Archive for the 'Media Matters' Category

The page 3ization of television news?

charukesi July 30th, 2005

Do we really need 24/7 rolling news? asks Hasan Suroor in the Hindu. (Link via India Uncut) : this is Amit Varma’s take on this - Who is “we”, and what is meant by “need”? If there is a market for 24/7 news, then it’ll exist, as it should. If not, it won’t.

I don’t see this an an expression of a political ideology (as Amit does) - instead, I wonder - which came first, the market or the product?

Existential question, I know. But I see less and less of conventional marketing now - where a product was designed and launched according to the market need. Now, what rules is the hoary marketing rule - be there first - or create a category where you are first.

Seems to me this is the case with television news channels too.

Newspapers facing competition have resorted to the ‘give-them-more’ tactics. More pages, more lifestyle and general interest topics (not necessarily more news, of course).

And television channels, fortunate enought o be more flexible than their print brothers, believe in two things :

1.Give them more…

So now we have regular hourly, half hourly news reports. Followed by repeats of these hourly news reports. And then special programs. On different topics.

Crime, politics, parties, movies, fashion, health, sports. Where does a channel like Zoom end and a news channel begin?

And did I mention crime? And politics? What about crime then? Don’t forget crime. Sansani, Jurm, Vardaat, Kaal Kapaal Mahakaal, Crime Patrol, Crime Reporter.

Sex scandal in Patna beauty parlour was the scoop of the day on one of these channels last week… All the right ingredients : Bihar, beauty, sex - but hardly prime time news material?

2.And give it to them first - or scream loudly enough for people to believe that…

I was watching news on Wednesday - and each news channel worth its name had an “exclusive” on the rains - each channel claimed to be the first to send a man up in space for an ariel view of the city - I remember falling asleep watching Sreenivasan Jain on a chopper… The US and the then USSR would have been less hostile and competitive about their space program way back in the 1960s…

A strange situation where all television news channels are equally sabse tez…

Which brings me back to the original question - slightly altered to ask - is there really such a thing as 24/7 rolling news?

Kyunki celebrities face trauma too

charukesi July 30th, 2005

If you live around the western suburbs in Bombay and have been wondering about that strange smell in the air, here it is the puzzle solved for you. It is because Mr. Big Bacchan has not had a bath for three days

Big B didn’t bathe for 3 days - says an authoritative source, viz. the Deccan Chronicle on their front page.

They in turn got it straight from the er, wife’s mouth - all the way from Delhi. She saw the fact that Mr. Bacchan has not been able to have a bath as the “collapse of administration in Mumbai”…

In the course of the conversation, she also made a careful mistake, taking care to correct herself immediately and make her meaning clear…

In her enthusiasm, Ms Bachchan referred to Mulayam Singh Yadav as the “Prime Minister of UP” but corrected herself immediately. “But, God willing, he will become Prime Minister of the country one day,” she said.

God save the country is all I can think of saying, apart from commiserating with the Bacchans.

However, others around me here in Madras do not share my sentiment - the water situation here is so bad I suspect many of them go without a bath for many days, and regularly at that…

And oh, the Bachhans also had another mini trauma in the house - Her son, actor Abhishek Bachchan, also had a tough time. “There was five feet of water in the house and my son had to balance a tray with some eatables and a bottle of water on his head to reach his grandmother, who was on the first floor of the house,” said Ms Bachchan. “Fortunately, he is a tall man,” she added wryly

Absolutely fortunately.

Also Sonia writes about another hmmm, celebrity’s ordeal carrying pastries high above his head. His misery was multiplied further by the fact that he was just returning from a manicure and pedicure from the parlour.

The rain gods have indeed been cruel - all I can hope and pray for now is for this celebrity to get another appointment double quick at his parlour, so some of his trauma is lessened…

Time and pedicure, the greatest healers…. Please join me in my prayers…

And all ToI bashers, look - ToI is not the only newspaper with well, unusual perspectives on what constitutes news and front page news. These two items I have linked to here are from Deccan Chronicle and Mumbai Mirror respectively.

****

Dilip D’Souza went out for a walk and came back with this wallet box - This morning was the last straw. I’m switching, starting tomorrow. I encourage others to do the same. And more important, write to the Times to tell them exactly why you are doing it. Not email, but fax or post. Registered post.

Anyone remember the old Tamil song - kaatru vaanga ponaen oru kavidai vaangi vandaen (I went out to get some fresh air - and I got back some poetry) :)

Also remembered this old campaign started by a few popular bloggers a couple of years ago - Say No to! Media Slaughter (from Mahesh Shantaram’s blog filter coffee). Maybe it is time for another one now.

Spread the word around…

Bombay reeling under the newspaper deluge

charukesi July 29th, 2005

Were you one of those stuck in the Bombay rains without a ToI? Lucky you.

