Voice of the People

You can only transmit so much information about journalism in a classroom. DhiTV allowed me to hit the streets with one of their camera crews for a story about a local family that can't pay its electric bills. Salaries for civil servants have been cut in half, while power bills went up dramatically. The family of Husain Rasheed was cut off for non-payment and the father, who is also an artist, is trying to sell a few paintings to pay the power bills. Otherwise, he'll have to borrow money every month, falling deeper in debt. "I can't provide the bare necessities for my children," he said. "Otherwise, what good is a father?" So far the family has not qualified for any kind of subsidy.Shooting a story about "real people" proved challenging to the crew. They forgot the light kit, and needed coaching to encourage family members to share their feelings. But we came away with a slice of life that is rarely seen on TV here. We decided to hold the story in hopes of getting some solid number of how many families are in a similar situation. STELCO, the public utility, was closed on Saturday and had no public relations person available.Less successful was an attempt to get "real people" to comment on the latest party-switching by the politicians. It's not a question a normal person can answer, and most reacted by telling the Dhi-TV journalists to go away.One small victory: using a graphic to show how the seat-switching would affect the majority coalition building in the Majlis, or parliament. The channel has a full time graphic artist but rarely takes advantage of the opportunity. Here's Bishara, one of the presenters, working with him to make sure the party numbers are correct. The final graphic had a mistake in it, but I think they got the idea of explaining the news, rather than just showing the talking heads.
Update: the story on the Stelco family finally aired on Thursday June 3, on both the 8 and 10 pm news programs. Stelco, surprisingly, did not have any figures for how many customers have been disconnected! The government is providing a subsidy at the moment, at least until the upcoming local elections, so there are fewer shutoffs. Good job by the DhiTV team!