MEDIA MONITORING

PROJECT

News Channel Monitored: 24 Ghanta

Name: Anindya Chakrabarti

Department: ENGA Roll no: 16
Subject: Journalism Project
SEMESTER III
Introduction
Media monitoring may be defined as the activity of monitoring the output of the print,
online and broadcast media. It is conducted for commercial or scientific reasons. In academia
media monitoring is deployed by social scientists in an attempt to discover e.g. biases in the
way the same event is presented in different media, among the media of different countries
etc. In the commercial sphere, this activity is usually carried by a media monitoring service, a
private company that provides such services to other companies, organizations and individuals
on a subscription basis. The services that media monitoring companies provide typically include
the systematic recording of radio and television broadcasts, the collection of press clippings
from print media publications, and the collection of data from online information sources. The
material collected usually consists of any media output that makes reference to the client, its
activities and/or its designated topics of interests. Media monitoring covers all media types
including print, online, TV and radio. Such services hold, or have held, various names - changing
over time as new forms of media are created. Alternative names for such services include:
Press/media cutting agency/service, Information Logistics Service and Media intelligence.

Since mass media traditionally has been limited solely of print media, naturally the
monitoring was also limited to this media. The world's first press clipping agency was
established in London in 1852 by a Polish news-agent named Romeike. As radio and later
television broadcasting were introduced in the 20th century, press clipping agencies began to
expand their services into the monitoring of these broadcast media, and this task was greatly
facilitated by the development of commercial audio and video tape recording systems in the
1950s and 1960s. With the growth of the Internet in the 1990s, media monitoring service
extended their services to the monitoring of online information sources using new digital
search and scan technologies to provide output of interest to their clients.

The news monitoring industry provides government agencies, corporations, public

relations professionals, and other organizations access to news information created by the
media. Generally monitoring print, broadcast, and internet content for any mention of specific
subjects of interest, a news monitoring company will analyze and provide feedback to their
client in the form of press clippings, monitoring reports, and media analysis.

Television first came to Calcutta in 1975. The inauguration was on 9th August. Initially
the programs were in one channel for limited time in the morning and in the evening. In those
days, the only TV channel was aired from Doordarshan (means distance viewing in Bengali), a
Govt. funded organization. It covered topics ranging from public entertainment to sports and
also acted as a news relaying media. In June, 1984, Calcutta TV (Doordarshan) entered the
world of colour transmission. From the mid nineties, cable television channels mushroomed
and started telecasting round the clock programs in different languages. New channels were
started for particular subjects such as news, sports, and GECs (General Entertainment
Channels). The viewers can enjoy international channels like BBC, CNN, and CNBC along with a
long list of national channels and other regional channels such as Star Plus (GEC) and HBO
(movie channel).

Television news monitoring companies capture and index closed captioning text and
search it for client references. Some TV monitoring companies still employ human monitors
who review and abstract program content. This includes tracking of mainline and regional news
channels for relevant coverage such as (Business news, reports, interviews, tickers and stock
analysis). In this project, the Bengali news channel 24 Ghanta has been taken up for study- a
close analysis has been made of its content, special features, style of presentation and a
comparative study with another Bengali channel Star Ananda.

History and Background

24 Ghanta (literally meaning 24 Hours) is a 24x7 Bengali news channel, owned by Zee
Akaash News Pvt. Ltd. (a Essel Group company) in strategic partnership with Sky B in a 60:40
deal. It was launched on 1st April 2006 and became the second 24 hour- news channel after
Star Ananda, which was launched a year back on 1st June 2005. Unlike Star Ananda, a politically
neutral channel, 24 Ghanta became well known for its Left-leaning coverage. Over the years the
channel has developed in terms of technology and news coverage. 24 Ghanta is the first of the
Indian stand-alone regional channels to adopt 3-D broadcast graphics, using Vizrt Technology
and Systems. The state elections held there recently served as a good proving ground for the
Vizrt systems, showing viewers that 24 Ghanta can compete with other national channels on
the air. The channel has the motto of “songe thakun 24 ghanta”.

Content
24 Ghanta has a unique program schedule that contains news stories, follow-up stories,
special programs, as well as entertainment. The channel begins with a half-hour long section
called Sera dosh, which gives the important headlines including national and international
news, important regional stories and sports news, from 8:00am to 8:30am. This is followed by
Match Referee, a section on games and sports, anchored by Manjira. A small 5 minute segment
is then dedicated to a special program that refers back to a historical event of that day. Next, at
9:00 am a show Goto 24 Ghanta Ek Jhalake which is telecasted for half an hour and is a
recapitulation of headlines of the previous day. Some are telecasted with follow up stories.
From 9:30 to 10:00 a household based program is shown, called Ghar Bari, a show generally for
housewives. Repeats of the morning headlines and any follow up on those stories are
telecasted up to 12:00pm, anchored by Arpita.

At midday Manjira returns to the desk again with Breaking Barota, bringing in the latest
news of the day to the viewers. In the afternoon at 1:30pm there is a health related piece with
Doctor on Call, where a doctor, on call, discusses on some particular illness or disease that is
spreading presently or is of critical present concern. This is followed by either special programs
or follow up stories on the news of the day or any earlier story of importance.

