You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Newslaundry
powered byJotCast
Annie Louis
2:58
Hello and Welcome to a panel discussion of the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report with Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the #Reuters Institute, Shashi Kumar, journalist and media entrepreneur, Supriya Sharma, executive editor of Scroll, and Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of the News Minute. The discussion is moderated by Manisha Pande, executive editor of Newslaundry.
4:51
4:52
Manisha Pande talks about the concept of neutrality. That 40% still wants the media to be neutral.
She asks Dhanya's view on why journalists are being blamed for not being neutral enough.
4:53
Dhanya says that the neutrality word is thrown at us all the time.

In her view, news organizations should understand that neutrality does not exist, just because we are humans and we have inherited biases. Journalists should think about that way and consumers also should know this fact.
4:55
Supriya talks about how a lot of news consumers who understand that newsrooms want to hold people in power accountable, to demand the same accountability of the citizen as the government is not fair. Give space to every view, give space to every side. But this is not about symmetry.
4:56
Shashi Kumar says that neutrality is like a clinical point that makes no sense. The way it is panning, two kinds of objectivities are there.
I'd advocate a different point of view as to what might be really happening out there. The current media ecology is fragmented. That's where the eyeballs are, that's where the people are.
4:58
Dhanya adds "In India, people don't expect neutrality. For example, In Hathras case people wanted their opinion. I agree with Shashi and Supriya that we should be objective but that's not the case."
5:00
Manisha thinks it's interesting that Dhanya brought the Hathras case in Uttar Pradesh. But there you might question the seeming neutrality. She takes up the point, Rasmus brought in, that you should trust a news brand. But if the audience is not going to believe us, then what does it do to journalism.
5:01
Sashi Kumar says that when it comes to the trust factor, media houses the least trusted like Republic, India Today, etc. "You're watching what you least trust, is that what you are saying." Almost all news channels are said to be reality TV, where is a news bulletin on news channels. It's just mostly debates with people arguing
5:03
Manisha asks "Where is media literacy?" Why do people choose the governing party over the opposing party, is more of the angle of her question.
5:05
Rasmus says "We did a report last year and around 4 out of 10 people said they trust news sources. So around more than half of the population doesn't trust the news. Journalists are often looked at as lapdogs instead of watchdogs."
5:07
Sashi talks about the India report, on the brand trust rate. The Wire and the Republic are the last two to be trusted. "Times of India or BBC being brand trusted I can believe, but with DD and AIR it's hard"
5:08
Manisha says there's more romance for DD!

Sashi adds that he started his career with DD and that's why he knows nobody believes the news they give there. DD is the propaganda arm of the govt that's where the problem is.
5:10
Manisha asks if Supriya has seen a shift in trust in her news consumers. "Have you seen any change in trust? And when there's usually a story put out, there's some govt supporter who says that this is a wrong fact, don't trust this, etc".
5:12
Supriya says that she thought trust signaled or communicated values in journalism that holds power to account. "Readers saw us as a trusted source. They valued our stories."
During the second wave, her stories spoke directly to readers at a time when people were struggling to get oxygen and hospital beds.
5:14
Dhanya adds to the point by saying that the pandemic has made people realize that news organizations are biased against the government but they also realised that it is not the complete truth. There are media organisations that also questions the powerful people.
5:15
Supriya says that the mainstream media feebly spoke up for their audiences during the second wave.
5:18
Sashi says, "I think digital media, the stand-alone portals represented by The wire, the quint, the scroll they are the front liners in India. Because they speak facts and truth and that part is being targeted by the govt and people.
He also adds that we know how the street has been unleashed on the media. Digital media is doing a fantastic job and mainstream media is taking its cues from social media and digital media.
5:22
Rasmus says that India's media landscape and society are large but he doesn't agree that regional language news will spread. In the age of digital media and the internet, regional newspapers and ads have struggled to keep up with large national brands. There's also the growth of new entrances into the industry that are leaner with better models and take up the space that regional news takes. He's quite concerned for the regional industry but also quite enthused by recent entrances.
5:23
Shashi Kumar adds about the print media in the regional language. Malayalam Manorama for instance would be the one with one of the biggest distribution in India.
5:24
Dhanya disagrees a bit. The growth of regional media should not be limited to newspapers. The news channels have been very adaptive.
5:27
She also says that regional media has a large impact on the population. For instance, Tamil media has denied the coverage of #metoo movement which does impact the young population.
5:29
Manisha asks Rasmus, "What is the news consumption of people in India and if people want news they have to pay for news?
5:31
Rasmus says that it's unique and challenging in India to make subscriptions work. Since the liberalization in the 90s the influx of advertisements in broadcast and print media has made things quite cheap and accessible for consumers. To now convince them to pay is hard. There is an abundance of free news outlets still available in India. It will be quite a challenge in the Indian context. However, it will be necessary for India. If advertisers have a choice between cheaper ways to advertise on social media vs paying a premium to advertise on news media, they'll obviously choose the cheaper option. 
One way we could convince the consumers is to tell them about the level of quality and objectivity you're giving them vis a vis the free option. It'll be difficult for India but necessary. 
The offside of it is that there is a significant minority of people who are willing to pay for news that is distinct from the generic news they get from somewhere else.
Will the subscription model work for news media houses in India
yeayyyyy (0% | 0 votes)
 
Nahhhhh (100% | 1 vote)
 
Total Votes: 1
5:32
Manisha asks Supriya to share Scroll's experience in terms of the subscription model. Where they depend less on advertisements
5:35
Supriya elaborates on the Scroll model. Initially, they were asking readers to support our journalism through subscriptions. Some readers got in touch with us and said the subscription amount was too small and they valued our journalism much more. 
Then we came up with the idea of a ground reporting fund. Readers often prefer giving us ground reporting funds over subscriptions. "I don’t want to paint a rosy picture. The amount was not a lot." But we understood from this that people know the value of good journalism.
5:37
Manisha adds that Newslaundry has been subscription-based since 2014. They are advertisements free. Because we have done campaigns that media that depends on ads doesn't really serve you solid news. If you want news, you will have to pay for it.
"People don't understand how much effort goes behind getting a news story, a journalist might travel far, stay there sometime even come back without a news story. So I'm very optimistic right now, about this subscription model."
5:39
5:41
SK: But in terms of brand loyalty, are you expected to subscribe all of the media platforms that you look at or watch. "This is a problem when you have a situation where you have democracy in media and you navigate through all the facts and lies, I'm not really sure." 
He doesn't know if there has been an equally successful model where there's a subscription model and it has also kept things free. For example with the Guardian and the New York Times model.
5:42
Rasmus adds that the NYT is a unique example. Smaller newspapers in Europe that provide a distinct level of quality have had success with the subscription model.
Guardian's choice is rooted in its values. There are discussions in the company over what's the future. The CEO recently left over this discussion. There is a range of models that one can use and not every model works with everyone.
5:43
5:44
Thank you for joining!
Connecting…