Popular Posts

Friday, September 15

News TV : For Adults Only

Well, I have been meaning to rant on this one for quite some time. If you are a regular news watcher, you would be reeling under the increasingly high decibels of violence, aggression and needless display of voyeuristic imagery on the news channels.

All channels are culprits to a lesser or larger degree. But the Hindi brands have a greater bizarreness quotient that their English counterparts! The programming is packed with crime stories, vandalism of property, local family feuds packaged as breaking news, domestic fights wrapped as national news and sundry exaggerated, mangled stories with gore and indiscretion as embellishments!

Add to that the almost daily feeds of terror stories that are hyped, shown in endless loops with the same aggression!

As a genre of content, news channels would be the most aggressive genre in India!

In a nation of single TVs, it's difficult to censor or screen the violence on TV at homes completely. It's partially or fully consumed by children of all ages. Instead of the brouhaha over late night adult content which is relatively easier to control, I feel immediate attention should be focussed on the news channels transgressions!

Let the channels show gore in their chase for TRP's but at least they must tag it with 'Unfit for Children' messages! News has used violence and crime reportage as a TRP tool with total disdain for viewer sensibilities! I feel the time for 'adult certification' of content has come.

No comments: