ravishingravi Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 It's not so simple. You and I know India TV is bad and not worth going to for news because we have other sources of news. All Hindi news channels in India are pretty much equally pathetic and the majority of our country gets their news from the Hindi channels. They don't understand the English on NDTV and do not have access to the internet to go to NY Times to verify news. Thus the need for a strong regulatory body and regulations to ensure that the majority of our population is not being fed lies in the name of news. Who will be regulatory body ? The news channel can always claim that it is an "an opinion" which they are entitled. A ban imo can never happen in this day and age
Mariyam Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 It's not so simple. You and I know India TV is bad and not worth going to for news because we have other sources of news. All Hindi news channels in India are pretty much equally pathetic and the majority of our country gets their news from the Hindi channels. They don't understand the English on NDTV and do not have access to the internet to go to NY Times to verify news. Thus the need for a strong regulatory body and regulations to ensure that the majority of our population is not being fed lies in the name of news. All you say is true. Except that India TV doesn't "lie" per se. They may sensationalize. They may exaggerate. They may put a page 22 newsworthy item as their breaking news. But they don't intentionally ( or so I think) misinform. And that is a big difference. Its not that they are factually wrong. They just highlight irrelevant stuff for their news. And I think, most still listen to DD news or AIR news in interior India. This is an interesting topic. Anyone from the media here; can you give us some numbers on market share of news channels in non metro India?
The Outsider Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 Who will be regulatory body ? The news channel can always claim that it is an "an opinion" which they are entitled. A ban imo can never happen in this day and age The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is already a regulatory body. Things like an iceberg is going to destroy Melbourne cannot fall under the gambit of 'opinion' as someone mentioned in an earlier post on the thread.
ganeshran Posted April 8, 2011 Author Posted April 8, 2011 All you say is true. Except that India TV doesn't "lie" per se. They may sensationalize. They may exaggerate. They may put a page 22 newsworthy item as their breaking news. But they don't intentionally ( or so I think) misinform. And that is a big difference. Its not that they are factually wrong. They just highlight irrelevant stuff for their news. And I think, most still listen to DD news or AIR news in interior India. This is an interesting topic. Anyone from the media here; can you give us some numbers on market share of news channels in non metro India? They post a lot of factually incorrect information as well. Stuff like ghosts, chudails, bhoots, etc
Sachin=GOD Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 Who will be regulatory body ? The news channel can always claim that it is an "an opinion" which they are entitled. A ban imo can never happen in this day and age The I&B ministry is going to constitute a regulatory body for TV shortly.
ViruRulez Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 I did not say that Times Now/CNN-IBN were good or did not indulge in sensationalism of news. Its just that they also show news along with this. If you watch India TV for 2-3 hours at a stretch there are very high chances that you may not even get to see the news headlines' date=' let alone detailed news about the current issues. Most of the time that channel is just showing special shows on completely useless topics which are more often than not, a creation of the media. [b']In case of Times Now etc you will at least get the news along with sensationalism. In that case that is a bigger worry because a normal viewer would not be able to differentiate between proper news and sensationalism.. at least in case of India TV you know to neglect every news but in case of Times Now and CNN-IBN you dont even know what to accept and what to neglect :giggle: To be fair enough the only somewhat sensible news reporting amongst Indian News Channels is done by NDTV 24x7 but they are biased towards Congress and that is quite evident and so cannot be taken at face especially relating to politics. As I said the only somewhat quality news channels are Zee News and Sahara Samay (both Hindi) but they would never make it big as they are not racing for TRP unlike other news channels which are concerned more about TRP and viewership rather than genuine news. It is not even limited to India. Even Fox News in the US is a sensationalist channels and CNN and BBC also involves in somewhat sensationalism and tabloids etc. To be frank, one of the best news reporting in the world (international news) is done by one of the most unlikely channels in Aljazeera English. When I heard about Aljazeera at the start I thought they were some kind of terrorist channel but they are one of the most non-sensationalizing news channels in the world to be frank. They are slightly partial towards the arab world and focuses their news related to that region mainly but overall their interviews, discussions and reporting are some of the most unbiased. They are the first channel perhaps which I have noticed does not bring news for the sake of viewership or any sensationalist news but reports news for the sake of genuine news. I am not sure if you are intentionally being dense here. My argument is not a statist one calling the government to 'protect' us from evil. If India TV had a shred of credibility, I would never favour regulation of the news media by the government. But India TV has lost all sense of what constitutes news and what does not. They could simply call themselves an entertainment channel and show whatever trash they choose. Every Indian news channel can be called entertainment channels in the present time. News itself is entertainment in India and that is the reason you see more news channels popping up in India than entertainment channels.