Or one of those even luckier ones to receive helpful hints from Airtel on finding where the nearest coffee shop was…?

Rashmi Bansal says stop selling for once - SMS from Airtel: Stuck in the rain? (half of Bombay is , today!). Dial 501 for information on the nearest coffee shop.

%&^%$$*. Would it kill them to provide some useful info instead. Like which train lines are down, when the water is expected to recede etc etc etc?

It would not kill them, but then that would just not be in keeping with tested and proven cellphone marketing strategies… Imagine trying to provide socially useful information… (why do I have this uncomfortable feeling that Airtel belives that information about the nearest coffee shop is s.u.i)

And if you think only Airtel has behaved irresponsibly, it is because they were the only network to survive in Bombay during the first 24 hours when everything else went kaput. (I know from repeated franctic attempts to call my husband in Bombay)

And Uma writes of how the people of Bombay have survived an even greater tragedy than the rains - living without ToI for a whole day. Gasp! Nature can be so cruel…Thousands “marooned without ToI”.

I guess it would have been a lot of help to those stuck on the roads - as toilet paper, I mean…

Marketing above all. Everything else be damned.

There has been so much said and written about the paper wars in Bombay that it seems superfluous to say any more. (but then, when have I ever let that stop me ? :))

***

One newspaper, with a history of being the mouthpiece of the Congress (the Indian National Congress, not the family owned private limited company that it is today) plans a dhamaka launch in Bombay - from hundreds of stories they could have used, they chose one that was sure to stir controversy and communal sentiments - the Salman Khan tapes - why after all these years, like a greedy child holding on to a toffee - to be savoured - for maximum pleasure - or in this case, impact.

Because the launch is in Bombay - and the twin themes of bollywood and bhai log are closer to Bombay than anything else. Showing Bombay in a new light - never mind how much such “scoops” take journalism as a whole into darkness…

And then the other, the one without which people felt marooned the last couple of days. Why was the Mumbai Mirror launched at all - is there a need for such a newspaper in the market? This was clearly Bennett and Coleman’s way of anticipating the DNA attack. In other words, a pre-emptive strike… Flanking the market - we have a newspaper and a tabloid. Either way, we are prepared for DNA - the newspaper with the marketing brain and muscle of two media giants behind it…

Except it didn’t quite turn out that way. Sensible people across Bombay turned around to ask why the group needed a second tabloid when there was already one in the form of ToI. Surey, tabloid is not just about size but about content too… And if it just about size and local news, then Mid Day was already there in the market and there to stay.

Therefore, the ‘free with your daily newspaper’ strategy… I wonder how long ToI can go on with this scheme, as deep as their pockets go… What happens when the sampling stops - and people discover what is really in their DNA…?

And that also makes me wonder about DNA’s launch strategy - hornets everywhere, just waiting for their nests to be stirred…

Noah’s Dus…

charukesi July 15th, 2005

This is worse than Sholay. How can they do this?

Theatre in Vashi, late night show of Dus. Me shivering in the AC and all smug - hah! of course Abhishek Bacchan will be saved miraculously.

And he was not.

How can they do this?

It is all my parents’ fault - for letting me watch Hindi movies (and Tamil movies too but no English movies - dirty) as a child - I have grown up with a screwed up sense of reality. Good will win over bad. Hero will live while villian will die. Or atleast be marched away by the police in the last scene to rot in jail (by which time his evil long haired lawyers are also in jail - so no more bail for him).

When I have a nephew*, I will make sure he does not get to watch Hindi movies till he is 16. By which time his sense of reality will be all warped anyway. In any case he will not naively hope that good will triumph and the hero will survive through bomb blasts and all that.

****

The other thing I am going to talk about - and I guess it is better to say this directly to you, nephew, is this contrived pairing of each male character in the movie. Oh did I say contrived. Sorry, I meant to say cute.

There are four of them males in the movie, all with varying levels of testesterone - and therefore degrees of swagger. Basically all male type males (give or take a bit with Zayed Khan but what the heck)…

And - here is the clincher - each of them has a female jodi - who may or may nor be part of his present life but features in a definite way in his future. While the fiance (he-souten) of one of them is conveniently bumped off by the terrorist (who for some unknown reason leave her intact), another is given a chance by the terrorists to see her hindustan times husband in a new light, what with killing a few terrorists and saving cute innocent school children from death. The third one just stares moonily at her man every time she is with him in the same room - which is all the time - while he deflects these looks with professional poise (of course he loves her in his heart of hearts).

And finally, the bad woman who naturally has no business being alive after all those bad things she has done, prefers to die with her man rather than live without him. Which brings me back to my original ‘why did they have to kill Abhishek Bacchan’ thingy.

(Here I must mention that my husband gently pointed out that it was unpatriotic of me to expect them to break away completely from cinematic tradition and leave the heroine partnerless for the rest of her life. We have our culture to think of after all).

