From polarisation within news organisations to day-to-day commercial challenges, issues plaguing news media, particularly television channels, were up for discussion at a function to release the book The Indian Newsroom by Sandeep Bhushan, a media analyst, here on Tuesday.
Senior television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai said, “Newsrooms have become as polarised as society today,” referring to the partisanship seen in the recently concluded election.
He added that newsrooms had become event-driven but television channels could not be blamed for “every predicament” faced by society today. “Television has a crisis of credibility, commerce, character and confidence,” he said, adding that he thought the commodification of news could be countered with philanthropy supporting good journalism.
Mr. Bhushan raised the question that if the media reflects society, then should it just “mechanically reflect the wider mood”.
On clickbait culture
During the discussion moderated by senior journalist Hartosh Singh Bal, independent journalist Neha Dixit spoke about the changing models in online media as well. She also spoke on “clickbait” culture with reportage making way for opinions.
