Skip to main content

4 Essential elements of disaster reporting on TV

The recent earthquake in Nepal has case extensive damage in the Himalayan country. Thousands of lives have been lost. Many children have become orphans the damage to the infrastructure is incalculable. In the circumstances India played its role to help Nepal, a nation in peril.

 

Sadly our television media reached Kathmandu and other places to cover the disaster. I said sadly, because instead of providing information to evoke sympathy that would motivate people to help; our TV jokers engaged themselves in extracting TRPs. Disaster is not to be treated thus. It is inhuman to ask a person who has lost his near ones ‘How do you feel?’. These TV reporters consider themselves as belonging to a special privileged class. Unfortunately they do not even know the basics of reporting.

 

The 4 essential elements of disaster reporting on TV according to me are as under:
  1. Language and tone of voice must be serious and somber. However we found that these Johnnies were taking pride in their speech. At times they were energetically emphasizing how their channel was the first to display the disaster.
  2. There should be no unnecessary details, no sensational images to hook the audience. It is an accepted norm of disaster reporting not to show details which can evoke uncontrollable emotions. However, TV reporters were taking pride in bringing all the details for the information of the viewers. Evidently it appeared that reporter was engaged in a task most dear to him. And the task was to hook the audience. It was shameful indeed.
  3. No dramatization whatsoever of tragedies. Unfortunately some of the reporters of private channels devoted themselves to dramatizing the disaster. Their voice modulation and facial expressions depicted as though they were shooting a serial. They thought they were performing their job nicely. They disregarded the suffering of people around and their feelings.
  4. Never ask silly questions to people in grief: That is the attitude expected of everyone; more so of the media reporters. However totally disregarding the same – some channel reporters were even interviewing the people in grief. A mother who lost her son was asked by a reporter ‘apko kaisa lagta hai?’ The mess our media has created in the place of disaster is shameful indeed.
It appears television in our country has mushroomed very fast and the medium is often a abused rather than used. Our government should direct that only official Doordarshan or All India Radio should cover and provide all necessary information to news agencies and TV channels.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 Steps to Develop Common Sense

Common sense, defined as “sound judgment derived from experience rather than study,” is one of the most revered qualities in America. It evokes images of early and simpler times in which industrious men and women built our country into what it is today. People with common sense are seen as reasonable, down to earth, reliable, and practical. Successful people have one thing in common above all else. Sure they work their asses off in pursuit of their goals, but there is another, less spoken about tactic which you can start using right away. Its called common sense. And you can make drastic changes to your life by just following these 6 simple rules The lack of common sense boils down to two things. Selfishness and ego. People today place so much stock in being right all the time, in winning even when there is nothing to win or lose, that they have lost touched with the most basic of human functions. Common sense. Before long, the lack of common sense and the placement of bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Five Ways to Enhance Self Esteem

Today we will discuss Self Esteem. What is self esteem? How do we know whether we have self esteem or not? And to what extent? What are the indications of self esteem? Like any other personality attribute it is very difficult to measure self esteem. However, the indications can be enumerated as under: Respecting yourself and being self aware. Not despising yourself for small mistakes committed. Having the conviction to handle difficult tasks. Not being afraid of people or adverse circumstances. Having the ability to stand up against injustice. Expressing yourself freely in any forum. Now let us discuss how we can go about developing our self esteem a critical aspect of the personality. 1. Being balanced: Don’t be a self critic: The first point in this segment is that you stop criticizing yourself. That does not mean you do not analyze your mistakes. In fact when you are too harsh with yourself, your assessment will be prejudiced and of little use. ...
Post a Comment
Read more
We all communicate all the time with friends colleagues family members and other groups. The objective of communication is always to convince or influence people with whom you are communicating. Of course, content is the king. It should be necessary for you to say what your listener want to listen is. The subject should be interesting to them. Otherwise, there is no reason why they should listen to you and spend time with you. But the best of content can be ruined by the inaccurate and faulty communication. If you want others to pay attention to you we have to be very convincing. How can we be convincing? The biggest challenge for communication is the inability to express yourself. The need to impress and achieve necessary results is paramount. Evidently, if there is any confusion the focus cannot remain on what you want to do whether you communicate to one person to an individual or group or a large crowd, the problems remain the same. It is the same challenge which can be dist...
Post a Comment
Read more