When Commitscion Prema Sridevi's Times Now story became the talk of Parliament

Prema Sridevi (Class of 2005) interviews the former Home Secretary...

...and the next day the story is brought up in Parliament.

THE EXCLUSIVES/Prema Sridevi (Class of 2005)

I was able to get the first interview of former IB (Intelligence Bureau) Special Director Rajendra Kumar, who spilled the beans on the Ishrat Jahan controversy. And then I was again able to get the first interview of former Home Secretary GK Pillai in which he told me that the LeT reference was deleted by someone above his level.

The national media followed this story and it was also brought up in Parliament.

On March 1, we once again aired another "First Big Interview" (see below) of the man who signed off on those affidavits. Both the Congress and the BJP held press conferences in New Delhi after this interview.

I am hopeful that after all these revelations there will be a fresh probe into this entire case.

You can watch this exclusive interview by Prema here.

ALSO READ:

• What it means to be a TV news producer-1

• What it takes to be a TV news reporter-1

• What it takes to be a TV news reporter-2

• What it means to be a sub at a TV news channel

• What it takes to be a TV news anchor

• Want to know how to have a successful internship at a TV news channel? Read this post.

A few inspirational quotes about journalism from a hugely inspiring book

“A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
— Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers

“Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.”
— Horace Greeley, newspaper editor

“If you don’t have a sensation of apprehension when you set out to find a story and a swagger when you sit down to write it, you are in the wrong business.”
— A.M. Rosenthal, journalist

It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.”
— Wilbur F. Storey, newspaper owner

“I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not.
— Michael Pollan, journalist, author, and professor

“Bad news goes about in clogs, good news in stockinged feet.”
— Welsh proverb

“Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.”
— Mason Cooley, professor

“The proper question isn’t what a journalist thinks is relevant but what his or her audience thinks is relevant.”
— Michael Kinsley, journalist and author

“Great questions make great reporting.”
— Diane Sawyer, journalist

“I really believe good journalism is good business.”
— Christiane Amanpour, journalist

• Who are Mike Wallace and Beth Knobel, the authors of Heat & Light? And what qualifications do they have to offer advice to the next generation of journalists? Everything will be clear after you read this touching obituary on Huffington Post: "My Colleague, Mike Wallace". Afterwards, read this tribute: "Mike Wallace: An interrogator of the famous and infamous".

MIKE WALLACE, LEGENDARY TELEVISION JOURNALIST

• In addition, you should check out the Heat & Light website, where you will not only get an explanation for the "heat" and "light" in the title, but, among other things, you will also be able to sort through a nifty "Journalists' Toolbox".

• Naturally you will want to own a copy of Heat & Light. It is available on Amazon.in as well as on Flipkart. (Commits students: A copy has been placed in the college library.)

• ALSO READ: Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez on why journalism is the best job in the world.

POSTSCRIPT
WHEN LIFE AS A JOURNALIST
GETS FRUSTRATING 

An excerpt from the final chapter of Heat & Light, titled "The Future: Advice for the Next Generation of Journalists":

It can get awfully frustrating at times in journalism. It can be hard to get yourself noticed, hard to get promoted, and hard to get good assignments. In a bad economy, it can even be hard to get a job.

We’ve both had times in our careers when we did a job we didn’t particularly like, or found it difficult to move up the career ladder. It took Mike several decades to go from being an announcer at a small radio station … to being a star on CBS.

In the end, you need to focus on building experience and expertise, and trust that the knowledge you’re acquiring will ultimately pay off in your career.

The television journalist who towers head and shoulders above the... worst

He was just asking to be sacked:

And sacked he was:

FROM THE NEWS EXPRESS WEBSITE: "News Express Channel did not broadcast this video of Mr. Narayan Pargaien but it was uploaded by someone we don’t know, Mr. Pargaien was working as a Retainer with designation of a Reporter and on Tuesday (25-06-2013) This Channel terminated Mr. Pargaien with immediate effect, as such an act by the reporter is a Grave misconduct which goes against cultural values of our Channel."

But Mr Narayan Pargaien, who was reporting from Dehradun on the Uttarakhand flood disaster, is trying to defend the indefensible. He told the Indian Express:

"They [the locals] forced me to ride on the shoulder of a local. They told me they won't allow me to cross the river on my own," he said, adding that he could not refuse them.

What was he thinking?

• Commitscion Dipankar Paul (Class of 2009) has posted, on my Facebook status update, the link to Mr Narayan Pargaein's interview with News Laundry. You can watch it here. And you can also watch that reprehensible P-to-C, which, following a legal complaint by News Express, has been removed from the site on which it was first uploaded.

Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose, interviewed together for Mint's "Love Issue 2013"...

...and a lovely interview it is, too!

Here, in an excerpt from the interview, is a delightful exchange between the couple:

Rajdeep and Sagarika met for the first time in 1986 in Jamshedpur, now in Jharkhand, where they had gone for an interview with Russi Mody, former chairman of Tata Steel, for The Rhodes Scholarships.

“She got it. I did not. I am still trying to get back,” says Rajdeep.

