Column: The Chase for Ratings and the coverage of Sex, Scandal, and Fake News
December 27, 2020Never mind the murder of truth, never mind the spread of hate – the appeasement of the rating gods is paramount
Category: News
The World of News
Column: Making Social Media Platforms Pay for News
December 27, 2020In India it is estimated that 52 per cent of the total audience consumes news on Facebook and WhatsApp (also owned by Facebook). In the USA, this figure is 68 per cent. For Free
Column: Vultures of the Mainstream Media
December 27, 2020this appeared in the FPJ It isn’t that there is a dearth of news. We are in the throes of the first global pandemic in almost a century, and the COVID crisis shows little sign of respite. There is the clash with…
Column: The Indian Media is Broken, and Broke
December 20, 2020This appeared in the FPJ In the book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Chris Hedges talks about the United States, but he might have as well been writing about India, the media, and the complex…
CNBC TV18 Column : Twitter Banning Political Ads is not the answer to Fakes
January 5, 2020This piece on Twitter banning Political Ads appeared on the 7th of November Last week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the platform will not carry any paid political ads. He tweeted “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on…
CNBC TV 18 Column: Some floods are more equal than other floods
October 4, 2018I write for CNBC TV18, on why some floods are more important than other floods. It seems to be the season of floods. Last week the National Emergency Response Centre (NERC), released figures on the natural disasters in the monsoons so far. …
CNBC TV18 Column : Subscriptions – Isn’t it time we pay for quality news?
June 27, 2018I write for CNBC TV18 about the need to look at subscriptions and why we need to look at paying for news to beat fake news. There is a story about the early days of news broadcasting on BBC radio. It was…
Sri Devi’s Death and the Media : The 5th pillar of Democracy to the Septic Tank of Society
February 28, 2018I gave up watching TV news in 2008. In the aftermath of the coverage of the attacks on Mumbai, in the event that we call 26/11. There were a variety of reasons for me stopping watching news – the fact that news…
APB Blog : Fake News – the next frontier
September 22, 2017source : here I write for the ABP Of late, the flurry of whatsapp forwards have increased, many on current news issues. Most are so well crafted it is difficult to know they are true of not. Things get worse when main…
World Press Freedom Index : India’s ranking is abysmal
April 26, 2017The World Press Freedom Index is out, and it shows that India has fallen from 133 last year to 136 this year. Which means, that according to the report, press freedom has gotten worse. The reasons : With Hindu nationalists trying to purge…