It’s true, trash TV sells
I entered the world of television in Pakistan aiming to inform and educate people through this powerful medium of expression. I took immense pride in my job but the comfort bubble burst soon enough. Not so long ago, I realised that everyone on TV is like a salesman, trying hard to sell a product. Sometimes the salesman goes to any length to make a living out of the product being sold. When you go to buy a product, every salesman tries to get your attention and aims to convince you that his product is the best (even if that product can ...
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TV talk shows: Today’s violent idiom
Why do the participants of political debates on our TV channels shout so much? And why do they all talk at the same time? And keep talking? And why, while all of them are shouting at the top of their voices, does this creature called the anchor, jump into the fray? I happened to believe that a recent debate on one of the channels, which featured a minister, a political analyst and a very decent lady on the panel, may be worth watching. To my surprise, however, the participants had all come armed and prepared for a violent exchange. The opening ...
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Pakistan’s ticking media bomb
It is rather disturbing to see television show anchors pretending to be political analysts. Their so-called analysis is usually hype-creating propaganda. Somehow, they have developed the notion that they are superior to politicians and their naive, idealistic ideas are the solution to Pakistan’s problems. They demean politicians to the extent that self-respecting political leaders have stopped appearing on guest panels. This in turn leads to the anchor of one television channel appearing as analysts on another channel as guests. Without any political background or knowledge, they go on harping about the future of Pakistan, not realising the consequences of ...
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The crisis of Pakistani television
There is something wrong with our electronic media. It has no decency left, what with thrusting microphones in front of grieving mothers and sisters. It is also shocking to turn on the TV and hear so-called experts on foreign affairs talking on prominent Urdu channels about tearing India apart ’along its inherent fault lines’, containing Israel by coercion or threatening it with nuclear bombs to ‘twist’ America’s arm and making it accede to our terms. (Incidentally, apart from rhetoric, these experts have no practical way to accomplish any of this.) The idea of unifying the Muslim Ummah is good, but stating that the ...
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The secret diary of a news anchor
News anchoring is quite underrated in Pakistan. People regard it as merely reading a script written by brilliant copy editors. But after one month as a professional news anchor on Express 24/7 and I have realized what a misconception this is. When I told some of my friends about my new job, they asked me why not a show? My response was – why not news? Is news anchoring only about reading off the prompter? Surprisingly, news anchoring is still an alien concept to a lot of people I’ve come across. A lot of times the response I get is, “Oh so what is ...
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