Times of India - hallmark of Yellow Journalism . Review on The Times Of India

Yellow Journalism – a brief history:

Yellow journalism – the word brings a lot of irritation and discomfort. Here is a brief history of yellow journalism:

In 1898, newspapers provided the major source of news in America. At this time, it was common practice for a newspaper to report the editor's interpretation of the news rather than objective journalism. If the information reported was inaccurate or biased, the American public had little means for verification. With this sort of influence, the newspapers wielded much political power. In order to increase circulation, the publishers of these papers often exploited their position by sponsoring a flamboyant and irresponsible approach to news reporting. After Pulitzer began publishing color comic sections that included a strip entitled ''The Yellow Kid'' in early 1896, this type of paper was labeled ''yellow journalism.'' Though the term was originally coined to describe the journalistic practices of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst proved himself worthy of the title. Today, it is his name that is synonymous with ''yellow journalism''.

The Times of India, the leader of Yellow Journalism in India:

Now, we talk about the Times of India (TOI), the flagship brand of Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd. The first edition of The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce was launched in Mumbai in 1838 – a fairly long history, at that. It is argued that the TOI is the world’s largest circulated English broadsheet daily with 21,44,842 copies across ten cities across the Indian sub-continent with readership of over 4 million people.

The newspaper started quietly in the city of Bangalore and has risen to the status of No.1 over the years. Well, thanks to a good team of sales personnel, good distributors, nice marketing strategy and sadly, great deal of yellow journalism.

One has to admit that TOI came in as a breath of fresh air in the otherwise drab environment existent at that time with the Deccan Herald (DH) ruling the roost. Well, then DH had a great deal of attitude due to a virtual monopoly. I personally experienced their arrogant attitude when I was working as an executive with an advertising agency in Bangalore. TOI was always cooperative and agency-friendly – part of their overall marketing strategy, I am sure.

As they grew in circulation, they slipped in their quality of journalism that was always a suspect from the beginning. What we see today is complete BS in the form of news in the newspaper. TOI has championed the cause of sensationalism and displays remarkable immaturity in reporting events.

Headlines – a misnomer?

Their choice of headlines never fails to raise an eyebrow. There was a headline, around last year, about an actress’ double - if she existed or not. Who cares, man?! I am sure the director/producer of the movie paid for it to have some kind of publicity for his movie. Shouldn't a headline have some kind of national importance? TOI seems to completely disagree with such things.

Between September 22nd and 29th, many days one saw the Saurav Ganguly - Greg Chappell controversy as a consistent headline. When it started, I can understand the issue could have been an important one, as cricket is almost a religion in India. However, wasn’t the news about the Indian Government’s decision to vote in favor of the European resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency asking Iran to comply with its nuclear obligations a more important and suitable headline? This could have far-reaching implications on our bid to lay a pipeline from Iran via Pakistan to India. Though the Indian strategy has been a bid to be perceived as a responsible power and garner Congressional support from US for our nuclear pursuits for energy, the decision could potentially have a commercial impact on the nation in the future. Ignoring such important developments and making it a side item only reduces the respect (if there is some) for TOI as a newspaper.

Going a bit deeper in to the news about Saurav and Greg Chappell, the thing that hit me was the childish way it was reported. It was literally in the tone of “I told you first” and “Didn't I tell you earlier” – in a typical way one child would tell another about a trivial thing. More like gossip and less like real journalism. TOI has degraded the standard of journalism in the country by gaining market share via sheer sensationalism and having the powers-that-be in their good books by supporting them and also through their infamous parties. The various arms of the media group work in tandem to strengthen each other via cross promotion - the loser is the consumer.

Branding – the TOI way:

Another irritating way of the TOI is to start branding people as icons and sex symbols. You and I know what they tried doing to Sania Mirza. The pictures they post on their papers are chosen to titillate people and fire their imaginations (if they left any scope for that). This also contributed heavily to the backlash of religious leaders of her community that asked her to dress conservatively. We are aware of the fact that sportspersons often find themselves exposing the wrong things unintentionally. Responsible journalism needs to have some kind of moral code of conduct to focus on their sport and not on such things. Sania has been progressing rather well and can do without the media distracting her from her sport.

The Page-3 is definitely another marketing gimmick that drives their circulation. There are either those that look for themselves there or those that want to see someone they know. Leave out the real ‘celebrities’; the wannabes of the urban yuppie crowd are their target. That is a sheer waste of the serious reader's money – who wants to see some ‘Diya’ having a birthday bash or a ‘Dave’ “chilling out” at a lounge bar? Save us, we don't want to pay for those useless extra pages!

Sense & Sensibility – Needed!

God knows where this will lead or when (at all) it would end. Unfortunately Deccan Herald, that only had spelling errors and untimely omissions or truncation of their articles has started copying TOI. Help them, God! Give them some sense…

Well, to end this rather long write-up, I’d say one thing – we the people should start discouraging yellow journalism and get them to be straight and honest. We don’t want an opinion; we are capable of that on our own. Can you give us pure, unadulterated news?

Grow up, TOI, we are waiting!