Breaking News Mania on T.V Channels
By Amna Gilani • Apr 30th, 2008 • Category: Misc, Worth A Second Look • (3,475 views) • 11 CommentsImportance of free media cannot be denied and it cannot be questioned in raising awareness among the masses. Pakistan has seen, in recent years, an explosion in the private media channels and the way they have break the shackles of state-owned PTV is marvelous and commendable.
Where these channels have succeeded in enkindling cognizance in the populace about the current affairs and have raised the level of understanding regarding the legal and political issues in the people, they have also sensationalized the thing up to many folds and commercialization is also taking it’s toll. Media in Pakistan has become a commodity, a thing which is just for instant consumption and instead of encouraging pubic debate to reach on mutually agreed agenda, it’s just frustrating the people with sudden and frequent blasts of breaking news.
In order to sensationalize and thrill the audience, all the private channels are using the “Breaking News” feature as a tool in abundance. Almost every news has become a breaking news, and we get to see a breaking news every after five minutes on all the channels.
Many channels have given different names to their breaking news feature. Aaj TV channel calls it “Just In”, whereas GEO calls it “News Alert” and likewise Express News, ARYONEWORLD, Waqt, DAWN News and others have their own respective styles. GEO channels tops when it comes to frequency of the breaking news.
Breaking news means as some rare happening. A happening which really interests or impacts a wide range of audience. But our private channels are taking breaking news for something else. Every new incoming news, or every development in a news is presented as a breaking news. In order to tussle up the top slot in the race to break the news first, the news media channels are becoming more like a tabloid.
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April 30th, 2008
They are driven by profit motives ponly. They don’t give a damn about the uncertainty and fear they create. One expects a little more responsible behaviour by these upstarts. They are typical examples of a dysfunctional journalism; they have failed to inform public; they subjugate news by their personal opinion and are harming our aspirations for democracy. Bad luck!
April 30th, 2008
Correction: Please read ONLY above not “ponly”
April 30th, 2008
If you are sensitive about ur country like many of us are then these channels are enough to make you sick.
April 30th, 2008
THE “SPECIAL” NEWS CHANNELS HAVE MADE A MOCKERY OUT OF THE FREEEDOM OF THE MEDIA. I AM SURE A LARGE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE DO NOT EVEN WATCH THEM ANYMORE.
AS SOME ONE HAS RIGHTLY SAID THEY DONT REPORT .. THEY ACTUALLY “BREAK” THE NEWS……. NOT TO MENTION THE EXTRA LONG ADVERTISEMENTS (MINTING MONEY)..
April 30th, 2008
We would never have had a judicial crisis in this country if Kamran Khan had not called it one on Geo and the other channels had not followed their lead. Why do they fail to tell the people that on 28th Nov 1997, Nawaz Sharif’s goons attacked the Supreme Court building and stoned it? Why didn’t Aitzaz Ahsan and the rest of his cronies lead a movement then? Why didn’t Iftikhar Chauhdry fight for the independence of judiciary then? Or is it because his job wasn’t on the line then? CJ Sajjad Ali Shah resigned in 1997 when Nawaz Sharif bribed his fellow judges. These same judges did not take oath under Musharraf’s first PCO but Iftikhar Chauhdry did. Now he has a problem taking oath under the second PCO?
April 30th, 2008
MY FREIND SAWJ … ALL “STORIES” HAVE BEEN TOLD OVER AND OVER . WE ARE SICK AND TRIED NOW …… … GRIEVES US TO SEE THAT ALL THE STORY TELLERS ARE BACK .. THANKS TO THE FREEDOM OF MEDIA … IS THIS WHAT FREEDOM IS ALL ABOUT ?
April 30th, 2008
They’ll make you believe that, yes. If not for the beloved Geo and ARY and the rest of the crap, Pakistan would have been flourishing by now. Conditions deteriorated after 9th March when a crisis situation was deliberately created using the power of the media and presented as the action of ‘the people’ of Pakistan against the government.
April 30th, 2008
If the private media had been as diligent about watchdogging the NRO as they have been about watchdogging Musharraf, it’s very likely we wouldn’t have this crisis of lost promises right now. If the private media had spent as much time exposing the obvious flaws and grotesque inequalities of PPPP throughout the last some years as they’ve spent on PML-Q, we wouldn’t necessarily be staring into the maw of another depression.
April 30th, 2008
SAWJ & Mr Mohammed Khan - You both have rightly accused the media. Indeed they have “used”, no if I might add they have abused the power of media. Yes, indeed people like Kamran Khan are motivated by revenue generation for their masters (the seths who own the media) at the cost of public interest and common good.
April 30th, 2008
Visual media is supposd to have haptnotic effect on viewers and these “Boys” of lead the nation into addiction and we all know that hyponotized people can easily be maneuvered and tramatized.
A prfofessor of sociology at the University of Southern California by the name Barry Glassner has postulated that POLITICIANS, advertisers and crafty PR specialists can exploit the public through systematic exposure to fear and other arousal stimuli on television. Prof. Glassner, goes on to argues that there are three techniques that together make up “fearmongering”:
(1) repetition,
(2)making the irregular seem regular, and
(3) misdirection.
By using these narrative tools, anyone with a loud platform can ratchet up public anxieties and fears, distorting public discourse and reason. Talk about the “boys” on GEO, ARY, and the rest of the rot.
May 1st, 2008
The word is : HYPNOTIC not my typing skills have changed it into - Sorry!