How the race for higher rating has ruined originality and creativity
Dog bites man. This is old news. We already know the outcome. Man bites dog. This is sensationalism: it immediately stirs the listener’s mind and is the cause for great hype. “Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.”–Khalil Gibran.
The dramatic background music, images of clashes between security officials and civilians, and riots all form a part of sensationalism, enticing the viewer to turn on the television set. Whatever the truth, does not matter; television is selling, making money and that is the true motive.
Pakistani news channels in a broader way always try to create hype even to those matters that hold no importance at all. Media channels are spreading a feeling of disappointment among the general masses through sensationalising on petty issues, which are not directly associated to the problems of common people.
At the moment, media is considered as the fourth pillar of a state throughout the world. However, with this growing significance also comes greater responsibility on media. Major objective of news channels should be to make people aware of the happenings at national or international level while remaining impartial. Nevertheless, in Pakistan, media is being used by a few people for their personal gains at the cost of national interest. News channels and newspapers have their own policies which are formed in accordance with the personal benefits. A few media organisations support one political party and the other support a different party. There are also some media organisations that always support the ruling party.
Media in Pakistan is currently not playing its role in the true sense of journalism as almost every channel is supporting someone in order to fulfill some hidden agendas. Media organisations, in this regard, in the country always try to create hype on a matter which has no significance at all. Newspapers and news channels in Pakistan are not playing their role in the true sense as they create sensationalism which put a common man in disappointment and he starts thinking that there is nothing positive left in this country when actually the situation is quite different.
As said earlier, media is supposed to deliver information that makes people aware of happenings but media organisations are creating sensationalism just to obtain more viewership and higher ratings. For those of you who don’t know ratings are a way which measures how many of people are watching a particular TV show in the particular time slot on a particular channel. They are gathered in two ways: one is the self reporting diary method in which people report their viewing habits and which programmes they watch at what time slot. The other is the TV meter which uses meters to check what is being seen or not. This in turn is used as a gauge by advertisers. So more ratings in some ways mean more advertisements and this is the point where money starts showing its strength.
The first method is considered to be obsolete due to the self reporting nature which leads to response bias but the second one is preferred. Now, the biggest problem that appears when while gauging viewing habits is the sample. The ratings that are derived from meters are only representative of about a few thousand people as the information states on Pakistan’s only rating company’s website.
The meters are placed mostly in the metropolitan areas of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi. Two whole provinces are not even represented properly. Secondly, the ratings should only be used as a guide to determine programming and not be the ultimate goal of programming.
There is also a lack of critic’s ratings in Pakistan, apart from the sample size in ratings. Internationally the ratings which are referred to as popular ratings are used in conjunction with critic’s ratings. Popular ratings describe how much a show is being watched or not watched, and critic’s ratings are a judgment on the quality of the programme by industry experts and peers. If obscene content is being shown on TV, of course it will be popular; however, it would not be good quality programming. Some say that we need to give the people what they want. Following that logic the government should then abolish all taxes and start giving state funds to people who sit at home and do nothing. That is what people may want but isn’t right. There is much need for a critic’s rating in the country, critic’s ratings which are both respected and accepted across the board.
Apart from sensationalism ratings at times discourage good programming. Currently youth programming has been more or less limited to music videos, apart from one or two good programmes. Children programming also seems nonexistent. There are not many programmes which are designed to teach children as one would find on international media which is aimed for kids less than six years of age and aim at teaching them basic skills and entertaining them at the same time. While these may not get ratings in the traditional sense due to sample constraints, but are none the less important for the mental development of youth and kids.
The mushrooming of private electronic media brought a new power player into the game, namely Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). Big media is big business and big business is big money, needing more and more attention from viewers, who are baffled by the variety of audio-visual messages beamed into their bedrooms. Attention seeking behaviour turned much-lauded talk shows into cockfights. Every TV channel set the stage for at least one cockfight, marketing the hosts in a manner that awed the idle recipients of the new technology.
The conclusion becomes that popular ratings (those too with a limited sample) are encouraging sensationalism and a lack of good programming, both of which are leading the youth to alienate itself from and criticise the media. It is important to aim for viewers, but one can sell good quality content too. In the golden age of Pakistan Television (PTV), there seemed to be an emphasis on this type of quality and most of us know how much we loved that golden age. I think the same is now to be asked of our new and independent media.
Good insight. In my pinion the recent pop (-ular) media has trained our generations to disagree for the sale of disagreement. This reflect in every walk of like so much that if there's anything common between any two people (literally ANY two..) it is the DISAGREEMENT over popular issues. And in that too you will see people speaking the language of media channels of their choice (now known as perspective).
Critics Rating: Yes, that's one of those tools missing from the main stream these days. However, parents have got a crucial role to play here esp while their kids are growing up. Instead of being entertainment (now known as content) hungry, we should choose books (yes, i mean real BOOKS) to educate as well as entertain the younger ones.. the perfect leisure time i.e.!
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