Was talking to a senior reporter whom I know from my CNN days. He was lamenting the state of most Indian news channels today. Since I get most of my news from the Net, and do not get around to seeing too much of it on TV, could not really contribute to the conversation then, but came back and watched a couple of shows on NDTV and Star News. And man, was it terrible. No substance, no technique, no style, no personality. It was like handing a camera to a 3-year-old and leaving him or her free to swing it wherever they want, with some ear-piercing shrieks to accompany the hotch potch of shots. This is for the ladies at Star News: When conventional broadcast journalism wisdom ask you to "throw your voice", they mean that the modulation should be crystal clear and engage the listener...they do not mean that you shout at the top of your voice and literally throw the words in a manner that they assault the ears of the TV audience!

TV is a complex medium. It needs special training and modulation of thought processes of the reporters. I guess this is the flip side of such user friendly technology that everybody can become a TV reporter, without any training whatsoever!