MUMBAI: News channels across genre certainly tried to chance upon the opportunity to engage viewers during the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ event. An initiative called by prime minister Narendra Modi as a tribute to the heroes, who are the vanguard of fighting against coronavirus.
On 19 March, PM Modi urged citizens to voluntarily participate in the ‘Janta curfew’ from 7 am to 9 pm on 22 March to stop the spread of novel coronavirus. He also urged people to send a tribute to the doctors, nurses, and police, among others, on the same day at 5 pm by either clapping, banging utensils or ringing a bell from the balcony or at the doorstep.
In this regard, news channels across genres, apart from broadcasting the people’s participation in the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative from various corners of India, also tried to engage with them proactively on social media as well as on live news channels of the network.
TV Today Network’s news channels, both English and Hindi, urged viewers to make a video while participating in the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative with a hashtag #5baje5minute and send to the network which will be shown on their channels.
According to India Today, the group had asked citizens to send videos of what they did to express gratitude for thousands of those fighting against Coronavirus across the country. Selected videos were broadcast on both India Today and AajTak.
“The campaign -- #5baje5minute – become a massive hit as the network received one lakh videos on the WhatsApp numbers shared while announcing the campaign. Meanwhile, the hashtag has also witnessed over 1.87 lakh tweets with a reach to at least 26 million people,” said a channel spokesperson.
Times Network’s president - strategy and business head - English entertainment cluster, Vivek Srivastava says: “The network also ably supported PM’s fervent appeal for a ‘Janta Curfew’ call on 22 March, 2020 by running a pledge campaign on news brands to mobilise awareness and participation from the viewers by sending in their video messages supporting the initiative.”
“India TV has also run two successful social media campaigns so far, the first one was to ask people to support ‘Janta Curfew’, a call by PM Narendra Modi and the second one was to answer common queries of the people getting anxious due to a huge influx of information, attempting to debunk the myths surrounding the issue”, says India TV marketing manager Aruna Jamwal.
Meanwhile, all other network channels such as ABP News Network, New Delhi Television, Zee News, Republic Media Network and Network18, among others, opted for traditional methods to grab eyeballs during the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative. The difference all these channels had were the visuals of people participating in the initiative shown on the TV screen.
At least half a dozen reporters of respective news channels were stationed at various prominent locations to speak to the people supporting PM Modi’s call. The channels also showed the visuals of politicians, ministers and Bollywood actors participating in an initiative called by PM Modi.
