Uday Shankar, News Director, Aaj Tak
We try to make news a personal experience, believes Aaj Tak. The 24-hour, buzzing Hindi news channel, initially started as a 30-minute news and current affairs program on DD Metro in 1995.
We try to make news a personal experience, believes Aaj Tak. The 24-hour, buzzing Hindi news channel, initially started as a 30-minute news and current affairs program on DD Metro in 1995.Satisfied with Aaj Tak's performance, Uday Shankar, News Director, Aaj Tak feels that speed, credibility and comprehensiveness of coverage are the most important attributes for a news channel to succeed
Uday has worked with TV Today for three years, and was involved with the conceptualization and launch of Aaj Tak channel. Prior to that, Uday played a crucial role in the launch of news bulletin on Zee TV in year 1995; he also set up current affairs division for Sri Adhikari Brothers.
In conversation with exchange4media's Nikhil Gupta, Uday gives insights into Aaj Tak's content strategy, its positioning and emerging categories of news.
Q. On ethics and values held by Aaj Tak… "Be completely impartial, accurate and truthful."
Q. On the unique editorial proposition of Aaj Tak… Fastest and a feel of what viewers want."
Q. On emerging categories of news… "I think a lot many people are looking at news, which inspires them. So far the news has been very impersonal, more and more the change is coming where the news channels are trying to focus the news to individual viewer, for people to relate to it. Another category, is the news you can use. "
Q. On the reason behind sharp increase in viewership numbers… There was a huge gap in the market, as news had followed a certain pattern in this country until then. We felt the viewers wanted news to be more dynamic, they wanted news that affected their lives, they wanted liveliness, they wanted color, they wanted pace and they wanted to feel a part of the news. They did not wanted to be passive receivers of news they wanted active participants of news. And we feel Aaj Tak did that, so, there was a gap, which existed and there was a news delivery that we could provide, which had not been offered until then. "
Q. On the target audience of Aaj Tak… "Broadly, anyone who is interested in what's happening around the world, especially what's happening in this country, in a more focused way what's happening that is going to affect the lives of the people. In terms of age profile the target audience is in range of 18-45, urban, upwardly mobile, educated, urban because the cable doesn't reach rural areas. Its not that we exclude rural areas, but Cable TV doesn't reaches to rural areas."
Q. On the important attributes a news channel… "Credibility, speed and comprehensiveness of the coverage. Before Aaj Tak happened, news in this country was considered something that happened in and around India. But, we were able to convince the viewers that no matter wherever, no matter which part of the country, wherever news happens Aaj Tak will be able to deliver it. And after one month of our launch as a news channel, a disastrous event like the Bhuj earthquake happened, and Aaj Tak was there. The kind of coverage Aaj Tak gave had not been seen in this country, because we were able to show all the dimensions of the tragedy, and the entire struggle. We were able to get the whole country to share the grief and the tragedy that was at the time only felt by the people of Gujarat. On the other hand when the September 11th happened, we were again the first ones to land a team over there. Even when the peace conference was happening in the West Germany, Aaj Tak decided to land a team over there, we were the only ones who decided to send a team there, even though it was Afghanistan and we were not a key player then also we felt the need to send a team there, but we felt the Indian viewers had the right to know about that, and as a result of that there was a bond we created with the viewer.
Q. On the definition of news. And changes in it over time… "Anything that affects the life of the people. And 'yes' the definition is changing over time because in past, news was delivered in a talking down approach, journalists liked to sit down and decide what is good for the people of this country to know about. We turned that around. We felt it was not right for us to sit and judge what people should see, or what people should be told. We decided to be unbiased, impartial and bring as many dimensions of the story as possible and let people make the judgement. We wanted to give people the opportunity to make informed choices, that's the difference we were able to make."
Q. On the reason behind gory images on news channels… "Television news is going through stage of evolution in this country. History of television news in this country is very short, its very small, every society has to evolve its own response mechanisms and that happens over a period of time. Today a lot of times people say that the foreign channels covered September11th happened and no blood was shown but the history is TV in America is 70 years, over this period the market has evolved. And if viewers do not want something the television channels will not offer it. We consciously try not to shock the sensitivities of the people, but sometime it becomes necessary to give them an idea of the extent, of the magnitude of the news that we are talking about. "
Q. On the experience Aaj Tak gives to its viewers… We believe that people want to share their experience personally; so we try to make news experience as personal as possible. If you look at Aaj Tak delivery, our content, our design, our style, and our presenters, whether they are in field or in studio. These are all the people you can relate to, the viewers feel that they are one of us, so they trust them. And that whole thing is geared towards making news a 'personal experience.' "
Q. On the factors on which the time frame of news follow-ups depend… "Its very difficult to put a time frame or a line to it but depending upon the importance of the story you should follow it. There are stories like September11th even a little development around Osama Bin Laden, even today immediately get a prominent display. It has to do with the nature of impact that a story creates, apart from that you have to also keep in mind that because of these large number of television channels there is also coming to be a large delivery of news suddenly in this country. And sometime there is also a news fatigue, which develops on a certain issue, so when you are deciding a follow up you have to keep that also in mind. You cannot put the viewer off. These are instinctive judgments that all the news managers make. And I think we have been making those judgments successfully. "
Q. On the basic proposition of Health Aaj Tak and Business Aaj Tak… "We believe that there is general news and there are specific areas of society and human life, which needs to be covered. These are the areas, which directly affects people's lives, large number of people today invest in stock market, a lot of people want to know how to use their money. Health Aaj Tak, is important, we want people to have a positive outlook towards news, towards life."
