Daily Times

I remember when Pakistan Television used to air Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s morning show. It would always start with a greeting of ‘Subah Bakhair’. The programme used to overflow with information on all sorts of subjects, targeted at all age groups. Tarar’s elegance and finesse would be lost on the private television channels that dominate the Pakistani airwaves today.

While Pakistan’s electronic media has experienced a lot of growth and a large number of news and entertainment channels have broken onto television, our industry still hasn’t grasped the essence of morning shows. In our race to follow Western trends, we have lost the concept of this idea.

Breakfast shows, as they are called in the US, are television shows aired in the morning between seven and nine in the morning, discussing yesterday’s important news from all sectors along with information regarding the city or state’s current traffic state, key events taking place later in the day, stock market analysis and other significant pieces of information affecting the public. In Pakistan, however, morning shows have none of this content, instead they are full of ratings boosting nonsense.

There are weddings and dances, there are celebrities cooking meals, audience members are called out about their weight, height, and complexion. Such content is gibberish without any logic, rationale or meaning. Why do these channels dedicate so much airtime to celebrity weddings? Morning shows aren’t meant to be reality television. But so much air-time is dedicated to inane dialogue that they might as well be.

I have had the misfortune of hearing multiple conversations on the following topics on these morning shows multiple times! Rivalries between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, baby showers, exorcism and other topics that do not affect anyone. All the guests invited to these shows are established celebrities. Educated people with interesting things to talk about like scholars and scientists are never invited.

Breakfast shows, as they are called in the US, are television shows aired in the morning timeslots, between 7am and 9am. Yesterday’s important news from all sectors, alongwith information regarding various aspects of life, are discussed in these shows

A society can exist even if the electronic media’s intensity and magnitude are reduced. However, it will not function if scholars are not given a chance to propagate their studies, research findings, information, and wisdom.

The unfortunate truth is that every television channel is fighting for rating supremacy and in that race, they have openly and consciously forgone the importance of developing quality content.

They air copied content for self-glorification. Any television show needs credible, practical and exclusive content to flourish. It is in this content remains the seeds of the program’s success. However, we never sowed our seeds so there is no return.

The writer is a columnist and an author

Published in Daily Times, January 2^nd 2018.