Non-stop Trivia Eclipses Politics and Social Sector in Indian TV News

Hardnews Bureau

The news channels have undergone a radical transformation in recent times, whereby news has not only changed in its definition and content, but also in the manner in which it is presented. A rise in comedy and reality shows, the emergence and establishment of non-stop trivia in news, and most significantly, the end of political news dominance, this is the face of the news channels today – a Centre for Media Studies (CMS) Media Lab analysis for 2007 has revealed to Hardnews.

The research indicates that TV news today is no longer political. It has become abjectly insensitive towards issues concerning health, education, environment and public interest. It has become flooded with sports, entertainment and crime stories. This has become integral part of news bulletins. It is not surprising that a decrease in the number of political stories has coincided with a rise in the number of sports, entertainment and crime stories. Even a little shift in favour of human interest stories seems to be again trapped in meaningless trivia and selective and obsessive 24-hour coverage of issues like ‘Prince in a hole’ or a ‘naagin’ out to take revenge. Even ghosts are glorified and projected as real in news bulletins with a female impersonating as a ghost-killer.

According to CMS Media Lab, the time spent on political news in the year 2007 has come down by more than 50 per cent, as compared to 2005 (from 23.1 in 2005 to 10.09 in 2007), and the sports, entertainment and crime news have more than doubled (from 27.9 in 2005 to 53.1 in 2007). At the same time, agriculture, education, health and environment news have not seen any net change: their coverage has been as insignificant in 2007as earlier (see graph).

For a more comprehensive coverage of the ‘Triumph of Trivia’ in the big bucks media, please see Hardnews December 2006.