Pakistani television actor and host Salman Saqib Sheikh, more popularly known as Mani, recently took to social media to give some valuable insights on the content being created in the media industry, and the changes it has gone through since the 21 years or so that he’s been in the industry.
Posting in a note on his Instagram account, the ‘Chupke Chupke‘ actor wrote, “In this era of the 10-minute attention span, vlog, TikTok, snack attack etc content has disappeared and its ugly cousin *controversy* has taken over. For 10 minutes, or 2 minutes or 30 seconds, content creators (pun intended with stress) don’t create content, they create controversy!”
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It is true that with the changing technology, human lifestyles and the role of media outlets, the nature of content and audience demand are both transforming rapidly. Where earlier families used to set aside an hour a week, to watch light hearted sitcoms together on the television, nowadays we have smart phones that we obsessively and repetitively browse through for any social media updates, amidst a multitude of entertainment media outlets publishing all kinds of news and updates.
Talking about his own experience in the industry, Mani wrote “In the early 2000 when i joined the budding private TV channel industry, writers and hosts could only survive if they had good content, which they had to produce week after week. If it got stale the anchor would not get many more chances.” So anyone joining the industry would invest more time and effort trying to come up with creative and meaningful ideas, and only those who were really talented and innovative would to meet the mark.
Hira Mani confessed in a post that she agrees with most of what Mani has written, except a few things. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!
