Media was once under the tyranny of the state, then market and now algorithm: Barkha Dutt

When television news became privatized in India in 1995, Barkha Dutt, Founder and Editor of Mojo Story, recalled when India Today and NDTV were tasked with producing 30-minute news bulletins in English and Hindi.

Dutt shared that at that time many people came into television from newspapers, but there were some of them who were first-generation entrants into television news.

A former television person and now the founder of a digital news organisation, Dutt said technology is what we make of them. “The question to be asked today is 'What have we made of television news?'”

Speaking at the 12th Edition of NewsNext Summit 2023, Dutt shared how Mojo Story spent weeks in Manipur for news coverage. She said the largest presence of media in Manipur apart from the local news media were independent digital platforms. “I did not see a large presence of television news on the ground in a sustained way other than as purely reactive to that viral video. There was no before and after coverage of Manipur on our TV channels.”

She said it's time to stop theorizing about the potential of a medium and start looking at why many people decided to leave television. “The reasons are complicated. In my case, it was a combination of reasons. I was tired of being an employee and started having disagreements with my managers over how free I was about the stories I wanted to.”

Dutt who has spent three decades in media said that India's media has gone through three tyrannies. “We started with the tyranny of being state-owned. Then we went to the tyranny of the market; you were required to do what the market wanted you to do. Now in the tyranny of the algorithm. I don't want to romanticize the digital world and say there are no pressures to get views in the digital world. We live in an age where the challenge is who will click on your story.”

She also highlighted that television news has evolved in India and has led to many of its best talents leaving television and stepping out of it. “Television news has a broken revenue model because of which it stopped spending money on reporting. I discovered this when I actually launched my digital platform.”

Reuters Institute tells us that most Indians get their content from YouTube and WhatsApp which is why most TV channels today have had to pivot to taking their YouTube and digital strategy much more seriously than they ever had to, said Dutt.

Talking about the future of not just Mojo Story, but the future of digital content and digital news content in India, Dutt said that like everywhere else in newspapers and television, they are still figuring out revenue models.

“I think across mediums the biggest crisis for media not just in India but globally is how do you remain journalists and find a way to be self-sustaining? What is the best way to fund media in a way that remains independent?”

She added, “We're trying to figure it out. But I can tell you that in terms of impact, in terms of being able to change the perception of a story, in terms of connecting with your viewers in terms of connecting with your readers, we are in a much freer space.”

According to Dutt, one year from now, everyone will be using AI to write copy, captions and descriptions and to generate videos and there are an entire slew of jobs that will be in danger.

“I mentioned this because of the one thing AI can't do. The one thing that technology can't do is to build a relationship between yourself and your audience and that’s why I am confident about Mojo Story because I believe that today people do not come to a website, channel or program, they come to a person. We are entering a medium agnostic phase of content because if everybody's consuming content on their phone then whether you're running a 20-person organization or a 2000-person organization, you will have the same opportunity to connect with your audience.”

She further concluded, “As a journalist today, three things remain undeterred by technology and by the medium -- passion, authenticity and the capacity to take risks and be courageous in your storytelling. It doesn't matter what the medium is.”