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Panel Discussion: Editorial Leadership in an Age of Disinformation
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Team Alpha
2:44
Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, in collaboration with the US Consulate General, Chennai
Is conducting a panel discussion on the topic - Editorial Leadership in an Age of Disinformation.
3:06
Hello and welcome to the Panel Discussion on Editorial Leadership in an Age of Disinformation. Today, Dan Shelley (Executive Director - Radio, Television and Digital News Association, USA) Pratik Sinha (Co-founder, Alt News) and Krishna Prasad (Former Editor-in-Chief, Outlook) take the stage with Sashi Kumar (Chairman, Media Development Foundation and Asian College of Journalism) to discuss and shed some light on the topic.
3:13
Sashi Kumar welcomes the panelists on behalf of the Asian College of Journalism.
3:14
3:15
Sashi Kumar starts off the discussion by asking, "Is the editor a significant entity anymore or has the dominance of other platforms and the 'corporatization' of the media somewhere nullified the position?"
3:16
Kumar asks Dan Shelley whether the editor has a role in countering disinformation.
3:17
Dan Shelley answers, "The role of the editor is very important right now because there has to be a champion for free press and finding the truth."
3:18
Shelley adds, "The editor has a role in championing the free press. In modern history of the United States the editor or the leader in a newsroom, has always been a feature of responsible journalism enterprise. I see a need for that increasing in today's disinformation era."
3:19
Kumar asks Krishna Prasad if he is on the same page as Shelley.
3:21
Krishna Prasad concurs with Shelley by saying, "It's not just the editor anymore, but every single journalist, student journalist is in a position of a policeman. Whether print or online, our roles have become far more forensic now. It is a very important thing for us to imbibe today. Even here when doing a project, you should separate facts from the unreal. I'd go so far to say that even a reader has responsibility to ensuring what he reads is authentic or not. We are very caught up with politics, but the truth is fake news is not 21st century phenomenon but goes back to 1st century AD and so it's not new. It got exasperated over the last century."
3:22
Shelley interestingly points out that the newsreaders should check multiple sources and not follow just one source like the tribals. Also, it is up to the public to analyse what the journalists are reporting.
3:23
3:24
Prateek Sinha adds to the discussion by saying, "I would want to talk about the role of the organization itself. When we started our organizations it was an experiment on how to run a media organization in an efficient way."
3:26
Kumar remarks, "The takeaway for me is that the traditional ways of news media, everyone is becoming part journalists, citizen journalists and others.Is Journalism special anymore where everything is happening in the social media and the courses are also being modified."
3:27
Kumar asks Sinha, "Do you think that the role of mainstream media has shifted from media houses to social media?"
3:29
Sinha sheds light by saying, "We don't have a single advertiser. We did crowd funding. We have been running for 3 months without any advertisements. We have only done crowdfunding. Our salaries have been covered by donations. In the case of big investors, the government can go and bully the big investors. I am very proud to say that this month every employee at Alt News will receive their salaries through donations. This proves people are concerned about misinformation."
3:31
Sinha adds from his experience, "For the BBC story about Kashmir, it took us up to 3 days to fact check. We checked out for billboards and map-checked for authenticity and found out that some of the protests were genuine."
3:32
Kumar throws an interesting question to the panelists, "When you are a journalist and you are competing with so many others there. Is there a time to fact check properly? When everyone is running ahead, how much time do we actually have to sit back and fact check when 20 others are proposing the news already?"
3:34
Sinha responds, "A lot of organizations won't devote 3 days to fact checking. We do 2-3 stories a day compared to the 35-40 stories done everyday by other organizations. However the traffic we receive on outr websites is more than many websites devoted to lifestyle feature writing."
Thereby underlining the importance of fact-checking.
3:36
Shelley thinks that the scenario in the US is more complicated. He chimes in, "Yes there are organization's which do fact checking, there are media watchdogs which are happy to do this."
3:37
Kumar questions, "So do you think that it is institutionalized? Would you say that there is an understanding that you don't pull out on others in the media field but do you think this thick as thieves business should be busted?"
3:38
3:39
Shelley claims, "There are middle of the road fact checking organizations. Everybody from broadcast networks to Fox news are all circling in the Trump camp. So it's a fiercely competitive environment. Journalists are fiercely competitive but there are moments of solidarity."
3:40
Kumar pitches the question to Krishna Prasad and asks him to talk about the scenario in India.
3:42
Prasad opines, "One of the things is that nothing that is happening now is new. A friend of mine who worked for the Readers Digest in 80s, wrote a piece on how it was bright and sunny morning in Ahmedabad. But there was a fact checking to check that too. Organisations have always been invested in this. What's happening now is something driven by idiots trying to capture eyeballs. None of us are invested in credibility but profit motive. That is a sad news. Nothing is gospel in this world but New York Times rates high in credibility. There are so many people there working to fact check. We all seem to have skipped the factor of credibility. Pratik's website gets 1.5 million views per month. But my argument is that other organisations need more investment in fact checking than Pratik Sinha. We need full-time social media editors. We need to do it real-time and we have failed huge time in it."
3:43
Prasad adds, "We're breaking out of this collusion. In India, criminal acts like organisations involvement in faking news. These are huge organisations. We're stuck in the hands of mercenary owners. This happens in the lead story in the world's largest newspaper. But we don't find strength to avoid this. The other thing is the role of state in this country. The role of main political party, especially BJP, in removing fake news is huge. On the whole, there's plenty of blood on the hands of Indian media, journalists and Indian news."
3:44
Kumar poses a relevant question, "Credibility is an issue in an existential position. Isn't it like that the media rather than driven by the power is running behind it. So we are at a pass the media is also in a run? If Modi or Trump posts something, then it is already a headline the next day. Where is the place to hold on to a news and busting it in a suitable scenario?"
3:46
Shelley decides to answer optimistically, "I can tell you there remains a place for journalism. Trump survives because of the media only. Trump parades the media constantly as enemy of American people. At his rallies, violence breaks out. There are still journalists who report the best version of the truth. We may live in a very explosive moment in history globally but freedom always dies without free press."
3:47
Kumar is glad that someone views this situation in a bright light.
3:49
Sinha reiterates, "I do think that the goverment needs the media and it is using the media."
3:50
3:51
Sinha cites an example, "During the elections, India Today had a discussion on the economy after the sixth phase of elections whereas it should have been done after the first phase. Is this what the government needs media for? To not speak about anything and do bad journalism?"
3:52
Sinha adds to the boiling topic, "A lot of journalists have spoken about the ground reality of the NRC situation in Assam. There are various allegations been made against them and they are being branded as "Anti- NRC" journalists."
3:53
Sinha depressingly remarks, "If there is good journalism this is how the state acts."
3:54
Sinha goes on by citing the example of Shehla Rashid. "Another example of media doing the dirty work for the government is how they are reacting towards Shela Rashid."
3:56
Kumar finds a credibility disconnect. He says, "I am saying we have been in an undeclared emergency.  We have seen everything going against us and still someone standing up to Indira Gandhi and speaking on it for its government but we can't see that now."
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