‘In an era led by social media, mainstream media will continue to thrive’

In a panel discussion at the NewsNext Summit 2024, experts delved deep into how one should separate news from noise in an era led by misinformation. The panellistis were Rishab Gulati, Editor-In-Chief, NewsX; Priya Sehgal, Editorial Director, NewsX and Marya Shakil, Executive Editor, National Affairs, NDTV 24x7. The panel was moderated by Sohini Ganguly, Senior Correspondent, exchange4media. 

Speaking about what exactly is misinformation, Gulati said, “When we speak of professional journalism, we need to understand that it is a very painful process. We are today surrounded by misinformation. You can get information wrong, but the pain that a professional journalist puts in to get the right thing out is oftentimes discounted.” 

Sehgal added to this mentioning how on one side there is news coming from mainstream media, and on the other hand there’s news coming from social media or citizen journalists. “There is a whole lot of news that is coming to you unfiltered, which is why I feel even in an era led by social media, mainstream media will continue to thrive. Whatever mainstream media puts out goes through editorial checks,” she said. 

Shakil highlighted how the landscape has changed as compared to when she started off as a journalist. From the era of Facebook and Orkut, the world entered an era of Instagram and Twitter and thus came a boom in the misinformation space. “Those who are now entering mainstream media are also realising that a great degree of channels have a great degree of credibility even today,” she said. 

Sehgal further added, “We’re lucky that we are living in the age of branded personalities. News is no longer just NewsX or NDTV, it is now Marya, Rishabh or Priya. We don’t say ‘kahan suna’, we say ‘kisne sunaya’.” She pointed out that it is after this that the public figures out whether they want to trust the source or not. This, according to Sehgal, is also a good way to fight the deepfake menace, by trusting the personality’s credibility and consistency. 

The panellists agreed that the responsibility on journalists is far greater, but all is not lost yet and the media still retains its credibility. “I feel social media is good for opinions, but when it comes to information, I am not too sure about it,” Shakil added.