NDTV News Coverage Analysis 2019-2020
- Khwaish Gupta
- Feb 21, 2020
- 13 min read
Updated: Jan 30, 2023
INTRODUCTION
NDTV 24×7 is an English news channel owned by NDTV. It stands for New Delhi Television Limited. Its slogan is “Experience. Truth first.” Launched in 2003, it is headquartered in New Delhi. The channel has three sister channels- NDTV Prime, NDTV India and NDTV Profit. New Delhi Television was set up by Prannoy Roy along with his wife Radhika Roy, known today for helping to break the Indian government’s grip of television news.
The channel is one of the most viewed channels in India, especially in English. The name enjoyed a lot of credibility and that was what led me to analyse if it was worth the standing it gets, if not in others’ minds but in mine as an individual.
Choosing five different articles was based on the mindset that they should be from different aspects and fields- political, social, entertainment, sports etc. However, that came as bit of a task for me because I realised that there was much less choice other than political. News of political nature could be found in abundance, and others required a lot of effort and digging up.
I chose the following topics:
Political- JNU protests against fee hike
Environmental- Delhi Pollution
Social/Judicial – Hyderabad Rape and Encounter Case
Economic- Union Budget 2020
Entertainment- Film Review
The source of my information is the Youtube channel of NDTV 24×7 wherein there are videos of actually aired content, and other Youtube exclusive news segments as well.
JNU PROTESTS AGAINST FEE HIKE
The issue started in November when students of Jawaharlal Nehru University staged protests against fee hike of hostel.
Initially, when the issue was not as big, it received maximum 10-20 minutes of coverage during the month of November. But gradually, when the police intervention came into picture, NDTV covered it for their Prime Time, Newshour and Panel Discussions or Debates. They presented opinions of multiple groups – what the students had to say (from both the extremes of the political spectrum- left and right ideologies), what the MPs and people in academics had to say etc. In one of the panel discussions, on board were five people- a student leader from the university, an alumni (Swara Bhaskar), a member of Academic Council of DU (Geeta Bhatt), a political analyst (Desh Ratan Nigam) and a member of parliament (from BSP). I went on to look at the background of each of them and found that the political analyst in the panel was a rightist, a member of RSS and conclusively, a staunch supporter of the ruling party. I felt that the moderator or the anchor was not questioning the MP or the Political analyst as much as he questioned the student. It was possible that the discussion presented had a predetermined direction influenced by a bias or some power dynamics. The moderator, however, did not shy away from asking questions based on facts to Swara Bhaskar as well. What was appreciable in this was that there was a great tendency for him to give in easily to what she said but he did not stop questioning. On the screen, there were claims of both the administration and students run parallelly. They did show both sides of the coin in a way, but what was missing was what the coin is in entirety? The facts pertaining to number of scholarships, percentage of students from marginalised sectors were not provided. These facts were provided as ‘claimed’ by both sides. This was a serious loophole.
In a reportage from outside the campus where the students of both the wings were asked about their stands, the moderator did her job pretty well. She asked the right questions and was well researched. It was also made sure that when students from ABVP tried to divert the issue of fees hike to other things like Ram Mandir, it didn’t happen. What was surprising was that a larger picture was taken into account- if education is a right or a privilege in India. It is imperative for media to ask such questions which would broaden the horizons of looking at a particular incident.
In another segment that they had, which was a YouTube exclusive, called ‘News of the Hour’, the reporter answered important questions as to why the police intervened and there was absolutely no sign of her opinion blanketing the facts.
As the issue attracted more attention, JNUSU Chief was arrested and protests grew in intensity. The reportage of this by NDTV covered points pertaining to- when and from where to where is the protest happening (barricades put till 1km from the campus), video footage and student testimonies of the protest and police action. The 15-minute coverage of this news, interrupted by ads, had a lot of replays of the same video footages over and over again. To see the video of Aishe Ghosh (Chief, JNUSU) getting detained play in loop for almost 5-6 times made no sense to me. The anchors failed to address certain factors, the ‘is there more to this’ question. They just kept repeating that the detention has happened, the protest is happening. As a media consumer I would like them to scratch the surface, get more on the plate. To have the police speak, the teachers speak, the council speak. The news channel did not play footages of their statements. They played interviews of the students. Whereas the change is going to come from the former people. Their statements have been read out in isolation and questions based on them further take place. For example- “The VC has appealed to the students to come back to classes.” Common sense says that the VC must have said more than just this one sentence. So instead of repeating the videos of protest and detention, including more interviews would have made for a better coverage of the issue.