Sagarika says: “In those days, Rajdeep was extremely laid-back; in fact, he was so laid-back that he was horizontal. I remember when the results were being announced he was sleeping somewhere up there in his room.” Rajdeep tries to defend himself but ends up muttering while Sagarika ploughs on: “I remember thinking to myself ‘Does this guy really care about the scholarship?’”

But now, Sagarika says, “Rajdeep is a workaholic, a newsaholic, a journoaholic. Thank God he is not an alcoholic.” Sagarika feels that as editor-in-chief, Rajdeep should not be taking so many decisions. “He is obsessed with what’s on the ticker, the top bands. This way the people who are doing the work are not empowered because they keep trying to second-guess him. In fact, my team is obsessed with Rajdeep. I delegate much more and believe if you empower people, things run on their own and you get fresher ideas.”

Rajdeep interjects: “I have a resolution — to leave office by 6pm on Friday. I have left office early for the last few Fridays.”

POWER COUPLE: Sagarika and Rajdeep photographed for Mint by Priyanka Parashar

Read the feature by Seema Chowdhry in its entirety here: "Airing both sides".

"There are some stories TV can't do"

NDTV anchor Sunetra Choudhury's "After the Break" column in DNA on Saturdays usually provides food for thought. Today was no exception.

Headlined "Crimes 'unfit' for TV", Choudhury's column puts the spotlight on a major difference between television and print — there are some stories that TV can't do. In fact, the article begins with that admission before revealing the nature of the "crime":

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been pursuing this story that involves sexual harassment, courts and lawyers and at the end of this period, that’s the frustrating conclusion I am left with.

We then learn details of the many sordid cases that have led to women lawyers moving the Supreme Court to end harassment in our courts.

Conversations with women lawyers reveal how deep-rooted the problem is. Senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal told me several instances where no action was taken despite complaints. “The junior lawyer who comes to a senior’s chamber is very vulnerable,” said Jaiswal, “She is very young and it is difficult for her to even raise her voice. If she complains against a respected, senior lawyer, who will believe her? Her entire career is at stake.” Jaiswal, who was the only lawyer who didn’t mind being quoted, told me how judges were inaccessible for junior lawyers, especially because they were friendly with the senior ones. Do all women lawyers go through this, I asked. “Many of them do,” she said.

Choudhury, though, does not elaborate on why this case won't work as a news story on television. If you ask me, I would say there are at least two reasons for this:

1. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to get people to speak on camera.
2. TV news relies heavily on "dramatic" visuals, which are unobtainable here. "Re-enactment" is possible, but then the whole story would be one long episode featuring actors, and that won't do.

Perhaps journalists, especially those working with our news channels, would like to add their comments.

You can read Sunetra Choudhury's column in its entirety here: "Crimes 'unfit' for TV". And you can check out her previous columns here.

• Illustration courtesy: Ravi Jadhav/DNA.

How valid is this critique of our television journalists?

[Our] TV channels and media houses do not invest in training young people in ethical journalism. They do not provide them the resources and the time to do proper homework. Too many young people taking to this profession think that as long as they can talk glibly and emote powerfully, they have done their job well. They are not trained to handle responses they did not expect. That is why very few anchors allow diversity of views to come through. Even judges — whose job it is to judge and pass verdicts — are not as judgmental as are some of our news reporters and TV anchors. They really get angry and start bullying and hectoring if someone takes a position they are not prepared for or expresses an opinion which has been declared politically incorrect. Some of our journalists have taken on the activist mantle even more seriously than full-time activists.

I am not against journalists being involved in issues and taking sides. But when they wear the journalistic hat, they have to learn to allow a free and fair discussion and let diverse shades of opinion to come through so that viewers and readers can make an informed choice.

But most importantly, our media houses do not provide space, time and resources for real research, investigations and informed debates. Most of the exposés of corruption and mismanagement are leaks by rival politicians and bureaucrats. The problem is even more serious with TV channels than print journalism. That is why most of TV news programmes simply cull out sensational news items from the morning papers, get a little bit of visual footage of the same and spend hours on end getting the same limited set of people to comment and emote on those news items — be it a child who has fallen into a borewell or a group of lumpens attacking young women in a pub or a case of police atrocity.

— Madhu Kishwar, editor of Manushi, in an interview with Tehelka. Kishwar, who is often invited by TV news channels to take part in panel discussions, recently wrote an angry two-part open letter to Times Now editor in chief Arnab Goswami. In this interview she tells Tehelka's Karuna John why she made her anger public.

• Read the full interview here: “I had to articulate what a lot of people were feeling but had not said”.

• Thank you, Natasha Rego, for the alert.

Want to be a journalist? Rejection is good for the soul (and other advice from a media veteran)

Two minutes after I published a post today on Neil Gaiman's inspirational commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, I was alerted by Commitscion Neelima Bhamidipati (Class of 2012), via Twitter, to another uplifting commencement speech. Veteran CNN-IBN anchor Suhasini Haidar, who spoke to graduating students of WMA (World Media Academy) earlier this month, has posted her speech on her blog.

