Somebody please teach NDTV research

On 'Mumbai Live' last night, they did a show on a recently conducted "exclusive" survey of Shiv Sena shakha pramukhs from across Maharashtra. Supposedly, they had asked the shakha pramukhs to choose between Uddhav and Raj Thakarey. They showed what some sainiks had to say about why they chose one over the other, and Srinivas discussed the Sena with the "expert" - the editor of Loksatta. Fine- news channels are given to bringing in experts as fillers for that 24 hours that they have to broadcast; debates are often interesting and anchors get to ask the expert questions, and occasionally cut their explanations short. We're all used to that and don't really see it as shying away from actual reporting anymore. We all read newspapers, don't we?

What was not palpable was the result - When asked to choose between Raj and Uddhav, a majority of the shakha pramukhs chose the sena pramukh, Bal Thakarey. I thought Bal Thakarey wasn't one of the two choices offered, and the question was close ended, even though the explanation sought for their choice was not. What makes even less sense is that NDTV chose to broadcast these results, which would have otherwise been rejected, and the survey questions changed. But the show must go on, I guess.

Another irritating aspect of the show was that Srinivas kept saying "We'll get to the results shortly" after every few sentences, as if people would change the channel if he didn't remind them often enough. Hmm...maybe I should have changed the channel.
2 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have no love lost for NDTV but maybe this opinion was broadcasted as a result by itself...that the question of choosing Raj/Udhav is redundant since the true "leader" of the people is still Shri Bal T.

December 16, 2005 7:47 am  
Blogger Nikhil Pahwa said...

Uhh...no.

If it's a close ended question, and there is no third option, then any answer other than the two options specified is disqualified (or should be).

As such, they'd been asked to choose between the two. Anyway, to use a now popular management analogy, Bal Thakarey is Chief Mentor while Uddhav and Raj are fighting over the CEO position. Uddhav is currently the CEO.

December 16, 2005 10:02 am  

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