Carlton Towers on fire on Tuesday evening. Photograph by Vinu Thomas (http://twitter.com/vinuthomas)

Industry: Media

Product: News & Entertainment

Customer : Citizen (and advertisers?)

The Ram Gopal Varma movie RANN, took a dig on electronic media’s unethical practices. Talking point among the tech savvy crowd was suddenly all about the wrong doings of Indian electronic media. My colleague Monica says that ‘Indian electronic media is still in its nascent stage. It still has many years before it can get streamlined’. I agree with her that it will take sometime for quality to improve but it cannot happen unless the viewers of the media take some corrective action. Indian electronic media still needs to bring about policies on how to cover breaking news. The viewers need to come up with a feedback mechanism to express strong views regarding the content. Is it possible? I believe so……

Stake holders in the media industry consider ‘news’  as product similar to that of any traditional manufacturing industry. Are they right in doing so? Well, they are doing a business and need to earn a living and ensure a profit in sales to sustain themselves. Hence they are rightfully performing their role in creation of a product.

When any journalist goes through discussion forums of media personnel on a platform like ‘ LinkedIn . com’ , he/she might have come across serious discussions by members of the media (Read as non-editorial employees in media house) with questions like “how to make the product better for our customers?” Which is good. But, in those discussions customers are not the consumers of their product (news). Customers  there meant only the advertisers! I think it is time to recognize that there is a difference between media industry and traditional manufacturing industry. Customer is complex word. Customers are both the consumers of the media (ones who account  for the viewership and readership) and the advertisers (who bring in more revenue than circulation by buying advertisement space). Content cannot be created and broadcast without taking into account both of these customers.

Producer, product, consumer, now what? Probably, Target customer!

Well, Consider a case where a cosmetic soap manufacturing giant produces a bad quality soap or selling detergent soaps in the name of cosmetic ones. The target Customers will slowly move away from them. But the sales may continue as the product does serve a purpose. The accidental product here is a detergent and hence the laundry industry might find its use. But was it really the target audience?

No.

There is an increasing trend in media, where the target customer (audience ) is usually among the middle class, upper middle class, tech savvy, fashion savvy, business class or from the software industry (often called techie in Indian media). Most advertisers with big bucks will advertise in the channel or publication only when the target audience count is high and makes up of people from the above mentioned categories. Why? They have the purchasing power. They are the educated class. They want to stay connected with the world. They want news. And they may view/read the advertisements and in turn possibly become the future clients of these advertisers. That is advertising and advertisers have every right to act so.

But are the target audience liking the product? Do they have any issues with the content? Is the target audience that really watching a sleazy show or is the viewership count made up of arbit audience who tuned in for some poor soft porn thrill? Is there really a feedback mechanism for the advertisers to know whether the target audience of their client (media house) is really a fan of the content? I guess not.

Why?

Internet and social media has provided a platform for most people to vent their frustrations or express their opinions. And these sites seem to be faster in information dissemination than electronic TV media. Honestly speaking i came to know of the Carlton Towers fire incident through Google buzz first and not through any news channel. The kind of coverage a local news channel gave to that breaking news was very much in a bad taste. The channel had received few grainy cellphone videos of people jumping off the building to death while avoiding the inferno. The channel kept playing the visuals repeatedly and nothing else. This was broadcast at a time when there was no clarity on whether the rescue operations were over or not. The relatives of the victims might have still been glued to TV sets for information and might not have received any news of their loved one through authorities. At that time, showing dramatically replayed sequences of people jumping off to death, wouldn’t be a shocker to the concerned relatives? And this did not stop here. The TV channel claimed to have identified one of the victims who jumped to her death. They instantly revealed her identity, and kept showing the visuals while referring to her. Also, at the same time one of her friends was called live over phone! Isn’t this in a bad taste? I felt so (and still strongly feel so). I expressed my angst over social networking media. At the same time I noticed that there were lot many people on the internet expressing similar views. I am from the media industry, while those people were all the tech savvy target audience. Did the channel or their advertisers notice it? Maybe not. As it was a tiny rebellion in individual spaces.

