Should you vote?

It seems that every other day I am being asked for vote for something on TV. Almost every other news channel seems to tell me, I must exercise my franchise to support some initiative or the other they're hawking. I couldn't care less.

I'll tell you why. Media houses know that the only way to ensure they are part of the viewer's consideration set, when it comes securing eyeballs, is to engage with them. Engaging by default becomes a difficult proposition for a channel that's part of what is termed 'externally-paced' media. That is, media that can't be controlled by the viewer. The idea then should be to give the viewer a bit of control by engaging with him. That's why you now see a slew of voting exercises. Vote for some 'Wonder', vote to 'Lead India'... .

The list seems endless. Now you know why.