But.

But, here is the bit for you, child - it is not essential to find a woman and cling to her (even if she is a terrorist type bad woman) in life and death. It is perfectly okay to live in the world single - or to find and cling to a man you love (perfectly okay by me atleast - and in any case considering you are fictitious, perfectly okay. Period.)

I know, I know that Yash Copra has told us long ago that god has made us all (in her infinite wisdom) in pairs. But Noah’s Dus will sail all the same without that, you know…

——————————-

* Highly unlikely considering I do not have a brother or sister, but letters to nephews is all the rage in blogs now - these are usually written by compulsive writers of letters to the editor who have now made their homes in cyberspace. What with HT and DNA and all - kis kis ko kya kya likhein? So here is my own to a non existent nephew…

Now that there is light…

charukesi July 14th, 2005

…can we hope for more fresh air.

And better features? And better editorial content?

And yes, certainly a better Sunday newspaper as Uma MD says here (oops, her title for this post is the same as mine - can I claim I thought of it first in my mind?)

Today’s Time of India carries a full page for HT - lovely photograph of Flora Fountain all in muted greys and greens - overall stunning visual.

HT

And then this perplexing line - Starting today, see Mumbai in a new light.

See Mumbai? Are they being admirably honest and laying no claims to being a national newspaper? Or has someone tipped them off to the fact that with all that is happening in the newspaper market, Mid-day with it local Mumbaiyya timepass flavour and bindaas attitude still rules the hearts of Mumbai readers?

Or, does HT believe that what people really want is local news - international bombings and peace summits be damned - let there be supplement ?

And if that is true, then that ties in perfectly with what Dilip is saying here ?

(Personally, I am cheesed off at this upstart outsider to Bombay claiming to show me Mumbai in a new light).

Update : I just read the newspaper - the post was more about the advertisement. First reaction - why the Salman Khan tapes on front page top story - obviously they have had it for a long time now and were hoarding it for the big bang launch edition. Liked the photo feature on Mumbai. Did not like the supplements.

Will buy
Won’t buy

As of now won’t - but willing to wait and watch…

The new(s) paper tigers

charukesi July 12th, 2005

Times of India + Mumbai Mirror = Over 100 pages

Times of India clearly believes in the platter approach - offer all kinds of readers all kinds of news (or whatever) - in the form of different supplements. Apart from the regular Bombay Times and Property (or is it Education) supplements, I now get an International supplement (which I like very much) and New Bombay Times (yes, all about which road in which sector of Vashi is in bad shape due to the monsoons and so on - usually with striking pictures of said road - and oh, it also carries recipes for extremely rare and exotic dishes like rajma given by a new Bombay resident)

Needless to say, of these 100 pages, roughly 20 make for “news” reading - sure, another 8 make for interesting reading - Mallika Sherawat and the sex MMS, for instance.

***

The new supplement ‘times review’ launched this Sunday sounded very promising. A Sundae Whopper, said the main page of the ToI. The sundae contained five full length articles on the Bacchans - Amitabh and/or Abhishek and together. Different writers, different titles (like the super imaginative ‘waiting for sonrise’), same theme.

Five articles. Or one and a half pages out of a supplement with eight pages. In newspaper terms, that is colossal.

No, M/s Bennett and Coleman, more is not always better - more pages, more supplements… same newspaper.

****

And yes, I forgot, now the Mumbai Mirror is thrown in for free.

Finally, Mumbai gets a no-nonsense newspaper… (you know my views on this one and other such)

10th July - Front page - top story of the day

Bandra designer roped for D shadi

Yes, very no nonsense.

****

Finally, after many here-we-come-watch-outs, HT and DNA have announced their launch dates in Mumbai.

Hindustan Times’ Mumbai edition to hit stands on July 14.

If HT is working on a two-stage strategy, first “targeting the discerning English reader. In stage two, we will build the circulation”, DNA goes one better. As part of the launch fireworks, DNA will auction their front page - and don’t frown, it is all for a good cause.

Another activity that DNA has undertaken is the auctioning of its front page. The auction would be done on exchange4media.com. The proceeds of the auction would go to the social cause ‘Keep Mumbai Clean’.

Dilip, any take on this?

——————————————
Cross-posted on media musings

“Make with others”

charukesi June 28th, 2005

SK has blogged about Googlinglish, Google’s on-line translator tool - wherein you can translate chunks of texts or the whole contents of a web page into different languages. The translation can be done between English and French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. Additionally, it can translate between German and French too..

