The man who has proved — literally — that journalism is an art form

JOE SACCO

What a boon it must be to be a great reporter and an accomplished cartoonist. And what an honour it must be to be hailed as the pioneer of "comics journalism".

Have you heard of Joe Sacco, the journalist I am referring to? I hadn't, either, till I chanced upon his most recent creation in The Caravan. The January 2012 issue of the magazine has published an astonishing work of comics journalism in which Sacco tells the real — and tragic — stories of Dalit villagers in the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

We learn from the brief profile in Caravan that Joe Sacco came to India with an assignment from a French magazine to produce a long-form feature on rural poverty.

The profile continues:

Over the past 20 years, he has pioneered an entirely new form of graphic storytelling, travelling into conflict zones as a journalist and then recreating them as a visual artist, producing a series of stand-alone reports and a handful of books widely regarded as masterpieces: Palestine, a narrative of his journeys and encounters in the Palestinian territories after the first Gulf War; Safe Area Gorazde, about the end of the Bosnian War; and Footnotes in Gaza, on the legacy of two long-forgotten massacres from the early years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sacco turned his attention to India, he says, out of a desire to step back from war and conflict, and to test himself in a country where he had never worked. He decided to focus his attention on Uttar Pradesh, and set out — with the assistance of Piyush Srivastava, a Lucknow-based journalist — to gather the stories of poor Dalit villagers in Kushinagar district, along the border with Bihar.

THE OPENING PANEL OF JOE SACCO'S FIRST INDIAN FEATURE.

Reading the comic gave me a better understanding of the issue of Dalit rights than perhaps any article I have read in recent times. I was also captivated by Sacco's detailed drawings. I have been involved with journalism for more than 30 years and I have seen nothing like this before. Now all I can think of is how to lay my hands on Joe Sacco's other works.

• Read "Kushinagar" in its entirety here.

• Also read: "All hail The Caravan for giving us some marvellous reads".

PS (11.55 a.m., February 22): I have just ordered both Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza from Flipkart.

UPDATE (December 10, 2012): After reading both Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, I became impatient to lay my hands on his magnum opus, Journalism, which was to be published later in the year. As soon as the book became available on Flipkart, which was last month, I bought a copy, which I am reading avidly now and which I'll place later in the college library. Details: Another work of art from the pioneer of comics journalism.

What it takes to be a PR professional-2

SAMARPITA SAMADDAR

Commits alumna SAMARPITA SAMADDAR (Class of 2010) worked as the Public Relations Officer for a non-profit organisation in Bangalore for a total of four years before moving to Mumbai to join Eros International's PR team. Here she explains why PR is a mixed bag of goodies and what it takes to succeed in PR:

When I was a teenager, an uncle suggested that I should take up PR as a profession. I asked him: “What is PR?” My uncle quipped: “Wining and dining with famous people, wooing handsome clients, attending exotic dinner meetings, travelling, and talking — lots of talking!” I never forgot his suggestion and I did make talking — lots of talking — my profession.

Not that it has been easy. A recent study by CNBC/CareerCast ranked PR as the second-most stressful job of 2011 (airline pilots took top honours). So, yes, PR can be stressful. After all, the right pitch has to be timed just right for the right reporter if you want to see your story placed in the right medium. But isn’t life all about meeting challenges? 

PR, let me make it clear, is a mixed bag of goodies: in addition to containing many things you love, that goodie bag might also hold chocolates you hate in the form of a few annoying clients, some stuck-up journalists, and two or three articles in which your client has been misquoted or where the wrong words have been put in your mouth. But when you get to travel to beautiful places, live in fancy hotels, “hang out” with famous celebrities, get articles published regularly in the best of publications, and you are showered with praise aplenty from the people who really matter, believe me, it’s worth it.

For me, PR is not only about getting media coverage, though it is one of the most important aspects; PR is strategic communications, as Sai Sir has always explained it to me. It’s about creating different strategies for different clients depending on their needs. For example, if your client is a start-up, you should plan a PR burst that will mainly concentrate on building media relations and getting media coverage. Introduce your client to the media and your target audience with a bang. Say, “We have arrived!”