Haidar told the students she was rejected seven times when she applied for a job as a television journalist. Then, while explaining how rejection can be a boost for aspiring journalists, she listed her five wishes for young people seeking a career in journalism:

I am going to hope for you that each of you gets rejected for a job in exactly the same way because if you don’t understand what your passion is, it helps to have an interviewer that does. Because in the profession you have chosen, there will be many reasons to quit, and only one reason to stay — and that is the passion to tell a story.

1. I wish for you a really mean boss, one who makes you cry. Let’s be honest. This is a tough business, one where you have to push and bully your way to a story, you need to develop a thick skin early on.

2. I wish for you many, many days spent in the heat. So much of our job requires you to stand on someone else’s footpath, waiting for the person who lives inside to come out or go in; it’s a great thing to get used to.

3. I wish for you many unwell colleagues. That does sound horrid, but honestly, it’s how I got most of my early breaks. You get sent on an assignment only because someone else is indisposed.

4. I wish for you assignments in places where telephones and computers don’t work, because the joy of heading out to a remote area, where you work on one story for three days without having to report back, no hour-on-hour deadline pressure is something you must do.

5. I wish for you interviews with many eccentric quirky people… because those are the ones who will give you the story.

Read Suhasini Haidar's commencement address in its entirety on her blog: "Dear journalism students, I wish you many job rejections".

UPDATE (June 16, 2014): Earlier this month, Suhasini Haidar delivered the convocation address at the 9.9 School of Communication, where she asserted that good journalism can change you. Read the address in its entirety here.

• Also read: Wisdom and inspiration in Neil Gaiman's commencement address.

From industry newbie to full-fledged TV news correspondent: Follow the travails of the intrepid "Satyabhama Menon"

SHWETA GANESH KUMAR WITH FANS AT THE BANGALORE LAUNCH OF HER NEW BOOK.

It was a privilege — and a great pleasure — to be invited to say a few words about a dynamic young author and her new book at the launch event in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Shweta Ganesh Kumar, who has been the Bangalore correspondent for CNN-IBN (she later joined Greenpeace India as a communications officer and is today a full-time writer and travel columnist), has two books to her credit already. Coming up on the Show... The Travails of a News Trainee, which was published last year, featured aspiring TV news reporter Satyabhama Menon and her life as a newbie in the industry. In Between the Headlines: The Travails of a News Reporter, the book that was released on Wednesday, we get to read about Satyabhama's experiences as a full-fledged news correspondent.

Both books are easy reads. And both books, since they are based loosely on the author's own career as a television journalist, have important insights to offer youngsters who are aspiring to join one of India's many TV news channels.

I would also recommend Coming up on the Show and Between the Headlines for three reasons: Language, Content, and Message.

Language: Good writers use simple language to express powerful ideas. Take Khushwant Singh. Or M.J. Akbar. Or even the current favourite of young adults, Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games trilogy. Shweta, too, keeps it simple: When you read her books, you won't need to keep a dictionary by your side.

Content: Reading Coming up on the Show and Between the Headlines will acquaint media students (as well as anyone with an interest in the news-gathering process) with the challenges faced by television journalists. Sure, both books are works of fiction but there are kernels of truth in the descriptions of the obstacles in Satyabhama's path as she struggles to present her news stories on her channel.

Message: There are many things you can learn from reading Coming up on the Show and Between the Headlines, and they are not all about journalism alone. The underlying message in the books is that it is important to take the initiative. And to stand up for what you believe is right. The books also seem to prove my favourite adage: If you love what you do, you get to do what you love.

SHWETA IN AN INTERACTION WITH THE AUDIENCE AT THE BANGALORE LAUNCH.

Two days after Between the Headlines was released in Bangalore, Shweta headed to Pune for the launch event in that city. And this week she is off to Kochi to release the book there. But hectic schedule notwithstanding, like the good professional she is, she made time to answer in detail via e-mail five questions I had for her on subjects ranging from the audience she kept in mind while writing her books to the note of cynicism some readers may have picked up on in both Coming up on the Show and Between the Headlines:

1. What is the audience you had in mind when writing Coming up on the Show and Between the Headlines?

One of my favourite sayings about writing and reading is “Write the book you want to read.” And this is primarily what I had in mind when writing both Coming up on the Show and Between the Headlines.

As a fresh journalism graduate and newly recruited news trainee in 2006, I had always wondered whether there were others who had shared my experiences. I searched my favourite bookstores for books with fictional characters I could empathise with, but found none. All the fiction books that I found on Indian journalism were written by senior journalists who had written about major news events and campaigns. I did not find anything on the shelves that told the story of bright-eyed news trainees and rookie reporters and talked about what it is like to be on the bottom-most level of the news pyramid. These were the people I wanted to write about and write for.

Also, as a working TV news reporter, I had come across a lot of people who wanted to know just how the news was produced and what life behind the camera was like for a TV news reporter. These were the readers I had in mind when I started writing the books.

2. There is a notion that writing a book is not that difficult. But I would suggest that a lot of hard work is involved. Your thoughts? Can you also give us an idea of your writing schedule?

