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Open Page
How Indian Tv Channels Pitched The 2009 Elections To Their Audiences
Romit Raj |
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"Election night - popcorn included"
The New York Times - the day before the 2008 US-Presidential election results were to be announced.
During the parliamentary elections in 2004, there were roughly 43 news channels in India. In 2009 as India gave another mandate to Dr. Manmohan Singh and the UPA, the number of news channels covering the democratic exercise had risen to approximately 143. This essay takes a look at how the new and robust Indian media took charge to dispense election related information to its viewership and what tactics it employed. The essay also goes to discuss the apparent trivialization of the electoral process by the Media.
Before we delve into the treatment of elections by the media, we have to spend some time discussing what Indian elections have meant over the years. There is no denying that electoral politics has been preoccupation of the Indian masses especially during the time of the elections – however the Indian masses over the years have given a special place for politics as far as preoccupations go. Very importantly for our discussion, politics as a preoccupation has not been the same as Bollywood or cricket as a preoccupation. There has always been a sense of seriousness attached to electoral politics talk – while Bollywood and cricket talk more - often than not - have been conducted as entertainment. And there is little reason to be surprised about the above mentioned fact – politics and elections have in short term and long term severely impacted the lives of a large section of Indians. For instance, the economic policies of Mahalanobis and the associated 2nd 5 year plan changed the course of India forever and – more importantly for our discussion here – the people were aware of the way Mahalanobis’ economic policy impacted the country in the short run and perhaps even the way the 2nd 5 year plan impacted it in the long run. Similar is the instance of the movement lead by Jayaprakash Narayanan against the dictatorial tendencies of Indira Gandhi.
This sense of awareness that the central government’s policies impact their individual lives perhaps emerges from the reality that the majority of Indian population still lives largely under the shadow of the state. With socialist initiatives such as the ration system, public co-operations and public sector undertakings still dictating the occupational and even personal lives of large section of the Indian population it is no surprise that central policies impact them directly.
This sense of seriousness associated with the elections has been, over the years, reflected in the Indian media as well. As far as television is concerned, till quite recently there was only the state owned Doordarshan on the offer which was unlikely to be adventurous - with election news anyway. To add to it all, the state severely controlled the media during and to a certain extent after the Indira Gandhi era. However, much of our print media was privately owned and to that extent was mostly responsible only to its readership.
TV news channels have, however, a completely new way of treating election related news now. The 2009 elections were the first to be covered by the Indian electronic media after it came of age. By that I mean, most of the news channels (and there are quite a few) were sure of how they were going to pitch the election news to their respective audiences. They knew exactly what to do in each possible outcome of the elections. One day before the counting of the results NDTV 24/7 held a show called the Numbers Game where it discussed all the possible outcomes of the elections. True, their exit poll results underestimated the number of votes that Congress was likely to get, but that however is not the point. What is pertinent is that they had already considered all the possible outcomes of the elections and had prepared a strategy to pitch all of them to their audiences. In my experience of working with the TV media, I realized that the thing the media loves most is surprising its audience - but the thing it apparently hates is being surprised. The media likes to have the news well packaged and the spectacle properly orchestrated. I remember, as a part of the news desk, in our free time we would discuss the many ways in which we could handle big news. In fact, a tentative strategy is always ready in newsrooms to deal with big news such as death of a politician, a terrorist attack or an election. Almost all the news channels, those with national as well as those with regional perspectives, were prepared to deal with the election – whatever their outcome.
During the 2009 elections, the proceedings were covered as a big event that everyone was curious about, in most cases devoid of the traditional seriousness associated with them. Often election events were compared and associated with the other preoccupations of the media – such as cricket (more often than not 20-20, the form of cricket most devoid of traditional seriousness associated with the game) and Bollywood. It makes sense here to look at some of the gimmicks that Indian electronic media pulled off during elections to better understand this sentiment
1) NDTV 24/7 – Before and during polls – 24/7 while describing contests in key constituencies or contests between key leaders used to lay out a cricket pitch with the camera zooming into the pitch. On one side of the pitch was the photograph of one leader and the party and on the other side of the other leader and his/her respective party.
2) CNN IBN – On counting day (as India counted its votes at an unprecedented pace making it an ideal day for the kind of coverage the electronic media loves – live coverage) a CNN IBN anchor was continuously comparing the unfolding of the counting process to an IPL game. The anchor made a remark that exemplifies what I am trying to say – just before taking a break (and breaks are very occasional on counting day) he said something like this: “ let this be like a strategy brake in an IPL 20-20, the parties can now regroup and rethink strategy.”
3) NDTV 24/7 – Now that it had become clear that Rahul Gandhi had had a significant impact on these elections NDTV like all other channels found the need to run specials on him. For a promo to a similar show footage and stills of the young leader were run with a background score of a recent Bollywood film Main Hun Na – The title track of the movie which translates as ‘Not to worry, I am here’ was used in a completely literal sense.
Using a Bollywood track literally while covering election related news was used extensively by national as well as the regional electronic media.