ganeshran Posted April 8, 2011 Author Posted April 8, 2011 ^ I think the Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/) is a very good news source. No masala, just news. From the name it sounds like a religion oriented news but its balanced and free and fair too.
akshayxyz Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 why should such utter BS be allowed on TV...........and on top of that they have the audacity to call it "news". As long as they are getting audience and have enough money to keep running it - and they are not violating any law - or being corrupt or something - what can you do??? I have never watched India TV (not on my cable), but I remember some times my friend calls me and says - something really funny(dumb) is coming - go watch it. Gullible people would fall to sensationalized stuff - that gets aired on prestigious channels too. Media has always been like that since Punjab-kesri days. Btw - have you ever picked up any hindi daily - like Aaj-tak, NB times, and other northie papers? Btw - TOI - is also not any better than India TV, just a bit more sophisticated one. People who do not want them ignore them and go for Hindu like stuff.
cricketlover Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 FOX News is sensationlaist but does not make news stories out of thin air which India TV defeinitely is guilty of..
ViruRulez Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 ^ I think the Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/) is a very good news source. No masala, just news. From the name it sounds like a religion oriented news but its balanced and free and fair too. Yup they are too for sure .. I was saying about news channels and I am not sure if CSM has news channel on TV .. if so I have never seen it here in India ... their website is a good resource for news .. to be frank in case of news websites most news websites are decent except the Indian ones like TOI and the british ones like Daily Mail etc. Russia Today as a news channel is not that bad too though a bit anti-US kind of reporting
Clarke Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 FOX News is sensationlaist but does not make news stories out of thin air which India TV defeinitely is guilty of.. It certainly does, to a much lesser extent but its not pure. Their idea that the presence of CNN/BBC journalists in the Gaddafi compound made NATO forces change their plans was the recent one. They also used images/footage of much larger gatherings while covering Glenn Beck's rallies in DC. Most of us know these even though we do not watch Fox News..
Clarke Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 This is hardly a reason to ban speech. When someone says to me that they read a piece of news in ToI, I start laughing at them. These bans would never work: India TV would turn to Bharat TV or whatever. What are you going to do then? There are limitations on speech in India, its not entirely free like most of Western countries. Most educated netizens on this forum wouldn't mind the freedom but the country as a whole is quite another story. The citizens need to be responsible & not erupt on the mere mention of a cartoon/painting while the law enforcement agencies must be capable of maintaining order within their jurisdictions. India falls short in both aspects and the former cannot be accomplished as soon as we'd prefer. Which begs the question, if we're going to limit speech of the common man, why does the media get a free hand when it comes to portraying lies as critical news ? Coming back to the topic, the media has a very very important role in a democracy since it is the single biggest force behind shaping public opinion, especially when it comes to reviewing the performance of the active administration. If the media strays from that role, it is indeed unfortunate and detrimental to the overall functioning of a country. I for one find something wrong with the idea of pure capitalist/for-profit ideals being applied to certain industries, news channels being one of those. The primary role of a news channel is to deliver the news, opinions are for the people to make. If your primary goal is to make money and attract more viewers for the ads, it will have the worst impact on the content the channel has to offer.
