. Barkha with The Buck Stops Here (too early to be prime time), Vikram with The Big Fight (weekly), and Karan Thapar with To The Point have all managed to build identities synonymous with their shows and moved on from being people who are seen to bring you the daily news. There are many other senior journalists with shows on air, but it's impossible to watch everyone. Bhupendra Chaubey has a news show on CNN-IBN, but the one on Twitter’s platform Periscope is the one with growing opportunities. The show doesn’t need a huge news set up to be produced. It needs basic information and the right attitude to work.
So is traditional news out of fashion?
It is no longer about being in the news. It's about being on the debate. What is this fascination with arguments and confrontation that works for us?
The Newshour eats up almost half of the English news audience when it's on. Arnab and his team have managed to survive criticism and even abuse to retain the top spot in the minds of viewers and advertisers. The real turning point of the show was the attack on Mumbai on 26/11. The Newshour had been struggling for a few years before that, but that fateful day it broke through and has never looked back.
The ingredients for a successful "debate" on air seem to be this: a loud and clear voice, evidence on sheets of paper that come on air through unofficial sources, facts on the question at hand that can snook the main target on the show and guests who are willing to come on to answer questions on live television that could cost them their jobs. Specially, if they are "party spokespersons". The debate on the ink attack on Mr Kulkarni decimated the Shiv Sena person (sorry, his name escapes me since his surname was not Thackeray). I wonder if the force is still with him.
Everyone loves to hate The Newshour. And yet almost everyone watches it. Apart from the content, I think it is the best promoted show on Indian news television today. Arnab has recognised the most important fact of the medium. Tell people every day you are the best and they will start believing it. Tell them why and they will love you. And do it aggressively and confidently. This is not a gentleman’s game no more. Your audience is coming in from those used to watching Sansani and screeching newscasts on leading Hindi and regional channels. Those who want restraint and sophistication are still watching BBC. I really enjoyed watching Rajdeep’s video blog. He seemed so much more comfortable alone on air than with faces in windows to contend with. Rahul Shivshankar is polite and gets the guests. He has to work towards creating his unique anchor profile. The channel needs to step out of everyone else’s shadow.
It is time to develop individual style. I see the stand-ins for Arnab sometimes trying to be "aggro", but ending up being insulting. You have to earn your spurs if you want to hurt and still be heard. Don’t dig into someone’s flesh only because Arnab does. The ferocity of Arnab is unique to him. Just because you are in his chair, doesn’t mean you can become him.
Am glad the three Rs of news media are getting noticed too. Unfortunately, they all still have formats on prime time that have moved into the debate mode and therefore compete inevitably with The Newshour in perception and public opinion, if not market share. Only The Newsroom has a fresher approach, adding variety and more importantly, it moves with an awareness that audiences really don’t have a big span of attention. Keep it energised and they might stay to watch. It's an exhausting exercise to keep the viewer from buzzing off, bored.
News production today is a bigger challenge than Bigg Boss. It's less expensive, but it can’t rely on a Salman to bring you the eyeballs on every episode. Or promote the show. (Well, not yet at least). The news anchor inevitably becomes the channel. This is both the reality and the pitfall of promoting a brand name over a news brand.
The best journalist today isn't necessarily the most respected. Or even the most watched. It's who is quoted at the dinner table today that matters.