Need for a feedback mechanism. Can internet be the solution? Yes..

Let us not write off that tiny rebellion and protest. Internet has become a powerful medium. Businesses are innovating over social media to reach clients. That means if properly channelized there can be an effective feedback mechanism to media houses.

Media wants to produce content that their target audience wants. Target audience too wants a customized product called ‘news’.  Advertisers need to know if the target audience is getting what it wants. So feedbacks regarding content through open platform like social media networks is major need of the hour. There needs a creation of publicized space where all the feedbacks regarding content are collected and displayed openly to all. The data and statistics can serve as a guidance to sincere media houses in understanding the pulse of the Target Audience and creating content which the audience loves.

Imagine this…., next time a channel plays dirty, and overnight 1/6th of the country’s population tweets on a website  something like this:” we will not watch XYZ channel from tomorrow 00:00 hours until channel apologizes or removes the notorious content .” A bar graph shows 6 lakh people will not watch the channel and only 4 will continue to watch the channel. What could be the impact? Don’t you think the stakeholders and advertisers will bow down to the wishes of the masses. This mechanism applies to any media house be it TV/print/radio/new media.

I request the Target audience not to underestimate their power and please start building a feedback mechanism. Else you’ll have to settle for mediocre and unreliable content. All it needs, is a start. Good luck

Christmas celebration at TNT Parikrma Centre for Learning at Koramangala. ©Nishant Ratnakar

Click to view the gallery

Parikrma Humanity Foundation is a non-profit organization in Bangalore city. Currently, it is transforming education for underserved children from different slums in the city. Parikrma manages the entire education cycle from kindergarten to college for each child. The foundation operates the schools from four different locations in Bangalore. One of the schools is the TNT Parikrma Centre for Learning, in Koramangala. This centre had held the annual christmas day celebrations for the children couple of days before the vacation. I visited the centre on that particular day. Present in this gallery are photographs documenting the mood at the centre on that day.

Children at Gunjalli Government High School, Raichur read the children's newsletter 'Chinnara manasa'

Click to view the gallery

Prakash is a boy studying in 10th standard at Government High school Yappeldini village, about 25 kilometers from Raichur. But he lives in Donga Rampur village which is about 7 Kms away from his school and he has to cycle up and down everyday. His village school has classes only up to 7th standard. Many of Prakash’s friends form the village, mainly girls, have discontinued their studies because they find it a difficult task to cycle to their nearest High School.Prakash and his friends want the government to start a high school in his village so they can being about a change. But how will they do it? They will write about this issue in their newspaper! A newspaper which they hand-write and paste it across the walls in their village wherever people gather. It might sound childish to many, but their newspaper stories have resulted in repair of once a potholed road connecting Raichur and their village. Their newspaper Chinnara Manasa , says Prakash can make them bring about another significant change in their village.

Prakash is one of the 1143 ‘Child reporters’ of Chinnara Manasa village newsletters, mentored by UNICEF under a project spreading across 225 villages in rural areas of Raichur district in Karnataka. The project was started by UNICEF in association with the localZila Panchayat under the article 12 and 13 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ( UNCRC) which advocates right to participation. Article 12  says that every child has the right to express views on all decisions made by adults that affect children and their views must be taken into account. Article 13 states that Children have the right to get and share information, as long as the information is not damaging to them or others. In exercising the right to freedom of expression, children have the responsibility to also respect the rights, freedoms and reputations of others. The freedom of expression includes the right to share information in any way they choose, including by talking, drawing or writing.

