TV news has turned into a spectator sport, says Smriti Irani

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting minister Smriti Irani on Thursday said broadcast news today has become a “spectator sport” of kinds and that social media was not acting as a disputer, but in many ways providing new ways to enable people tell different stories in different ways.

She talked about the need to democratise news consumption, viewership and content and said the challenge to engage viewers with information was a challenge but that as responsible newsmakers, it was important to know that it is not only news with a controversy that interested the common man.

Delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial lecture on “Model for Broadcast landscape for Democracies”, she spoke in Hindi and English, defying the tradition of the lecture that is always delivered in English.


She said technology had blurred the lines between content and broadcast and hence, while a certain section of the media adhered to codes, ethics and conduct rules, the other segment was driven by rush for TRPs and influenced by “headlines competing with Hashtag.”

She said it was important to listen to stories generating from different parts of the country in different languages and not restrict oneself to news from the Capital.

The minister said that a model structure of broadcasting should focus on democratised viewership and that it should be based on an accurate measurement system that reflects the strength of regional languages, varied tastes of viewers/consumers and bridges the divide on issues related to agenda setting, creative content and revenue between the mainstream and regional platforms.

She praised the contribution of Prasar Bharati as a national broadcaster because it had placed public interest before business and profit interest as in the case of private channels and because it reached remote corners of the country that private channels will not, given it was not profitable.

The annual lecture was organised by the All India Radio as a mark of respect to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

These lectures were started in 1955 and the first Memorial lecture was delivered by C Rajagopalachari. Speakers in the previous years included Zakir Hussain, Morarji Desai and APJ Abdul Kalam.