By Hajrah Mumtaz
As the country’s media networks continue to expand, there are the inevitable questions of quality. Talk to someone in the industry and question programming quality, and one of the most frequent replies one hears is “but this is what the people want”, usually with reference as evidence to advertising revenues.
This is not, however, credible evidence for the popularity of any programme. The number of advertisements a show receives is in no way a measure of its popularity among the viewing public. All such figures prove is that marketing executives approve of the programme, or that the programme mirrors what the advertisers believe people will like.
In point of fact, between them media producers and advertising agencies try to interpret what viewers will like, and then end up dictating the viewers’ options. And since producers and advertisers have a more or less similar profile — they are educated, urban and professional – it is hardly surprising that their opinions tend to match about the probable aesthetics and choices of the millions of Pakistanis who do not share the same profile.
These millions – the people, the masses – remain faceless and in terms of at least their viewing choices, voiceless as well. Only a fraction of them are urban, professional or educated, and they could not be more different from the advertising executives and the media tycoons. So basically, what people want to watch is remains unknown. A credible opinion poll about viewer preferences held across the country would answer the question, but it is difficult to imagine precisely how this could be managed. Until the methods of gathering information on such subjects are expanded to somehow reach the country’s rural population, the poor and the generally overlooked, the best one can say of results obtained through random-digit telephone surveys or questionnaires, for example, is that they reflect the interests of the people of a certain city, class or background.
Meanwhile, media networks end up force feeding the audience with programming that they consider of interest and suitability. In doing so, they not only subliminally indoctrinate the audience by removing options, they also mould that audience’s interests. If your choice lies between 50 versions of household drama, situational comedy or romance telefilm, you’d end up watching at least a fraction of them, even if your real area of interest is science or farming or history – areas where there is very little local programming. Asked which shows you prefer, you’d refer to the most palatable of the available options rather than the programmes you’d actually like to see but nobody produces, either through the lack of resources or of imagination.
A case in point is the disproportionately high number of television programmes concerning politics. Talk shows, interviews, analyses, discussion fora, face-offs … the number of ways we have developed of retelling the same usually sorry story is quite remarkable. Are the people of Pakistan actually interested in such programming or do they watch it by default? Perhaps the many ways of discussing the similar stories ends up whipping the audience up into hysteria? (Although one must concede that these days there is a lot happening that is newsworthy.) There is currently no conclusive evidence either way. Certainly, speculating on the political scene is one of the nation’s favourite hobbies. On the other hand, the low number of people who bother to cast a vote is also a measure of their real interest in the political process.
It appears as though much of the country’s programming is geared towards the producers’ interests. It could be that because they are drawn to certain topics, they believe that everyone else is too. On the other hand, if responses to incidents such as the May 12 Karachi violence or the ‘lawyers movement’ are taken as indicators, then our programming is successful in drawing viewers into the crises, rendering them not spectators on the sidelines but active participants.
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Source: Dawn
Date:4/18/2010