And that should be the key message delivered.

But when your client is a restaurant which, having been in the market for a few years, is now seeking brand recognition and brand recall, the plan can have PR events and coverage around them to create a buzz. You might want to create special nights on weekdays to drive more traffic, and organise special property events on weekends to attract new customers.

Innovation, creativity, passion, and persistence are a few things that help you to stand out in the PR industry. But be warned: there’s hardly any method to this madness. It’s a battlefield where there are many others trying to hunt down the same accounts you want.

PR FOR A NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION
I started my career two-and-a-half years ago with the Bangalore-based India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). India’s only arts foundation, IFA gives individual grants to artists, scholars, and researchers. It was my first dream job! And I will be forever indebted to IFA for what I learnt and for the exposure I got.

Handling PR for IFA was interesting — and extremely challenging. When you work as the in-house PR Officer, you focus only on your organisation; you don’t have to work for different clients, which is what you would do at a PR agency. For me the challenge at IFA lay in the fact that I was working for an organisation that is one of the most reputed, one-of-a-kind foundations in India — maintaining that reputation was quite a job for a fresher.

When I was new at IFA, I was plagued by one thought: “How the hell am I going to build and maintain relations with so many journalists? HOW?” But I did it. It sounds impossible but it wasn’t. Because when you love what you do, you almost unknowingly push yourself to achieve excellence. And you become addicted to success.

FOR SAMARPITA, WORKING WITH IFA WAS A TERRIFIC EXPERIENCE.

I did PR for my passion at IFA: theatre, documentaries, contemporary arts practices, research on literature, visual arts, and performing arts. Among other things I learnt that meeting celebrities is one thing but handling PR for celebrities is a completely different ball game, especially when they are Bollywood’s most respected veterans, actors even your dad reveres and admires.

Sitting right next to Anupam Kher in the car and literally begging him to mention IFA during his live chat on Radio One; sitting down in a hotel lobby to discuss a press conference with a few Bollywood stalwarts and some of our best stage actors; Naseeruddin Shah bestowing a nickname on me; Lillete Dubey showering praise; Benjamin Gilani writing regularly to keep in touch — such things were not just awesome; they were dream-come-true moments when I’d feel sick with happiness and giddy with satisfaction, satisfaction that comes with success achieved after a lot of hard work.

More than 22 cities, districts, and towns; 1,200 journalists (print, broadcast, and radio); more than 800 media notices; multiple media partnerships; nearly 300 grants; five big fundraisers (celebrity plays, art exhibitions); 16 grantee presentations and four film and theatre festivals across India (where grantees showcase the work IFA supports); a dozen media tours to meet journalists in different parts of the country twice a quarter: to sum up, THAT was IFA for me.

IT'S ALL ABOUT COVERAGE: SAMARPITA AT A MUSIC EVENT.

A few things that I think are extremely important in this profession:

MEDIA RELATIONS
Every publicist must be good at making friends. A few of the journalists I have worked with have become very good friends of mine now. Pitching a story to them is a little easier than pitching to a journalist who doesn’t know you at all. You can brainstorm for longer with them and if you’re lucky they will give you better news pegs. As RP Sir always says, “If your story is newsworthy, journalists will definitely write about them.” Very true! When you have interesting stories that you know your audience would want to read, you won’t have to call, push, or beg; the media will call you. And if you do have to pitch a dull story, spend quality time with your journo-friends!

NO ALTERNATIVE TO GOOD CONTACTS
No matter how much you dislike a person you just met at a party or at a press conference or while you went out shopping at a mall, keep your contacts intact. Never ever cut off anyone — you never know who will be of use when and how. For that matter, be “just friends” even with your ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, if you think they can be of any help.

MAKE NO MISTAKE: I DON’T DO ANYTHING FOR FREE AND
I KEEP MY ENEMIES CLOSER THAN MY MIRROR EVER GETS TO ME
Know your competition; where your competitor’s strategy ends, your game should begin. Know enough about the market and the industry in which your client is involved. And for that you need to do a lot of research. There’s no shortcut to success. To beat someone at their own game, you have to know the game yourself — and be better at it. Go a step ahead while you strategise and make the plan.

