Dealing with fabricated misinformation biggest challenge for journalists: Sudhir Chaudhary

Headline Makers profiles the top names from India's most reputed news organisations. In this part, we bring you an exclusive interview with Sudhir Chaudhary, Consulting Editor of Aaj Tak, where he talks about his three-decade-long career in TV journalism, his take on trolls and critics and his views on the future of TV News.

Excerpts:

It has been a year since you started your new show Black and White on Aaj Tak. How has the journey been?

It has been a very pleasant and very satisfying journey. When I came to Aaj Tak, which is the biggest platform in the country and so prestigious, I was a little nervous thinking how much my viewers would accept this new show.

It felt like I am starting my journey again. It was like attempting to make a ‘Sholay 2’ and ensuring it becomes equally successful as the cult classic.

Now, when I go in the middle of the public, they tell me how much they love the show. I’m happy that the audience has accepted it very quickly and showered their love.

And what about Seedhi Baat?

I am enjoying hosting both shows and I hope that the audience is happy to see me in this new format.

You have been part of newsrooms for close to three decades. How have newsrooms changed over the years?

 I think the biggest difference is technology. Thirty years ago, when I started my career, it was a completely different era.

In 1999 when I was covering the Kargil war, the biggest challenge was - how to get the footage from Kargil to Delhi? I did an interview with Captain Vikram Batra at that time and by the time that interview was broadcast, Captain Vikram Batra had already achieved martyrdom.

There is a huge shift from a tech standpoint. Today we can have a PCR at one location, a reporter and anchor at other locations, so technology has made everything easier in our business.

The biggest challenge post this tech empowerment of newsrooms is that you have to cater to so many generations in one go. Also, technology has not only come to us, it has empowered viewers. Today, if I can do a live broadcast from here, then our viewers can also broadcast live from their homes.

Today, news is not first shown on news channels, it is first shown on social media. Social platforms have become a parallel source of information, and have made our work very challenging. And this is a time when you have to continuously innovate and reimagine your formats.

It's said that there is less news and more views on TV. Your take?

All the changes that you notice on TV news come from the choice of the viewers and from the likes and dislikes of the viewers.

The primetime show at 9pm is the editorial page of a TV channel. It tells people the deeper meaning of that news piece and how it affects them.

If you show news without any analysis, it will be incomplete. Because the news is already with everyone, the information is with everyone. Now, what is left to be told is - why is this happening?

Today, all the tech companies, whether it is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc are giving you a platform to convey your opinion. You can share your views with people in different formats, through your videos, your tweets etc. You are buying the freedom to express your opinion from these tech companies. So, you can guess how eager our viewers are to hear opinions.

If views are removed, you will only get to see speed news for 24 hours - 100 news in 5 minutes and you will never understand the context of that news piece.

When you move from a long stint, like your previous one, how do you adjust to the cultural settings of a new place, is it easy? How has your experience been at Aaj Tak?

I see myself as a player who plays on different pitches. India Today Group is very prestigious. It is the biggest and most respected media house in the country. So, it is a matter of pride for anyone to work here. 

You feel proud to work with this company. The best thing I found is that this is a very democratic newsroom and people with different ideologies work together. No one dominates anyone.  We make content here in a very professional way. 

The engine behind a news channel is the editorial team, which runs it like a rocket,  besides editorial, there is a huge team behind it. Those teams of branding, sales and technology, and all those teams provide you the right support to launch your content. 

The liberty that a journalist needs for content creation is available here. This platform is so big, so many millions of viewers are connected to it through its YouTube too, which also happens to be the largest YouTube channel in the world. So when you get this kind of exposure then your content also becomes more successful.

It’s said that in today’s TV journalism we have forgotten to ask tough questions to people in power, news has just become a medium for amplification and nothing more. Your views?

If you see my interviews with the Prime Minister, and many say that you cannot ask the PM tough questions, but if you see all the interviews you will know that there is not a single question that I have not asked him.

In the last interview I did with the Prime Minister, which was just before the last election, I asked the Prime Minister about unemployment and other issues.

Similarly, people say we don’t ask tough questions to top ministers like Amit Shah. You can watch all my interviews with Amit Shah and then tell me which of those are not tough questions.

Our problem is that most of the people who propagate such opinions are working for some political party. They make a narrative that tough questions are not being asked.

If I talk about the opposition, those who say that people in power don't speak up; when did Rahul Gandhi give his last interview? When did Sonia Gandhi give her last interview? When did you see Nitish Kumar's last interview?

Personally, I do not believe in doing disrespectful interviews.  If a person comes to me as a guest, he has the right to say what he wants to say. And he should get the space to say what he wants to say so that he can put his/her point across.

Now, what happens is that when you do an interview for an hour, only a portion of it is shown on social media and misinformation is spread by vested interests, just to malign the journalist. Dealing with fabricated misinformation is biggest challenge for journalists today.