On 18th April 1930, the BBC announced that there was no news today and played piano music instead. What stops the news channels of the world from doing that today?
Since when did it become more important to keep people glued to their TVs instead of providing the news for the day and letting them go and enjoy their day. I think not all blame can be put on news channels for this. There are two factors to consider here; let’s have a look at them. The first factor states that a news channel isn’t a not for profit organization. They need revenue to pay salaries, operational expenses, and several other costs included in collecting news and disseminating it. A source of this revenue is advertisements. The longer people keep a news channel, the more ads they’ll watch. When a news channel has a healthy viewer base glued to their channel, they can demand a higher price for broadcasting these advertisements.
Secondly, no commodity - a product or service will be in abundant supply unless there is a demand for it.
This is where the blame falls on us, the people who watch these channels. We have a disability appreciate silence. We’re consistently filling our stream of consciousness with one thing or another. We’re constantly watching TV, or we’re on social media or we’re watching videos on YouTube or playing games on mobile. Silence, as it would be, is unbearable for us.
I think it is the second factor that we must address. As I mentioned earlier, no commodity will be in abundant supply unless there is a demand for it. Though, can the innocuous audience influence the news channels? Aren’t the new channel influencing the audience? I think it works both ways. News channels do influence us, but news channels are also influenced by us. Have you observed that a news channel will broadcast an incident in a manner that resonates with their target audience? I’d like to address this question in a separate blog in detail.
What’s important is we start appreciating silence and make a room for silence in our lives. I don’t mean the one-minute silence we observe when someone dies, but real silence. The kind of silence that happens when we’re not filling our consciousness with information or entertainment but simply letting it be. Do I mean we should all be silently meditating on the top of a mountain? No! News has value and it must reach people. Though, noise, propaganda, and hooks to keep them glued to the TV shouldn't.
