<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>Guest Article:</B></FONT> Is the media brigade headed the advertising way?

R Sridhar

IDEAS-RS

October 10

I often wonder about the way media has changed in the recent years.

The very competitive nature of the media scene is pushing media to sound dangerously like advertising. Interestingly, most people do not trust advertising implicitly, whereas the power of the editorial word was once considered unbeatable. Agencies even resorted to creating layouts that looked like a page from a publication to elicit more readership.

But take a look at television or the press today. Everything has to be exaggerated to be noticed. Almost as if ‘no tehelka, no visibility’. Therefore, media channels compete with each other to invent new stories. Plus, they want to claim that ‘We were the first one to give you this news’. So what if they were the first? Do people really care or say, “You know, they were the first to give this last time, so let me check them out.” I wonder.

I know that in the old days people read particular publications because they valued the opinion of the writers. So, you had people reading an ‘Indian Express’ because they valued Frank Moraes’ views.

Where are such stalwarts today? With the exception of a few like a Barkha Dutt, a Shekhar Gupta and a Vir Sanghvi, the others seem to come across as aggressive people who are keen to flex their muscles.

So, what does this lead to?

When I was in college, we had a friend in our group. He had mastered the art of exaggeration. So, whatever he said, we took with a pinch of salt. There would always be an element of truth in what he said, but his exaggerated details completely buried the truth. We learnt to either discount 80 per cent of what he said or just laugh it off.

Today’s media scenario is almost in the same position. Viewers and readers will develop their own filters to figure out the truth. That is precisely what happened during the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. After a while, people were laughing at the way news was being fabricated. If all the major TV channels, newspapers and magazines were to test their brands against the yardstick of trustworthiness, I wonder what the results would be. I read on a blog a couple of months ago that the very famous editor of a famous magazine appeared in a BBC radio interview. The views he expressed were later found to be baseless. BBC expressed its regrets and withdrew the contents from its website. Such is the credibility of some of our media stalwarts.

So, what will the future look like? I hope there will appear on the scene someone who is simply interested in giving you the news without the hype. And will insist on carrying advertising that sounds like good relevant information without the hype. Who knows, they just might do great business! Almost like some of the airlines and restaurants without any frills. Now that might be an idea worth looking at.

(The writer is a partner with IDEAS-RS. You can write to him at vijisri@ideasrs.com)

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