The new hues of Journalism

The new hues of Journalism

A few days ago, I read about Pulitzer and his concept of the revolutionary “Yellow Journalism”. It was a form of aggressive, severely competitive, at times even manipulative and exaggerated journalism. This concept, albeit suitably modified, has been applied to Indian journalism today.

DNA – Daily News and Analysis, brought the first all-colour 40 page daily to Mumbai city. So, our news didn’t just look “yellow” like those which appeared in Pulitzer’s “New York World” but had every shade to make them look attractive and sound digestible. In our market, gauged by the IRS rounds and Neilson Survey, TOI immediately refurnished its copy of Bombay Times to an appealing new all-colour format and HT decided to keep it short by cutting the crap. Regardless of the competition, the brand new shades were here to stay.

Most of us are in a habit of sipping the morning tea while glancing at the headlines or closing in with a round-up of the day’s events. The all-colour format has made this daily experience a lot more delightful. Gone are the days when the cartoon strips looked blurred. Reading the news has become convenient as it no longer requires an effort to guess the identity of the photographed person. The sports section never looked so attractive. It is now guaranteed more prominence and space. It is illustrated with clearer images of not just the presentation ceremonies at sport events but also of the superb dives and sharp cuts; straight drives and splendid goals; and all the action on the field captured by the finest lenses of the world, is brought to us by the modernized Technicolor printing. Pictures of Sharapova, Graeme Smith and Button can well be a part of the Collector’s Edition. The sordid affairs, the Page-3 parties never looked as scintillating as they now do! At the same time crime and terror stories looked gruesome than ever. But that’s “capturing the reality in its authentic form”. Sadly this reality is ghastly and brutal and its images traumatizing and spine-chilling. On a lighter note, I wish to point out that even Lalu Prasad and Sonia Gandhi looked charming in the digital images and Prabhakaran, less intimidating!


The media by and large portrays the truest picture of the society. What better than have the true colours to its aid! Journalism has gone beyond the realms of meager reporting of facts. It has extended its horizons to explore the power of photography which has instilled life and soul in the mundane reports. It has matured to realize that an attractive format has the power to garner more readerships. It can even make up for the lackadaisical reporting exercised by the media at times. Yet, the revolution is limited to the English dailies only. Majority of the vernacular media is still characterized by ineffective black carbon ink. While journalism as a career and profession is seeing massive growth and revolution today, hope that even Navbharat Times sees the “yellow” light of the day!