MEDIA ARE LOSERS AT CWG 2010
The foreign journalists at CWG today lashed out at what is being reported in countries across the world as negative and biased. We knew that all along, seeing how the games were being reported, almost as if the games were going to be called off, blowing up each and every incident beyong proportion.. Anyway, things seem to have calmed down a bit now with everyone accepting the wrongs and the rights that went on at CWG 2010.
But media overall, especially the electronoic media are the losers in the games. As a electronic media reporter told me the other day, that TV news cameras are not allowed inside the venues and only one broadcaster, who has the rights for live broadcast, in this case Doordarshan, is allowed to film it and other TV channels are allowed to use 3 minutes of thier footage for their respective bulletins every hour. Which means suppose a national sports hero wins a Gold, there will only be a few shots of him in the bulletin, the rest of the story will have to be padded up with archival footage.
As a former TV repoter I cannot imagine how a reporter files without shooting his own visuals. Secondly, also as a former sports reporter from the times when there was no electronic media, I remember the thrill and excitement of a game and when someone won, you are the first to know and want to tell the whole world about it. So, the electronic media reporters must be missing that thrill.
I believe this is the rule all over the world. No other TV channel is allowed to shoot, excpet the one which buys the 'rights'. Imagine one broadcaster struggling to show EVERYTHING. AT CWG there are atleast a 100 events going on simultaneously, and obviously only one or two will ever feature at the top and in the bulletins. My heart goes out to all the sportsmen and women whose moment of glory never gets captured or even if it is captured, is shown only for a few seconds as part of the day's highlights.
The broadcastng media certainly needs more access to filming both for doing the work well and also for good of sportmen and their sport.
I hope it happens soon.