The biggest challenge about being a full-time writer is sticking with it to the end, in the absence of an external editor, boss, or deadline. Especially in the beginning — when you have no idea that your manuscript might be picked up for publication at all — it is easy to sit down and put your hands up.

Every writer has their own, personal approach to the writing process. My own style is built around discipline and being methodical. The hard part is to make sure that you buckle down every day and type out a certain amount of words to reach that ultimate goal of a completed manuscript.

It is also very easy to procrastinate or give up. In my case, it was that intense need to see my published book in my hand that kept me going as well as the full-fledged support from my family.

Whenever I start a book I decide on a certain number of words for the final manuscript. I then work backwards to decide on the number of words I have to write per day to finish the first draft of the manuscript by a certain date. I try to stick to my schedule no matter where I am. I also put down tentative chapter outlines and then fill them up as I go. After I finish the first draft of a novel, I let it lie for at least two months till I look at it again with fresh eyes.

3. How did you find a publisher? That couldn't have been easy, either. And how did you deal with rejections? I think aspiring writers will be looking to you for inspiration in this regard.

Rejection is a very hard obstacle to get past. But I’d say that it also depends on the way you use those rejection letters that you are most certainly going to get. (Well, most certainly if you decide to mail manuscripts off to publishers without the backing of an agent or a recommendation like I did.)

The first rejection was heart-breaking. I am quite sure that I went through the five stages of grief when I received that stinging little note. But I bounced back, thanks to my parents and my husband. I started filing away my rejection letters in a folder named “Motivation” and as soon as I got one, I would mail the manuscript to yet another publisher. I believe that, as a young, unknown writer, this is the only way you can handle rejection, without letting it defeat you.

My first publisher Srishti was the 22nd publisher I had sent my manuscript to, having found e-mail addresses and mailing addresses on the web. Good Times Books, the publisher of my second book, approached me for my manuscript after they saw how well the first book had done.

4. “If you want to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader.” This is what I tell all my students at Commits. Can you elaborate on the importance of reading in your life and the role of reading in your writing?

I’ve had the good fortune to grow up surrounded by books. My parents started reading to me at an age that I cannot even remember and that is what motivated me to start putting down my thoughts, no matter how silly or random they were.

My reading helped me stand in good stead in my career as a journalist. And today while I am a writer, I am a reader first. I don’t think it is possible for any writer to ignore reading if she or he wants to connect with others and to learn the many ways of expressing their thoughts in the best possible way.

5. And, finally, some readers may have concerns over what they feel is a note of cynicism in your books when it comes to the electronic media. How would you address those concerns? And what would you like to say to young people whose ambition is to be good television journalists?

To my readers who feel there is a note of cynicism in my books, I’d like to say that it surely wasn’t meant to be that way. Both the books were written with a very subjective and personal point of view. It does not necessarily reflect the current status of the Indian broadcast news industry.

Also, I am a very emotional person and as a working TV news journalist I used to get attached to the people whose stories I reported. I would want to make sure that I could take these issues to their logical conclusion. However, I soon found out that as a reporter it is not always possible to do so. I know many of my colleagues have faced this dilemma as well and it is this that I have tried to convey through my book’s protagonist, Satyabhama Menon.

To the young people who aspire to be TV news journalists, I’d like to say that you need to remember that you are a reporter first and your duty is to report stories and make sure that you in your limited way are able to amplify the voice of the people. However, you are a reporter and you need to understand that being objective is key and that to go far in your chosen profession, you need to find that fine balance between being an activist and an unbiased newsperson.

• You can also read an interview with Shweta that was published in The Hindu here: Behind the Scenes.

Mike Wallace: An interrogator of the famous and infamous

Before Karan Thapar, there was Mike Wallace.

Wallace, who died earlier this month aged 93, became one of America’s best-known broadcast journalists, according to a New York Times obituary, as an interrogator of the famous and infamous on the CBS news programme, 60 Minutes.

MIKE WALLACE IN HIS CBS OFFICE IN 2006. (PHOTO COURTESY: AP)

The New York Times obituary, written by Tim Weiner, gives us a glimpse into the man and his interviewing, or grilling, style:

A reporter with the presence of a performer, Mr. Wallace went head to head with chiefs of state, celebrities and con artists for more than 50 years, living for when “you forget the lights, the cameras, everything else, and you’re really talking to each other,” he said in an interview with the New York Times videotaped in July 2006 and released on his death as part of the online feature “Last Word.”

Mr. Wallace created enough such moments to become a paragon of television journalism in the heyday of network news. As he grilled his subjects, he said, he walked “a fine line between sadism and intellectual curiosity.”

His success often lay in the questions he hurled, not the answers he received.

The obit continues:

For a 1976 report on Medicaid fraud, the show’s producers set up a simulated health clinic in Chicago. Was the use of deceit to expose deceit justified? Hidden cameras and ambush interviews were all part of the game, Mr. Wallace said, though he abandoned those techniques in later years, when they became clichés and no longer good television.

