Assignment Code: DCE-4/ TMA/1/2021-2022

Course Code: DCE-4

Assignment Name: Writing For Media: Radio Television

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Attempt ALL the questions

100 marks

Q 1) Write a Radio documentary on any one of the following:

a) The pandemic that locked down the world

Ans) A rare disaster, a coronavirus pandemic, has resulted in a tragically large number of human lives being lost. As countries implement necessary quarantines and social distancing practices to contain the pandemic, the world has been put in a Great Lockdown. The magnitude and speed of collapse in activity that has followed is unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes.

This is a crisis like no other, and there is substantial uncertainty about its impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. A lot depends on the epidemiology of the virus, the effectiveness of containment measures, and the development of therapeutics and vaccines, all of which are hard to predict. In addition, many countries now face multiple crises—a health crisis, a financial crisis, and a collapse in commodity prices, which interact in complex ways. Policymakers are providing unprecedented support to households, firms, and financial markets, and, while this is crucial for a strong recovery, there is considerable uncertainty about what the economic landscape will look like when we emerge from this lockdown.

This is a truly global crisis as no country is spared. Countries reliant on tourism, travel, hospitality, and entertainment for their growth are experiencing particularly large disruptions. Emerging market and developing economies face additional challenges with unprecedented reversals in capital flows as global risk appetite wanes, and currency pressures, while coping with weaker health systems, and more limited fiscal space to provide support. Moreover, several economies entered this crisis in a vulnerable state with sluggish growth and high debt levels.

For the first time since the Great Depression both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are in recession. For this year, growth in advanced economies is projected at -6.1 percent. Emerging market and developing economies with normal growth levels well above advanced economies are also projected to have negative growth rates of -1.0 percent in 2020, and -2.2 percent if you exclude China. Income per capita is projected to shrink for over 170 countries. Both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are expected to partially recover in 2021.

What I have described is a baseline scenario but, given the extreme uncertainty around the duration and intensity of the health crisis, we also explore alternative, more adverse scenarios. The pandemic may not recede in the second half of this year, leading to longer durations of containment, worsening financial conditions, and further breakdowns of global supply chains. In such cases, global GDP would fall even further: an additional 3 percent in 2020 if the pandemic is more protracted this year, while, if the pandemic continues into 2021, it may fall next year by an additional 8 percent compared to our baseline scenario.

Flattening the spread of COVID-19 using lockdowns allows health systems to cope with the disease, which then permits a resumption of economic activity. In this sense, there is no trade-off between saving lives and saving livelihoods. Countries should continue to spend generously on their health systems, perform widespread testing, and refrain from trade restrictions on medical supplies. A global effort must ensure that when therapies and vaccines are developed both rich and poor nations alike have immediate access.

While the economy is shut down, policymakers will need to ensure that people are able to meet their needs and that businesses can pick up once the acute phases of the pandemic pass. The large, timely, and targeted, fiscal, monetary, and financial policies already taken by many policymakers—including credit guarantees, liquidity facilities, loan forbearance, expanded unemployment insurance, enhanced benefits, and tax relief—have been lifelines to households and businesses. This support should continue throughout the containment phase to minimize persistent scars that could emerge from subdued investment and job losses in this severe downturn.

Policymakers must also plan for the recovery. As containment measures come off, policies should shift swiftly to supporting demand, incentivizing firm hiring, and repairing balance sheets in the private and public sector to aid the recovery. Fiscal stimulus that is coordinated across countries with fiscal space will magnify the benefit for all economies. Moratoria on debt repayments and debt restructuring may need to be continued during the recovery phase.

Q 2) Write a Radio play revolving around any one of the following making use of narration, dialogues and SFX:

b) Justice delayed is justice denied

Ans) SFX:  Birds tweet, morning background music plays.

Narration: Ram wakes up in the morning and gets on his bike

SFX: footsteps and bike background noise

Dialogue: Ram (to himself), “Preeti’s wedding date is coming so close. When I am I going to find someone to finally lend me some money? She is my only daughter and I need to make arrangements as soon as possible. I really hope Mr. Prakash can help me out.”

SFX: Bike noise stops, engine closes.. Footsteps.. Knock on the door.

Dialogue: Ram: Hi sir, I have come to collect the 1 lakh rupees you promised for the wedding of my daughter.

Mr. Prakash: Yes yes.. here you go, I have it kept ready for you.

Ram: Thank you so much sir!

Mr. Prakash: Remember, I need this money in 3 months.

Ram: Yes sir, I will return it to you as soon as possible. Thank you once again.

