New Delhi : Doordarshan News will start a new half-hour weekly show ‘Good News India’, taking a cue from PM Narendra Modi’s statements that positive aspects or “good news” should be highlighted by the media.
The programme Good News India will start on Sunday 31st May, will cover “positive, inspirational and success stories involving people from across the country”.
“Media template has been man bites dog, otherwise it is not a story. Over the years, there is a lot of negativity in TV and print media which saps the energy of the country,” A Surya Prakash, Prasar Bharati chairperson and former journalist, said.
DD will cover ordinary people doing extraordinary things. And this is not all. The broadcaster also plans to start a weekly news magazine in Sanskrit by June-end he added. ‘Vartavali’ will be a 30-minute Sanskrit news magazine on every Sunday afternoon that would have correspondents’ reports, discussions and commentaries. DD already has a 5-minute news bulletin which could be expanded to at least 10 minutes.
The decision comes at a time when Sanskrit is becoming increasingly unpopular as a subject of study and is spoken by a minority. “Sanskrit holds a very important place for the linguistic integration of India and we have received feedback from people who want to hear news in this language,” Surya Prakash said.
The public broadcaster is also exploring plans to increase the duration of the daily bulletin to include domestic and international news. Sources said the recruitment process for correspondents and editors had begun.
Keeping in step with the demands of quick news bytes, DD also plans to start a news capsule with 15 important news headlines. The ‘5 minute 15 Khabrein’ (5 Minute Flash 15) will kickstart on June 1 where 15 news headlines in a package of five minutes will be shown eight times every day, four times in Hindi and four times in English.
