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For a model broadcasting landscape that further strengthens democracy, there is the need to first democratise audience measurement systems, said Smriti Irani, Minister of Information & Broadcasting, here on Thursday.
Such an audience measurement system should reflect the strength of India’s regional languages, she added.
Irani was delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture 2017 on the topic ‘Model of Broadcast Landscape for Democracies’.
The Minister said that the biggest challenge for audience measurement systems is to be able to capture the viewership trends of India’s diverse audience.
She said while Prasar Bharati reaches the audience in rural regions, the biggest challenge and concern for the public broadcaster has been whether viewership trends of rural consumers are accurately measured by existing measurement systems.
She also pointed out the challenges of bridging the gap between the intent to serve public interest and earning revenues.
Talking about the prevailing trends in the news segment of the broadcasting landscape, Irani said that news today had become a “spectator sport” as technology had blurred the lines between content and broadcast.
As a consequence, while a certain section of the media space adhered to codes, ethics and conduct rules, the other segment was driven by rush for TRP’s, eyeballs thereby being influenced by the “headlines competing with hashtag”.
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