The coronavirus is now spreading at the speed of lightning. Well, not quite. But when it has passed one lakh cases a day – which is not only ‘India’s highest rise in a day’ (NDTV 24×7) but the ‘highest in the world’ (News X) – it’s racing at an exponential pace that feels like a bolt off the blocks, one which even that fastest man in the world, Usain, can’t match.
It’s time to play catch-up, folks, and everything that can be done should be done to slow it down, including strong, clear communication about it. So as Covid-19 ‘crushes’ Maharashtra (India Today) and other states, let’s see what the news channels were up to. Not much as you can tell by this line-up of leading news channels at approximately 12.40 pm Wednesday:
‘Shah leads BJP Bengal rally’ (Times Now); `Shah’s Bengal battle cry – bigger than UP in 2017’; (CNN News18); `RBI monetary policy meet’ (News X), `Mega covid surge’ (Mirror Now); ‘Atmanirbhar India’ (DD News); Amit Shah interview (Aaj Tak); ‘fires in Uttarakhand’ (Zee News); `Wear mask – Modi also said it is our biggest weapon’ (News18 India) — and Republic TV was sniffing around the Sachin Waze case.
Unfair, will cry the news channels, we have been covering the virus, you just caught us elsewhere – but, anyone who watches the news for any length of time will tell this is a fair reflection of any day’s coverage.
They will also argue that the ‘Battle for Bengal’ (CNN News18) is the most consequential political event perhaps until the 2024 Lok Sabha election. So ‘Breaking News of `Shah lunches with rickshaw puller’ (India Today) takes precedence over the virus that has killed a mere 166,000 people in India.
They may think they have a case, but we know it’s water-thin: a medium that commands the viewership of millions and could play a significantly influential role in creating awareness on the critical spread of coronavirus, on the need to be vaccinated, that could hold governments — central and state — accountable for the inadequacies of their policies and responses, should be chasing this story 24×7.
Also read: Mumbai Mahabharat dominated TV news, edging out coronavirus surge
Hindi channels’ Ansari
Instead, Hindi news channels spent the better part of Tuesday and early Wednesday morning following the `jail yatra’ (India TV) of `Don Ansari’, aka Mukhtar Ansari, in an ambulance from Punjab to a prison in Uttar Pradesh. They dwelt on questions like “What is going through his mind?” (Republic Bharat), “Where has the kafila reached?” (TV9 Bharatvarsh), repeatedly described the convoy formation — “3 cars in front, 3 cars behind, policemen hanging from open door” (News 24) — and wasted time informing us that two doctors were seated in the ambulance (ABP News) and that the vehicles had slowed down to 60 kmph at night (Zee Hindustan).
Why, they even forsook their afternoon ‘Saas Bahu aur Saazish’ (ABP News) entertainment shows for “first visuals of Ansari leaving jail’’ (Aaj Tak), never mind that you could see nothing of the sort.
Why not carpet coverage of the coronavirus, then?
Time spent on the `red terror’ Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh, was well spent — channels like News 24, Aaj Tak and Times Now asked hard questions on intelligence failures and tried to fix responsibility for any lapses rather than demanding ‘badla’ (revenge) like Zee Hindustan, India TV and News18 India — but Mukhtar Ansari? Really, when thousands are falling sick?
If it’s not the deadly don Ansari, news channels have their magnificent obsession with West Bengal — or Amit Shah’s bald pate. Each time the Union Home Minister clambers onto a rath and yatras somewhere in the state – Singur on Wednesday – he obliges TV news reporters with interviews and, for some reason, the cameras remain fixated with the back of his head.
Also read: Nandigram is a do or die battle. Is that why no one’s wearing masks?
No one to sell the shot
Now if channels like Times Now and Republic TV spent as much time on the coronavirus as they do on pet themes such as `India against’ Lutyens’ lobby’ (Times Now) or `Vasooligate’ and “sensational breakthrough” on Param Bir Singh-Vaze case (Republic TV), they would help India stand against coronavirus.
Think hard; how many times have the top anchors on these channels like Rahul Shivshankar, Navika Kumar or Arnab Goswami devoted their prime time shows to the fight against Covid-19? The Nation Wants to Know…
Mirror Now, CNN News 18, NDTV 24×7 have tried to restore some balance with extensive coverage of `The Covid Nightmare’ (CNN News18). Hindi news channels have been to marketplaces across the country asking people why they don’t wear masks.
But it needed a more sustained effort.
First, unrelenting focus on the spread of the virus and its progress — where it increased, why it increased and what can be done;
Second, non-stop coverage that kept everyone on their toes — not allowed politicians the luxury of knowing that their election campaigns would grab the limelight, and perhaps got people to not show their faces in public.
Third, strong promotional campaigns on Covid-19 and vaccinations. News channels have run their own campaigns but it needed more.
Look at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s promo pleading with viewers to take the vaccine. We needed other leaders from all the political parties, starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other chief ministers to do the same.
Fourth, if Amitabh Bachchan can promote polio drops, why can’t he recommend the vaccine? Why didn’t we see recorded footage or photographs of leading actors — think Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone — sportspeople, celebrities taking the vaccine? That would have gone a long way in mitigating vaccine hesitancy.
Why didn’t a Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Virat Kohli with Anushka do a TV chat show on how the vaccine isn’t harmful, which many believe it to be?
The media has power but with power comes responsibility — time to exercise it.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)
The Covid-19 or the vaccination is not grabbing headlines because there is no negativity or corruption that can be pinned on Modi.
The registration and organized program is reasonably well managed despite some shortages. So for there are no complaints of black marketing because the records kept must be robust.
The problem appears to be the dismantling of the facilities over the months since the numbers went down. There are stories of non-payments to staff and the rented infrastructure in stead of up dating and maintaining it. Keep quiet if can’t be blamed on center.
Giving credit to anyone does not sell as yet, blaming does.
What is this writer needs? All the channels, newspapers and other media should focus only on vovid? Will the people listen? Enough has been told but now people don’t care. Even today, many people, just from 10 years boys and girls to senior citizens roam even without wearing masks and more then half just dangle it across the neck. Just to blare something which goes unheard, and the writer expects all media to focus only on covid. Just too much and unjustified.
Grandma who has lost it. Is greatly saddened by the transfer to UP jail a relative of Hamid Mia who said his community is unsafe under present dispensation.
Ofcourse Assam and West BENGAL which have been witnessing demographic changes which will endanger the SECULAR and pro scientific education lifestyle of HINDUS is giving her a hope for the comeback she so desperately wishes for the ROME RAJYA FAMILY.
HINDUS BELIEVE IN EDUCATION AND SCIENCE. THEY EXPOSE PROSELYTIZERS AND THEIR PAID JOURNALISTS through social media which has made people like HATRED FILLED GRADMA irrelevant.