On the credibility pitch, media start-ups take on traditional print & television media

Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi *

We are witnessing very interesting times, when it comes to the field of media, especially as the media industry appears to be going through a tough time and also undergoing a churn of its own–due to the advent of new technologies that radically altered the media game and media industry like never before.

And more importantly, the media is also undergoing a crisis of credibility, also like never before. Just consider this, the economic situation arising out of a few economic reforms, well-intentioned but with short-term pressures of their own, brought the media industry – traditional print as well as the electronic media – under severe financial stress with the result the weaker ones are shutting shop–across India.

But this phenomenon is not unique to India as other countries too were affected similarly and some more adversely with the American traditional media suffering with many small and medium journals shutting shop and some moving to digital space that is more cost-effective with lower overheads.

When it came to India, the media suffered on both counts–financial stress and more importantly, a crash in its credibility among readers and viewers. This is more or less when the technology-powered social media invaded the mind space of the masses coupled with an apparent self-destructive and collective rush to lose credibility.

No region has been left untouched with even National and regional media afflicted by the twin problems, but the crisis of credibility is entirely the making of the media itself.

Barring very reputed publications with a long history, tradition, and rich culture, many print media, and even television broadcast units across the country fell victim to the lure of profits at the cost of the nobility of the profession.

True, the profession that worked alongside freedom fighters and one that made a tremendous contribution to the freedom struggle of the country, print media in general, has fallen prey and victim to the business aspects. Perhaps the only product, whose sale price is a fraction of its cost price, a media product has to fill the gap through advertising revenues, which in turn places the media organization at the mercy of the men with the money.

With news gathering and processing and printing combining to form an expensive proposition, over time the print media lost its sheen and began to buckle down. Likewise, even the television media began its downward slope as the economic situation in the country, from the late 2000s, and the East Asian economic crisis, and later demonetization only hurtled the media into an uncertain phase with several organizations unleashing tremendous cost-cutting and letting go of people. And then in recent times, a major part of the media could never get up from the Covid attack.

And in the case of India, the print and electronic media also saw stiff competition from an “upstart of digital media” that was more agile, lean and mean, and highly competitive.

More significantly it was the explosion of social media, dominated by the micro-blogging sites like Twitter, Facebook, and other similar platforms that put paid to the traditional print and television media. With the advent of social media, the newsmakers, celebrities, and political and business class could do without the traditional media that was its via-media to reach the masses.

With this loss of importance and patronage from the powers that be, which in India started with the scaling down of importance from the Union Government in terms of patronage to the traditional media and adoption of an aggressive social media strategy, the print media lost its sheen and the television suffered from a serious crisis of credibility – which got highlighted in the recent times during the big farmers strike that preceded the ongoing elections to five States – and most crucially in the big State of Uttar Pradesh.

For the first time, it has been noticed that the so-called “National” television, comprising a slew of English and Hindi private news channels, failed to dominate the coverage and set the narratives in the ongoing elections to Uttar Pradesh Assembly, and elsewhere in Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Goa.

There has been a simultaneous explosion in social media–including powerful individual-driven YouTube channels that were cost-effective to produce and host compared to television programming, and also freer from the control of the big money and need less or no infrastructural support. It is possible for an individual to go solo–with a little bit of journalistic craft, a smart mobile phone, and a stable internet connection, a ‘news channel’ can go on air.

There are instances today with a greater number of viewers following independent journalists on YouTube than those who are watching the popular private ‘National’ TV channels online.

Besides, with journalists from the so-called National TV media losing credibility of the viewers, especially as noticed during the over year-long farmers stir at the Delhi orders, many ex-journalists thrown out of jobs from their respective media houses for one reason or the other, were like a motivated army of hurt, angry and armed (with good journalistic skills) and motivated journalists out with a vengeance.

Whether it is in a smaller State like Manipur or a huge State of Uttar Pradesh and whether it is politics, features, travel, music, entertainment, or food, the independent journalists, bloggers and cooks, and chefs have taken YouTube by storm. But this is to be seen to be believed, especially in the news arena now, and I would like to give the example of Uttar Pradesh, politically big and very significant.

There is any number of independent journalists–Ajit Anjum, Abhisaar Sharma, Sakshi Joshi, Deepak Sharma, Sanjay Sharma to name a few, who have built up subscriber lists crossing a few lakh marks each. True, they may be living in their own echo chambers and possibly have a view of their own and a stance, but what is refreshing is that they are bringing a different perspective and narrative to the public discourse on issues and giving voice to sections of the society that were seemingly ignored by the traditional and so-called National media.

Are they making any difference?

Firstly, as most of these independent journalists do not have the backing of advertising, they do not seem to have pressures from this set. Besides, all they have is their credibility on offer, and hence they do try and follow good cannons of journalism.

They could go off the mark with their assessment, but most of their followers and viewers on social media at present seem to believe and trust them and have faith in their objectivity. After all, if they lose this trust, their followers will vanish and with them their channel.

As interesting as the political battle in ongoing Uttar Pradesh polls, and for sure in other battles to follow in the run-up to 2024 general elections is, the battle between the social media; and the traditional print and television media promises to be similarly exciting, for us to watch.