‘Social media is a reflection of the society it’s in’

The e4m-DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference brought together leading names and thought leaders to delve into the future of digital media, its present triumphs, and the challenges it faces.

The session on “Digital Media and its Social Impact” was chaired by Pranay Upadhayay, Senior Anchor, ABP News, and featured Vijay Chadda, Chief Executive Officer, APAC (Air Pollution Action Group); Arvind Gupta, Co-Founder and Head, Digital India Foundation; Shreyaa Kapoor, Personal Finance Content Creator; Sayema Rahman, Radio Jockey and Social Media Influencer; Nandagopal Rajan, Editor, New Media, Indian Express; and Archna Vyas, Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Upadhayay, while celebrating the diversity of the panel, representative as it was of a wide cross-section of professions, businesses and opinions, started the discussion with noting how over the last 8-10 years “the digital landscape and today India is the fastest growing digitized economy, and is likely to be the world’s most populous country once the census is taken”.

On being asked whether the growth of digitization, from 84 crore (840 million) Indians being online to developing digital highways, had meant a more inclusive or more divided conversation and milieu, Gupta replied, “India is the biggest free internet market in the world with three characteristics: the lowest data costs in the world and the highest per capita data consumption (going from 155th on the global list 8 years ago, to the top of it today); inclusivity of all regions, given that 86% of Indians wouldn’t be able to fully understand the language I’m speaking in (English) and so the internet in India runs on three Vs: vernacular, voice, and video; and finally the consumers are spread across the income pyramid, with everyone from the aspirational level onwards being connected, and even BPL families having one or two members with a mobile phone.”

“This all adds up to India having built the largest digital inclusion platform in the world today with digital public goods like UPI or Co-Win, and India does 8 billion digital payments in a month on UPI, an unfathomable number, with 400 million Indians doing digital payments every month,” he added.

Turning to Rahman, Upadhayay asked where we stand when it came to algorithms driving internet users to digitized echo chambers, considering radio was the original media, and we have lived through an age of radio listener clubs.

“I belong to what I like to call the first social media of the world, radio, and from radio to the different social media platforms today, I would agree with Mr Gupta that it is 100% a much more inclusive world. This digital revolution has given every member of our society a voice, a platform from which to speak in that voice, and the ability to connect with their own chosen community,” said Rahman, while admitting it was a challenge that when it came to the input we have, from knowledge information and more, it was exceeded by the output.

"The base of connecting, the consciousness and responsibility with which we should be connecting with each other, the education and the knowledge, that is less. And the will to engage, to get popular, to go viral, at the cost of anything, including sensationalism, fake news is going up,” she said, saying there is a need to inculcate that sense of responsibility in our social media interactions and engagement.

On being asked about the challenges for a responsible media publication in reflecting news on society in a model much driven by algorithms and click-bait journalism, Rajan put it in the context of someone who had covered technology for many years and had been a votary of many of the digital developments taking place.

“The big surge we had of people coming online due to the extremely cheap data, and the availability of very affordable smartphones India has had, and which has been going on for 4-5 years now, saw hundreds of millions of people coming online for the first time, and a lot of them did so without much context of the internet,” he said.

“For instance, a lot of people came onto the smartphone without having much context of what a computer is. And what happened is that a lot of these platforms that were initially meant for communication and messaging, became hardcore consumption platforms for a lot of people because they might not be literate enough to type, but they could consume media. There are so many WhatsApp groups where people just sit and consume content,” he said, adding that while the democratization of the internet and going digital had made everyone a journalist, there was a distinct lack of editors who actually curate and fact check the information that is being put up.

Chadda was then asked about how the rapid urbanization of India was being impacted by the simultaneous digitization and flooding of content and information, and whether it was a help or hindrance. Chadda said that after 51 years of working, from being a professional soldier who passed out of NDA to retiring as a colonel in the 90s and joining corporates to moving to the social sector in 2008, the change across the sociocultural landscape was unimaginable.

“Digital media has been a lifesaver in terms of social impact, as we saw during the Covid crisis. In education, we saw how everyone from the premier to government schools had to rapidly switch the mode of teaching the most basic education from physical presence to digital lessons. I think it’s a blessing and a boon. A lot of people talk about all the issues it also brings, but I think we wouldn’t have been able to survive without it,” he said.

“You can connect donors in the US with the remotest corners of India and show in real-time how funds are being used to further education for children. Similarly, when we started APAC in June 2019, and with the elections happening in April, we were able to run a digital campaign around the air pollution for the Delhi leg, and it was amazing to see how many people were concerned about the air quality and health and who participated,” added Chadda.

Further speaking on the balance between algorithm-driven businesses and the impact of digitization in society, Vyas said, “At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we firstly believe in the value of every human life, and everyone should have the chance of leading a healthy and productive life. We've been in India for 20 years and work in health, urban sanitation, agricultural productivity, gender, and other areas.”

“When it comes to responsibility, there is a need for regulation to keep up with the advancements in the technology itself, and perhaps it’s the government, society, and people who need to keep up with the pace. At the foundation, we look at how technology can help solve issues, but not only from technology, as it's not one size that fits all. For instance, 50-90% inefficiency creeps into farms in India because of usage of primitive tools, lack of knowledge of more effective farming practices and techniques and here technology can really help, with both advancements and information being disseminated,” she said.

Vyas added that while the government is already doing a lot of work in the right direction, there was a need to disseminate digital access and technological developments in the right way so people were more educated and utilized digital assets more responsibly and with more forethought.

Coming in from the content creators’ perspective, Kapoor said that while it was true that there was a lot of sensationalism and eyeball journalism, it was important that creators aren’t held solely accountable, and there is indeed a need for stricter regulation. “When you see an ad on TV, you know it’s an ad. But if you’re watching something on Instagram or YouTube, you often don’t know if it’s an ad or the personal opinion of a creator. So there need to be regulations for all stakeholders,” she said.

 Noting that it was easy to perceive social media negatively, particularly among millennial and Gen Z cohorts, Kapoor said, it wasn’t all bad, and that there are two sides to everything. “What is happening on social media and online is a reflection of the society and a major indication of what it wants.”