Mobile phones have made their official appearance in the corridors of Doordarshans offices. News readers have been asked to look `lively on screen, a la private satellite channels, and there are talks of acquiring DNG (digital news gathering) equipment.
Times are certainly a-changing in DD with the newly-appointed Prasar Bharti chief executive S.S. Gill - a man in great hurry, according to his own admittance- vehement on bringing about a change in the whole set-up to give the news bulletins of DD a credibility which has been lacking till now.
Mandi House mandarins and those in Akashvani Bhavan were pleasantly surprised when shrill mobile phones started ringing in the musty corridors of the erstwhile state broadcasters offices. The phones have been acquired as the CEO feels that correspondents and senior officials should be in touch with the head office regularly, senior DD officials said.
But the cell phones have also given rise heart-buring amongst staffers. Since two phones have been, reportedly ,assigned to officials sitting in the corporate office of DD in mandi House. Why do they need the phones if the mobiles have been acquired for correspondents ? asked one official.
If that was not enough, Gill during one of the meetings over the last two days have enquired the reason behind DD newsreaders looking not-so-lively on screen . Why cannot they look lively like Vikram Chandra (of NDTV anchoring news on Star Plus) or those anchors on BBC? Gill is believed to have asked one senior news editorial staff , adding, Please see that they match up to those news anchors on other channels.
Talking to Business Standard, Gill had said, Now we stand without a fig leaf to cover our lapses (in covering news). There is going to be no pressure, no censorship...and lot of professionalism.
Professionalsim comes in the form of sprucing up bulletin presentations and acquiring gizmos, notwithstanding the fact some state-of-the-art equipment are under utilised at present.
DD sources pointed out that there arestanding orders from Gill that every news bulletins should be accompanied by graphics and adequate number of visuals. TV is a visula medium and news editors should realise this, another DD official said paraphrasing Gills diktat.
In an attempt to make the monolith a fighting fit public service broadcaster, Gill is also believed to have acceded to the request of the news room to acquire DNG equipment. The price: approximately Rs 10 crore. And more manna is in the offing .
However, some DD officials have pointed out that futility of getting additional equipment as some state-of-the-art gadget is gathering dust. For example, DD news hardly ever makes use of Silicon Graphic software acquired some time back.
But where are the funds going to come from to infuse new professionalism in DD as Gill has made it clear crass commecialisation now is a thing of the past ? Ours guess is as good as yours, pointed out an informationa nd broadcasting ministry official.