Some subjects were unfazed by Mr. Wallace’s unblinking stare. When he sat down with the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader, in 1979, he said that President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt “calls you, Imam — forgive me, his words, not mine — a lunatic.” The translator blanched, but the Ayatollah responded, calmly calling Sadat a heretic.

“Forgive me” was a favourite Wallace phrase, the caress before the garrote. “As soon as you hear that,” he told the Times, “you realise the nasty question’s about to come.”

Journalists, especially those working in television, would surely be interested in learning more about Wallace and his reporting techniques. How about the rest of us? Are there any lessons we can draw from Wallace's life? Yes, says Eric Jackson, a Forbes contributor, and they apply whether you care about journalism or not:

1. If you don’t wake up in the morning excited to pick up where you left your work yesterday, you haven’t found your calling yet.

2. When a new medium comes along, embrace its possibilities.

3. If you aren’t breaking the rules a little in your profession, you aren’t going far enough.

4. How would your life be different if your epitaph read “Tough But Fair”?

5. Face your demons head on.

Jackson elaborates on each point on the Forbes website: "5 Lessons from Mike Wallace's Life for All of Us".

Jackson also provides links to highlights of three of Wallace's interviews. Watch the snippet from the 1976 interview with the Shah of Iran and also the nine-and-a-half-minute-long excerpt of Wallace's interview with Ayn Rand. You can watch the full Ayn Rand interview here. It was shot in 1959 in B&W and the production values may not be great. But it's riveting stuff nevertheless.

• Thank you, Kokila Jacob, for the Eric Jackson tip-off.

Imagine — NDTV does not know the difference between "byte" and "bite"

For ten years I have been telling my students at Commits that a "quote" on television is referred to as a "sound bite" or "bite". But I have noticed many journalists — both print and television — writing it as "byte".

A few months ago I sent an email about "bite vs bite" to CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai and he replied, "It should be sound bite. But you are right, several of us, myself included, use sound byte. Am not sure why."

Now here's a dictionary definition of sound bite: 

noun

a brief, striking remark or statement excerpted from an audiotape or videotape for insertion in a broadcast news story.

And this is what byte means:

noun Computers 

1. adjacent bits, usually eight, processed by a computer as a unit. 

2. the combination of bits used to represent a particular letter, number, or special character.

So how did NDTV air this graphic today with "BYTE of the DAY" leaping out at you from the screen?

IT'S STRANGE THAT NDTV DOESN'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "BYTE" AND "BITE".

I am indebted to Commitscion Dipankar Paul (Class of 2009) for sending me this image via e-mail with the subject line: "What do you think of this?"

Subsequently I wrote to the NDTV bureau chief in Bangalore, Darius Taraporvala; the news editor of CNN-IBN in New Delhi, Dipika Kaura; and also Imran Qureshi, the Bangalore bureau chief of Aaj Tak and Headlines Today to ask about the house style rule on byte vs bite.

Here is the relevant sentence from Taraporvala's e-mail to me:

To me 'byte' is computer terminology, and 'soundbite' refers to the reactions we get in the field.

This is what Kaura had to say in her e-mail:

Should be bite — that’s how the Oxford dictionary defines it. But it's more a matter of nomenclature. We’ve shifted to SOT — Sound on Tape. That at least is clearly defined.

Imran Qureshi also wrote to say that it should be "bite" and not "byte".

Byte is the language of computers.

I'm glad that's been sorted out. But has it? Watch television news closely and let me know.

Anchoring news programmes, documentaries, travel shows, youth shows, lifestyle shows... and covering the Grammys in Beverly Hills

SHE HAS DONE IT ALL

On May 8, 2010, I watched Commitscion Priyali Sur (Class of 2005) in action as she anchored a documentary on CNN-IBN [TV grab below] that exposed the controversial cervical cancer vaccine trials being conducted by some well-known pharma companies in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh. It was an investigative report of the highest standards, standards that we have come to expect of Priyali since her first year at Commits when she and her group members put together a news bulletin story on Bangalore's bar girls. This story received a lot of praise from the senior journalists who had come for the evaluation then.

Also, we all thought Priyali was a natural as an anchor. And she has proved us right. In 2008, Priyali, who had recently joined CNN-IBN in Delhi as a producer, was in Cuba to shoot a travelogue which was later aired on the channel. The show was amazing.

At the time she had sent me her insights on her show — there's lots here for television aspirants to learn from:

* On Cuba being chosen as the destination for the programme: As a producer-cum-reporter I decide the destination. But it's ultimately also about what works out and what doesn't. So for a travel show, you send out emails and are in conversation with at least 7-8 embassies. At the end, the ministry of tourism that agrees to your travel requirements is the one you finally choose. Yes, they are the ones who sponsor the entire trip. :) Quite cool, right? And the best part — you get to stay in all the prime places because you and your team are treated by the ministry as Indian diplomats.

* On the visa process: Visas were not an issue at all. The entire process was dealt with by the embassy people. We travelled on journalist visas.