BE A CHARMER
Ever wondered why there are more women than men in the PR industry? Simple, we have better instincts, we are more charming, and we are better at convincing (no offence to the fabulous men out there). Be polite yet firm with clients who want you to grab stars from the sky and hang them in their closet. Be precise and coherent with the ones who want you to make them famous in a wink. Let’s be honest: we only have one life to earn a fortune, and in that one life we have to live long enough to actually enjoy that fortune. With targets and deadlines hanging on your head all the time, time is more precious than diamonds and expensive shoes and the most coveted designer couture.

Believe in what you think and love what you do. Keep reminding yourself, “Nothing in this world is impossible.” You’re worth it! :-)

ALSO READ:

• What it takes to be a PR professional-1
  

• What PR professionals should not do to journalists, and what journalists should not do to PR professionals

• Uncalled-for criticism of the PR community — and my rejoinder

• For PR professionals, life is a pitch

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".

Some great advice for first-time bloggers

JULIE POWELL

Julie Powell launched a career from — of all things — a food blog which then morphed into a tell-all memoir that ultimately landed her a sweet film deal. Heard of Julie & Julia, the 2009 movie starring Meryl Streep? Yep, that Julie is who we're talking about.

Why did Julie Powell start her blog? Why did her blog attract such a large following? And how did it help her to become a better writer? She answers all these questions here.

Powell also offers five tips for developing a personal blog that will interest the public — and not just your friends and family (they are the first to say they "just loved" your post, and also the first to lose interest):

1. Use blogs to develop your voice and become a working writer.

2. Identify a blog’s appeal, and build on content that keeps readers involved.

3. Be acutely aware of ethical considerations in personal writing, and keep your motives and emotions in check.

4. View blogs as tools to address subjects of interest and a way to become a public writer.

5. Remain focused on the craft of writing.

For each tip, she offers a personal anecdote to help you understand how this advice can be used to your advantage. Read the feature in its entirety here: Julie Powell’s Advice For Bloggers.

• Also read: The 25 basic styles of blogging... and when to use each one and The ethical guidelines you need to keep in mind when you publish your posts.

• Photo courtesy: FishbowlNY

What it means to be a features journalist with a daily newspaper

Commitscion SHREYA DUTT (Class of 2010) was, till recently, a features writer with the Deccan Chronicle in Hyderabad; she was in charge of the tabloid section, Hyderabad Chronicle. Here she gives us the lowdown on the responsibilities of a features journalist.

SHREYA DUTT

THE IDEA
How good you are as a writer depends on your ability to think out of the box; that is what sets apart your story from those on the same or similar subjects in other newspapers. Very honestly, all stories come from the same pool and there is only so much scope for doing something completely original. However, what will make your story stand out or give your readers that extra bit is the way you approach your subject. And that's the best part of being a member of the features team in a daily newspaper.

With features you can think out of the box and adopt a different writing style by avoiding the formulaic route if you feel that is what your story requires. Feature writing, after all, allows you to either stick to the basic rules of writing or to throw those rules out the window. Of course, you can junk the rules only AFTER you have mastered them.

At the Deccan Chronicle, many a time there was healthy competition among my colleagues with regard to who would write a particular story. When the Anna Hazare movement caught on in Hyderabad, I covered it first; later the editor offered the team an opportunity to do another story on Anna, but with the proviso that it should be something different. There were pitches for stories on the innovative methods Hyderabadis were using to support the movement while someone suggested profiling some of the youngest and oldest members. That's when my next idea struck me: a feature on people who had ulterior motives in supporting the movement, people who came to the gatherings to publicise their own organisations, and also people who turned up at the meetings not even knowing what the Lokpal Bill was all about.

The story was approved and DC was flooded with divided opinion. The article made people uncomfortable, sure, but it also made them think. This was one of many stories I wrote that got reactions from readers. I mention this because, contrary to the popular notion that feature writing only deals with "fluff" or light topics, features can be written on serious subjects and in a way that moves the reader to action.

