Experts say timing could have been better

In politics, every thing is about timing, as they say. HT reports.

In politics, every thing is about timing, as they say. The timing, structure and the management of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s interaction with representatives of the TV channels could have been better according to communication specialists.

HT Image

“TV news is all about prime time, that is in the evening. In morning people don’t watch TV. And by evening the Opposition has joined in the debate, countering the PM,” a communication professional who did not want to be named, said.

“If the Prime Minister had gone live in the evening, his point could have been made to a larger audience and the opposition reaction had to wait for the next day.”

The idea of the news conference, of course, was to counter the opposition and media onslaught against the government and the prime minister personally. But the way it played out, sequentially, meant that the opposition leaders were countering the Prime Minister’s points.

By the logic of visual media, it soon turned into a diatribe, rather than the PM having the last word — at least for the day.