Calling for a media reform movement involving journalists and citizens to regain eroding credibility, Sashi Kumar, senior journalist and chairman, Asian College of Journalism, has said that the existential crisis of the media sector is compounded by the same technological advances that enabled its democratisation. He was delivering the keynote address at a seminar on ‘Issues of media freedom and technology’ as part of the ‘Freedom Fest 2023’ event organised by various organisations promoting the concept of knowledge freedom, with the support of the State government
“Technological developments in media has had a democratising influence, but it has also enabled a certain breathlessness and immediacy to media. This immediacy is highly exaggerated, as nobody is able to think out of the box and the same information is circulated across platforms. This anarchy of information leads to the problem of verification and leaves the citizen helpless in ascertaining which news is credible,” he said.
Mr. Sashi Kumar said that the algorithms in the media sphere now don’t just give information that they think people should be reading, but are also determining people’s choices. People get habituated to seeing that and are not in a position to look for anything else, having been mentally conditioned over a period of time. This has created an unprecedented situation, wherein we can’t blame those who are sceptical of the media. A strong daily dose of poison, othering and bias permeates the media. The moral compass of the bigger international media is also broken, he said, referring to The New York Times’s recent report targeting Indian news website Newsclick as well as news organisations from other countries.
Investigative journalist Josy Joseph said that a robust independent media is required for the industry and democracy to survive. He said that journalists should embrace technology as well as stand up against attempts to trample media freedom. He said that emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) have become important tools for investigative journalism, allowing quicker analysis and mapping of huge tranches of documents. In the initial days of emergence of technology in the sector, legacy media organisations failed to invest in technology or content, he said.
Adding to his point, R. Rajagopal, Editor, The Telegraph, said that media organisations have been invested in ways to reduce human capital. The screening mechanisms in newsrooms have kept out marginalised communities. The lack of investment in people who have substantial ideas and thoughts on major issues have led to a situation wherein nobody is there to challenge unwelcome tendencies within the country’s newsrooms. The audience cannot completely be absolved of responsibility for the current situation, for unquestioningly consuming what they are given, he said.
Vinod K. Jose, former Executive Editor of The Caravan magazine, said that the legacy of the past decade is in how fake news has come to be bracketed under freedom of press. He talked extensively about the Bhima Koregaon case, in which a study by the magazine as well as a United States-based digital forensics firm had found that evidence planted on the computers of activist Rona Wilson’s as well as two other accused were used to arrest them. The technological community abroad too have been watching the case with interest after these revelations, he said.