Raichur is one of the most backward districts on Karnataka and with most people being illiterates there is lack of knowledge about health care, sanitation, education and rights. The project began with the hope of making the children to be the agents of change in Raichur.Abid Ahmed , child reporters Coordinator at Raichur, says ” Master trainers appointed by UNICEF to identify and make teams of 5 children from every village in all the high schools in this region. Students who are confident and interactive are identified and picked up to be child reporters. One day training class is held Theoretical classes are conducted on editorial policies and the way the news is to be gathered and reported. We concentrate on the language the children need to use in writing content for Chinnara Manasa newsletter. We stress them to use terms which their local villagers will be familiar with. We ask them to avoid difficult words. Also we tell them to write in big and bold letters, so that people standing at few feet distance away from the wall where the newsletter is pasted, should be able to read it. We also instruct them to avoid names of individuals and focus more on the issues.”

The program has helped in building the writing and observation skills of the children, and in making them aware of their rights. They are slowly beginning to question everyone from administrators in their schools, to local village Panchayat and to bureaucrats. Vikas Verma, Communication Specialist UNICEF says, “The basic idea of the project is that children must take part in issues in their community that affect them. They have a role to play in solving these issues at one end. And secondly, by making them look at these issues from a new perspective, we hope they would grow up to become adults who would then be able to address these issues in the same manner among their children. So it is a long term process.”

Lot of changes have been brought about by the activities of these child reporters. Cemented roads are getting built in villages, water related issues seem to be getting solved and facilities in schools seem to be improving.Thirumala reddy, a child reporter from Vadepalli village says, “The bore wells and hand pumps in our village were not operational. We wrote about it and finally a month back they repaired one hand pump in Vadepalli and now the villagers are able to get water for daily needs from it. We are really thrilled about it.” Narasimhaa, a child reporter studying in Gunjalli village says, “The work of Ramalingeshwara Gudi temple in our village had stopped. After we wrote about it ,the work has started again. Also our article has resulted in cemented roads being built in our village.” Still a lot need to be done though. Children are writing about need of more classrooms, more teachers, better toilets in schools and villages, building of drains, power supply and even more. They are hoping that it will be just a matter of time when these issues get addressed.

Not all is hunky dory though. Like every other journalistic venture even this newsletter of children has faced stiff resistance testing their determination and courage. “In a particular village, the Gram Panchayat members had confronted the children and their families, after the children wrote about problems in their village. Finally, when they realized that the program was done in association with Zilla Panchyat they had no option but to keep quite and solve the problems highlighted by the children.” says Farzana the taluk level Coordinator of the program at Raichur Taluk. A child reporter in Kudlur village said, “We wrote that people in our village need buses and then pasted the Chinnara Manasa Patrike on the walls here. Some auto drivers who were afraid of their business getting affected with the start of bus service, tore the newsletter and threw it to the garbage in front of us. Also most people don’t know to read and write and hence do not understand that we are writing issues mattering to them. They simply tear it like they tear away any movie poster. Also, children are given contact numbers of master trainers so that they can always be contacted if any issues come up during and after the newsletter is made.”

Visthar is a secular, non-profit organization, committed to enabling women, children and other marginalized sections realize their rights. Visthar campus is located at dodda gubbi post on the outskirts of Bangalore city. One of the projects at Visthar is Bandhavi – an initiative for girls hailing from North Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, who are at risk of being dedicated as devadasis. It is a residential school program that enables the rescued girls to grow as individuals, as well as build a community that lives in love, respect, trust and friendship.

Click to view gallery

My contractor badge and List of things I was carrying inside.

Recently, Chennai saw a furor when multiplexes in that city tried to ban entry of people wearing lungi (the traditional garment worn by men across southern India ). This surely was a symbol of ne0-elitism wave in our country. I faced a similar scenario during one of my assignments. But it had nothing to do with a lungi (my dad wears it, but I have never worn it). It had to do with something that most young men in this country consider it their prized possession: A bike, a two-wheeler… my dear old scooter.