* On the team and teamwork: There were three of us: my camera person, the camera assistant, and yours truly. Trust me, the smaller the team, the better. Oh, talking about having a good relationship with your crew... you've just got to work on that because at the end of it all, your visuals are all COURTESY THE CAMERAMAN. So if you get along with your cameraman you're lucky; if you don't, make sure YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

* On the stay/shoot in Cuba: For a 30-minute show you ideally get seven days to shoot, but we had less time because we had a deadline to meet and the edit alone would take a week. So we shot in Cuba for only five days while the travel to and fro came to four days, with a halt in Paris :) I know what you must be thinking! Well, you've also got to live it up a bit when you're working, right?

But the five days in Cuba meant waking up at 4:30 am, getting your make-up on (a killer when you have to do it all by yourself, especially the hair-fixing bit; I'm sure the girls will agree with me on that!) and then starting the shoot/travel at 5:30 am... and shooting, then shooting, and shooting... and shooting till 11-12 at night.

* On the people she met: People... hmmmm!!! They speak only Spanish, except for my guide who spoke good English and who was our saviour. So the only communication between me and the Cubans was "si si si"...which means "yes yes yes" to everything. Yes, that could also have got me in trouble... but what the heck, I was an Indian diplomat there (ha ha ha!).

* On the highlight of the trip: It has to be the finale to the travel show: skydiving! It's the best thing I've ever done… free-falling from a plane at 10,000 ft… it really wasn't scary but phew! the views I got!

* On her work method on trips like this one: Take along a shooting script: you've got to tie up a certain set of activities that you'll do there even before you get there because it's the activities that make a travel show interesting and pacy. Once you get there things may not go as planned, so be prepared to go with the flow and always remember "YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE FUN". That applies even while you're working: if you're happy it shows on camera.

After you get back, the first thing is to finalise the script and then edit… edit… and edit... till you see your show on air. After all that hard work, it's a great feeling :)

After watching Trial And Error that night, I asked Priyali to share some details on the making of the documentary. Here's her response:

THE IDEA: The story idea came from the fact that my sister was insisting that I get this new vaccine that she had heard about because it is supposed to prevent cervical cancer. I told her no one should take a shot just like that without any research and a simple Google search threw up the controversy surrounding the vaccine — that was the starting point.

THE WORK: In terms of production there was a lot to do, but in terms of research you handle it on your own.

THE SHOOT: Two days of shoot in Khammam and Warangal; a few interviews in Delhi (approx. 2 weeks).

THE RESPONSE: At work, everyone liked it a lot and there was lots of viewer feedback on IBNlive too. :) Also, some people who saw and liked the show found me on Facebook and made appreciative comments.

THE FUTURE: I will be doing more of these documentaries but only when I can be spared from my regular work. I have to do them simultaneously with taking care of Living It Up and ynot... so let's see when I can do this next.

PRIYALI WITH KOYEL MITRA (CLASS OF 2011) IN MAY 2010. KOYEL WAS AN INTERN WITH CNN-IBN AND SHE WORKED WITH PRIYALI ON A STORY ABOUT EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS.

*
"YOUNG JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR"
On March 17, 2011, Priyali Sur was presented the NT (News Television) "Young Journalist of the Year" award in New Delhi. The News Television Awards, instituted by Indiantelevision.com, are selected by a jury comprising journalists from the country's television news channels. So the awards are a measure of the value Priyali's peers and seniors put on her work.

And take a look at the list of winners: Rajdeep Sardesai, Udayan Mukherjee, Bhupendra Chaubey, Rajiv Masand, Karan Thapar. Priyali is in august company, indeed.

Well done, Priyali! Congratulations to you from the Commits family!

PRIYALI FEATURED ON PAGE 1 OF THE COLLEGE NEWSPAPER.

*
"SAMPA'S DIARY"

On the weekend after the NT Awards presentation ceremony, Priyali Sur's latest documentary was being aired by CNN-IBN. "Sampa's Diary" is all about a woman's fight to get her husband, being held hostage by Somali pirates, back to India safe and sound. Watch the documentary here.

*
COVERING THE GRAMMY AWARDS
Priyali Sur's most recent international assignment took her to Beverly Hills in Los Angeles in February 2012 to cover the 54th Grammy Awards. She also reported on the sudden death of superstar singer Whitney Houston on the eve of the Grammys (TV grab below).

You can watch Priyali's report here: "Whitney Houston no more". She also got some of the stars to answer questions about visiting India — you can watch that report here: "Grammy stars would love to come to India".

• Also read: "The Commits Chronicle".

What it means to be a TV news producer-2

SHALINI SEN

Commits alumna SHALINI SEN (Class of 2007) is a senior assistant producer with ET Now in Mumbai. Here she talks about three major aspects of television news production: content management, time management, and people management.

There is a single word that can describe what a TV news show producer does: Everything! I realise that may sound scary, but the truth is if you are a producer, the show is your baby. If the end product looks and sounds good you'll feel like a proud mother. And if it does not, you're the one who will get all the flak for it.

As a producer, you need to deal with three major aspects: content management, time management, and people management.