Evening at 4:00 holds Showbiz 24, an entertainment program dealing with movies,
theatres and celebrities. At 6:30 the channel hosts the show Spot light, that is basically an
informal interview with a celebrity (in the field of entertainment or sports or science); on other
days there are programs with CPM guests in studio generally promoting the party. This is
unique to the channel keeping in mind its Left Front Orientation. From 8:00pm to 9:00pm a live
program is hosted having audience phone-in and a panel of guests, including personalities of
politics or celebrities, in studio. The show is hosted by Moupia, who was awarded Best Anchor
of the Year at Star Jalsha Awards 2010. The 9:00pm news is called Page-1, followed by Shohor
24, containing special news of Kolkata. At 10:30, another sports based program is shown called
Xtra- Time.

Presentation Style

24 Ghanta being a Bengali news channel has its lackings in case of presentation and
formatting of the channel but it stands out in its own way with its artistic logo and catchy tag
line “sange thakun 24 ghanta” which in Bengali means stay with us 24hours.

The face of the channel is not very flashy but very simple with the bug i.e. the logo at the
downwards right side corner of the screen. There is a time Aston right below the logo. It has a
ticker carrying the news running out of the bug. It carries the news from different parts of the
state and quotes and comments of politicians and important figures. It has another thin ticker
running below this one which carries ads and at times information regarding some programs
that go on in the city. It has a thicker newsflash ticker which shows the headlines. Unlike the
national channels it doesn’t run a ticker with the share market information which shows that it
doesn’t lay much importance with the business world.

24 Ghanta has introduced a very Bengali but at the same time modern way of presenting
news. The anchors are smart and the stories are a good blend of anchor byte, P-to-C’s, reporter
byte which proves that good amount of research is done on a subject before it goes on air.
Moupia, who is at the moment the face of the channel, won the Jalsha Awards 2010 in the Best
Anchor category. It lays a lot of importance to whatever the Bengalis might relate to. Like their
sports section is majorly on club football scenario of Bengal and has artistic programs like Ajker
din-e which is a 5minutes show that looks back on the historical significance of the day.

Most importantly 24 Ghanta has become the first of the Indian stand-alone regional
channels to adopt 3-D broadcast graphics in order to improve its on-air look and compete with
national channels in the same genre. It is the first of the Indian stand-alone regional channels to
adopt 3-D broadcast graphics, using Vizrt technology and systems.

The new look provides viewers with state-of-the-art graphics and up-to-date
information. With the help of the various Vizrt solutions, 24 Ghanta can create full-frame 3-D
graphics and a branding of the channel.

24 Ghanta is using Vizrt's Viz|Artist software, to provide its designers with the flexibility
to create and animate advanced motion graphics in real time, and Viz|Content Pilot, for the
centralization, management, control, input and delivery of content throughout the Vizrt family
of solutions. Viz|Content Pilot includes an asset management system, a template control and
playback system, a template wizard that provides a drag and drop method of creating custom
interfaces for templates, and a template manager that organizes and manages templates.

The state elections held here recently served as a good proving ground for the Vizrt
systems, showing viewers that 24 Ghanta can compete with other national channels on the air.

Comparison
24 Ghanta, a Zee networks initiative was launched as a major competition to STAR
Ananda which was the only Bengali 24 hours news channel then. In comparison to STAR
Ananda, 24 Ghanta is different in many ways.

The face of the channel that is the look of the channels are very different. They have
different sort of tickers, newsflashes and as STAR Ananda calls it Shironaam that is the
headlines emphasize on the fact. Apart from the technical dissimilarities the interpretation of
news in case of both the channels are very different as well.

Then again STAR Ananda is a much more commercialized channel than 24 Ghanta. It
boasts an extensive bureau network, bringing to the Bengali viewer unparalleled,
comprehensive and incisive news coverage. With an over 40 per cent majority market share in
the Kolkata and West Bengal markets amongst all news channels in launch week, STAR Ananda
continues to consolidate, adequately reflecting the aspirations of the Bengali people. As a
journalist of 24 Ghanta Mr. Adhir Roy defends his channel and says “We believe that pure news
is what a news channel is morally bound to deliver. We are not here to merely entertain the
masses but to inform and enlighten them. We believe in quality of the product more than the
packaging of it.”

24 Ghanta as it is known to be pro-left channel delivers more official news due to its
direct association with the state government than in STAR Ananda which is again better at
getting the oppositions quote. STAR Ananda also has a better link up with the Bengali Film
Industry which again helps in its publicizing the channel.

STAR Ananda gives better exposure to its reporters and anchor than 24 Ghanta and
has a horde of very sharp faces like Suman Dey (Editor-in-Chief), Reshmi, Amit, Kuntal, Dipak,
Ritabrata, Bitanu, Amit, Rajat and Sounak. While 24 Ghanta offers little exposure to its Moupia,
Puja and Koushik.

In comparison to many other Bengali news channels 24 Ghanta is doing a much better
job but as Mr. Roy puts it, “We know our lackings and our constantly acting on them. Here we
work as a family. But no doubt that there is always scope for betterment of the channel and its
technical, ethical and artistic development.”

Conclusion
While doing this project I not only came to know a lot about a particular channel but the
overall scenario of Bengali journalism industry and TV industry, the running of the channels and
the different aspects that need to be taken care of in a channel’s performance. Starting from
proper journalism to proper marketing, it requires extreme diligence and dedication which
shows in the performance. In this extremely competitive world where one is over throwing the
other in just a few moves one has to be extremely sharp and agile in case of actions and has to
be conscious through out the clock for which we need to be updated as they say “SANGE
THAAKUN 24 GHANTA.”