With TV channels not giving the same level of coverage to Anna Hazare’s fast as last time, many supporters of the movement have chosen to express their frustration at mainstream TV channels on social media networks such as Facebook and Youtube.
“Boycott all those channels that are not showing India’s biggest movement as breaking news,” says a frustrated user on Granslive, which has been streaming the event live from day 1.
“They are more worried about celebrity news and comedy stuff”, points out a commenter, naming a prominent news channel in India.
Many news channels in India were showing stock canned footage such as film documentaries and reports on TV serials through the weekend and even on Monday, as the largest protests India has seen in three decades played out in Delhi and other places.
“Media has sold out.. we should stop watching these channels,” an Anna suporter urged on a Facebook discussion page. on the subject.
Delhi saw a turn out of more than 100,000 people on Sunday, with about 10,000-12,000 people present at the protest venue in Jantar Mantar at any given time.
The higher turn-out, including that on Monday morning, has increased the visibility of the movement in TV channels, but coverage is not even a fraction of what it was a year ago.
ABP channel, formerly Star News, has started live broadcast of the Anna Hazare protests through their Youtube page.
However, the Granslive live feed has come under extreme stress due to the very high number of people trying to watch the live broadcast.
From about 11,000 simultaneous users on Saturday, there were in excess of 38,000 same-time viewers on Granslive on Monday afternoon, despite the interrupted transmission.
