A wise old journalist once said : bad news will fi nd you , but you have to fi nd good news . When it comes to TV media in Pakistan , this couldn ’ t be truer . After all , when a bomb explodes , it explodes on every channel , the coverage of which is always the same on each . The race begins : you start with a bright BREAKING NEWS , from which you move onto fi rst visuals ( with a giant EXCLU- SIVE scrolling across the screen , of course ). Also read : ‘ We reported it blowing up fi rst !’ But while you ’ re waiting for the reporter and satellite van to get to the site of the attack for the initial visuals , you have to naturally take beepers from analysts to discuss what is always discussed : Who is responsible ? Is this a security failure ? Has NAP failed ? Has Zarb-i-Azb been pointless ? Who should resign ? Depending on how long it takes the reporter to reach the site , you can always repeat this process with any analyst and politician who answers the phone . In the meantime , you have some very diffi cult editorial decisions to make , for instance , which scenes of sorrow you want to include in the inevitable montage , and more importantly , what sad music to play over this montage . Once the reporter arrives at the scene and asks survivors the all-important question : ‘ Aap ko kaisa mehsoos ho raha hai ’, you ’ ve got your sound byte . Ready to use again and again ... and again . There isn ' t a single TV channel in the country that doesn ' t follow the above formula . Beyond the BREAKING NEWS What we rarely see , however , is the humanity among the horror : The rickshaw driver who rushed to the scene of the blast to save the wounded ; the doctor who operated for hours on end with insuffi cient supplies to save lives and mend broken bodies ; the policeman who gave his life so others may live . But you will never hear of these stories . And , that ’ s because they have to be found , they have to be sought out . All of which takes work , hard work . Why would you want to make an effort when you can
7 | BOOM
ARTICLE
Bad news = good ratings — The Pakistani media ' s formulaic demise
apply the simple formula of doing what everyone else is doing ? Why bother to verify facts when you can just copy another channels ’ ticker ? Why confi rm a story when you can just run it as having come from ‘ zarai ’? The same formula largely applies to talk shows as well . A blind following Let ’ s say there is a political crisis , as there is every other week in Pakistan . Now , you could try and understand its roots , its causes and its effects and try to analyse the crisis without making it sound like the Day of Judgement is at hand , while also not boring your audience to death . You could do that , but this also requires work . Instead , why not apply the formula of choice : simply call in representatives from opposing political parties , give an intro and then have them fi ght with each other on air ( they are usually quite polite once the cameras are not recording ) and fi nally , wrap up with a : “ Agar humaray leaders aisay hi hain to is mulk ka kya ho ga ? Yeh to aanay waala kal hi batayay ga ”. If there is no political cri- sis at hand , then you can always go with evergreen topics like : ‘ Kya honay waala hai ?’, ‘ Civil-military relations kahan jaa rahay hain ?’, etc . And if all else fails , you can always invite Sheikh Rasheed . If you do this often enough , it becomes the norm . It becomes the expected standard and any deviation from that is found to be shocking . Add to this the ‘ bher chaal ’ of the Pakistani media and you ’ ll understand why this successful format is copy-pasted on every channel . But , what if you were to try something new ? Something different ? Something that doesn ’ t rely on shouting matches or sensationalism to get the point across ? Can you do that and still not be boring in this industry ? As a talk show host myself , I defi nitely think it is possible , ‘ Lekin yeh to aanay waalay kal ki ratings hi batayain gi ’.