One of my favourite stories about journalists and journalism is this one (probably an urban legend but one which I can identify with):

"Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?"

Anyone who is following newschannels in India will be familiar with a camera in some poor sod’s face and the standard question ‘aapko kaisa laga? . The person may be sitting there with their hands and legs blown up or with a family member dead – but the question still prevails –

‘terrorists have blown up your home, every member of your family is dead, you have multiple injuries, – how do you feel?

I am surprised that till date no one has punched a reporter in the nose and said – this is how i feel! A lot of the inanity that we hear spewed on news channels is primarily because most of their reporters don’t have a grip on the content that theyare covering – either in terms of issues or in terms of personalities involved. Nor, very often, the maturity or the detatchment to deal with tragedies or larger issues. News reporters across the board were shrill and over wrought when presenting the Mumbai blasts, as they were when they present all most everything. But, given that in many channels Aishwarya Rai’s fluctuating weight (replete with graphical representation) is considered to be news – it is hardly surprising that organisations are spending very little in training their people on how to gather, present and report news of other types. I almost keeled over with laughter when i read this:

The former Home Minister Indrajit Gupta was one day doggedly pursued by a young journalist on his way out of parliament. When he finally agreed to stop for the news crew, he was asked the probing question. "Sir, would you please say something". The second question was "and Sir, who are you?"

Such level of ignorance is hardly surprising. Reading habits are almost non existent – my constant threat to my students – many of whom end up in news channels – is to give them an exam question that describes the college library in great detail:) A suggestion here would be an industry body ‘minimum knowledge’ (as opposed to minimum qualifications) criteria for those who are to be in thenews media – and some sort of consensus on the training of those who gather and present news. It is more than makeovers, and pretty clothes and pouts – it is about being the 4th estate. The watch dog as such.