Later in time, the issue became more politicised and NDTV pointed out that it was becoming more about ideologies and less about students. It became a never-ending spiral for the journalists to cover it, and then eventually protests pertaining to CAA, NRC, NPR and Jamia Milia took over these.
DELHI POLLUTION
From mid-October to December, when the AQI levels in Delhi and neighbouring cities of Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad rose to severe and hazardous, the media took on it and glorified it like it is just a “Delhi” thing. NDTV, each morning, along with its weather report would present the AQI levels too and focus on NCR and its parts where it is worse. The reason for the same, each year, is attributed to the stubble burning in farms of Punjab and Haryana.
First off, as the fourth estate, there should have been timely reminder for the government in September, as to how last few years had seen the problem of air pollution during October-December. Anyway, as air quality standards started reducing, NDTV would include it in their daily news briefing. Gradually, the issue received more attention and statements of the CM and other AAP members were released. They started questioning why is there silence among central government when public health emergency is declared in the National Capital Region of the country. The channel was constantly reporting as to how the schools are shut, tournaments are getting postponed etc.
In a more proper coverage in their show called ‘Left, Right and Centre’, NDTV had people from all walks of life- students, educationists, health experts, environmentalists, spokespersons from major political parties etc. The anchor questions and lets environmentalists and students get their answers from the politicians. There clearly was a need to politicise the issue- why was environment not their election agenda? Each time the politicians started playing the blame game, the common man would redirect them to the fact that air pollution is something that not just Delhi faces, and not just in the last three months of the year, but the whole country does and all year around. What was appreciable during this show was that NDTV had certain agenda for the three categories or changemaker levels- for the citizens, state government and central government. They spanned their suggested actions across all tiers, making it not just a political issue and thereby holding everyone accountable and responsible.
In NDTV’s YouTube special segment, they covered the news twice. They analysed that it is not a Delhi issue only. Other cities like Lucknow were also affected and this they covered in their segment, thereby not just sticking to the general narrative of only the capital being affected. They gave the context too- stubble burning, statistics of farming practices, what is 2.5 PM etc. Long term health effects were also addressed.
Odd-even as a scheme too received sufficient coverage on the channel otherwise. They initiated a movement of writing letters to the PM to address this issue. As a media corporation, I really appreciate this move of getting answers for the citizens. However, there was no follow up on the same and the issue faded away gradually. The news channel should have constantly spoken of environment as there is more to this country than just its politics. Even cursory mentions would have shown that they care.
HYDERABAD RAPE CASE AND POLICE ENCOUNTER
When a 26 year-old vet was raped and killed on 27th November in Telangana, a police encounter with the four accused followed, killing the latter. This sparked a huge debate in the country when even after 7 years of Nirbhaya case, women were not safe in India. NDTV was fast enough to report the rape case, then the encounter and reach the family of the victim (the vet) to report the news. It also showed how there were protests happening across the country, asking for stricter laws.
In one of the first few gatherings in Hyderabad of common men and women, the journalist questioned the people if according to them justice was served. This took place when NHRC decided to intervene and investigate the encounter. The YouTube video is titled “Hyderabad encounter is not justice, say residents” but what was seen in the video was that the residents very well thought that this was the right method of delivering justice. The journalist could not be seen cross questioning the residents for the statements that they made. The journalist did not educate the residents about the rights of accused and simply let the opinions of few become the public opinion at that point in time. Ideally, she should have asked some imperative questions to the residents- are your opinions based only on your emotional reaction or have you logically thought about it? If yes, then ask for an elaboration. The common man’s opinion and say has to be respected, but he should also be held accountable for what he says. If they are questioning the involvement of NHRC during the encounter and asking where were they during the rape case, are they made aware by the journalist about the role and intervention policy of NHRC? No. A lot of women too, made statements and were not questioned back just because they are women and they assumed the right to say anything without holding any accountability of what they said, solely because it was a women’s issue and they were angry. Someone’s anger does not qualify as a justification to the remarks they make.
