A decade ago the media in India was yet to realize its true potential. Those with a pleasant face and a good voice and diction were hired as newsreaders. All they had to do was to deliver the news with clarity and impassiveness. Some are remembered because they distinguished themselves with their voice, which is no small feat to achieve.
Today’s news is no longer keen on clarity and impassiveness. The news presenters have a growingly tougher job. They have to compete and prove the need for their existence against the longer and/or repetitive grainy video clips with voiceovers. What to do?
Upgrade.
The news presenters proudly showcase their tiny laptops with HP or Acer or Vaio stickers posters on them – advertisements – on shiny desks along with the thin news pads and Parker Vectors. They present themselves in glossier costumes and accessories and make fashion statements with their weird hairdos. Compare the scene with the past when you could not tell whether the DD newsreader was sitting in a 3×3 square feet solitary cell or a large studio hall with many other programs being simultaneously filmed. No wonder there are blogs like the Spicy Newsreaders.
That isn’t it.
They graduate themselves closer to analysts, and you know what news analysts should do. Talk to each other, nod heads, bend the body visibly towards the other speaker, clasp hands when not speaking, wave hands while speaking, clasp hands again when not speaking. Imagine the IPL 2009 or the 15th General Elections coverage.
Where do they learn these things? Herbert Stempel in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show explains in his testimony that they were trained: how and when to bite the lower lip, to tap and not rub the brow, to hold the chin between the thumb and the forefinger, and many other things. Body language courses must be depressing.
In primary school we had to fold our hands and place a finger on our lips. As we moved to higher classes we had to clasp our hands and place them on the desks. Forty little students in uniforms all looking cute and disciplined and adorable. Of course, we could not sit still for longer than a minute. When I try to imagine adults in a similar arrangement I am not reminded of any smart well-disciplined military regiment but of the unpleasant farce in EVV Satyanarayana’s Jambalakadipamba.
Let me remind you of what John Keating said in Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society. Now we all have a great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even though the herd may go, “That’s baaaaad.” Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Break out! John Keating meant it in a larger context and therefore gave his class the walking exercise. Remember when Nuwanda exercised his right not to walk?
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