THE CONTACTS
If you need stories, you need contacts. Period. This holds true for a features writer as well as a general news reporter. How you build your network of contacts, I would say, bears testimony to the kind of journalist you are.

THE EDIT MEET
Surely editorial meetings are the most crucial and challenging part of being in the newspaper business. In our case, most ideas were shot down while the best ones were slotted for the next day’s edition. Often, at these meetings, deadlines were advanced. Every day, at these meetings, our work was assessed. A strong heart and suitable armour are strongly advised.

THE OTHER STORY
As a features journalist, you will inevitably have to do research on the subject or subjects of the story you are attempting to write. If you haven’t done enough research, it’s sure to show in your writing. Which is another way of saying there’s no alternative to research. Especially when you have been assigned to do an interview, because then you have to know almost EVERYTHING about the person you’re going to meet. The last thing you want to do is appear ignorant, during the interview, of a small but significant factor that might have turned around this person’s life. This is challenging because there is always that little tick-tock at the back of your head… called the deadline.

However, despite all your preparations, you may find to your surprise that your story has taken a different shape eventually. That’s because, and I am speaking from experience here, people ARE your story and it is what they have to say to you that can either make or break your story. Quite a few of my stories turned out differently from how I had imagined them because of the kind of responses my interviewees gave me.

One last point: It is important to connect with the people you speak with, but it’s also important to have a very good bullshit detector as well (RP Sir is sure to have addressed this issue). While you may be getting some information that, on the surface, seems important, you need to figure out how authentic it is. As a reporter you will meet all sorts of people who are willing to dish the dirt. You have to be able to determine what is fact and what is fiction; this is an art all journalists need to master. And quickly.

THE OTHER JOURNALISTS
As a features journalist you do not work alone. You will need to form a tight unit with your photographer. Even more than your contacts, it is the photographers who sometimes give you a good story idea. Often their nose for news is more efficient than ours at sniffing out juicy items. And, of course, a good photograph adds value and credibility to your story like nothing else.

LET’S DO THE QUARK
As a features writer, and as a member of the Hyderabad Chronicle team, my other responsibility was to lay out the pages. My daily routine as the person in charge of the tabloid section consisted of writing a feature, coordinating with the paper’s national centres on common stories, and laying out a minimum of two pages using QuarkXPress, in addition to looking into the work done by the others, lending an extra hand to speed up the process so as to meet deadlines AND liaising with the editor AND redoing an entire page if necessary depending on the kind of news coming in.

Page-making involved designing the pages, which included choosing pictures and illustrations, and getting approval for the final design. We would get some 15 minutes — 20 if the editor was in a good mood and you were exceptionally lucky — to wrap up the last page. The page had to be error-free; if not, the penalty was nothing compared with the gentle ruler-taps RP Sir bestowed on us when we goofed up as co-editors of the college newspaper.

The Wall Street Journal comes down hard on the "rotten state of India's media"

Ajit Mohan, writing on the WSJ website, couldn't have been more critical of the Indian media. Both print and television journalism get it in the neck. Here's a sampler:

Fragments of news, a significant portion lazily strung together from press agency clippings, are what a careful newspaper reader can sift out between a series of full-page advertisements peddling products, and images of women (usually of non-Indian origin) in different states of undress (in their defense, savvy editors must be acutely aware now that many of their readers prefer to get their titillation from their English-language newspapers than from other sources.) If there is any original reporting at all, it is always a bit unclear if a government agency or a private company has sponsored the report, or whether it is just another unpaid favor that has been granted by the editor. 

Frighteningly, the situation is even worse on television channels. Most news channels just do not do reporting anymore. What counts for reporting is usually a small snippet of a roving ‘journalist’ talking to a few randomly chosen individuals on the streets of Delhi and Mumbai for their take on the big controversy of the day. This then segues to what has become the preferred format of all channels: a panel of six to eight ‘experts’, usually spokesmen of major political parties mixed with out-of-work politicians, newspaper and magazine editors, and the day’s representation from the roving celebrity class of lobbyist-PR agent-commentators (whose reason to be on the panel is never quite clear), ranting at each other while struggling to have their screeching voices heard above the incessant screaming of the anchor. All this while the viewer struggles to keep up with the multiple, disjointed layers of scrolling headlines perennially sliding on the screen below the screamers.

