AI, influencers, and a public that’s losing interest: The big challenges for Indian media

AI, influencers, and a public that’s losing interest: The big challenges for Indian media

These are some of the biggest trends – and challenges – facing the news ecosystem today, impacting India in new and unique ways. And this was the focus of a discussion organised around the launch of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report for 2025 [https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2025], a comprehensive study of news consumption worldwide.  Moderated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s director Mitali Mukherjee, the panel comprised Nic Newman, senior research associate at the institute; Sannuta Raghu, journalism fellow at the institute and head of the AI Lab at Scroll; Ritvvij Parrikh, head of AI product at Times Internet; and Akash Banerjee, founder and host of The Deshbhakt.  According to the report, 55 percent of Indian users now consume news on YouTube, and 44 percent share news via social, messaging or email often via WhatsApp. Akash says there’s a clear indication towards television “taking a bit of a beating” while social media sees a “steady uptick”.  “You’ve got to be real and raw,” he says, and explains how consumption patterns are moving towards “snackable, biteable content”, where a shorter format is “much, much more prevalent than the longer format”.  Ritvvij talks about the challenges in using large language models that can sometimes “miss the news peg” of a story and therefore the need to deal with “detecting hallucinations”. He adds, “Trust in news is eroding and not just because of bad actors, but also because of opaque algorithms.” Sannuta breaks down how AI can help news organisations “stay relevant” in some ways, converting text articles into videos that can be shared on Instagram. “The idea was…there are over 600 million smartphone users in India with access to cheap internet,” she says. She also explains the logistics of dealing with producing news in different languages in a country as diverse as India.  ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Sandeep Dikshit on brand Sheila Dikshit, chinks in Cong campaign, and AAP’s freebie ‘syndrome’

The New Delhi assembly constituency is witnessing a fierce triangular poll contest. Sandeep Dikshit, former East Delhi MP and son of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit, is the Congress’s candidate against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Parvesh Verma. In a conversation with Atul Chaurasia at his home, the Congress leader says that most voters in the constituency remember the development work carried out by Sheila Dikshit. “There is not a single colony which does not cite development carried out by Sheila Dikshit.” But asked about why his party is using Sheila Dikshit’s record to seek votes, he says the campaign is yet to be launched in its full scale.  At the same time, the former MP admits he is unaware of what the people in-charge of the campaign in Delhi are planning. “We will use our legacy but in today’s context…those who plan this will have a better idea.” He also accepts lapses in the party’s organisational strength and addresses questions about why the Congress is not perceived as contesting the election like a single unit. On freebies promised by the AAP, Dikshit terms it a “syndrome”. “You have made this syndrome that the voter will always want something free. You made politics a competition for freebies, not development…you made the government feudal.” “There is a difference between welfare and what the prime minister called as revdis. Welfare has a social, economic and humanitarian logic. It targets a larger population,” the former MP says, referring to the AAP government’s power subsidy as “muftkhori”. He says the power subsidy should have addressed the concerns of small business owners instead of using a single slab for commercial setups. On the allegation that Dikshit’s attacks against the AAP come because he nurses a grudge, he says, “The bitterness I have against the AAP’s policies is the same as that against the BJP. It is not personal.” He also talks about allegations of manipulation of voter lists. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on US polls, ‘dictator in the making’ and Harris’s ‘huge blindspots’

“It is not only democracy that is on the ballot... but the realisation that we have a dictator in the making if we were to give Trump a second presidency,” says Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar in an exclusive conversation with Sreenivasan Jain.  On the high stakes in the elections, the prominent Muslim politician says that rights and liberties, “bodily autonomy,” policies like student debt cancellation, and the progress made us over the years will “under threat” if Trump comes to power.  Speaking about Kamala Harris’s candidacy, Omar says Gaza is a “huge blindspot” of the Biden government. “I have called on the president to impose an arms emargo… I do believe US laws and international laws are being violated. There is an ongoing genocide.” On the challenges facing Kamala Harris, Omar says “most people don’t know who the Vice President is”.  She also talks about Harris’s policies, challenges, and the consequences of the media’s “lost journalistic ethos”.   Watch our mini-series on the US polls ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Jobs, Article 370, or reservation: What does Jammu’s youth want?

In this episode of Another Election Show, Manisha Pande and Atul Chaurasia reached Jammu to understand the issues of the locals, particularly the youth, ahead of the third phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir.  Following the recent delimitation process, the region has a total of 90 electoral seats – 43 in Jammu and 47 in Kashmir. the voting in three phases, with the final phase set to cover 40 seats simultaneously. At Jammu University, we spoke to the students about their key issues, the region’s politics, and campus life. For most of them, employment, development and reservation were the main poll issues and not the abrogation of Article 370. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

What’s the electoral mood in Jammu? Journalists on revival of ‘nationalism’ in politics

The politics of Jammu have been distinct from that of Kashmir. To grasp the nuances of this difference and the issues in Jammu, Manisha Pande and Atul Chaurasia spoke to the region’s senior journalists – Mohit Kandhari of The Pioneer and Nishikant Khajuria of Daily Excelsio.     In this episode of Another Election Show, the conversations shed light on the influence of the various political parties in Jammu and the people’s views on the abrogation of Article 370 and statehood.  On Article 370, Kandhari said, “People have voted in large numbers in the valley, which shows that democracy is taking its place here.” The journalists also delved into the BJP’s election strategy and the other parties’ initiatives to win electoral support.   ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.