Indian news and entertainment media have found a new revenue source, SMS; mobile text messages. Under the guise of seeking ‘opinion’ newspapers, news and entertainment channels are making millions by asking the audience to respond to some issues popping-up on their screens. The media, as public service institutions ought to raise public issues. On the contrary, they have started exploiting the public. Thanks to SMS technology for making users pawns in the revenue generating game by the media and the mobile carriers.

Generating a poll for each news bulletin and seeking responses through SMS, makes the news media richer by Re.1 for per text message.  The revenue generating secret is simple: the cost of each text message, three rupees, is being shared by the news media organization and the mobile service providing company.

A closer look at the SMS polls and surveys reveals the lack of validity and reliability.

The validity of survey depends upon two simple rules. One; to what extent the survey really measures what it is supposed to be measuring; two, whether the research is reproducible, stable and has accuracy.

Methodology of sampling is crucial for validity and reliability. Basic sampling techniques tell us that a sampling has to be a representative of a larger group. Statistical techniques are used to select a small group from the large group, which gives chance to every subject to be included in the sample. In other words, each member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample.

But in a SMS poll, a person who does not possess a cellular phone, television or newspaper cannot participate in the survey and there are millions in India despite the impressive headway mobile phone has made in India.

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, tele-density, number of phones per 100 people; in India is close to 40 percent and the rural tele-density is as low as 1.74 percent. Mobile phones, the only source of text messages, are concentrated in the urban areas and thus excluding a large section of the Indians from participating in the survey.

Given this fact, the percentage of people responding to the SMS survey is very small cannot be representative of the entire Indian populace.  When the sampling method itself is erroneous then the results do not hold any statistical significance. Thus the results of the so called opinion polls are skewed and invalid.

The results do not have any meaning as the profiles of the respondents are not known thereby placing constraints drawing substantive conclusions apart from the ballot-stuffing.

Opinions expressed by the people using these messages cannot be generalized. But the end result is depicted as collective opinion of the people.

For instance, this survey question appeared in the Hyderabad edition of the Times of India daily couple weeks ago:

The poll question was: Are private hospitals in India ducking responsibility to tackle a medical emergency? The result published on the following day was:  Yes-83 percent; No-15 percent; Can’t Say – 2 percent.

The poll result was given in percentages and never in absolute numbers.  Readers were never told 83 percent of what number.  All the channels give the poll result in percentages and make an impression that this is general public opinion in India.

These polls are neither statistically valid nor the opinion expressed by the survey-takers matter to the newspapers or channels.  The only thing which matters is Rs. 3 charged per SMS to the survey taker. And the income generated by such text messages is shared by the media houses, service providers and the intermediary agency.

The opinion of a minuscule percentage of readers of a certain newspaper  or viewer of a channel on that particular day, whose profile is unknown, is the not worth publishing. It does not have any news value, except for luring others to participate in the consequent polls.

The Active Media Technologies, a company which provides the SMS software solutions for the news media organizations, claimed that the company generated 14 lakh SMS’s over a period of 4 weeks for a newly launched news channel in 2002.

The IndusView, an Investment company, quoting the research study commissioned by Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in May 2007, estimated that interactivity through SMS is big source of revenue for the news channels. All the national news media have established separate divisions to tap the mobile content market.

The study further quoted, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) received 55 million SMS for the first version of Indian Idol generating an income of Rs.16.5 crores out of that SET made about Rs.5 crores. SET claimed that it received 6 lakh SMS’ in just three hours after Indian Idol opened in 2004. KBC received more that 120 million SMS’ and phone calls; Naach Baliye, a dance show by Star TV earned 1 million SMS’; Sa Re Ga Ma of Zee TV 1 lakh SMS’ per day, Sun Network receives 50,000 – 150,000 SMS’ per day.

The participants of these shows must require not only talent but also number of viewers supporting them through text messages. Often participants resorted to the ballot stuffing and the SMS rigging.

The channels using SMS polls to determine music contests are leading into a new kind of regional competitiveness and chauvinism whereby the Indian Idol and the Sa re ga ma pa contests see huge voting from the regions where contestants are from, and people are selected on this basis, regardless of the merits of their singing or dancing.

News channels and newspapers resorting to SMS polling raise serious ethical questions as the results of the SMS polling can influence the people who are sitting on the fence while making an opinion on a certain issue.

A news channel squeezed maximum revenue from the sensation of Gudiya-Arif-Taufiq trio story. Controversy arose when Arif, who was held by the Pakistan Army as a prisoner-of-war for five years, returned to India and found his wife, whom he was married just for 10 days before he went to Kargil conflict and subsequently captured by the Pakistan Army, married to another man-Taufiq.  The News channel conducted a SMS poll, ‘Who should Gudiya stay with?’

By any stretch of the imagination, how the public text messages decide Gudiyas life?

These kinds of opinion polls undermine the ethics, journalistic values and the credibility.

Another popular news channel launched a SMS campaign for a noble cause, request to the President of India to reconsider the court case of slain model Jessica Lal. The channel received more than 2 lakh SMS’ in just couple of months. The news channel never mentioned the income generated by the ‘noble campaign.’ These kinds of issues embrace the ethical concerns of the news media.

An acclaimed newsman of another national news channel, mentioning about tele-democracy in his blog, drew conclusions on a certain issue on a proposition that ‘if SMS polls were the barometers of public mood.’

If the newsman believes these polls are ‘mood barometers’ then why are these issues not taken to a logical conclusion? Why these poll results are dumped as soon as the new poll question pops-up on the screen?

News channels are headed by academically qualified psephologists, who understand the dubious nature of the SMS polls, but they turn a blind eye because of the lucrative revenues generated by the text messages.

If the opinion of the viewers is so important on the issues involved, the media ought to go for a regular physical mail option. But the physical mail is a liability as it requires many man hours to compile the data. The text messages are faster and revenue generating.  In the guise of interactivity, media organizations are compromising on the ethical issues and creating a poll question for every non-issue.

It is a fact that news media require adequate financial resources for its survival.  The media organizations are not just simple business establishments. They have a larger responsibility and the society appreciates the ethical means of revenue generation.

The media seek an action in the society. Interactivity is a kind of action. It’s good that people are responding to news. People are emotional, and will respond to any emotional issue that appears in the news and media should not exploit the emotional vulnerability of the people in the name of interactivity.

Sumanth K. Garakarajula

University of Nebraska-Lincoln