This is a severe indictment surely. It's time to do some soul-searching, perhaps. What do our journalists have to say?

Commitscion Faye D'Souza (Class of 2004), who's an assistant editor with ET Now in Mumbai, offers a lucid comment:

I see the author’s opinion as an extension of the angst felt by several of the upper middle class ‘Thinking Indians’ we meet at dinner parties. It’s true, news has been converted into easy-to-consume, quick-churn packets of "fast food", in some cases compromising investigation and thorough fact-checking in the process.

But it is also true that the very people at dinner parties who complain the loudest are also the consumers of this information. When was the last time any of them read a long-format journalism magazine like Tehelka that puts out well-researched analysis that often runs into several pages? Aren’t we all watching the television shows we claim to detest so vehemently?

When you watch a show you lend eyeballs, which translates to TRPs, and strong TRPs encourage channels to continue putting out these shows because you as a customer seem to want them.

News, today, is a business. Newspapers and channels need to pay salaries and cover overheads as well. I think we should ask ourselves why we watch what we watch. And would we pay good money to watch a toned down, mellow, balanced news show? (Remember here that none of the money you pay your cable or DTH operator reaches the producer of the content.)

Maybe a not-for-profit news organisation is the answer. It would give Indian consumers an opportunity to sample objective journalism and decide for themselves what they prefer.

But for the sake of argument, let’s use Doordarshan as an example of what happens to content when it does not face the pressure of the P&L [profit and loss] statement. Do you think the news on DD is wholesome journalism? I bet you are unable to answer that question because you haven’t watched news on DD lately?

 It really is a chicken and egg situation. Consumers watch and read what’s handed to them because they claim they do not have a choice; content producers continue to churn out the same quality because they believe that is what consumers want.

I also would like to point out that this blog has generalised the lack of conscience across the media. I beg to differ on the stand that we are all the same.

Another Commitscion, Ayushman Baruah (Class of 2008), who is the principal correspondent of InformationWeek in Bangalore, also weighs in:

I agree that Indian media, both print and electronic — especially electronic media — rely on "superficial journalism" and there is no in-depth reporting. There is certainly an absence of analysis.

Some of it is perhaps because even in journalism schools we are taught how to report and never to analyse. The analysis in print is limited to the edit columns and in news channels, if at all, is limited to a brief "editor's take". I have seen this difference even in business reporting between InformationWeek India and our US edition. While we report, they analyse.

But there is, as well, some ambiguity in my mind about the extent to which reporters should analyse, and most important, how much of that analysis is fit to print.

Do television and print journalists have differing views? Your feedback is welcome.

What it means to be an entertainment television production professional

AFREEN RAHMAN

Commits alumna AFREEN RAHMAN (Class of 2010), who is an assistant producer with Zoom in Mumbai, gives us some interesting insights into the entertainment television industry:

What was I thinking when I took this job?!

My parents were puzzled, friends laughed, and the best part was that even I was confused. Why did I want to be part of the entertainment media industry? Because I wanted to be in Bollywood? No, if you really want to know, I wanted to be Kareena Kapoor. Well, that’s my subconscious mind talking but I was always curious to know what lies behind this glitzy world called Bollywood.

While I was an avid reader of Filmfare and Stardust, it was Ramesh Sir and Sai Sir at Commits who made me read novels (Salman Rushdie… how can I ever forget him?) and then write reviews. I would run, hide, do everything to avoid what I thought of as a tedious task… but I would still somehow submit the article.

And now I am writing yet another.

WHAT IS ENTERTAINMENT?
Entertainment is a term that has been used and abused many a time in this industry. An industry where reality shows claim to be unscripted and soaps and serials have become entirely predictable. What is entertainment then? The dictionary would say “agreeable occupation for the mind”, but a senior producer of an entertainment channel would put it as “art meets science and creativity meets news”.

