Digital journalism: How the internet will save the Indian press
The Indian media are at a tipping point, hobbled by suspect financing, a history of servility, and a massive loss of public trust. “In 1791, American legislators had written, in their historic first amendment, ‘Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ Our first amendment said exactly the opposite: nothing in the future shall ‘prevent the State from making any law’ that takes away the freedom of press,” Caravan Executive Editor Vinod Jose in a brilliant, must-read essay mapping the ‘habits of mind’ that have crippled the Indian media. Jose ends with a call for the creation of a social responsibility model, which would first aim to change portions of the infamous First Amendment; and build public dialogue and pressure around media conduct and ethics – creating structural changes which “may begin to show only 15, 20, 30 or more years from now.” The medium is the antidote There is little to disagree with here, either in terms of Jose’s diagnosis or prescription. Democracy of the digital newsroom In his conclusion, Jose also expresses the hope that a new media culture built around social responsibility “would empower young people getting inducted into the system-hopefully from increasingly diverse backgrounds-to question their higher-ups.” Now, the digital newsroom may not entirely dismantle old hierarchies within organisations, but it does significantly weaken them. As their audience turns increasingly to digital news – and new standalone online news sites emerge as competition – print publications will find it increasingly difficult to do journalism as usual.
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