Indian Journalism and the Impact of Social Media

This book is a pan-India study that examines social media’s impact on Indian journalism, highlights emerging challenges, and discusses the way forward for India’s newsrooms. A result of three years of field work, the project uses mixed-methods research - a survey of nearly 300 journalists from 15 Indian cities, followed by in-depth interviews with 25 senior editors - to analyze and explain journalists’ perceptions about social media’s usefulness and credibility, factors that influence their online news sourcing and sharing decisions, resultant challenges for newsrooms, and ways to address those challenges. The findings offer unique insights into how newer forces are influencing journalistic practices in an online-first era. Key differences emerge in perceptions between Indian journalists and their Western compatriots about who or what influence their actions. The findings also raise questions about Gatekeeping as a term to describe journalistic work in 21st Century India’s newsrooms. The findings and the conclusions will hopefully help journalists, educators, and anyone interested in Indian journalism gain a deeper, more meaningful understanding about social media’s impact on Indian journalism, and the way ahead for India’s newsrooms.

Dhiman Chattopadhyay is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication, Journalism and Media, at Shippensburg University, USA.