The people of the media:
The public face of all Television channels are the anchors, news casters and field reporters. Barring a few anchors all of them are under immense pressure of channel owners who control their bread and butter. Therefore the need is to examine performance related difficulties experienced by individuals of each Public Face group so that a clear picture emerges of hindrances that have resulted in malfunction of the fourth pillar of state.
Field Reporters These are the Reporters who along with a Camera man reach, or are on the spot, where something news worthy has occurred or may occur. They transmit eye witness account which is transmitted as Breaking News by the concerned channel. Here is the crux. The channel wants to cover these occurrences and be ahead of all other channels.
Obviously it puts extreme pressure on the reporter and the camera man as is evident from the gushy speech, while describing the particular event, by majority of reporters. The Camera man is unable to decide what needs to be shown and takes shots which impinge upon the national security. Attack on Mehran and Kamra Bases are prime examples of irresponsible video reporting. Besides in their enthusiasm the reporters harass those who are busy trying to deal or contain the impact of the occurrence, by asking irrelevant questions in an accusing tone. They try to put cart before the horse by asking, What, Why, even before the situation is fully under control. These videos are transmitted live as breaking news. It creates adverse effect and despondency in public psyche without the benefit of analysis and manifestation of sequence of events.Besides having no training in unbiased analysis or mass communication and pressure of keeping their job intact the reporter becomes psychologically tuned to the requirement of their pay masters. They are therefore the initial impediment in correct and unbiased coverage.
Anchors
These are the individuals who conduct talk shows on various issues confronting the nation. They also make solo presentations. Their personal popularity and presentations have a direct impact on the Channel’s rating and commercial gains. Independence or otherwise of this breed makes all the difference between what is good for the country and what will harm its wellbeing. These individuals are usually well educated and normally apply their own intellect in presentations and talk shows that they conduct.
Unfortunately they also are divided on the basis of political, religious, sectarian/parochial, tribal and party affiliations. This bias impacts their thinking and impedes the presentation of facts and reality. They come in different shades and hues. Some would like to thrust their views down the throat others would use cockeyed logic to prove their contention. There are still others who believe in inviting political rivals for discussions and make them indulge in verbally fight.
In an effort to prove their contention rivals do not even listening to each other’s arguments and target personalities instead of issues. Such anchors side with those who subscribe to their own believes, whims and caprices. In fact while selecting participants for the talk show they prefer higher number people who subscribe to their ideas. They negate the whole purpose of the debate as in such a scenario it becomes impossible for the nation to get a true picture and the people to arrive on their own conclusion. In fact need of the hour is restructuring of these shows. It is likely to bring a sea change if talk shows are conducted on burning issues by inviting like minded people in each show separately and are made to talk on issues rather than personalities.
Of one course there are anchors like P.J.Mir, Mubashar Lucman, Rana Mubashar, Nasim Zehra and to an extent Najam Sethi who present a balanced view and analysis to let the audience form their own opinion.
The public face of all Television channels are the anchors, news casters and field reporters. Barring a few anchors all of them are under immense pressure of channel owners who control their bread and butter. Therefore the need is to examine performance related difficulties experienced by individuals of each Public Face group so that a clear picture emerges of hindrances that have resulted in malfunction of the fourth pillar of state.
Field Reporters These are the Reporters who along with a Camera man reach, or are on the spot, where something news worthy has occurred or may occur. They transmit eye witness account which is transmitted as Breaking News by the concerned channel. Here is the crux. The channel wants to cover these occurrences and be ahead of all other channels.
Obviously it puts extreme pressure on the reporter and the camera man as is evident from the gushy speech, while describing the particular event, by majority of reporters. The Camera man is unable to decide what needs to be shown and takes shots which impinge upon the national security. Attack on Mehran and Kamra Bases are prime examples of irresponsible video reporting. Besides in their enthusiasm the reporters harass those who are busy trying to deal or contain the impact of the occurrence, by asking irrelevant questions in an accusing tone. They try to put cart before the horse by asking, What, Why, even before the situation is fully under control. These videos are transmitted live as breaking news. It creates adverse effect and despondency in public psyche without the benefit of analysis and manifestation of sequence of events.Besides having no training in unbiased analysis or mass communication and pressure of keeping their job intact the reporter becomes psychologically tuned to the requirement of their pay masters. They are therefore the initial impediment in correct and unbiased coverage.
Anchors
These are the individuals who conduct talk shows on various issues confronting the nation. They also make solo presentations. Their personal popularity and presentations have a direct impact on the Channel’s rating and commercial gains. Independence or otherwise of this breed makes all the difference between what is good for the country and what will harm its wellbeing. These individuals are usually well educated and normally apply their own intellect in presentations and talk shows that they conduct.
Unfortunately they also are divided on the basis of political, religious, sectarian/parochial, tribal and party affiliations. This bias impacts their thinking and impedes the presentation of facts and reality. They come in different shades and hues. Some would like to thrust their views down the throat others would use cockeyed logic to prove their contention. There are still others who believe in inviting political rivals for discussions and make them indulge in verbally fight.
In an effort to prove their contention rivals do not even listening to each other’s arguments and target personalities instead of issues. Such anchors side with those who subscribe to their own believes, whims and caprices. In fact while selecting participants for the talk show they prefer higher number people who subscribe to their ideas. They negate the whole purpose of the debate as in such a scenario it becomes impossible for the nation to get a true picture and the people to arrive on their own conclusion. In fact need of the hour is restructuring of these shows. It is likely to bring a sea change if talk shows are conducted on burning issues by inviting like minded people in each show separately and are made to talk on issues rather than personalities.
Of one course there are anchors like P.J.Mir, Mubashar Lucman, Rana Mubashar, Nasim Zehra and to an extent Najam Sethi who present a balanced view and analysis to let the audience form their own opinion.
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