SFX: Noise of door closing… ram walking back to bike.. Noise of another bike coming… noise of ram being beaten up.. noise of a bag being snatched.

Silence for a few seconds

Dialogue: Ram: ugh.. aah.. Sound effect of him searching.. Oh no.. where is my money? Where is my money? Hey.. Hey you.. did you see my bag? Where did those men go? Where did they go?!

Bystander: Don’t worry ram, we found this man and apprehended him. We have called the police and they are on their way.

SFX: Police arrives, sirens and cars.. car door opens and closes. Distant chatter of police with eye witnesses.. footsteps approach towards Ram

Dialogue: Police: We need to verify where this money came from. You cannot take it with you. It has to be processed and after the investigation is complete, you can collect it from the court.

Ram: But sir, please. This money is urgently needed for my daughters wedding. Please sir, without this money I will not be able to get her married.

Police: I am sorry but this is the procedure. I cannot help you with this.

SFX: Sad music playing

Narration: It took the court 5 months to complete the hearing and release the money back to Ram. At this point, the wedding was already cancelled and Ram had to bear a lot of interest and expenses from the money lender. If only the justice was not delayed, Ram could have had made good arrangements for his daughters wedding and also returned the money back on time.

From this story it is true to say that “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Q 3) Write an interesting Public Service Announcement for TV on any one of the following topics. Suggest visuals, narration, SFX and dialogues wherever required:

a) Measures to avoid contracting Covid-19

Ans) Narration:

We are strong. We are resilient. And we will get through this, together.

But these are stressful times, and it’s important to also practice good self-care.

It’s normal to feel overwhelmed, anxious or afraid. But there is hope.

Reach out to someone...

Connect with your friends...

Stay in touch with your community...

And know that you are not alone.

There are everyday actions to help prevent the spread of COVID.

1. Wash your hands.

2. Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

4. Stay home when you are sick.

5. Cover your cough or sneeze.

6. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects.

7. For more information, visit CDC DOT GOV SLASH COVID-19.

This message brought to you by the National Association of Broadcasters and this station.

Visuals:

During the first part of the script, there can be a video footage of a family in slow motion. Closeup shots of the family being together, hugging, holding hands. Then when it comes to the second part, each bullet point should be demonstrated in video.

SFX:

The first part of the narration should be emotional and have hopeful and soft music. During the second part, after each bullet point a SFX “ding” can come in depicting a check mark or a job well done.

Q 4) Write out a script for a TV documentary on the following:

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed”.− 20

Ans)

Mahatma Gandhi once said that “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed ”. This statement says that the earth has enough resources to support all of humanity. However, it cannot support a luxurious lifestyle for all of us. If we want everyone to survive, then we must make some sacrifices. The standard we have in Norway is too high to support the rest of humanity. The life standard you wish for is not achievable for the rest of the world. The resources only allow each one of us to take exactly as much as needed. No more, No less.

The greed in Gandhi’s message is the life we dream of. Everyone wants a better, or more luxurious lifestyle. It’s not a bad type of greed, and it’s certainly not evil. It is just not attainable. The greed Gandhi talks about is just the dream of a utopia where everyone lives in a relative luxury. This is a nice dream, but we cannot reach it because of the limited recourses on the planet. Gandhi means  that some of us must give up on both luxury and the dream of it for the greater good.

We humans are the only known species that is dominating all over the world. We are also the only ones who are trying to fix the environment, even though we were the ones who broke it. It's the duty of each one of us to protect our forests and conserve our mother earth!

We live in a world where the indicator of success is how much wealth we have and how much we consume. The bigger the house, salary, size and number of cars, these are what determine the worth, success, and largeness of our lives. Throw in foreign holidays and envious titles on visiting cards, and there’s the benchmark for success and happiness. This aspiration for wealth and consumption is drilled into children from the day they enter school.

Global research shows there is no correlation between possessing more things and happiness. But in a society driven by materialism, this fact is hard to accept. Having said that, living a less materialistic lifestyle doesn’t mean becoming a monk. Indeed, one requires a certain amount of wealth to lead a decent life. But beyond these basic needs —food, comfortable house, healthcare and education — wealth is not equal to happiness and fulfilment. We never teach this vital lesson to our children.

Since the industrial revolution in the 1850s, our energy use has increased 25 times to feed our consumption, freshwater use 10 times and land under cultivation and habitation has expanded threefold. In the process, we have destroyed 30% of tropical forests and wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. We are, in fact, in the midst of the greatest species extinction in the last 60 million years.