The producer decides what news makes it on to the show and what doesn't. When you have 22 to 25 minutes to fill and a barrage of information coming your way, your news sense has to kick in and be able to filter out what can be done away with or pushed to a later slot. On a particularly news-heavy day, you will be trying to squeeze in as much information on the show as possible. And then there are days you will be scrambling for every tiny piece of news you get to fill up your show. Both extremes can be quite daunting. And while doing this you also have to handle your reporters out on the field. Dropping a story that a reporter worked hard for is not going to earn you any brownie points. So PR skills are a must if you don’t want to bruise anyone's ego.

ADRENALINE RUSH: One thing that a live news producer deals with every day is breaking news. It sends your perfectly planned show into a complete tizzy, but it's also a huge adrenaline rush. The whole production team has to work together like a well-oiled machine to handle it. From putting the news out on the ticker, getting your reporter ready to come on air, informing your anchor about the development, and how it changes your show – and putting it all on air within a matter of seconds, preferably before the other channels get it out. It requires calm nerves, above-par coordination skills, and a firm grip on the situation. Any anxiety you show will reflect on your anchor and make the whole channel seem unreliable. And we certainly cannot have that.

That said, in such a situation a few errors are bound to be made and the trick is to correct them as quickly as possible. There isn't always time to double-check every fact, every spelling boo-boo, and every grammatical error. But a keen and alert producer catches the error before the viewer does.

With pre-programmed shows, however, it is the exact opposite. The pace is different and the expectations are different as well. Since the show is not live, there is no sense of urgency involved. It involves a lot of planning and pre-production to get every single detail right and there is absolutely no room for errors.

So there are many hats a producer has to wear: scriptwriter, fact checker, copy editor and team leader.

READING MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE: The only way to be all of that is to read. Read, read, read, read! Newspapers, books, magazines, articles on the internet, pretty much anything you can get your hands on. It almost always leads to interesting conversations and subsequently interesting story ideas.

Every person joining the TV news industry aspires to be Barkha Dutt, covering wars and political upheavals and whatnot. While it's a great aspiration, it involves a tremendous amount of hard work. Don't be disillusioned when all you do in the beginning is log tapes and ingest footage. However mundane it may be, it all adds up to a significant learning curve. It builds your TV news sense and helps you think visually when you go on to write your stories.

It's not an easy job, but ask the editor-in-chief of any news channel and they will tell you: It is the desk and the producers that ultimately run the channel.

YOU CAN HAVE FUN WITH NUMBERS

• Back in March 2008, Shalini Sen was preparing to head off to Mumbai to join UTV and she wrote then that she was just as scared as she was nine months previously when she joined Reuters in Bangalore. “But this time,” she wrote, “I know for a fact that the fear isn't of business journalism and number-crunching and finance jargon.” And then she wrote about how financial journalism is essentially no different from other forms of journalism:

I guess no one really joins the field of journalism with business news as their first choice. It's always crime or political or sports news that everyone wants to cover and I was no different. For a student of Literature, I was completely out of touch with Maths and accounting principles. But when I got the job at Reuters to cover financial news I knew the only way I could have fun at work was when I learnt to have fun with numbers. And if I could do it, I'm sure anyone can.
 
What I learnt was it isn't so much the numbers, but it is how you interpret them that matters. No number on its own has any meaning. It is always relative to other numbers. And a very handy website helped me understand financial jargon better. (The site is for equities news in the U.S. but most of it holds true for business anywhere in the world.)

And as in every other branch of journalism, staying abreast with everyday news is essential.
 
Financial journalism is essentially no different from other forms of journalism: the what, where, who, how, when, and why formula still applies. Facts and figures have to be checked and re-checked and like always the deadline is sacrosanct. If we can just get our heads around the fact that there are just a few more numbers involved, it really is not difficult at all.
 
Also, with so many business stories on television and in the newspapers every day, it has become quite easy to understand financial news. I guess all it takes is a little interest and a willing mind. 

ALSO READ:

• What it means to be a TV news producer-1

• What it takes to be a TV news reporter-1

• What it takes to be a TV news reporter-2

• What it means to be a sub at a TV news channel

• What it takes to be a TV news anchor

• Want to know how to have a successful internship at a TV news channel? Read this post.

What it means to be a TV news producer-1

KHUSHBOO JALAN

Commits alumna KHUSHBOO JALAN (Class of 2007), who has been with CNBC-TV18 in Mumbai for almost four-and-a-half years now, is the producer of the channel’s flagship show, India Business Hour. Here she outlines the news producers' responsibilities, from attending editorial meetings to “rolling” their shows:

News producers are part of the editorial team in a news channel and form the core of the news desk. Every channel defines a news producer’s role in different ways and a producer is also known by many different names in different channels.

A news producer is expected to have editorial knowledge that will facilitate crisp, factual content/output generation.

EDITORIAL MEETINGS
The daily edit meet is conducted in order to get an idea of what is expected from reporters, companies, political authorities, and other sources during the day and to decide what each news-wheel will contain. All members of the team, including the news editors, sit together and get a sense of stories likely to be worked on through the day, the events, announcements expected, etc. The producer then works on structuring the show, deciding what news is priority, and in what fashion the news has to be presented (“reads”, “links”, “packages”, etc.).

