What follows in today’s column is based on regional news TV in the only regional language I know, the language you get the feeling Mamata Banarjee wants to speak even when she’s speaking another language. I took the precaution of checking with friends who speak other regional languages whether the few, tentative generalisations I make based on this small sample can apply to other regional news TV channels. Their concurrence notwithstanding this caveat is necessary: your correspondent, admittedly a writing in English /national media/Delhi-based type, is not for a moment suggesting all regional TV news is the same. There are unique attributes for every segment, but there may be some interesting similarities. Let’s put it this way, NDTV and CNN-IBN think each is totally different from the other. They are, but, more interestingly, they are not.

Mamata, in Bengali news TV, is big right now. This sounds like stating the obvious. But comparing news in STAR Ananda or 24 Ghanta (24 Hours, in translation) or Aakash Bangla what you get from national broadcasters, a somewhat less obvious point suggests itself: regional newsmakers seem to loom very large in regional TV news. National newsmakers don’t make it so big in national news TV. National broadcasters have a larger menu, of course. But the fact that the quotidian volatility of Indian politics really plays out at the state-level may have something to do with this. When Mamata visits a close-to-Kolkata semi-urban area, news TV crew in tow, the grammar of politics and therefore the grammar of political news on TV is rawer than that obtained in national politicians’ usual peregrinations.

For those mostly fed on national news TV, editorial stands of regional news TV will be interesting. In some news TV regional markets, for example Tamil Nadu and perhaps even Kerala, the backer-to-editorial line relationship for some broadcasters is clear. In some other markets discerning the relationship can be a small diversion. Bengali news TV seems to partly fall in this category. It doesn’t take a long time to form initial hypotheses about the prisms through which some broadcasters’ view news. Discerning consumers of Bengali TV news say it is possible to construct a statistically robust model that will predict a local’s politics from his/her TV news source.

Big regional broadcasters have an advantage over premier national broadcasters — the former seem to be under less pressure to provide analytical perspective on news. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying national broadcasters provide excellent analytical perspective as a matter of routine. But they feel they have to try. Regional news TV seems less encumbered by such expectation and, consequentially, seems to have a more carefree approach to journalism. Anchors, for example, seem content with having an easy conversation with reporters. None of that strain that comes when anchors think they have to ask what will be considered searching questions — you see quite a bit of that on NDTV and CNN-IBN, and sometimes on Times Now.

What’s the biggest conclusion from watching local news-heavy regional news TV? This country needs national broadcasters. Just as it needs the English language.

saubhik.chakkrabarti@expressindia.com