Some training needed
Some of the highly-educated, smartly good-looking young boys and girls who have a lot of information on national and international affairs and who are blessed with a talent of dragging others to their own stand-point on the basis of their debating skill are very often misguided by the notion that they could be very successful TV presenters or program anchors without any technical training. But luckily or unluckily, these are not the compulsory characteristics always required for becoming a successful TV presenter or program anchor in electronic media; here the requirements are rather different. Though some of our TV anchors are really endowed with extra-ordinary skill and talent and some of them are brilliantly intelligent; not talking of PTV; but at the same time some are very much innocent rather foolish. I remember, a few years back Allama Iqbal’s maternal grandson Mian Yusuf Salahuddin was invited to a TV show as a guest; a girl was hosting that show. During the show she really embarrassed Mian Yusuf Salahuddin with an unexpectedly stupid question. She said, ‘Mian sahib — please tell us something about the childhood days you spent in the company of your grandfather Allama Iqbal. Mian Yusuf Salahuddin was really shocked at the ignorance of the anchor because Allama Iqbal had died in 1938 whereas Yusuf was born in 1951. Mian Yusuf Salahuddin simply said to the anchor, ‘Lady I am not that old.’
In another TV show, Pakistan’s renowned poet Ahmed Faraz was present as a guest. The anchor very innocently asked him, ‘Faraz Sahab — what is the reason that after Allama Iqbal Pakistan could produce no big name in the field of poetry and literature — I mean no one who could be called a hero?’ Ahmed Faraz had no answer to this stupid question because he himself was a marvelous name in the field of poetry and further more it was not Pakistan which produced Allama Iqbal. Luckily a very famous ‘English-Knowing’ film actress was also present there as a guest. Before Ahmed Faraz could answer, she eagerly interrupted the discussion and said, ‘Who says Pakistan did not produce heroes? We have so many heroes like Shan and Maumar Rana who are everywhere an identity of Pakistan’. So this is the actual story of today’s TV anchors and presenters.
Media, particularly the electronic media, has become a very popular choice among the young boys and girls who are in search of a prosperous tomorrow. They are very well aware of the fact that by becoming a part of some electronic media group, they could get a lot of fame as well as a lot of financial prosperity. To earn fame and prosperity at the same time, they focus all their efforts on becoming an anchor, host or a presenter on a TV channel. All of them dream of becoming Kamran Khan, Arif Nizami and Talat Husain over night but none of them realises the fact that Kamran Khan or other anchors of the same rank and status have spent decades of their lives for getting perfection in their work. Their talent and their experience have made them precious for the channel owners. Moreover such big names as Kamran Khan did not at once started hosting a show; most of them ‘wasted’ so many years of their life in print-media working as reporter, news-editor and sometimes as copy-paster too. Perfection demands hard work and experience and no doubt a lot of knowledge. The dilemma of today’s young girls and boys is that they want things done in flickering of an eye. Another problem is that these young men mistakenly mix-up the working ideology of social media with that of electronic and print media. It is true that social media has very speedily started playing a very vibrant role in changing rather exposing the true face of different societies. Even a common man with no media-talent can not only upload any video or document but also comment on a situation according to his own desire. He may use abusive language; he may blame anyone without providing any proof; he may create and design a world of his own taste and for all this he simply needs an android cell phone; but it all is missing one thing; that is credibility, the most important element no doubt in the world of media. The editor of a newspaper or the director-news of a channel, in fact are the authorities who ensure credibility. The social media has simply wiped off the role of the editor of a newspaper or that of the director of a TV program; all goes un-edited. Most of the youngsters who are working as reporters in electronic media now-a-days, unconsciously and unintentionally start following the rules and regulations rather traditions earlier set by social media. And this approach of theirs is creating a ‘hazardously catastrophic’ scenario. The crux of the matter is that the youngsters who are willing to make a name in electronic media as reporters or anchors must get some technical training before jumping in the field. They must know what to say and how to say and when to say. They must know where to keep their voice soft and where to keep loud. There are so many anchors who even don’t know that by shouting on TV screen they are not only destroying their own vocal cords but also making others deaf by their agonizingly shrill and pinching loud voice. And the most important thing is that they must never forget their identity as a Pakistani. Unfortunately, in Pakistani media, there have been some anchors and some channels who feel pride in working for their ‘foreign masters’. Such characters are always remembered as the ‘traitors’ in the pages of history.