In another show called “Reality Check”, the anchor uncovered political doublespeak over rape. He showed statistics of rape-accused politicians in power from each party and then played expressions of anger of various politicians, in the form of statements, over the rape and encounter. He then plays extracts of misogynistic and sexist comments that politicians have made in the past. In short, hypocrisy in the political arena pertaining to women safety and empowerment is shown. He asks the panel if what Jaya said about lynching the rapists was correct or not, and so on and so forth. However, the panel could not reach a constructive conclusion.
Sonal Mehrotra, in her show, asks women commuting in Delhi about their opinion on the same. Here again, I found the same loophole- are the journalists even questioning the knowledge or basis of the opinion of the general public? It is really dangerous to propagate opinions (even of the general public) without holding the opinion makers accountable. Her questions were futile- just beating around the bush, to which everyone replied with the same answer – “They should be punished.”, “Punishment should be severe”.
The channel failed to show its audience the other sides to the issue- if killing the accused was illegal or not, what are the consequences when justice becomes revenge etc. The channel seemed to have a very conservative approach to covering this news piece. They could have explained what scheme Disha, introduced by Telangana government meant, what are the debates following on the same, what is the court’s stand on it etc.
In all, the issue did not receive appropriate coverage. Certain journalistic principles and ethics were compromised upon.
UNION BUDGET 2020
The Union Budget for the current fiscal year was released on 1st February 2020. This is a news piece which any channel covers rigorously, analysing every bit of it, its consequences etc. NDTV started out by first tweeting each and every clause of the budget as the Financial Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman spoke. They also aired the live footage of the budget being announced.
Now as far as analysing the budget is concerned, I think the channel could have done a far better job than what they delivered. Before just starting out with the pros and cons and discussing each of that, they should have had an economic expert on board to explain in simple terms what the heavy jargons meant like disinvestment, functioning of provident funds etc. If they are discussing the problems or ambiguity in the taxes for PFs, they first should lay out what it means, followed by the consequences it poses and the opinions from different economists. One cannot take only a single economist’s word, there is always another economic side to a story.
What NDTV did manage to do was to get people like Kiran Shaw, Shashi Tharoor and Adi Godrej to comment on the budget. Now NDTV did pick up certain aspects of the budget and interviewed people from relating fields. For example, they asked if the budget was start-up friendly or not. They interviewed students of IIM-Bangalore and entrepreneurs in the city. There was more or less a balanced view, as in people had both pros and cons to weigh which almost stood equal. One point mentioned of relevance I remember was that there was no specific mention of women entrepreneurs which was expected from the government. Similarly, they covered the provident fund aspect.
Talking of the budget from the farmer’s point of view, I feel that there should have been people from the agricultural background on board to analyse the implications of the 16 point policy for the farmers. It would have been great if they did ground reporting of the same, first educating the farmers that this is what has been said, this is what it means and then ask and question them about the consequences. If you can have entrepreneurs talking about the start-up friendliness of the budget, why not farmers?
The Budget has huge potential as a story to be covered which was not very well utilised by the channel. There was so much scope of getting the common man in loop, thereby also increasing the viewer engagement but that sadly, was not tapped.
MOVIE REVIEW
Street Dancer 3D, a Remo D’souza directorial, stars Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor as leads. NDTV’s Rohit Khilnani gives a film review of the same. The undertone of the film review is very optimistic and positive. He stresses on how hard both the actors have worked and that it shows. He constantly mentions that Remo and his team of choreographers have done a commendable job with respect to all the performances in the movie. There were a lot of performances in the movie, back to back.
Talking of the story line, he says that the story was there. In between the performances, they showed the story going. It did have a beginning, a plot and an end. However, the story was not well written. It had a lot of loose ends, thus resulting in lack of establishment of an emotional connect with the audience.
Rohit, in a very crisp conclusion wrapped up by saying that if one loves to watch well crafted dance performances by Indians, it is a good watch for them.
