Loadshedding, power cuts, outages, 2-phase supply etc are near-permanent words in the lexicons of news organisations in a country where electricity shortage is an everyday occurence.
So how can the media bring some life to such a routine news story?
In Karnataka, where scheduled loadshedding will be in force from today, Suvarna News, the 24×7 Kannada news channel owned by the member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar, took an unusual step on Sunday.
All day, from 6 am to 11 pm, anchors sat in suitably darkened studios and read out the news with a candle on top of their desks to convey the impact the loadshedding was going to have on viewers.
According to the channel’s editor-in-chief Vishweshwar Bhat, the candle was used as a symbol of the looming power crisis; not as if there was no electricity in the channel’s studios.
Hopefully, the channel’s viewers had electricity back home to see the candle-light bulletins.
Kannada Prabha, the daily owned by Rajeev Chandrasekhar and edited by Bhat, followed up on Monday with an all-black front page with a candle as the lead image.
IJR 
[…] with a candle on top of their desks to convey the impact of the power cuts in the state, reports Sans Serif. “Hopefully, the channel’s viewers had electricity back home to see the candle-light […]