‘The opportunity is in staying connected with digital India’

The first panel discussion at the e4m DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference saw dignitaries from several sectors coming together to talk about ‘Digital India and Digital Media: A Partnership for Building a Connected Nation’. 

On the panel were Saurabh Dwivedi, Founding Editor, The Lallantop; Vijay Jung Thapa, Chief Digital Officer, ABP; Chandrashekar Mantha, Partner, Media & Entertainment (M&E), industry leader, Risk Advisory, Deloitte India; Dr Jagdish Mitra, Head & Chief Strategy Officer, Tech Mahindra; Anurradha Prasad, Managing Editor and Chairperson, BAG Films; Durga Raghunath, Head, India News Partnerships, Google; Prasad Sanyal, Chief Content Officer, HT Digital and Nalin Mehta, Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES. The session was chaired by Sanjay Sindhwani, Chief Executive Officer, The Indian Express. 

Sindhwani kick-started the discussion by talking about how digital media and digital India are partners in this progression. 

According to Sanyal, “We have seen the benefits come out of digital India in terms of democratisation of information and information is what the whole digital ecosystem is providing to a lot of citizens, consumers and that is empowerment. In either sense, a good collaboration would be to not just tell people about how they are impacted by various government schemes and policies, but also in the responsible newsroom we should do more than say where these policies are failing, where they are not reaching out to the right people and where the government can have more impact. So I think that feedback mechanism should be completed in a much better way for digital India to collaborate with digital media more closely.” 

As for Mehta, “We have had four to five revolutions in this country like the phone revolution, data revolution, digital revolution and so on. For instance, if you look at UPI or financial inclusion, the scale of implementation for a democracy like ours is unprecedented. Now, if you put that in context with big media, there are two glasses – one half-full and the other half-empty. For the digital arms of all big media, for that transformation, there is a lot more to be done. On the other hand, we look at the creator economy and that has really flourished.” 

Talking about the trends and changes seen in the Indian ecosystem in the way that news is consumed and the information is processed by people, Thapa elucidated, “The real big change, I think, is that in those days, it was a simpler time. I knew who are your brands or who are your trusted incredible brands, and news consumption was in slots. Today, if you look at it, there is a deluge of news 24/7 and news has expanded from the narrowed definition of politics and current affairs. Hence, I feel it is relentless all the time and it creates a lot of different things for us. There are flip sides to this deluge of news - our people are prioritising quantity over depth and you wonder if you are getting a credible news feed from various platforms.” 

Dwivedi further stated, “Earlier there was a hierarchy in news, selection of content, language and how people looked while presenting. But now, the doors are open. There is one thing that is still going on and we want to keep it. Eventually, you will hear a story that is relatable, raw and real. We are continuously producing such content in which the debate between entertainment and politics will be conducted in the same language. Many other freedoms came after the advent of this technology. The monopoly of distribution has ended.” 

Raghunath further pointed out, “I think when we look at it from the Google perspective and when we look at the world of languages and the language user who is now coming on to the internet in millions and millions of the past few years, we see that the principles of journalism do not change. We are seeing a very fundamental change in user behaviour around access and technology.” 

Mitra noted that the opportunity is about staying connected with digital India. “I think we need to understand probably what was digital India’s objective. The simpler objective is that it enables the country to develop socially and economically faster. Digital probably will help us get there faster. If the opportunity lies for us to go digital in an Indian way, then we might get to the solution faster. How we use this technology to drive the benefits and the challenges that India has is the biggest opportunity for us. So, we will have to solve the problem,” he said. 

Mantha spoke about technology playing a key role and how digital media evolves where he noted, “It only learns from what it’s fed. It is a super-intelligent tool and it will give back the power to the creators and consumers. It pretty much has the potential to disrupt the entire media-news value chain. Going forward, you won’t be surprised if journalists look up on what topics to write about because it can tell you what is the reader reading. It can tell you what is being anticipated as a topic which is relevant and then it will help you write that creative. It will help you distribute it to the right audience and from a reader’s perspective, t will help them validate its accuracy. Hence, the power of it cannot be underestimated. It can change the way how the search works and the way content is created and edited.”