There is no dearth of National English News Channels in India now, I know of at least seven* of them and there could be more. But are they truly national? They may call them National but behave very much like a local channel. Even a cursory viewing would tell that, these guys mostly confine themselves to Mumbai & New Delhi. It is as though nothing really happens south of Vindhyas that is newsworthy. (It is totally a different but a relevant subject that there is near complete black out of North East not just from the media but even from the nation's psyche)
It is said that the viewership for the English national News channels is more from south of Vindhyas (60% according to media ratings) and yet 75% of the news coverage is confined to the metros of Mumbai and New Delhi. The old adage 'follow the money' doesn't seem to apply to this business.
Why is this media bias? Rajdeep Sardesai of IBN Live attempts to answer this question in his blog.. but not very convincingly..
* National English News Channels - NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow, HeadLines Today, DD News, CNBC18 & NDTV Profit (last two are finance news channels)
Well said Ram,It's just regional channels masquerading as national.High time Media managers do their work properly or else all thier clients Ad budget goes down in drains
ReplyDeleteI agree with RajDeep that news will always be 'local' with global outlook.. May be its time southern cities came up with a credible news alternative worth watching..
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