Well, working for a television channel dedicated to Bollywood did give me thrills initially but, as time went by, I realised it’s not easy to create the drama, to create the hype, and to make celebrities look larger than life, especially when it came to celebs who are completely different from the perceptions people have of them. Like chalk and cheese, if I may say so. Don’t believe me? Here’s choreographer Sandip Soparrkar on Katrina Kaif: “She is a cold fish — how can she be any man’s desire?” Meanwhile ad guru Prahlad Kakkar doesn’t even want to acknowledge the presence of Akshay Kumar on the Bollywood circuit. This is the reality off camera.

WATCH ZOOM'S RED-HOT COUNTDOWN HERE. THIS IS ONE OF THE MANY SHOWS AFREEN RAHMAN PRODUCES FOR ZOOM.

DAILY DRAMA
Being designated a producer might seem all fancy-shmancy but the daily real-life drama that I am part of at work makes for more absorbing entertainment than any soap or serial.

As for deadline pressures, we often hear people cribbing about meeting deadlines; well, I have learnt deliver before deadline. That is expected of us today.

A day in the life of a professional in my industry would ideally begin at 9:30 a.m.; mine begins at 11 a.m. Why? Let me just say it’s a time-management issue. You see, I need to work closely with my scriptwriter who racks her brains to write lines in Hindi (which is not my forte). But she needs constant briefing because she tends to get carried away and writes at great length, which ultimately needs heavy editing keeping the episode duration in mind! (There have been times when, while speaking to her on the phone, I have dozed off.)  Then there’s my forever-demanding editor who feels there is never enough footage to edit a link. So even if I leave office at 1 a.m., I am on call till 4 a.m.

The next day, even as I board the train and squeeze myself into a seat I am coordinating with the voiceover artist and my post-production head, AND updating my senior because she wakes up after a good night’s sleep and wants to know if her posterior is going to be on fire or not! To top it all, if the updates don’t go out on time, 8-1-1 (my extension) does not stop ringing. Any wonder why I sometimes feel like dialling 9-1-1?

RESEARCH IS A MUST
Television shows are mostly shoot-based or edit-based. Therefore research on your subject is a must, else audience and stars alike feel cheated and you end up like a popular newspaper supplement that showers rumours and unverified gossip on its readers daily. Zoom editor-in-chief Omar Qureshi, who is a veteran film journalist and ex-editor of Stardust, has a personal rapport with most of B-Town’s A-listers, but he would still face the heat if something that was concocted appeared on the channel. He knows, however, that if his background research is foolproof, nothing can deter him from stating the truth.

Now my research is all about news… Bollywood news! It helps to be updated and be ahead of time. In Bollywood we have a mix of everything — not just gossip and glamour — so entertainment reporting is not really that different from crime reporting or political reporting, which, by the way, makes headlines every day. Here you dig deeper because surely the life of every celebrity is worth talking about!

ARE WE SAVING LIVES?
I often hear people saying, “Be passionate about your work”, “Content is king”, “Be available round the clock”. And then I have friends saying (not asking, just saying), “Are you saving lives?” No, I don’t have any clear answers yet to such questions, but, yes, even if we are passionate about work and our content has given us TRPs (what every channel thrives on), the way I see it is that we are fighting with rivals and saving the channel’s reputation. Here is an incident that underlines my viewpoint:

I had recently produced an episode titled “Bindass Celebs of Bollywood”, a countdown show. One week after it first went on air, when the repeats were on during prime time on a Saturday, somebody somewhere tuned into Zoom and watched the episode. The following day, a Sunday, I received a call and I was asked to report to work by 10 a.m. for a meeting with the programming head, the CEO, and my senior producer. Whoa! I had a lunch plan! Which I cancelled and then crawled to work not knowing what had happened.

Programming team meetings are usually fun; we spend a lot of time sometimes discussing the quirks of some of our stars (we get many interesting details from our reporters). But that day the room had a different air. As I sat down mentally prepared to tune out, I was asked the first question: Why did I do an episode called “Bindass Celebs of Bollywood”? Well, this can’t be bad, I thought. As I sat up straight to reveal the inside story and cover myself in glory, the CEO pounced on me: How dare I use the word “Bindass”. I was taken aback. I had no idea what I had done wrong.

