There is more politics in media than in political parties: Sudhir Chaudhary

Journalists have to take the responsibility of restoring the faith of the public in the media, said Aaj Tak’s Consulting Editor Sudhir Chaudhary, while urging that media houses must stand united and stop attacking each other.

Speaking at the e4m NewsNext Summit held in New Delhi, Chaudhary said that in the last few years, media has constantly been criticised and that it was now time to defend itself as no one else will.

“In the last few years, the two institutions that have faced a lot of flak from the people and whose integrity has been questioned are media and judiciary. Now if you say something against the judiciary, you can be sent to jail for contempt of court. But what does the media do? It doesn’t have that provision. When people say anything demeaning about the media, what will we reply, that’s a challenge..

“This challenge is not in the profession of doctors, lawyers, CAs, engineers. It is only in the media industry and the industry is not understanding this. The government will never take a stand for the media because for any government it is good if the media is being attacked regularly and is divided and not united. Will the public defend the media? No. Sometimes a court does help out when the media is dragged into litigation. So, the first responsibility to protect and defend the media is that of the media professionals themselves,” he said.

He added that at present, the number of media houses in the country is equal to the number of political parties in the country.

“Consequently, there are many schools of thought but does that mean one media house should attack another? Media professionals have to take the responsibility to restore the credibility and trust it is losing. If the media doesn’t trust itself, why would anyone else? Today there is more politics within the media than in the political parties and the industry is bearing the brunt of it,” he said.

Chaudhary, who was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Zee News, spoke about how social media has assumed the role of mainstream media but without regulation and responsibility.

“Around 10-15 years ago, an editor of a channel, newspaper or magazine, used to decide what would be telecast/published. The editor had full control over the content. Now with social media as an option, content has become free. That is good, but this freedom without regulation is dangerous.

“Now for verified news or information, people come to mainstream media and to share their opinion, they go to social media platforms. Traditional media is regulated and bound by broadcast code but social media is not bound. So, it is not a level-playing field. The scenario is such on social media platforms that the more boundaries they break, the more viral they get,” he said while adding there was an urgent need to regulate social media content.

Observing that rules and regulations are important for social media platforms which are providing unlimited content for free consumption, Chaudhary proposed solutions like journalist-owned organisations and paying for content.

“Problem is people like free content. Things will not get better till the time the public does not become a stakeholder. As they say, if things are free for you then you are the product. Our people are not understanding this. If a fact is presented without a context, the picture is incomplete.

“As a solution to this, I propose that consumers start paying for this content. Another solution is, we can generate a situation where media houses are freed from the ownership of industrialists and given to deserving journalists. These days, startups are also being supported by the government. If startups in the media industry are encouraged by journalists, public and advertisers, then we can bring a very good alternative,” he suggested.

Talking about the losing trust of people in the media, the veteran journalist said that the law of diminishing returns applies to the media industry.

“We are where we are because of the trust of our viewers. There is a law in the economy called the ‘law of diminishing returns’ which says if you keep investing in one thing too much, the profitability starts declining. This ‘law of diminishing returns’ applied in the media industry. Viewers invest their trust repeatedly in us but they are not getting the return they deserve,” he said.