‘Journalists can be opinionated, but they must differentiate facts from fiction’

“Journalists are headed in the right direction. Young journalists today are doing some phenomenal work. We are all in very safe hands until we understand the distinction between facts and fiction,” said Rahul Shiv Shankar, Editorial Director & Editor-in-Chief, Times Now.

Shankar was speaking to Ruhail Amin, Sr Editor, exchange4media Group, on the topic ‘Unfiltered’ at a fireside chat session held during the inaugural edition of English Journalism 40 Under 40 Summit and Awards organised by e4m on Wednesday. The event was powered by Value360 PR while Grey Cell PR was the gold partner.

Talking about the rise of digital journalism, Shiv Shankar opined that it is a very appreciable time to live in as digital gives journalists a voice and a medium where they can put out a lot of things that the mainstream media often misses. “Mainstream media has some kind of regulation in place which is of course self-enforced. We have held out to a certain standard which has been set through a tedious process which is quite inclusive. There is an expectation that we verify facts and don’t put out misinformation,” he said.

Increasingly news today is becoming more opinionated than ever. When asked by Amin if mixing news and views is a dangerous cocktail, Shiv Shankar shared his point of view, saying, “You can be as opinionated as an anchor as you want, I don’t think it’s a dangerous cocktail. You have to look beyond TV from just the primetime perspective. The issue arises when you start mixing facts with fiction. As long as the presented opinions are backed by facts and you are not muting the opposing voices, I believe TV is still quite democratic.”

In a time where trolling and cancel culture has become an inevitable part of how we interact with the internet, Shiv Shankar shared his two cents on the same and said “Trolls don’t really matter to me because if someone can’t back an argument with another argument, I don’t even consider it worthy of being bothered about. I believe we are growing intolerant as a nation not so much because we have differing opinions that we shout at each other but because we are not accepting of other’s points of view and that’s the reason for the massive cancel culture going around.”