Localisation at prime time

I researched localisation and trivialisation of news on Prime Time, a daily news bulletin on IBN Lokmat (in Marathi). Localisation refers to the practise of adapting news content to suit the readers or viewers in a particular geographical area. The study observed content on Prime Time over ten days from 3^rd to 13^th February, 2011. Six viewers were also interviewed. An average episode of the show, aired between 9 pm and 9.45 pm on week days and for half an hour on weekends, has 6 main stories and one or two light stories. The latter are eliminated if there is a breaking news item.

(Stories that were both local and national have been counted twice in both columns. Figures have been rounded off)
 

Local stories come from different genres such as crime and politics, education, environment, culture and civic affairs. However, economic and sports stories are never local. At 41.8%, they come a close second to national stories. Sensational local stories, like the Sonawane murder case, are repeated over and over.
 

Examples of good local stories included the candle march in remembrance of the German bakery blast on 13^th February, the coverage of the ban on onion market in Nagpur from 10^th to 12^th February, and a special report on smugglers flourishing in Mumbai’s coastal areas on 10^th February. Examples of expendable local stories would be a speculative story on whether Shiv Sena would impede Valentine’s Day celebrations on 13^th February  
 

National stories usually revolve around crime, politics, sports and entertainment. Examples include regular updates on the 2G spectrum scam, speculative stories on the world cup and inflation. There is lack of coverage of national environmental and educational issues.  
 

A majority of respondents said they preferred local stories as they thought they were more relevant, they could connect with them, they were interesting and they affected their way of living and the choices they made. Sixty-seven percent of responded said they preferred local news and 33 per cent said they preferred national and international stories.
 

Though international news accounts for only 11% of the content on average, there were updates on the Egyptian protests nearly every day with lengthy coverage. On 5^th February, 2011, the story on three Pakistani cricketers being accused of spot fixing was given the number one spot in the bulletin and termed ‘breaking news’.
 

(Percentages refer to number of stories. Several stories fell in both categories – as they were crime stories involving politicians. I have included those stories in both sections hence each day’s percentages might not add up to 100.)

 

Crime and politics occupy almost an equal portion of a day’s stories on Prime Time. Together, they account for nearly all the stories on an average show. There are very few stories on education and civic issues. Political stories are international (developments in the Arab world) as well as local and national (mergers, A Raja and 2G, Aadarsh, etc).
 

Crime stories are usually of national importance, such as Indians stashing black money abroad and the follow up on Ajmal Kasab’s court verdict. However, the Yashwant Sonawane murder case, which was local, received top billing during the period under study. Local sports are never covered and cricket takes the prime spot to the exclusion of other sports
 

Stories on education, civic affairs and culture are always local and are of poor quality. Economic and environmental issues and education receive minimal coverage, accounting for less than 5% of stories. Entertainment and culture are the most covered section after crime and politics.
 

The channel is notorious for not translating bytes that are not in Marathi. I found just one or two instances where there was translation. In the Egypt protest stories, most of the English bytes were no translated. Bytes of Sharad Pawar and Arun Shourie in English went without translation. It isn’t even as though all these bytes were ‘live’ and hence more difficult to translate. At one point the translation of an Egyptian dignitary’s byte was out of sync.
 

Anchors spoke at length (up to five minutes) at the start of every episode and after every break (for around two minutes). There was also excessive repetition of text already visible.
 

The order of stories often did not correspond to their prominence. The day on which the story on Pakistani cricketers was highlighted, the one on the 2km long lines for school admissions was placed in the seventh position. On one occasion there was no flow between the stories.
 

Text and visuals were repeated over and over when Bhujbal was on the Sonawane crime scene, in the Adarsh scam story as well in the case of the Pakistani cricketers. The fact that visuals were repeated even in a story such as the ban on using plaster for Ganesh idols, clearly shows a lack of effort.
 

Updates of ongoing stories often had repetitions rather than new information. This was the case with the Sonawane, 2G and Egypt stories. This was despite the fact that readers had shown interest in follow. A majority indicated they would have liked more information rather than repetitions.
 

Prime Time often uses questions in the ticker to heighten viewer interests asking (in translation) `Is it right for CBI to ask for questioning?’ or `Government has granted house but where are the houses’, or `when will the question of onions be solved?’ These questions could be put to experts and parties concerned. The questions are speculative at times such as, `Will the government bow to pressure from opponents?’ (2G).
 

It is rather ironic that a Marathi show should have a name like Prime Time, or else it might reflect the outlook of the outwardly mobile Marathi viewership.
 

The channel should also curb the tendency to use the word `live’ in an inappropriate manner. It should be used to indicate live coverage of an event rather than the reporter going live on a channel.

Making India’s victory in a practice match ‘breaking news’ was a little excessive and visuals of grieving women in the 13^th February story on the murder of a Haryana woman seemed to infringe on their privacy. The inclusion of VV S Laxman’s byte on the German Bakery story was quite irrelevant.

The show had some excellent documentary like stories. The special report after the onion farmers’ protest story on 11^th February was an excellent touch and described how onion prices are decided. Thus it addressed the root cause of the problem. Similar was the case with the story on smugglers flourishing in Mumbai's waters.
 

Every show ends with softer stories such as a fashion show to help A. K. Hangal, a kite festival at Marine Drive and the Kala Ghoda arts festival which were appreciated by half the viewers interviewed in this study. A third of the viewers did not care for this type of coverage.