Q. On the unique editorial proposition of Aaj Tak… Fastest and a feel of what viewers want."
Q. On emerging categories of news… "I think a lot many people are looking at news, which inspires them. So far the news has been very impersonal, more and more the change is coming where the news channels are trying to focus the news to individual viewer, for people to relate to it. Another category, is the news you can use. "
Q. On the reason behind sharp increase in viewership numbers… There was a huge gap in the market, as news had followed a certain pattern in this country until then. We felt the viewers wanted news to be more dynamic, they wanted news that affected their lives, they wanted liveliness, they wanted color, they wanted pace and they wanted to feel a part of the news. They did not wanted to be passive receivers of news they wanted active participants of news. And we feel Aaj Tak did that, so, there was a gap, which existed and there was a news delivery that we could provide, which had not been offered until then. "
Q. On the target audience of Aaj Tak… "Broadly, anyone who is interested in what's happening around the world, especially what's happening in this country, in a more focused way what's happening that is going to affect the lives of the people. In terms of age profile the target audience is in range of 18-45, urban, upwardly mobile, educated, urban because the cable doesn't reach rural areas. Its not that we exclude rural areas, but Cable TV doesn't reaches to rural areas."
Q. On the important attributes a news channel… "Credibility, speed and comprehensiveness of the coverage. Before Aaj Tak happened, news in this country was considered something that happened in and around India. But, we were able to convince the viewers that no matter wherever, no matter which part of the country, wherever news happens Aaj Tak will be able to deliver it. And after one month of our launch as a news channel, a disastrous event like the Bhuj earthquake happened, and Aaj Tak was there. The kind of coverage Aaj Tak gave had not been seen in this country, because we were able to show all the dimensions of the tragedy, and the entire struggle. We were able to get the whole country to share the grief and the tragedy that was at the time only felt by the people of Gujarat. On the other hand when the September 11th happened, we were again the first ones to land a team over there. Even when the peace conference was happening in the West Germany, Aaj Tak decided to land a team over there, we were the only ones who decided to send a team there, even though it was Afghanistan and we were not a key player then also we felt the need to send a team there, but we felt the Indian viewers had the right to know about that, and as a result of that there was a bond we created with the viewer.
Q. On the definition of news. And changes in it over time… "Anything that affects the life of the people. And 'yes' the definition is changing over time because in past, news was delivered in a talking down approach, journalists liked to sit down and decide what is good for the people of this country to know about. We turned that around. We felt it was not right for us to sit and judge what people should see, or what people should be told. We decided to be unbiased, impartial and bring as many dimensions of the story as possible and let people make the judgement. We wanted to give people the opportunity to make informed choices, that's the difference we were able to make."
Q. On the reason behind gory images on news channels… "Television news is going through stage of evolution in this country. History of television news in this country is very short, its very small, every society has to evolve its own response mechanisms and that happens over a period of time. Today a lot of times people say that the foreign channels covered September11th happened and no blood was shown but the history is TV in America is 70 years, over this period the market has evolved. And if viewers do not want something the television channels will not offer it. We consciously try not to shock the sensitivities of the people, but sometime it becomes necessary to give them an idea of the extent, of the magnitude of the news that we are talking about. "
Q. On the experience Aaj Tak gives to its viewers… We believe that people want to share their experience personally; so we try to make news experience as personal as possible. If you look at Aaj Tak delivery, our content, our design, our style, and our presenters, whether they are in field or in studio. These are all the people you can relate to, the viewers feel that they are one of us, so they trust them. And that whole thing is geared towards making news a 'personal experience.' "
Q. On the factors on which the time frame of news follow-ups depend… "Its very difficult to put a time frame or a line to it but depending upon the importance of the story you should follow it. There are stories like September11th even a little development around Osama Bin Laden, even today immediately get a prominent display. It has to do with the nature of impact that a story creates, apart from that you have to also keep in mind that because of these large number of television channels there is also coming to be a large delivery of news suddenly in this country. And sometime there is also a news fatigue, which develops on a certain issue, so when you are deciding a follow up you have to keep that also in mind. You cannot put the viewer off. These are instinctive judgments that all the news managers make. And I think we have been making those judgments successfully. "
Q. On the basic proposition of Health Aaj Tak and Business Aaj Tak… "We believe that there is general news and there are specific areas of society and human life, which needs to be covered. These are the areas, which directly affects people's lives, large number of people today invest in stock market, a lot of people want to know how to use their money. Health Aaj Tak, is important, we want people to have a positive outlook towards news, towards life."
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