4) Talk Shows on various channels – Talk shows on various channels while talking to the public continuously compared and associated elections with the IPL.
These instances are only a small portion of similar gimmicks that were pulled off by the Indian media during the coverage of the 2009 elections.
What has prompted the electronic media in our country to assume that their audiences are ready to expect such trivialization of the electoral process? To answer that question we have to look into the mentality of who the Indian electronic media is talking to or maybe what they believe is the mindset of the audiences they are talking to. Since different channels address different segments we could get a sense of who a channel is talking to by studying the advertisements. In the categories listed below I will discuss news channels in India, the ads placed in these channels and the audiences for the channels. In my discussion of the distribution of advertisements among the categories, I will focus on those ad groups that significantly differ among the categories and ignore the overlap simply for convenience.
Our first category is a section of India’s English national media. This is what I would like to call the elite national English media. In my mind there is no better exponent of this category than NDTV 24/7 and CNN IBN. The ads in this category would include high-end automobiles such as sedans and high-end real estate investment opportunities. Another segment from the financial industry that spends heavily on advertising on this category is high-end investment instruments such as mutual funds, direct equity investments and insurance investments. These ads will spill over into the second segment as well but I will discuss reasons for that later. High end electronic equipment is also advertised in this category – (by high end electronic equipment I mean exclusive mobile phones, refrigerators, designer kitchens etc.)
These channels covered the parliamentary elections of 2009 as a celebration of democracy. If one followed their telecast closely, it would have been difficult not to notice that the electoral process was being portrayed from the perspective of an outsider. Democracy for these channels and its audiences, I would argue is something of an abstraction. Free and fair elections - for them - are apparently a moral concern and not something that they believe will affect them at a personal level. The first thing that comes to my mind while discussing fair elections as a ‘moral issue’, is the jaago re campaign by Tata Tea. The jaago re voting campaign made it a moral issue to vote – you had to vote as it is morally incumbent upon you to do so, not because you as a citizen of the country have a personal stake in its governance. The jaago re campaign would have worked the best when placed in category 1 channels, as its audience are receptive to moral prodding and see their political inclinations as owing to principles. Why does this section of the population share this disassociated relationship with the electoral process? My suggestion is that they believe that they are largely immune to the outcome of the elections. Their interest is intellectual and distant because they constitute the ‘ruling class’ that is not disturbed regardless of the nominal changes in the people who exercise political power individually.
Let us move on to our second category of channels. This category is constituted by the ‘Non-Elite English national media’ and the national Hindi Media. Channels that fall into this category include Times Now, Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, Star News and other Hindi national channels. The typical ads in placed in these channels that differ significantly from our first category will include ads for domestic and electronic appliances from startup companies, ads for a range of medium range underwear. Another segment that feels it shares audiences with category 2 channels is the small time FMCG group. These are smaller companies than say TATA or Hindustan Lever and they do not advertise in category 1 channels. Category 2 channels showed no inhibitions in covering the elections as entertainment. It was in this category more than the other 2 that one saw the closest similarity of treatment between the elections and IPL.
What emerges from studying the advertising pattern differences between category 1 and category 2 channels is that a large section of category 2 audiences also consist of the mobile middle class that inhabit a large section of India’s small to medium sized towns and cities. This section of the population has seen (and continues to see) a tremendous rise in its purchasing power in the recent pass. However this section does not claim to any form of cultural leadership and rather focuses its energies on advancement and consumption, and hence is most likely to accept canned election news.
The third and final categories of channels consist of the vernacular regional media (even though the recent breed of English regional channels is also likely to fit in this category). Typical channels in this category are TV9 based in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and a few other states. Zee Networks also has a large network of vernacular channels. One is most likely to see advertisements for local bands on these channels. From ads for city or state based small retail chains to ads for local FMCGs, these channels have only a local reach as far as advertising is concerned. Apart from local brands, even smaller national brands that have focused sales in some part of the country may advertise in vernacular media on these channels.
Audiences for category 3 channels are most likely to include a section of the population that takes direct participatory interest in the elections and democratic process. This section of the population is likely to consist of the lower middle class and the poorer classes in both India’s large cities and small towns. As the purchasing power of this class is significantly lower than that of the other two classes, it is not insulated from government policies. This section of the audience is unlikely to accept election news in the same breath as IPL news. Therefore the 2009 election coverage of the vernacular media consisted of highlighting local issues that are likely to impact the voting behavior in specific constituency. Everyday issues such as drinking water and sanitation problems were raised by these channels during the elections.
The foregoing leads us to conclude that there are broadly three categories of television audiences in their responses to the electoral process: 1) the elite class to which elections are a process that one is morally bound to participate in because democracy is a good thing 2) the upwardly mobile class which regards it as excitement comparable to the IPL 3) a not-so-well-off class to which elections are important because the political party that rules could influence its everyday life. Although I have not looked at it here, it would appear that it is the third category that is most likely not to forego its right to vote.
Romit Raj finished his undergraduate studies in economics a year back. After a brief exposure to the news media, he now works in the field of online media in Bangalore while actively pursuing a career in academics.
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