Let’s Talk

I am no avid researcher of talk shows but I presume it got into vogue and

gained very high level of popularity based on at least some depth of

knowledge of the personalities who were called upon to enlighten both the

masses and government. The personalities/experts were to represent all the

strands of thought/dimensions of the problem/issue and the all knowing

presenter would make a sense of it all for the benefit of the audience.

All the games are played as per the rules of the game. The rules of this game

are still not spelt out, might be not even known to its players. The same

football match (talk shows) is being played in different styles on different

channels, different number of players, different quality, most with no goal

post, no winners, no losers, no consensus, liberty given to speakers to leave

midway and the aggressiveness of the presenter - who is all knowing and is

the embodiment of all virtues on the face of this earth, The unformatted

format is here to stay courtesy the self proclaimed professionals in the field.

If you have ever visited a mufassil private bus stand, where private buses vie

with each other for the same passengers on the same routes through

incomprehensible high pitched announcements in most crude style, you

would be in for exactly the same experience while surfing news channels

every evening. At the end of it all the audience matures and veers off to some

other medium to satisfy his information and knowledge requirements. Earlier

mass communication professionals made a living out of expertise they

gathered with great difficulty through sheer hard work and total focused

living for the cause of the profession. Today technology, gloss and the format

can do that job. The result we are experiencing day in and day out to our

utmost peril.

Democracy is all out choices. With channels mushrooming even in scorching

heat the choices are still non - existent. The presenters and the speakers are

known. The style of the dialogue delivery and the stand one would take on an

issue is also very well known. The depth of knowledge of both the presenter

and speakers are also not unkown. With presenters aggressive and uncouth

efforts to force the speakers to toe to his line of thought, with audio controls

under his command, he or she is the reigning deity of the mass media.

Pronouncements of the presenters gives audience the feeling that they would

start working with Sisters of Charity even before the show closes. All your

hopes would be belied for sure and they would be back there once again the

next day with the same classes on Art of Good Living. The business has to

run and the TRP is the only number which a TV channel needs to

understand.

Can a country of over one billion people does not have more than at the

maximum of two dozen speakers all English channels combined, it might

increase by few more dozens if all vernacular channels are included. The

same faces can handle any subject. In an age of super specialization what is

offered to the Indian masses is massive dose of unwanted super

generalization and we have to manage with it. Serious audience is veering

back to the print media. The visual media functional theory of 24/7 existence

does not serve the interest of the audience from any angle. Audience of is one

of the components of the detailed plan report following the standard business

cycle of similar businesses like concept paper, proof of concept, funding,

execution, TRP and the like. At the end of the day a very successful business

model has been created which can be replicated/executed if you have the

following configuration:

Sufficient funding

Technical competence

Infrastructure

Few reporters in a few metros

One great presenter or who can pose as one

Standard speakers

A acceptable TRP

A national level channel is ready to serve the Indian democracy. No channel

has ever closed down based on a SMS survey. The biggest propagators keep

themselves out of direct survey completely.

If you finally decide to be a speaker at any of these talk shows, your first

steps to national prominence, do it only if you have perfected the art of

talking simultaneously. Sometimes the viewer is astonished as to how a

person can consistently speak off the subject, totally unconcerned of what

other panel members are speaking on the same subject and as a part of the

same discussion. All the senses of the viewer is put to a stress test and if he

comes out successfully he hardly has any thoughts to carry home. Its only a

bitter taste that is what you are left with, swearing that you would never

watch a talk show ever again in your life. Old habits die hard as they say and

you are yet again found to be watching the same show.

After all in a country bereft of hobbies, more so purposeful ones, what choice

does a person have? Bollywood seems to have been losing out to these

entertainment machines. The most commendable achievement of Indian

television has been the successful forceful transformation of news to pure

entertainment.