For anyone who knows me, the thought of me writing a blog is an unreal one. I'm a technologically challenged citizen of this increasingly net driven world, I don't carry a blackberry and reluctantly acquired a laptop a few years ago. However, here's why I've joined the blogosphere....at a time when TV news is more in your face than ever, there seems to be an increasing distance between our viewers and the journalists and editors who drive the news.
So, here goes, an attempt to open a direct communication line between me and all of you out there who love, hate, or are plain indifferent to news TV, but have a zillion questions about the process and news selection and don't know who to ask.
Perhaps the most difficult part of the job ( and the most exhilarating ) is choosing the news. Deciding whether the death of five newborns in a Patiala hospital because of sheer negligence is the main headline or a Pakistan claim that Bangladesh is behind 26/11.
In the end, there is no one right answer, it's a decision driven by editorial instinct, discussed or to be more accurate 'slugged out' between 2 or 3 senior editors. For me, the indisputable 'big' stories last week : In Bhopal, a labourer attempting to kill himself, his wife and four daughters, because of poverty. Two of the little girls have died, the others are fighting for life. His three sons were left untouched. It's a story from which no easy conclusions can be drawn, did he try to kill his little girls, because he felt they wouldn't be able to manage without their parents, why have child after child when his meagre earnings could barely support two people and where is the state and its poverty alleviation programmes ? Missing in action. Ironical with a chief minister who has won a second term on the development mantra.
However, this is exactly the kind of story that is hard to represent in a one and a half minute news story, it doesn't give us a new 'headline' every day, yet we will try to ensure it is showcased and the plight of these children through the next few weeks. So, while its been a newspacked time, from the 'million dollar men' of the IPL, to the release of Pakistan's controversial nuclear scientist and the back and forth of the Indo Pak blame game, its often the story of one family that illustrates the whole India vs Bharat conundrum. But, here's my take on it and on a new series we are planning. India IS Bharat. The two sides are not pitted against each other, what's needed is a greater realisation, that the story of Shafiq and his seven children is also India's story. So is Lalit Modi's cricket extravaganza. Our India has to be more inclusive of both.
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Sonia Singh is the Managing Editor, NDTV 24x7.
