Staleness of Geo & ARY

[Ali.009]

Shattering the paradigm: Defining a Pakistani media strategy-overcoming the staleness of Geo & ARY​

While many Pakistanis are awed by Geo and ARY, many feel that these two and other Pakistanchannels leave much to be desired. GEO and ARYare stale and stoic. They have yet to produce websites that are worth anyting. They do not use the latest technologies like podcasting, blogging and video streaming.

Tits bits from Doordarshan about the idiot who spends his time playing with snakes in his nostrils is not news. The daily gossp about soft port Bollywood (Bolly4wood) serves some agenda, but it is not the Pakistani agenda. Like the Pakistani newspapers, the TV channels simply are in awe of American Think Tanks and the Los AngelesTimes or the Washington Post–as if they are the paragons of truth and veracity. After the WMD and other news fiascos, even Americans do not consider them as the primary source of news.

PTV, Geo and ARy have failed become the prime news source from Afghanistan and Kashmir. Far away Al-Jazeera reports on real breaking news from Kabul. Neither ARY nor Geo has been able to investigate the heroin connections of the Indian agent Mr. Karzai. No Pakistani channel dares to investigate and report on the Indian connection to the Baitullah Mehsud. The news channelsare obsessed with the squabbling between the unelected leaders of the PPP and the PMLN. Broadcasting endless reruns of old dramas by the PTV is a major waste of resources, clogging of the airwaves, and Dr. Shahid Mehsud has done little to change it. Transmitting Indian dramas and soaps is a national calamity and serve no purpose except to titillate and incite. Even dramas can be set in historical settings and serve a purpose. Russian, Iranian and Cuban cinema and TVs provide fantastic world class treats to the people.

The Pakistani media channels are still anchored in th PTV era beholden to the government setting the news. How could the channels be different when they are full of old archaic artifacts fixated upon the agendas set by the neanderthal politicians. Can these channels ever produce icons like Woodward and Bernstein? Can Geo ever produce real investigative reporting like Tehelka.com? The answer of course is no.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, and the Pakistani community itself has the power to change it.” Ethan Casey and Fawad Butt

The Pakistani TV channels like the Pakistani media neither have the entrepreneurship nor the creativity to tap into the ingenuity of the Pakistani people or the Pakistani diaspora. Self aggrandising nonsensical propaganda broadcasted by “Safeer e Paksitan” of course demeans the entire Pakistani diaspora.

Both ARY and Geo do not help the national language and hire anchors and people with limited or poor skills in Urdu. Trying to be hip these young anchors use the crutch of broken English and make a mockery of themselves when they try to emulate American or British accents. Like my mother used to say “jo ho wo hee raho.”

Most anchors are biased reporters who actually belong to particular political parties. This is unheard of in Western Media where the major anchors of the three major networks take great pains to be neutral. This neutrality builds trust in them.

There are a few exceptions “50 minutes” provides in-depth reporting and provides solutions. Their program on the economic opportunities for the future was one of the finest pieces of programming ever made. There there are seconds of brilliance as defined by Kashif Abbassi’s hard hitting interview of Mr. Husain Haqqani, and the Pakistani questioning of Mr. Gilani on his visit to the US. However there is a lot of mundane “same old” programming that spreads depression and despair. Showing dead bodies is the height of irresponsibility and is a clear violation of PMERA rules. It is sad the channels still do not show the correct maps of Pakistan. Junagarh and Manvadar are Pakistani territory and not shown as part of Pakistan. Many programs show Kashmir as part of India and most do not show Azad Kashmir separate from Indian Occupied Kashmir. Some programs still show Northern Areas as part of Kashmir even though the Norhtern Areas have nothing to do with Kashmir and were incorporated into Pakistan by General Zia ul Haq (perhaps his only redeeming act). Ethan Casey has written a brilliant article on the media strategy.

There are several efforts to fix to break the paradigm. The American Association of Pakistani Professionals run by Asif is a brilliant effort in the USA. PACPACis another. However both organizations work in spurts and then vanish. Rupee New fully endorses the strategy of Casey and Butt and this site itself is part of the effort to break the paradigm by providing unbiased, and real news and views to our readers.

