The video itself has a WhatsApp logo, but most saw it on Facebook. G News, a Gujranwala collective, apparently, had shared it there. Though one really doesn’t know whether the subject was actually from Gujranwala.
It starts with an elderly gentleman – plumpish but healthy, with a shock of white hair for a beard – riding a motorbike to the left of the vehicle from which the video is being recorded. The fellow then lets it rip and zips fast ahead of the vehicle. Then, he does what’s called a “superman”, that is, he lies flat, with his belly on the seat and legs stretched behind him. This, at a rapid speed. Then, some intentional swerving left and right.
In a hilarious juxtaposition, the clip immediately makes a hard-cut to the fellow inside the back of a police van. He is then escorted out of the van and taken inside a police station.
Video cuts again, this time to a traffic policeman, with the sheepish-looking gentleman (Chan Elahi Saheb, we are informed) standing besides him.
We tried our best, we gave him several warnings, but he will not desist, says the policeman, speaking to the camera. He was caught doing stunts, we apprehended him and upon his assurances of never trying such a thing again, we let him go. Then, fifteen days ago, we apprehended him from an illegal (it should go without stating) street race, where he again apologised and gave us his word. Now, he has been found doing that again, and he’s going to the lockup this time.
The case of the old-timer living it up is interesting, yes. But what I found more interesting as a casual student of the media, is the tone and verbiage of the policeman. It was clear from his face and expressions that he had wanted to be respectful towards the old man – probably old enough to be his father – but was exasperated by his behaviour pattern. So he decided to make a video.
But, coming to the aforementioned tone and verbiage: he was unconsciously acting as if it were a television show, using words like nazireen. The video wasn’t part of official documentation; it was just meant to be put out into the Great Outdoors of the internet. But it unconsciously mutated into the motif of a talk show.
That raises an interesting point. Just the way the newspaper op-ed columnist has lost a level of esteem, is the television talking head also going the same way?
Earlier, to have your views known, you’d have to know someone in a newspaper and then also pretend to know more than anyone else on that topic. Now, you can just rant it out on your Facebook status. Though there is still a measure of validation in writing for a newspaper, given how newspapers have op-ed editors and sub-editors who have thought that your piece should make it to the page, there is still a palpable lessening of prestige associated with being an op-ed writer for a major paper.
Well, with the price points of smartphones retaining their downward trajectory and their cameras and microphones getting better and better, would the same apply for video?
The internet can let people watch their content at their own convenience but social media features like Facebook Live can even enable a user to broadcast live. In fact, this free service can also let you take on a “guest”, more than one of those, online, much like a television show.
By now, even the most casual of television viewer would have realised that the pundits on screen are pulling opinions out of their respective posteriors most of the time. The only reason they are part of the punditry is that an associate producer has called them to show up. That’s it.
Television needs to up its game. Casual analysis that just anyone could have done should become the domain of social media. And television should only ask subject specialists and the representatives of political parties on to their shows. The only “generalist” allowed should be the host, who brings the craft of mediation to the table, hence a specialisation, of sorts.
That isn’t happening at the moment. Worse than hearing Haroon Rasheed talk about a court case is hearing him talk about water management. Which is still not worse than hearing him out on economy issues.
A goodbye to Haroon Rasheed holding forth on health policy, hopefully. Brought about by the proliferation of cheap Chinese smartphones.