JotCast | Reuter's Institute Digital Report 2021

Reuter's Institute Digital Report 2021

Pranay Inbaraj

3:16

A panel discussion on Reuters Institute Digital Report.

3:19

The report, based on a survey conducted by the Reuters Institute in collaboration with the Asian College of Journalism, states that 82 percent of Indian news consumers in English rely on online media and 73 percent use smartphones to get news.

To analyse the report’s findings and their significance for the Indian news industry, Newslaundry and Reuters Institute organised a panel discussion 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 was moderated by Manisha Pande, executive editor of Newslaundry.

3:22

Manisha Pande broaches a question on moral clarity and balancing with impartiality.

3:23

Dhanya replies that journalist organisations and news consumers should understand that neutrality doesn’t exist.“ Journalists should make an effort to get both sides of the story".

3:25

the expectation of “neutrality” in spaces of education, business, journalism, etc. is antiquated, immature, and feeds into the capitalist, imperialist brainwashing we are subject to. neutrality in the face of injustice is siding with the oppressor.

3:26

Supriya, chimes in, "I think a lot of news consumer understand that journalism is to hold power hence there is no symmetry in the society
To put official sources to demand accountability from an ordinary citizen as we do of the government doesn't really make sense
We are going to ask tougher questions to the government".

She is puzzled by what the news consumer thinks of impartiality. As a journalist, impartiality for her is to give space to every view, giving every story a chance to present

3:30

Sashi Kumar replies to Supriya saying that neutrality is a clinical kind of quantum, it makes no sense but there is a value in looking for objectivity, which might be a different idea.

3:31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeOenwcDPKY

Sashi also says that mainstream media is also being tempted into it and drawn into it because that’s where the eyeballs are and that’s where the viewership is.

3:32

Dhanya adds that people expecting neutrality is on a different level. She explains saying, “its either my way or the highway for most people when it comes to crime news.”

3:34

https://twitter.com/dhanyarajendran

Manisha brings the discussion to a hyper-polarized news space.

3:35

In the report, one of the apparent contradiction which is interesting is that it’s intriguing that for a channel like republic, rates are very high in term of weekly viewing.
But when it comes to trust factor, it is the least trusted source out there, says Sashi.

3:38

Dhaniya laughs and jokes that, maybe Reuters ended up interviewing only liberals.

3:39

Manisha jokes that people might go to Republic only for entertainment. Republic has become more of a reality tv show than a news channel.

3:40

Sashi adds, "Even if you go to Republic for the news hour, all you see is people fighting with each other.
You need to have a gladiatorial skill on the floor, there is no news bulletin anymore in news channels."

3:42

Manisha raises a question on media literacy about how people perceive news broadcasters or editors as not neutral.

3:44

Sashi Kumar talks about brand trust, he says both the Wire and Republic are fairly more close to one another and what we really have is an echo chamber, a filter bubble.

3:46

Supriya on answering Manisha's question on polarization. She says that times like those can set up perverse incentives for news outlets to take a position, a point of privilege over the other.
It is a challenge to still stay steadfast in traditional values. "We need to stick to more reporting and not fall for a more lucrative low cost way of generating opinions."

3:48

3:51

Dhaniya believes that the pandemic has made people who believed that all media houses were biased against the government, now somehow believe that they are doing ethical journalism.

3:53

"There is a section of public that believes that Indian media cares about public good and hence they will always question the government", adds Dhaniya when talking about polarization.

3:57

Supriya speaks about underrepresentation. Mainstream media which does not particularly question the kind of reporting that was going on, many states in India felt abandoned. During the second wave mainstream media spoke up for their audience.

3:58

Which Media House do you trust?

Republic (0% | 0 votes)

The wire (0% | 0 votes)

NewsLaundry (0% | 0 votes)

Total Votes: 0

4:00

Thank you for following the discussion on Reuters Institute Digital Report with us.

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