Until it struck me suddenly that UTV Bindass is our rival channel. Oh boy!

I won’t go into details of what followed, but I surely wanted to quit then and there. Just as this thought was crystallising in my mind, Monisha Singh, the programming head, broke the silence that was taking up precious Sunday time: “Entertainment in television is very different from movies. One has to be aware that along with creativity (read creating news) comes strategic planning. Budgets, business angle of the channel, changing tastes of the audience, relationship with the stars — it all adds up to create the channel’s offering.” I think all she could have said was “Be careful next time” instead of this long-winded elucidation. :-)

KEEPING THE TARGET AUDIENCE IN MIND
In our industry, along with the actors, different media houses have learned to co-exist. One cannot survive without the other and, hence, both try to maintain a balance in this need-based “relationship”. Even as one gathers information for the various shows, one must never forget that every minute of every show is important. Therefore, a fervent desire to tap the pulse of the channel’s target audience should be in the DNA of every individual who is part of the 24x7 media circuit. To be sensitive and be sensible while narrating a story is as important as tracking the competition closely and outdoing them in the very same race. This part of our job may not be written down in the appointment letter but that is what decides our growth in any media organisation.

Speaking of target audiences, here’s reality TV producer Priyanka Kochhar on show formats that work and show formats that don’t: “Beauty and the Geek might have been popular in America but the same show failed in India because it couldn’t cater to an audience that wants masala and gossip in reality shows. Bigg Boss, on the other hand, rakes in higher revenues than Big Brother because it stimulates the audience’s mind with some much-needed juice.”

Now you know why, when deciding the format or the flow of a production-based show, one has to be very clear whose addiction one is feeding. If the TG, or target group, is “15 to 24”, it’s not the metro youngsters that we are cashing in on. It’s those kids in Kanpur, Noida, Nagpur, and Lucknow who come into the picture. Would they prefer Shah Rukh over Shahid, or Hrithik over Ranbir…ohhh! It’s a never-ending debate. Simi Chandoke, editor-in-chief of Lifestyle and Society at Times Television Network justifies this stance: “It’s only your TG that matters; it’s better to be honest with your viewers and readers than with the celebrity you interview.”

So, as I come to the end of my day and this article, I would say that no matter how difficult it is to cope with the incessant demands made on your time, you have to realise that your life in entertainment television is very different from that of your friends in other sections of the television industry. I believe they have a life, while we, apparently, slave to make space for the living. Competition is tough, there is always someone waiting outside the door to take your chair and maybe do the same work even better. And the pay sucks at my level!

CHANGING LIVES
Then why do I still do what I do?

Because when I go off to sleep for the few hours I can manage to, I have a smile on my face, a smile which comes from knowing that the day was well-spent! Even if I am not saving lives, thousands of Bollywood lovers actually look forward to MY show. Even if I am not Kareena Kapoor, I am a celebrity in my own little world — no other job gives you that kind of status. In my own way, I am changing the lives of dreamy-eyed youngsters in this country and that is no small achievement and no small responsibility.

And, for the Parthian shot, here are a few things I have learnt from experience: If you want to enjoy what you do be different, wear a T-shirt to a formal meeting, chew gum (and people’s brains), laugh aloud and gossip in whispers, indulge in small talk, call in sick when the Oscars are on, sleep with your eyes wide open in meetings, and never ever cheat where work is concerned.

What it means to be a social media marketing professional

BANIAIKYNMAW SHANPRU

Commits alumna BANIAIKYNMAW LYDIA SHANPRU (Class of 2007) works with Mindshare, a subsidiary of Group M, in Bangalore. Here she tells us what social media, increasingly being used as a marketing tool, is all about:

“Social media” is a phrase that is bandied about quite frequently these days. But what exactly is social media? And why has it become an important marketing tool?

Social media is all about the five C’s: Communication, Community, Connection, Creation, Convergence.

What are the elements that are considered as social media?

Networks: For social and professional networking.

Blogs: Individuals write about their views and opinions on various personal, social, and marketing issues they face; posts are updated frequently.