Guest Gunner Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 Yes lets ban India TV. While we're at it, lets also ban Pizzas, mallus, Louis vuittons, christmas and sweat. In fact let 'us' pass a ban a second. It'll make the world so much better if only the government 'protected' us from all evil. SO CHANGE THE FECKING CHANNEL!! How hard is that? The only two sensible posts on this thread. Thank You.
Guest Gunner Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 Every country has a gutter press and audience, who cares.
Stuge Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 everything is BREAKING news these days .. just pathetic .
f.b.m Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 It's not so simple. You and I know India TV is bad and not worth going to for news because we have other sources of news. All Hindi news channels in India are pretty much equally pathetic and the majority of our country gets their news from the Hindi channels. They don't understand the English on NDTV and do not have access to the internet to go to NY Times to verify news. Thus the need for a strong regulatory body and regulations to ensure that the majority of our population is not being fed lies in the name of news. A couple of things: I'm not sure about how many people watch bs channels. I've been brought up in rural TN and Karnataka and its mostly Sun Tv, E tv, etc and their sister networks. These arent as bad as India TV or star news hindi afaik. More to the point, my opposition is to the idea of censoring obviously false sources of news is more moral than anything else. Censoring or banning a TV channel means stopping it using the threat of violence.... and actually enacting the violence if they continue. I'm sorry but broadcasting bs for ratings is hardly a 'crime' that deserves violence in retaliation. Even if the government gave a 'strong message' to tv channels to change their content, it'll still be with the threat of violence.
ganeshran Posted April 9, 2011 Author Posted April 9, 2011 A couple of things: I'm not sure about how many people watch bs channels. I've been brought up in rural TN and Karnataka and its mostly Sun Tv, E tv, etc and their sister networks. These arent as bad as India TV or star news hindi afaik. More to the point, my opposition is to the idea of censoring obviously false sources of news is more moral than anything else. Censoring or banning a TV channel means stopping it using the threat of violence.... and actually enacting the violence if they continue. I'm sorry but broadcasting bs for ratings is hardly a 'crime' that deserves violence in retaliation. Even if the government gave a 'strong message' to tv channels to change their content, it'll still be with the threat of violence. Most people in India would be against censorship, it goes against our principles and a free press is very important in a democracy. But my argument is that India TV isnt even a valid news media in the first place. It has crossed all limits by publishing lies (not opinion, just plain lies) and putting too much masala over pretty ordinary. So the government or the regulatory authority needs to tell it to first start publishing authentic news. Anything they cannot back with proof musnt be allowed on air.
NareshK Posted April 9, 2011 Posted April 9, 2011 I hope they make them change the name at least. The channel is a blot on India. The kind of retarded stuff they come up with is just :facepalm:
achilles Posted April 9, 2011 Posted April 9, 2011 @ Mariyam.... you study law. Under which provision can a television channel, which was fined Rs.5 lakhs for their sensationalistic journalism, be banned? How strong would the case be for the government or the complainant?
Mariyam Posted April 9, 2011 Posted April 9, 2011 @ Mariyam.... you study law. Under which provision can a television channel' date=' which was fined Rs.5 lakhs for their sensationalistic journalism, be banned? How strong would the case be for the government or the complainant?[/quote'] The channel can be banned/ fined if they violate the Cable Regulation Act or its antecedents (depending on year in which the program was conceived and executed). Here is some info about the Act. Long read, but interesting. You will have to be more specific. What exactly were they fined Rs 5 lakhs for? Sensationalism is not illegal. And who filed the case? Currently, talks are underway for the formation of a "Broadcasting Content Complaint Council" which will be a self regulatory body independent ( or so they say) from the I&B Ministry. Basically it will comprise of a retired SC judge and a few members from major channel houses who will regulate what should be acceptable and what shouldn't especially when it comes to advertising and news.
Recommended Posts