The Hindu Business Line : Citizen reports help news channels strengthen viewership

Whether it was the Mumbai bomb blasts on Tuesday or the rains which lashed Mumbai last week, news channels strengthen their viewership, especially through their `citizen reporting' initiatives.

CNN-IBN and Channel 7 claim to have received as many as 1,000 phone calls, 1,500 pictures and videos, and over 500 e-mails from citizens across the city, who gave flood updates and talked about the apathy of the civic authorities in their respective localities. This was in response to the channel's Citizen Journalist initiative.

Similarly, Star News too claimed to be overwhelmed with the kind of viewer participation it received on the recent rains for its show Aap Ka Bulletin, in the form of calls, photographs and messages through SMS.

The channel also launched an SMS service, Mumbai Rain Update, to assist the people of Mumbai to source information on weather forecast, train and flight schedules and traffic situation in the city as well as contribute information and news.

Inclusive journalism

With these overwhelming responses, the news channels are undoubtedly convinced that audience participation is definitely a sure shot method of ensuring `stickiness' on their respective channels.

Says Mr Dilip Venkatraman, Marketing Head, CNN-IBN, "Our approach is that of inclusive journalism right from the beginning. Content being co-created is definitely going to be the way ahead."

"For a news channel, viewers' response is probably the only means for a channel to gauge acceptability and interest levels among its audiences," says a Star News spokesperson.

`News is serious business'

Though Mr Ashish Kaul, Director, Corporate Communications, Zee TV, agrees that interactive journalism is definitely the way ahead for news channels, he says, "Innovations like these do help the brand image, but news is serious business and the channels have to ensure that the news provided by citizen reporters are presented in a proper perspective."

But do such innovations actually help in stepping up TVRs? A Mumbai-based media analyst agrees that these initiatives definitely help in increasing the involvement between the channels and viewers, but points out that they are not singularly responsible for increasing TVRs. "The TVR of a programme depends on the amount of time spent on the programme, which purely depends on the content. The other factor is the reach of the channel, which depends on the kind of marketing initiative undertaken by the channel and the distribution strategy."

Mr Atul Phadnis, Chief Evangelist, Media e2e, says that the concept of viewer participation in the news genre is at a nascent stage. "Most channels are still in the process of trying out and deciphering the concept. They are trying to find out whether a high number of SMS would actually translate into higher ratings for a particular show. But it will definitely get better and more mature in the coming years."

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