And the clip runs free
Evidence suggests that news channels in India are a declining force. Viewership numbers are down, ad volumes have fallen sharply, financial performance is suffering and we have seen some well publicised layoffs. This is not surprising for a variety of reasons- in large part the channels themselves are to blame for this given their disdain for journalistic norms and their loose relationship with truth, but it is also true that increasingly, people, particularly the young prefer to get their news from social media.But there is one important qualification. While channels are not being viewed in the same numbers, content from the channels gets wide circulation. In the form of clips. Social media is awash with clips from news shows. Clips showing anchors being overdramatic, or being stumped by participants, politicians stumbling on camera, strong rebuttals by spokespersons of different political parties; it is as if the channels have a far more robust afterlife than what transpires in the studio.What is interesting is that the choice channels make to present their news in a theatrical, over the top manner to attract viewers is precisely what makes them work as clips. The same intensity which drew viewer interest becomes a reason for viewer derision. From being objects of authority, the clip converts anchors into becoming objects of ridicule.The same thing happens with politicians. From being statesmen, they get seen as specimens. Like a mischievous child wriggling to get free of its mother’s arms, the clip wants to break free of shackles imposed by its original structure and delights in its freedom. There is a sense of playfulness about the clip, an unruly sense of glee at being able to invert the parental intention.In that sense, the clip has become the most important way of consuming news. Not being locked into a specific time band, clips run free, appearing on our feeds as the algorithm sees fit. Clips usually have two elements- the content and the framing. In some videos the image speaks for itself- a politician stumbling, a school that is decrepit, a road that has more potholes than pathway, flooding in large cities and so on. But a lot of clips create meaning through the framing. A politician getting emotional on camera has one intended meaning, but when it is framed by a laugh track or a funny song, the meaning inverts. Here the clip gains a form of autonomy as a vehicle for creating meaning.The clip is a double agent working against the very material it is born out of. In many cases, meaning migrates from the content to the framing. in the original content, both are supplied by the creator. But a clip discards the original framing and substitutes it with its own. This is what distinguishes it from an excerpt, which strives to maintain the intention of the original. Its original ancestor was the soundbite, which understood the power of compression. But the soundbite was always locked into its context; its role was primarily amplificatory.There is another element that determines how viral a clip becomes. The context in which it is received, the mood of its audience is what influences its reach and circulation. A clip with compelling content framed well may not circulate that much if the ambient mood of the audience is not receptive. The reason why particular kinds of reels are doing well now has to do with what many people want to hear. A few years ago, the same clip could have vanished without a trace.Eventually the algorithm promotes what works. And in doing so, it accelerates and deepens the reach. This in turn provides incentive for other creators to make similar content. People with strong feelings who thought they were alone suddenly discover that they are not and there is a rush of new voices that were hesitant to express themselves.The power of the clip is its ability to circulate at great speed and expose hypocrisies and failures; its great danger is that it can be used to manipulate, to edit out context in a way that is actively misleading. Its power lies in the fact that it is visual in nature which carries with it a presumption of truth, but equally it is never the whole truth.Which means that any form of speech is a potential landmine. Any slip of tongue can be disproportionately damaging. What part of it will be clipped and make the rounds is difficult to tell. The usual caveat to that is that the life of any content today is extremely short and the attention cycle moves on. But this is only partially true for some classics never go out of circulation. Also, if the combined weight of individual clips is in one direction, then an environment of a certain kind gets built. A mood gains momentum.We seem to be seeing some evidence that this is happening today. The government’s ability to control the narrative through a docile mainstream media is being subverted ironically by using material from the same channels, but to deliver the opposite effect. For news channels it is doubly worrying for their content is being circulated without any commercial advantage in a way that makes them look foolish. And nothing punctures authority more than being made to look ridiculous.
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.