Forums: Users post queries and responses about brands and products

Almost all brands concentrate on acquiring fans in the case of Facebook or followers on Twitter. Contests and contents are the main drivers for building a community.

In addition, brands also acquire fans and followers through paid media which comprises social advertising on Facebook and promoted tweets/brands on Twitter.

How are these platforms utilised?

A. The brand’s fans/followers can be kept informed about developments concerning the brand. This is done through status updates on the Facebook Fan Page, Twitter Channel, etc.

B. The brand engages with fans/followers when their queries/comments are replied to on a regular basis. If they post queries/comments about the brand, it is best to respond immediately to prevent negative comments about the brand and to avoid creating a bad impression about the brand.

C. Brand advocates, who speak positively about the brand to their peers, can be created.

Point to note: When speaking with its fans/followers, the brand should converse with them in a personal tone and avoid using difficult marketing terms as far as possible.

BANIAIKYNMAW IN HER CUBICLE AT MINDSHARE.

The rules of social media are Listen, Learn, and Leverage.

Listen: As a social media marketer one should be thorough with ORM (Online Relationship Management), that is, tracking and keeping up-to-date on the brand sentiments whether they are positive, neutral, or negative conversations.

Learn: Identify and analyse conversation trends for appropriate content response.

Leverage: Engage with the users by persuading them to participate in the brand conversation and in contests. You can also give them exclusive access to content to make them your brand advocates.

And finally, something to remember:

1. Just as we pay for our ads in print and on television, social media strategy doesn’t come free of cost.

2. Knowing how to post a status update on Facebook or how to tweet does not qualify one to be a social media specialist.

3. Most importantly, brands have to listen to their consumers and become their friends and not marketing advisors.

• UPDATE (July 25, 2013): Carrie Kerpen, the CEO of a social media agency, explains why she believes strongly that there are key areas within social media upon which you may build a career. Read the article she contributed to Forbes here: "Is Social Media a Career?"

What it takes to be a media planner

Commits alumnus SUMIT SONAL (Class of 2011) has been working as a media planner with OMD Worldwide in Bangalore since September 2010. Here he gives us an insight into media planning as a profession:

SUMIT SONAL

Life as a media planner is hectic — say goodbye to your 9-to-6 routine because it really doesn't exist — and you have to be very, very patient while working on huge media plans that sometimes exceed Rs.14 cr for just a single quarter.

Sometimes you will have to make amendments to a single plan at least four or five times (if you're lucky!) before it gets approved. Presentations for global and regional teams, in the case of international clients like Intel, will take up most of your time.

Media planning has changed with time. Today's client will ask questions on each rupee spent. More and more channels are being added to the list every day, and it is the same with publications and websites. You should be updated all the time; only then will you be able to create plans that will deliver the goods for your client. To do this, you will have to stay in constant touch with your vendors and also READ! Afaqs and Campaign India are two websites that give you a good insight into what’s happening in the industry and you must make it a point to visit them regularly.

BRAND VISIBILITY: Staying in touch with your vendors will keep you up to date on upcoming properties. For example, you must have seen the promos for Avatar on Star Movies and Star Plus. The network approached us to be the associate sponsor because by then Reliance had already been finalised as the main sponsor. Being associate sponsor or sponsor ensures maximum visibility for your brand, considering the brand will be present everywhere the property is being promoted: promo runs, out-of-home media, Facebook, and paid search ads.

Avatar, a premium property, is very expensive to buy. Associate sponsorship can cost you anywhere between Rs.50 lakh and Rs.60 lakh (how far the cost can be brought down depends completely on the buying team).

We took Avatar, and it was declared as one of our big, good buys of the year as the property delivered tremendously well for both English and Hindi audiences.

To conclude, you need to be very patient and value relationships with colleagues, vendors, in fact anyone you meet if you want to become a good media planner. The media is a close-knit industry, so be sure to leave the person you meet with the right image.

One last point: It’s not important to be good at maths; I never was. You can still do well in this business. Also, be computer-savvy because it really helps!

• If you’re serious about becoming a media planner, you should buy this book by Arpita Menon: Media Planning and Buying.

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.