Now we will talk about the scope of improvement in the review. All aspects of the movie were not talked of. Before reviewing the movie, he should have set out certain parameters like storyline, acting, choreography (in this case), dialogues, genre, film-making etc. Setting parameters, and probably then grading them would have given the review more unbiased approach. However, to sum it up in 3-4 minutes would have been a task, but nevertheless still possible. But since the bite is named ‘First impression of Street Dancer 3D’, it makes sense to not have covered everything but just a couple of things which anyone would say as a reply to ‘hey, how was the movie? Should I watch it?’ The approach could have been a little different in the sense that an expert opinion would’ve been provided.
Another movie reviewed by Rohit was Love Aaj Kal, released on 14th February 2020. The undertone was set to negative and he could not stop mocking the film. He criticised the storyline, the inability of the film-makers to interpret the 90’s or even the current times accurately. He said the 90s looked more like the 60s! He talked of certain unnecessary scenes. The only thing he seemed to have liked about the movie was the songs, to which he suggested they should have just released a music album rather than a movie.
The motive of such a film review is pretty clear- to relate to the reviewer as if he is a friend giving you advice on if to watch a movie or not.
CONCLUSION
After deeply analysing all five stories, I came to a conclusion that the news channel isn’t doing a very good job as far as its television broadcast content is concerned. They do justice to their YouTube channel by having certain things specific for their online audience- like a daily poll for ‘News of the Hour’. During the project I found a huge scope of improvement in the way news could have been covered and presented. Many times, the other side of the story wasn’t even mentioned.
Apart from what’s already there, there should be coverage of stories in more real aspects, like education, health, sanitation, infrastructure, happenings in the world. There was almost no coverage on issues of global importance. This would mean that a person who follows the channel religiously would not be able to remain up to date with all the happenings because there is just too much emphasis laid on politics and protests.
We see the channel hardly ever criticising the government or calling it out for its inefficiency, thus failing to do its job as a watchdog, the fourth estate. Another common trend found across these stories was that the panellists had a background that wasn’t shared with the audience. The ideologies of the panellists should have also been mentioned, or there should have been people from varied backgrounds in the first place so that quality discussion could take place.
REFERENCES
JNU PROTESTS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSeCMKdOeCc&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=2&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h99QTF40eBU&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=3
Versus- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JktP5gW5-_4&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=4
Prime Time- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5QDZFrEGlY&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=5
Left, Right and Centre- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl9mEhONM5w&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=7
News of the Hour- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zM7E1HdID4&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=9
JNUSU Chief Detention- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoYw7dP-Cds&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvjBOpXSzgqtIpi0K_cYgxYr&index=11
DELHI POLLUTION
Political Slugfest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVLfoOGf5qg
HYDERABAD CASE
Disha- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYtRrPke6N8&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvhMvXkX7dUxiz3JXfwkXO5y&index=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjXmzgAzJM&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvhMvXkX7dUxiz3JXfwkXO5y&index=2
Residents- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GojOBd6xlcU&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvhMvXkX7dUxiz3JXfwkXO5y&index=4
Delhi, women-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZJVB9T99U0&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvhMvXkX7dUxiz3JXfwkXO5y&index=5
Swati Maliwal- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoY3o4ixFtk&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvhMvXkX7dUxiz3JXfwkXO5y&index=7
Jaya Bachhan Statement-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjzfIxkKpwY&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvhMvXkX7dUxiz3JXfwkXO5y&index=25
UNION BUDGET 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI2gCRTreyY&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvh2d8YLDSgdfxHtUgYMbQTv&index=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAh9kYa9wzw&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvh2d8YLDSgdfxHtUgYMbQTv&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RTxlcYlw3Y&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvh2d8YLDSgdfxHtUgYMbQTv&index=6
Prannoy Roy’s analysis-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1d170ZjbH0&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvh2d8YLDSgdfxHtUgYMbQTv&index=9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx57qQ5A7QE&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvh2d8YLDSgdfxHtUgYMbQTv&index=14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkNPYDGqSrg&list=PLYSfYVdrOZvh2d8YLDSgdfxHtUgYMbQTv&index=62
Movie Review
Street Dancer 3D- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vNPYHl1l8U
Love Aaj Kal- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l7JNmW-er4
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