|
Magazine
Campaign circus
SEVANTI NINAN
Sonia Gandhi .. more convincing this time.
ASSEMBLY elections are an opportunity for people living in far-flung States to see their problems and perceptions find space on the national news channels. But when a North Eastern state goes to the polls at the same time as Uttar Pradesh, it can kiss goodbye to any such hopes. Manipur has had some crumbs of coverage thrown towards it on Aaj Tak, Star News, and Zee News, but given the level of repetition, on three news channels over two or three days you'd be lucky to find as many different stories on Manipur's poll issues. Aaj Tak did one on how AIDS is an election issue for a State, which has two per cent of the country's population but eight per cent of the HIV infected population, nationwide. Basically all channels have given Manipur short shrift and tried to compensate with an occasional state scan.
Zee gives U.P. separate billing from the rest of the election coverage with its "U.P. ka Mahabharat" packaging. Not surprisingly, on all channels U.P. has dominated election coverage, with Uttaranchal and Punjab bringing up the rear. In fact, Punjab has done better than it otherwise would in getting a fare share of attention because of substantial coverage on Zee's Alpha Punjabi, which is the only Punjabi channel with news. Its coverage also gets reflected on Zee News.
The most amazing aspect is the length of the party ads on the Alpha channel: both the Akalis and the Congress (I) have ads so long that they resemble programmes. The channel needs to demarcate these vox populi features more clearly as advertisements. The shorter ones run to five minutes, some run to more than 15! The Akalis also get lots of mileage on ETC's Punjabi channel with which they have a very cosy relationship.
Jaspal Bhatti has kept himself busy these elections doing his own thing, sometimes on a channel, sometimes in the streets. He does a skit on a Suitcase Party on Alpha, and Aaj Tak covered him doing a street play featuring a Kichar Uchalon (mud throwing) contest. At the end, Mr. Bhatti makes a little speech on the politician's civic responsibility. It is entirely possible that a few elections down the line he will end up deciding to be a candidate.
As for the Congress (I) campaigning, Sonia Gandhi's Hindi speech delivery has got substantially better this time around, she is less comic, and more convincing that she was during the 1999 elections. What she says of course is another matter: last week she was heard cheerfully promising Uttaranchal voters lots of government jobs. Whatever happened to downsizing of government?
* * *
It is extraordinary how a television-obsessed media turns a blind eye to non-commercial radio, even when things are happening on that front. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is currently firming up rules to effect a change in policy regarding FM broadcasting. After disallowing the use of broadcast frequencies by the non governmental sector, it has decided it will open it up to educational institutions. Last year it awarded the Indira Gandhi Open University 40 frequencies co-located with the private FM transmission frequencies awarded earlier. These were to do educational broadcasts as a test case, and the ministry told them they could break up the transmission time 60:40 between educational broadcasts and community broadcasting. Neither the Government nor the media has cared to assess how this experiment is going.
Now the ministry is working on a further opening up of frequencies to all educational institutions that are located within the range of existing AIR local radio transmitters. They will be given licences, presumably at concessional rates, to utilise frequencies on the existing transmitters up to a range of 25 to 30 km. The decision seems to have been taken, the details are being worked out, and the Government is waiting to make a policy announcement after the elections. Current thinking is that in the second round, others who apply, including NGOs will also be given licences on an experimental basis to do a few hours of broadcasting.
Lessons from the South ... Amitabh Bachchan.
On all its local transmitters, both radio and TV, the Prasar Bharati finds itself with plenty of unutilised transmission capacity. This is a huge waste, given the manpower deployed to maintain these transmitters, and the corporation has informed State Governments that they can utilise time on these to publicise their government schemes. But it is going slowly.
In Andhra Pradesh meanwhile, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is looking at the feasibility of taking a transponder on World Space Radio to do distance education. The advantages cited are that the transmission is via satellite and therefore its footprint covers the entire country (not clear why the Andhra Pradesh Government wants to broadcast to the entire country), sound quality is far superior to what is experienced over medium wave or short wave transmission, and there is no signal attenuation in the case of World Space. Also that text and images also can be uploaded and downloaded as the transmission is digital. Particularly, Internet content can be sent over it and downloaded offline. This cannot be done on AM or FM Radio.
Naidu adds in an online response that as the transmission is intended for distance education, development information and disaster alerts, it is proposed to take up 1000 schools and other centres on a pilot basis. "As the radio will be for the school and not for one individual, an approximate cost of Rs.12,000 for radio and amplifiers and speakers is not considered expensive. The issue of expansion of the service will be considered after a review of experience of the pilot project."
* * *
If you've never watched young Poornima Mohan in action, you must. This extra chirpy Malayalam anchor hosts a show called "Hi Power Gulf Tele Quiz" on Asianet, and she does it so vivaciously as to leave lots of gratified winners in her wake. Excellent! she trills in a heavy accent after each answer. She is completely unselfconscious, and a natural for television, and enjoys herself so thoroughly as to be a sight for sore eyes and jaded viewers. All out of Abu Dhabi, from where the show airs. People call up to take part and she asks them questions. There are no participants in the studio itself. Halfway through, after an ad break, she even does a change of costume.
She holds the show quite effortlessly throughout, with only telephone voices to share the proceedings. Her wide-eyed aiy-aiy-yos and coy oh-ju-jus are not to be missed.
I doubt that callers participate for the sake of just the gifts. Handing out watches and computers to people in the Gulf is sort of on par with handing out coconuts to the folks in Kerala. They participate for the feel-good experience Poornima provides. Are the questions too easy, she pauses to ask suspiciously at one point. The caller hastily reassures her that his intellect is being duly taxed. And off we go to listen to her aiy-aiy-yo one more time. I caught it on a Monday night.
Jaspal Bhatti ... equally busy.
The Malayalam channels have quiz shows that do a different turn from the "Antakshari" routines on the Hindi channels. Kairali features at 8 p.m. each day a "Kaun Banega Crorepati" clone called "Chemmanur Jewellers Ashwamedha". A prancing horse dominates the sets, and the winners take away more prancing horses. The sets echo several features of "KBC", but the actual quiz is a reverse process. After a sort of fastest finger first preliminary round, one contestant sits across from the quiz master who attempts to guess in 20 questions the personality the contestant has chosen in his or her mind. It is a tall order, and the day I watched the quiz master fluffed both attempts. The first choice was obscure, to say the least, and the second, chosen by a young Kerala ingénue with a toothy smile turned out to be Reuter. There are even a couple of lifelines approved by a panel of two men at the back of the sets, who appear otherwise redundant to the proceedings.
I strongly recommend that Amitabh Bachchan take a break from entertaining U.P. voters and watch this. He will enjoy the variations that his show has spawned. Both the above shows are thoughtful about the ad breaks. They come on only after an entire quizzing sequence is completed.
Yak,yak, yak, yak, yak: What Sanjay Manjrekar did during the final hours of the India-England test last Sunday. He does not stop talking, and Doordarshan does not stop trying to sneak in an ad every time there is the teeny weeniest slow down in the action on the field.
E-mail the writer at sevantininan@vsnl.com
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
|