ITC Royal Gardenia, the new 5 star luxury hotel in Bangalore city, was host to a Black Tie event on last Saturday night. My office had assigned me to cover this as a page3 event. I had called up one of the socialites who was to be present there and he had asked me to be there by 8:15 p.m. I reached the main gate of Royal Gardenia on time, thanks to my scooter (A Honda Activa). The security guard at the main gate informed me to enter through a different gate – Gate number 5 – as the main gate was only for cars and not for two-wheelers. I said ‘ok’, and went in search of this gate and found it to be the back gate of the hotel (Hmmm.. never mind. not an issue). This was where it all began.

As a normal procedure in any hotel I had to get off for security check. I was more than happy to have my camera bags searched, be frisked and be questioned. I informed them that I was from a newspaper and had been invited to cover a Black Tie event at the hotel, and then showed them my ID and my camera bag. They called up some place inside the hotel to find out if there was a party happening and/or to let me through. To my surprise, the guards got no confirmation of any event inside (Strike 1 !). I then called up the socialite who I had spoken to earlier about the event. He gave me the same information about the event happening close to lobby. When he understood the situation, he said he’ll ask someone from the hotel to escort me in. I waited, so did the guards. Meanwhile, the employees and contractors of Hotel kept entering and leaving the premises through the gate I was waiting at. After sometime I received a call from a hotel staff who identified himself as the coördinator for the event. He asked me to walk in through the lobby to get into the place where the party was happening. I had to repeat and tell that I was far away from the lobby and the main-gate: I was at the back gate. He asked me if it was possible for me to get back to the main entry. I said I can’t! because I was on a scooter! and if he didn’t know, ‘his hotel’ did not allow any man or woman to enter main gate on a scooter! (Strike 2 !!)

Finally, an employee from the hotel came panting to the gate to tell the guards I wasn’t lying! and I wasn’t a terrorist on a scooter! The guards said ‘ok’, but few formalities…

This was it… After entering details in a register like a visitor to any office, I was given a badge to wear (Yes, you read it correctly, a badge). The badge said CONTRACTOR! Was I a contract employee of ITC Royal Gardenia? Why would anyone invited to the hotel or even any genuine visitor to a hotel be made to wear a badge, and that too a badge called contractor? (Any answers?) (Strike 3 !!!). It didn’t end here.  I was given a sheet of paper to list out all the items in my possession, probably if I were to steal a spoon or two, or maybe a faucet from the restroom of the hotel, then I could be easily caught at the exit, as it wouldn’t have been mentioned in the list of things I was carrying inside. Else, I don’t see a reason, as no terrorist entering a hotel will declare two grenades, three AK 47s and  a rocket launcher! The hotel staff gave me a smile and he didn’t know what to say about this (Strike 4!!!!). I wrote about my camera, flash and lenses, then I asked him “Should I list out my phone too (just to make sure that i couldn’t steal a second phone!)?”.

The hotel employee escorted me to basement parking lot. Then he took me through series of doors and stairways to quickly reach the party just before it got over (I thank him at least for this). I stood there shooting photographs of familiar faces who didn’t say a word to me about that huge ‘Contractor’ badge pinned to me Shirt. For fifteen minutes, I was standing there wondering if I were a plumber hired by the hotel or somebody invited to cover an event. I was neither of the two. It didn’t matter what my job, profession, age or business in the hotel was. Ultimately it boils down to the fact that ‘I was a man on a scooter‘.  And I was to be intimidated, humiliated and made to feel that being on a scooter was being the new untouchable.

Isn’t it an irony that the very place that gives you a hostile atmosphere is actually known for hospitality business?

My dad always asks me to drive our hyundai i10. I have flatly refused because I hate driving in Bangalore traffic and would end up late on all the assignments. But I guess, for the first time I am wondering whether I should start driving our car again, just to ensure extra wheels will give me the respect which every man deserves. these days respect doesn’t seem to be given for people’s talents.

