The (Idiot) Box
The Jungle Book, Malgudi Days, TeleSpin, Duck Tales, Alladin, Chandrakanta, Three Stooges, I Dream of Jeannie, Dennis the Menace, Shaktimaan – These are the few TV shows I can recollect I have grown up with. With time the flavour of the TV shows and soaps have changed significantly and in a way that can not be easily comprehended. To conclude whether the overall change in TV viewing is positive or negative may be a difficult task even for the accomplished critics.
The TV channels have come up with new and newer technologies to give the viewers improved visual experience. At the same time, many channels, which are supposed to be providing information, try providing cheap entertainment which results in meaningless air. Many shows, which are supposed to be providing light family entertainment, provide stupid stories to fool fools. There are popular (and very popular) daily soaps which in fact don’t have any kind of story in them (it is completely my perception 
). But, everyday they try to put something interesting for their dear viewers. May the content be stupid, what matters is the TRP. There are so many people in our country who like those kind of shows. The characters and stories in the serials are sometimes the topic to discuss in parties and all. The marriage of the lead character in a serial takes thirty episodes which includes two episodes when she is upset with her hair-style. A character who plays a mother looks much younger than his daughter. And above all… you can never be confirmed whether a character is alive or dead; never when it is a lead character. Even after getting a bullet in the forehead a character gets well with minor memory problems.
Stories like these (and weirder) are aired daily in the TV channels and they are very popular also. Of course they don’t force anyone to watch their shows (thank god!!). What makes things irritating is – you switch to a news channel and you find that it is showing the stories and updates of those stupid TV soaps and it is trying its best to keep the program spicier than the actual serial. In the bollywood movie ‘Peepli Live’, Anusha Rizvi (the director) has done a great work to show up to what level media can go to earn TRP. The movie depicts exactly (and more sarcastically) what happens in the channels which boast themselves as providing news and information to the viewers.
But, then there are few TV channels which really provide information and news. Few TV channels like Discovery, National Geographic and Fox History provide shows which I find very interesting and at the same time, intensely informative.
The same theory for inventions applies in case of Television also – An invention is always great; the result depends on the users. When we are watching TV, we expect both entertainment and information. That’s exactly what it provides. Isn’t it?
nice post.