CNN correspondent posted to city
CNN has announced that it will post a news correspondent in Chennai. For journalists like me, this is somewhat exciting news. Liz Neisloss, a former producer with the channel, will now be stationed in Chennai and will cover southern India.
At home, many of the news channels, magazines and newspapers based in New Delhi often don’t post journalists in Chennai. Whenever any event of national importance happens, a reporter is simply shipped from the nearest cities – Bangalore and Hyderabad. Coverage of the cow belt often takes precedence over anything in the south, especially for Hindi channels. So it’s great to hear CNN finally posting a correspondent here in the city.
Will we then see more of Chennai on CNN? Let’s wait and see.
Here’s The Hindu report.
Nandhu,
I know you write for Rediff and probably know more than most of us – but i am of the view that your feeling of neglect towards chennai/south is not entirely correct.
The south is not ignored. Its the most important market for english channels. As far as english news channels are concerned Mumbai, Blore and Chennai have the highest TRP ratings and these will be markets that they JUST cannot ignore. Alot of journos from India Today Group, Zee Group, TV18, NDTV, Haymarket Group, Outlook Group, Indian Express Group, Times Group etc etc are posted in Chennai. On a lighter note, MK and JJ do enough to keep these journos busy too – and they hog alotta limelight.
Vernacular channels cater to their markets. I feel your encouraging regionalist comments with the cow belt remark. It should be noted that the sun or raj network wont have correspondents in the north east or in the Cow Belt. Lets be fair here.
the above comment was not to provoke sectarian or regionalist feelings. but i disagree with your view that tv channels cover the south well. most channels are Delhi centric, as they themselves would agree.
when the tsunami stuck for instance, Star News didn”t have a chennai correspondent, and the bangalore correspondent came down to cover one of the biggest stories of the decade.
I hope you dont mind me being argumentative.
But i think that the act of one loss making STAR NEWS amongst all other channels cannot be casue a generalised feeling about the media industry.
Im sure you know that all star news and the likes of India TV do is sensationalism and provide news on hindi K serials and other reality shows. Dont count them in the likes of the dignified category.
i dont mind the argument.
it’s not just star news. it’s well known in journalistic circles that if u got to make it, then you got to be in Delhi. not chennai. nothing happens in Chennai, everyone says.
i dont watch much tv these days, but when i do, i rarely see an investigative story breaking from chennai on times now or cnn-ibn.
So we are settling from a purely pro chennai sentiment to a more market driven justification.
well point taken.. Pareto it is delhi. But that is also becase because it is the centre with the ruckus of the union govt, nuclear deal, parliament, MPs, big shot lawyers and whatever else have you. mumbai has its share for the stock market, page 3, bollywood and industry.
But they are the two alpha metros. I dont see that big a stepmotherly between chennai , blore or hydie atleast.
i mean MK’s lord ram jazz, his malaysian strife remarks got enough limelight. i even saw samsungs chief talking on CNBC live from chennai. kanimozhi and maran got a lot of airtime. Headlines today as a weekly on “Changing Chennai”.
Interesting.. bring out the popcorn! :p
Responding to Sachin’s comment about Raj/Sun not having correspondents in the ‘cow belt’ – well, they don’t masquerade as national channels. They are regional and they know that. The South is among the few places in India that English works- at stores, with the autowallah.. In the North, it is almost assumed that you know Hindi and other languages hardly work. (Disclaimer: I’m reasonably fluent in Hindi).
The City has been getting its fair share of news coverage – Cnn ibn has something or the other from the city almost everyweek..
See Guys,
I just think that Raj, Sun, Zee and Star are smart enough to factor that they are catering in majority to people that respectively use either of Tamil or Hindi as a first language. so their content will be tuned to suit that specific target masses need.
I see it purely as a business ploy. If there is something of importance then either of the tamil or hindi media will feature the story. I dont think there is a deliberate intent to masqurade or upset any community
Surely I know they love news on amma and we love news on lalu
Sorry to deviate from the main topic…
As far as CNN (USA) is concerned, they are kind of pro-PAK and anti-INDIA or ignore-INDIA. They show more positive news about PAK and hardly any anti-PAK. Whereas, when something big happens in India, CNN-USA completely ignores it or give less importance to happenings in India.
Good to hear that, but do not expect some coverage on the IT corridor, the IT boom, Golden Quadrilateral or something. Maybe some coverage of the dirty Cooum, Otteri Nullah, life in north Madras slums, bad traffic, or of course, MK and JJ’s antics would fit in nicely with CNN’s reporting w.r.t. India.
As for south-related coverage by the north-based channels, the less said the better.
//The South is among the few places in India that English works- at stores, with the autowallah.. //
You missed one, we also have english name boards in public transport buses.
tats the problem shyam, we need good journalists or news channels to project our problems…let it be dirty cooum or delayed IT corridor unless the thing comes out in a proper media it doesn’t get any attention..
I ve been waiting to put my thoughts on this topic for quite come time. IMHO, Chennai has always been ignored.Chennai is seen in the news only for MK and JJ. If you take a look at any survey conducted by the “NEWS CHANNELS” you will see only HYD and BANGALORE in the Survey list from the South. Media has projected as if nothing is happening in Chennai.
But the advantage of not being in the Limelight is that people are safer here.
Though I do not live in this city, being a native always take great interest in the overall developments of Madras. Marketing a city for its potential has always been a miserable failure in case of Madras, so called politicians are more worried about staying in power rather than help the city grow. Bangalore is an OVERLY HYPED city, inspite of all the short comings such as WORST INFRASTRUCTURE, DISGUSTING TRANSPORTAION PROBLEMS, NAUSEATING REALTY PRICES AND A SICK CLIMATE WHICH WOULD ONLY MAKE AN ALREADY LAZY FELLOW EVEN LAZIER, DESPITE ALL THESE PROBLEMS, BANGALORE SOUNDS AWESOME TO MANY FOOLS.
Guyz dont feel Madras is any less than these cities, it is traditionally an intellect capital with a distinct flavor of its own never mind the typical tamil, rogue rickshawdrivers, sticky climate, notorious ill manner of bus conductors it is a nice place……….