Where are we heading to? In Bangalore, the elitism divide seems to be heading to public spaces too. There is a move by government to regulate entry to places like cubbon park and lal bagh through electronic ID cards which comes at a price and is supposedly regulated at a highly restrictive application process.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

India, the home of over one billion people is a third world economy. One of the problems of the third world is unemployment, and with one billion people having few job openings, it is natural for huge number of people migrating overseas in search of opportunities to make a living and earn a better life. But migration comes with its own pros and cons. Some people attain success and some don’t. Some find themselves alienated in a different culture while others find acceptance. Some people can embrace change making peace with self and the newfound land where as others spend their lives struggling hard and yet longing for what they consider as their real home. The brand Angkor and Cambodia opened up as a new market in the last decade of 20th century after years of violence. With tourism industry booming in Cambodia, the nation became a preferred choice for many people to head there for business. Lot of Indians too followed the suit. Among them was Dharmanand Sharma, an enterprising Indian chef from the foothills of Himalayas. Sharma had years of experience working in hotels of Mumbai, Delhi and The Middle East. Sharma was well aware of the growing popularity of Indian food. With the hope of getting into restaurant business he first entered Cambodia in 1997. In the last 12 years, Sharma’s fortunes went up and down many times but ultimately he was able to set-up a successful Indian restaurant named ‘New Delhi’ in Siem Reap. And it wasn’t just excellence in profession which Sharma found in a foreign land, he also found love. Sharma found a companion in Soni, a Khmer woman. Sharma, an Indian Hindu and Soni a Khmer Buddhist, are now man and wife with each retaining their cultural identities and yet at the same time embracing new ideas to raise their multicultural family with two children. Sharma and Soni together run the restaurant business. At the opposite end of the spectrum are Indian salesmen who migrated from Gorakhpur and other rural areas of Uttar Pradesh province in northern India. Most of them have little education and were doing in low skilled jobs back in their hometowns. With limited opportunities back home, they followed one another to Siem Reap and other places in South East Asia in search of jobs that could give them better salary. Back in India, a sales rep job was always looked down upon by their friends and family. In Cambodia, they really have no relatives to pass judgement on their vocation and are happy to earn a lot more than they would have earned in India. But their work involves travelling across Cambodia carrying garments, toys, mosquito nets, watches, small electronic goods other small items and trying to sell them at door steps of peoples home. Their families are all back in India and these salesmen have only themselves to keep company. Their work brings them money but not much happiness. They find their work extremely tiring and monotonous and are unable to find alternative to what they do. They have not been able to accept Cambodia completely.

Click to see the Image gallery

The Indian mainstream media was busy preparing lead stories, that were to be made for July 4th, the American Independence day. So was the entertainment industry occupied with planning for parties, events, campaigns, promotions, sales, and all that is ‘page3′ for the same reason: Celebrating freedom!

But, all that changed with a landmark judgment by the Delhi High Court… July 2nd 2009, will go down in the pages of Indian legal history. ‘July 2nd’ will mean much more to Indian sexual minorities than what ‘July 4th’ means to Indian media.

Provisions under the Section 377 of Indian Penal Code criminalized consensual homosexual acts of adults in private. The Delhi High Court struck down this controversial section saying it violated the fundamental rights of life, liberty and equality.

Gay rights activists, lawyers and the sexual minority community across Indian sub-continent held celebrations to mark this occasion. In Bangalore, the celebrations were held at United Theological College. Here, I share with you all, the moments from that event I was witness to. A piece of history I must say.

By the way, to all my American friends… Happy Independence day:-). To all the partying crowd in my city, enjoy the Indian cocktails on Saturday night;-). But, do spare a thought for the sexual minority community who have been fighting a long battle for equality.

Cheers,
Nishant

P:S For rest of the other photographs, please visit the set on flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelling_writer/sets/72157620753060559/

Notes From the Field
- Nishant Ratnakar
Date: Monday, 11th May, 2009.
Place: D J Halli near Bangalore.

At a locality known as Moulana Compound:

Across DJ Halli: