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How We Turned Our News Agencies Into Drama Queens
As I sat watching Kannada news on TV 9 in Bangalore, all I could think of was how such a drama queen of a network came to be a prominent news agency in my hometown.
Every political event, road accident, protest or communal conflict, was accompanied with a liberal dose of bombastic and appropriately dramatic music. The headlines across the TV screen were ludicrous. “WAR BREAKING” was all I saw … not for the first few days … but for the first two months of the Ukraine war. Unnecessarily colloquial or cinematic voices and words were constantly used by the newscasters to subtly embellish or sometimes blatantly augment the truth. Picture in picture, highlighted and circled sections in the footage was used indiscriminately. Multi-sectioned screens showing all sides of full blown shout down arguments was the only way any “discussion” was presented. Constant repetition of all the above was the meat of the news coverage. TV 9 just made me laugh all the time while older members of my family told me to be serious about all this important news.