Toward a Pakistani Media Strategy Ethan Casey August 14, 2008 by Ethan Casey and Fawad Butt

We all bemoan the fact that the Western public associates with Pakistan words like terrorism, fundamentalism, violence, nuclear proliferation, and assassination, and that those nouns tend to be qualified in Western discourse with the adjective “Islamic”. We all wish it were otherwise. But when it comes to changing it, we seem paralyzed and helpless, if not bitter, apathetic and resigned.

It doesn’t have to be this way, and the Pakistani community itself has the power to change it. This is a crucial historical moment, because the demonization of Pakistanis and Muslims will affect not only the current generation but generations to come. And the damage will be to all of us and to our shared human future.

As any athlete or military officer knows, the best defense is a good offense. Being disgusted withthe way things are is not a sufficient response, and the Pakistani community needs to take the lead in changing its own image, by crafting and launching a coherent, purposeful media strategy aimed at a global audience. The community has the talent, money and other resources to do this. Complaining to each other on Geo and ARY does not constitute a media strategy.

Here’s what we’ve done, as a patriotic Pakistani and a non-Pakistani friend of Pakistan: Ethan Casey published a sympathetic travel book about Pakistan, with the subtitle “A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time,” and conceived, launched and for a year co-hosted a podcast series subtitled “A Weekly Audio Dialogue Between Pakistan and the West”. Fawad Butt is developing a community bank for Pakistanis in the United States.

Together, we travel around North America speaking to both mainstream and Pakistani audiences, always emphasizing Pakistan’s human dimension, stressing our common humanity and hopes for a viable future together. We are making a documentary film in the same spirit as Ethan’s book and will be traveling to Pakistan in September-October specifically for the purpose of shooting footage that will show Americans and others human stories from Pakistan, with all the politics, violence and rhetoric relegated for once to the background.

Creating and distributing media is a lot easier and less expensive than it used to be. Chowk.com is a good example of this. Disseminating a community’s story, on the community’s own terms, is not primarily a question of money but rather of desire and focus and vision. Pakistan plays a key role on the global stage, but its people are routinely defined by parachuting journalists pretending to have context from the rooftop of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. Pakistan’s story needs to be told by Pakistanis themselves and by people who know and love them, from the ground and from within the community.

To achieve this, the community must:

• Decide on and unite behind a common message. Jewish, Indian and Cuban communities in the United States have been enormously successful at this, and there is a lot to learn from their examples.

• Leverage digital media in all its forms. YouTube videos, podcasts and online publications can be created and disseminated quickly and cost-effectively.

• Recognize and support existing media efforts. Entrepreneurial initiatives sprinkled across the globe are dying on the vine for lack of community support. Much can be achieved if the community focuses some of its philanthropic activity on such efforts.

For more than thirty years, leadership and initiative among Pakistanis in the United States have been exercised by the first generation of immigrants - Version 1.0 of the Pakistani American community. That generation built important institutions. Version 2.0 - affluent and talented professionals now in their thirties and forties, and eager and able to meet the community’s challenges - brings a different perspective to the table than its parents did. As Version 2.0 accepts the mantle of community leadership, it should keep a mindful eye on Version 2.5: the extremely bright, ambitious and energetic generation now in their twenties, who need guidance and moral and material support from their elders.

These young people, and Version 3.0 now growing up, are largely U.S.-born or even thoroughly international, and have a great deal to contribute not only to the Pakistani community but to the world. They should be encouraged to be proud and confident in their “both/and” status - both Pakistani and American, both Muslim and Western - and to explore and develop all aspects and resources of their rich background. They should both travel to Pakistan, and contribute to America (or Canada, or Australia, or the UK).

Professional diversity is crucial to any community’s development. The younger generations of affluent, educated, cosmopolitan Pakistanis are among the community’s greatest assets at this important moment. Rather than making all our children become doctors and engineers, worthy as those professions may be, we must encourage some members of our younger generations to embrace the media as a vehicle for their aspirations. If all we as a community accumulate is wealth, we will have squandered a historic opportunity to claim the positive attention and moral authority that are our due.


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[Munir]

I have watched these channels now for a few months and I really am shocked by the level of real journalism by these "Pakistani" channels. Man, even the cooking programs are terrible. They really need to check hor foreign programs are made. And sofar I have hardly learned anything valuable...