He tried - The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

Spanish - El alcohol está dispuesto pero la carne es débil

Back to English - The alcohol is arranged but the meat is weak

No problemo, so long as the booze keeps flowing :)

****

And having read this, I spent a pleasant and constructively useful (for me, ok) morning at the google translator site… Thanks SK, I don’t remember when I last had so much fun without moving from my chair…

I started with - laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone

And followed a slightly circuitous English - German - French - English route…

Lachen Sie und das Weltlachen mit Ihnen, Schrei und Ihnen Schrei alleine

Et flaques mondiales avec vous, un cri et vous le cri riez seulement

And world puddle pools with you, a cry and you it cry only laugh

Sure, the way it is raining here, the world can only puddle pools with you…

And the English - Portugese - English version goes
ria e os risos do mundo com você, grito e você grito sozinho
it laughs and the laughs of the world with you, shout and you alone shout

___________________________________________________________________________________

I was so enchanted that I went on…

Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you
French - Faites à d’autres car vous voudriez que d’autres fassent à vous
And back in English it was - Make with others because you would like that others make with you

Make with me, baby!

And the best was yet to come…. English - German - French - German - English went as follows (ok, I was jobless, I admit)

German - Tun Sie an andere, da Sie möchten, daß andere an Sie tun
French - faites à d’autres, puisque vous voudriez que d’autres font à vous
German - Gemacht an einem anderen Reisebus möchten Sie, daß andere an Ihnen machen
Finally English again - Made at another touring bus you would like that others make at you

Go figure that out… As for me, I am off to find my touring bus…

Update : Srikanth has pointed out this urban legend around “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. Do read it. Also did you know “out of sight, out of mind” English - Russian - English is “blind and insane”?

AIDS and the c word

charukesi June 21st, 2005

Found this very interesting post on chutneyspears (oh, I love the name!) - Looking with one eye shut (the picture produced below is also from that blog)

Dominic Emmanuel, a Catholic priest from the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese together with the omnipresent Samaritan, Mahesh Bhatt, is leading the efforts to make a Bollywood style movie on HIV/AIDS. The main motto of this movie ‘Aisa Kyon Hota Hain’, full with song and dance flicks, is to communicate to masses that “The best way to evade AIDS is by avoiding promiscuous relationships”. The movie doesn’t ever mention the word “condom”!!!!!!!!!!!!



32-04699r, originally uploaded by Road Blog.

Forget ‘condom’, am sure the movie does not even mention the word ’sex’ - after all, the censors might object. Think about our culture and ancient heritage.

What, you mention Konark and Khajuraho in this context? They were obviously the work of a foreign hand, a conspiracy to tarnish the image of India as a cultural superpower…

UPDATE : Maybe the movie is going to be called ‘Kya Fool Hain Hum’

Business networking through IM

charukesi June 14th, 2005

The social software weblog has an interesting piece on IM as a business networking tool

I work from home as a consultant and this line from the post describes my feeling for IM best - I fall squarely into the IM at work category, and I love the efficiency, the searchability, and the ease with which I can multitask 10 or more conversations simultaneously. I’m also a big fan of the way IM mediates presence — my “presence” there doesn’t require my full, undivided attention the way a phone call does, yet I can be instantly available for real-time discussion as needed (a clear advantage over e-mail).

Real-time, convenient and moderately personal - perfect…

And on a personal front, I find friends from all over the world updating me on the latest in their lives - from a new job to a recent break-up - and all without exchanging a word - sanam bewafa as IM status is enough, don’t you think - for me to reach out and say - split again? And I write this, I see ‘Crashed lap-top’ from Korea and ‘Beer is hard work’ from a friend working in a liquor company in Dubai…

Another thought I have been having for a while - I find most bloggers using a gmail account for their blog correspondence - maybe because of the huge storage space - it would be interesting for google to launch an IM service - how would that connect bloggers - would it add a different dimension to blogging interactions?

Er, my msn handle says - Say NO to deadlines - excuse me, I need to go change that now - or restrict clients to yahoo…

DNA - will read / won’t read?

charukesi June 14th, 2005

DNA targets August 15 launch date, unveils campaign to get advance bookings - the ‘will book’ / ‘won’t book’ hoardings are up all over Mumbai.

Sure all marketing is centred around focused targeting-positioning but I have rarely seen targeting as blatant - or non inclusive as this. Which means, advertisers never say “this not our ideal consumer” - which is what DNA seems to be doing. While the ‘Will book’ shows trendy, upscale readers, the ‘Won’t book’ shows a different kind of reader.

er, different? DNA is not yet in the market and the newspaper has already decided - this is the kind of reader we want - and this is the kind we don’t? Rather presumptuous?

Why will he book?
Will book

…. And she not?
Will not book

Or are these ads really not meant for the reader / consumer at all ? Sure the theme is you-reader-are-important-to-us-so-you-decide - the tone that competition has forced newspapers to adopt. The truth however is that newspaper (or any mainstream media vehicle) revenues come not from subscription but from advertising.

So are these ads really targeted at advertisers - look at the kind of readers we have - or hope to have?
And is anybody else offended by them as I was?

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