WRITING
News producers collect information from various sources (including news agencies and reporters) and write “reads”, or reports for the anchor to read. “Reads” are accompanied by visuals, graphics, VTWs*, etc. A news producer decides what visuals or graphics are best suited to accompany a read. Reads are also sent in by reporters and are subbed by news producers before being put on air.

TOPICS, GRAPHICS, VTWs
Graphics are created/subbed by producers to accompany reads, anchor links, packages, etc. The producers can either use set templates created by the graphics team or get special graphics made (by the online graphics team).

VISUALS
This role differs from news channel to news channel. News producers are expected to have working knowledge of video editing software (the most commonly used software is Avid). Video editors are available to do the major editing work but in some channels a producer does a considerable amount of video editing (bites, visuals, teases, headlines, etc.)

KHUSHBOO AT WORK AT CNBC-TV18.

SOUND BITES
Reporters who attend events or are on the field meeting company executives, government officials, or other sources, send the interviews/tic-tacs**/bites to the office as direct feeds from the OB (outdoor broadcast van) or uplinked from the OB or sent on tapes) and producers go through the feeds and identify the appropriate bites for their shows.

Reporters also send flashes (important pointers from the bites/speeches/press conferences/interviews) which go on air and which are helpful pointers for identifying the most important portions that should go on air. Producers have to be quick to make sure the bites are put out on air as soon as possible. A number of times bites are taken on air ‘live’ as they are coming into the system.

PACKAGES
Reporters file their news stories (packages) and then get them video-edited. Producers go through the scripts, which are generally cleared by the news editors and prepare the Astons (or supers) for bites and “Topics”, which accompany every VO, or voiceover, in a package. Topics are usually four or five words long and have to convey the essence of the story.

Producers also put in graphics in a package if necessary (usually if there are too many figures, charts, quotes, etc., or if there few supporting visuals for a story). After a reporter has completed editing a story, the producers check the packages for any visual/audio glitches and to ensure that the correct visuals/bites, etc., have been used and the package is ready to be taken on air.

ROLLING A SHOW
News producers also “roll” their respective shows. Rolling a show means that the producer sits inside the PCR, or production control room, and along with the crew (studio director, switcher, sound person, teleprompter operator, production team) ensures that the show is on air on time and news is put out in the correct order.

The producer has to constantly communicate with the anchors and the studio crew, informing them what needs to go on the show and directing them on what visuals/graphics, etc., have to be taken on air.

CNBC-TV18'S FLAGSHIP SHOW, OF WHICH KHUSHBOO IS A PRODUCER.

A producer has to be quick and ensure that reads/bites/packages are ready to go on air. The producer should be prepared to make changes to the show cue if a news item needs to be moved higher or lower depending on its importance.

News shows are generally rolled live and hence the producer has to be capable of handling “Breaking News” situations. The producer should be able to put out the news as and when it comes in, accompanied by supers, topics, visuals, or other elements. The producer has to also decide which guests would be appropriate to talk about the particular news item on air and with the help of the guest coordinators ensure that the guests are willing and ready to talk “live”.

The team sitting outside (assistant producers) provides support in terms of writing, cutting visuals/bites, creating graphics, ensuring reporters are ready on time for their live links, etc. Some shows are also pre-recorded and they have to be laid with graphics/VTWs/topics, etc., which is called “patching” a show. This is also done by the producer.

A CRUCIAL ROLE: One of the main duties of a producer is to manage time inside the PCR, i.e., ensure that breaks are taken on time and the show ends as per schedule. This includes ensuring that reporters stick to their allotted time limits. A producer also has to make sure that all the necessary news items are carried on the show and to ensure that the show still finishes on time. This includes accommodating "Breaking News" which is not accounted for when the show is timed before going on air. So we always leave a buffer time when we plan the show. Managing time is one of the most challenging aspects of rolling a show.

Broadly these are the functions of a news producer. From taking editorial calls to ensuring that the show looks good on air, a producer does it all.

*VTW stands for Voice To Words. There are two kinds of VTWs used at CNBC-TV18. TVTs or Translation VTWs are used for bites in languages other than English (we translate them into English and put it out in sentence case). Regular VTWs are used to show either highlights from a person's interview or additional information for packages/reads/tosses***, etc. These are in title case.

**Tic Tacs are basically mini interviews, Q&As, conducted by reporters on location. We either use sound bites by themselves, or, in the Tic Tac format, more than one bite with the reporter's questions. The reporter holds the mic and asks questions and then turns the mic to the interviewee for the answer. So, "Tic Tac".

***Reporters often do live "links". Pre-recorded reporter links, which go on air later, are referred to as "tosses".

ALSO READ:

• What it means to be a TV news producer-2

• What it takes to be a TV news reporter-1

• What it takes to be a TV news reporter-2

• What it means to be a sub at a TV news channel

• What it takes to be a TV news anchor

• Want to know how to have a successful internship at a TV news channel? Read this post.