The climate crisis is the most consequential impact of this greed. It is not something that will happen in the future; it is happening in front of our eyes. From mega forest fires to intense cyclones to extreme floods and droughts, we are witnessing the worst impacts of climate change at a much lower temperature increase than predicted by scientists. Yet this has not stopped us from burning more fossil fuels to meet our unending energy needs. Both fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions hit an alltime high in 2019. At this rate, the global temperature increase will touch 1.5°C. Beyond this mark, hostile climatic conditions will render large parts of the world inhospitable. The seas will swallow coastal areas, deserts will encroach on fertile lands, glaciers will melt, and extreme weather events will destroy lives and livelihoods.

The climate crisis exemplifies how we are cutting the branch on which we are sitting. To meet our short-term greed, we are jeopardising our long-term future. So, how do we to save the planet and ourselves? Simply put, we will have to learn to live happily with less. This is not going to be easy. Our social mores and economic system are geared to ever-increasing consumption. Only fundamental changes can reverse this trend.

So can we do about this? We waste a lot of food, energy and water that can be easily curbed. Changing from a private car to a bicycle or public transport will reduce our environmental footprint considerably. We can also reduce our ecological footprint by resisting buying things that we don’t need, seldom use and discard quickly. This use-and-throw culture is costing us the planet.

We can do all the above things with little or no consequences to our lifestyle. But this will not be sufficient and we have the difficult, but important, task of bringing about changes in society and economy. To provide decent living to 10 billion people (the likely population in 2050) on a finite planet, we will have to change the social and economic values, most importantly the education system that supports these values.

Q 5) Write either a Radio or TV talk on “Can Superstitions be rationalized?” 20

Ans) Superstition continues to rule the lives of people, as such beliefs are closely linked to faith in god. It is against this that one must consider how scientists and rationalists have been endeavouring to spread the message of science in their own limited spheres. But their efforts are like drops in an ocean. Larger efforts by the State or humongous social movements are required to eradicate superstitious practices. For example, practices such as sati were not eradicated by ‘persuasion’ but due to the enormous efforts put in by social reformers and ultimately by legislation. ‘Persuasion’ is an excellent tool, but is limited in its scope and reach. Finally, educationists and governments must ensure that people are suitably educated to develop scientific temper and rational thinking. Childhood is the best period to sow the seeds of scientific thinking and to develop reasoning. The media has a great role to play in this regard as its reach in this technological age is unlimited.

Ancient Roman leaders once made decisions about important events, such as when to hold elections or where to build new cities, based on the presence or flight patterns of birds. Builders often omit the thirteenth floor from their floor plans, and many pedestrians go well out of their way to avoid walking under a ladder.

While it's widely recognized that superstitions like these are not rational, many persist, guiding the behavior of large groups of people even today.

In a new analysis driven by game theory, two theoretical biologists devised a model that shows how superstitious beliefs can become established in a society's social norms. Their work, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates how groups of individuals, each starting with distinct belief systems, can evolve a coordinated set of behaviors that are enforced by a set of consistent social norms.

"What's interesting here is that we show that, beginning in a system where no one has any particular belief system, a set of beliefs can emerge, and from those, a set of coordinated behaviors," says Erol Akçay, an assistant professor of biology at Penn.

"Slowly, these actors accumulate superstitions," adds Bryce Morsky, a postdoctoral researcher. "They may say, 'Ok, well I believe that when I observe this event I should behave this way because another person will behave that way,' and over time, if they have success in using that kind of a strategy, the superstitions catch on and can become evolutionarily stable."

Morsky and Akçay's work is an application of game theory, which attempts to predict how people will interact and make decisions in a social setting. They specifically considered what are known as correlated equilibria, scenarios in which all actors are given correlated signals that dictate their response to any given situation.

"A classic example is a traffic light," says Akçay. "If two people are approaching an intersection, one will get a 'stop' signal and one will get a 'go' signal and everybody knows that. It's rational for both parties to obey the light."

The signal, in this case the traffic light, is known as a correlating device, or more evocatively, a "choreographer." But the Penn team wanted to know what would happen if there was no choreographer. If people could pay attention to a variety of other signals that could direct their actions, and their beliefs were transmitted according to the success of their actions, would coordinated behaviors arise? In other words, can evolution act as a "blind choreographer?"

"What if a cyclist is riding toward an intersection, and instead of a traffic light they see a cat," Akçay says. "The cat is irrelevant to the intersection, but maybe the person decides that if they see a black cat, that means they should stop, or that maybe that means the approaching cyclist is going to stop."

Despite the color of a cat having no bearing on the likelihood of an approaching cyclist stopping or going, sometimes this kind of conditional strategy might result in a higher payoff to the cyclist -- if it is correlated with superstitions of other cyclists.