This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Kallol Bhattacherjee, Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu.

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For this special year-ender episode, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande and The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna are joined by columnist and media critic Santosh Desai.  

The conversation begins with a wrap of the Indian media ecosystem this year. Santosh says, “Institutions are struggling to retain credibility and resist pressure.” Dhanya argues that mainstream media exerts significant influence over people, but on social media, the results vary. Discussing the state of the media more specifically in Karnataka, Pooja notes that although it's “heavily compromised”, it can still be seen as a “lesser evil” compared to the Hindi and English media.

Manisha argues that, in terms of news consumption, the internet can be very ruthless – in contrast to legacy media, which does not have to face the crash and burn. She cites the example of Beer Biceps, whose rapid rise and fall illustrate this ruthlessness. Some influencers, Dhanya says, have also realised that “credibility comes with consistency”. 

On the economic front, Abhinandan explains, “It is the lethargy of legacy media that is reflected in their belief about how business is done – in large spaces and studios. Hence, sustainability and viewership become two completely different things.”

The panel also discusses advertisements that make them nostalgic. Dhanya says, “Now, we pay to remove ads. I cannot remember the last time I watched an ad.” Meanwhile, Abhinandan notes, “The death of ads is the death of jingles, which in turn traces to the death of radio.”

While discussing Arnab Goswami's recent shows that questioned the central government, Pooja remarks, “This man can damage the country by stooping so low, but all it takes for him to be viewed as a crusader is the targeting of a soft issue as a larger strategy.”

This and a lot more. Tune in!

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Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions & announcements

00:02:16 - Headlines

00:07:30 - Brands vs individuals: Understanding news models 

00:33:15 - Karnataka Hate Speech Bill

00:38:00 - How has advertising changed?

00:59:00 - Santosh’s recommendations

01:00:00 - Arnab Goswami’s turnaround 

01:07:00 - Christmas violence  

01:12:00 - Letters

01:35:13 - Recommendations 

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Recorded and produced by Priyali Dhingra. Production assistance by Megha Mukundan and  Ajai. Edited by Saif Ali Ekram.

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Development economist Reetika Khera & ESPN’s Anirudhh Menon. 

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute and Anupam Manur, professor at the Takshashila Institution. 

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Shardool Katyayan and Raman Kirpal are joined by Medianama founder and editor Nikhil Pahwa and senior journalist Maya Mirchandani.

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This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by content creator Meghnad S and Pooja Prasanna of The News Minute.

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This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist and author Rahul Pandita and The News Minute’s Sudipto Mondal.

The discussion begins with Rahul’s new novel, Our Friends in Good Houses, and then turns to the recent killing of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma in Andhra Pradesh.

Rahul recalls meeting the man who recruited Hidma as a child. He then talks about the “tragedy” of the Maoists and the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). 

“One reason why we are witnessing this downfall now of the CPM office is that this somehow, in the passage of this time, steered away from what they had set out to do, which is to basically protect the adivasis and their natural resources. But during this course, I think they became obsessive about fighting the state…and became, in their own ways, stakeholders in these natural resources. That is the tragedy of the CPM.”

Sudipto says, “The worst part about the Maoist movement is that it follows one basic principle of armed conflict, which is that the people sending people to war are old men. The people going to war are young boys."

The conversation then moves to the Red Fort blasts. Abhinandan asks the panel about the video of a key suspect in the case justifying suicide attacks, seeking their views on whether airing such footage is irresponsible or journalistically necessary.

This and a lot more. Tune in!

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements

00:03:37 - Discussion on Rahul Pandita’s Book

00:11:40 - Headlines 

00:18:33 - Killing of Madvi Hidma

01:00:38  - Red Fort Blasts Aftermath

01:21:36 - Sudipto & Rahul Pandita’s Recommendations

01:24:58 - Letters

01:36:40- Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Produced by Amit Pandey with Ashish Anand & Sourav Ranjan. Sound Recordist Anil 

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In this special NL Hafta Live episode, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Raman Kirpal were joined by The Hindu’s Sobhana K Nair and senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury to decode the Bihar poll results.

On the sweeping mandate for the NDA, Anand spoke about Nitish Kumar’s enduring appeal, noting that he “maximises his EBC base better than anyone else. He knows how to balance administrative acumen with realpolitik.”

Sobhana weighed in on Prashant Kishor’s poor performance, saying, “It is not a surprise to me that Jan Suraaj did not get even a single seat. There was a lot of disinterest in the rural regions of Bihar. A lot of distrust also. There were questions being asked about where he was getting so much money to put up such a big campaign.”

Neerja highlighted the unusual nature of the mandate. “I have not seen this kind of a pro-incumbency wave in India despite 20 years in power. It is unprecedented.”

On Nitish Kumar’s future in Bihar, she pointed to his biggest vulnerability: “The minus point of Nitish Kumar is that he doesn’t have a second line of leadership. Nor has he named a successor. At one point he considered Prashant Kishor but the story would have been different had they not fallen out.”

This and a lot more. Tune in!

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements

00:01:25 - Headlines 

00:13:28 - Discussion on Bihar Election results 

01:34:17 - Neerja’s Recommendations

01:37:07 - Concluding remarks 

01:46:06- Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Produced by NL Team.

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by The Hindu journalist Sobhana K Nair and screenwriter, producer and professor Sabrina Dhawan.

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by journalist Sreenivasan Jain and Ritu Rao, writer, INTACH consultant, and researcher on water sustainability. 

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by journalist Arati Jerath and Sunil Dahiya, founder of Envirocatalysts. 

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu, and Dr Khinvraj Jangid, director and professor at the Centre for Israel Studies at OP Jindal Global University. 

Abhinandan asks Suhasini whether it was “embarrassing” for the Indian government to have permitted the press conference barring women journalists with Taliban’s Foreign Minister. He also asks what pressure took place for a second presser to take place with women journalists. 

“The Taliban doesn’t control the embassy in Delhi. The staff there still pledge allegiance to the previous, democratically elected government,” Suhasini says. “But when the foreign minister’s team invited journalists, only men were included. By the time everyone had gathered, it became clear that an all-male Taliban delegation was speaking to an all-male Indian journalist group. There were women journalists outside who weren’t allowed in, and it wasn’t just women who noticed – men also felt this was wrong, and some even sent apologies.”

The discussion moves to the Gaza peace agreement. Khinvraj says, “If you look at Trump, in this particular instance, he reversed his earlier, reckless proposal that Gaza be ‘wiped out’ and the idea that the people of Gaza didn’t deserve to live there. He achieved this deal through compromise, making what I see as a powerful course correction.” 

Jayashree is less optimistic. “Israel literally already occupies Gaza – it controls the movement of its citizens and what goes in and out. Yet it demands the surrender of arms as if a genocide hasn’t already been committed. We’re talking about hostages, but what about the thousands of Palestinians imprisoned and not called hostages simply because they’re not white?”

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements

00:03:07 - Headlines 

00:09:05 - Afghan FM’s visit to India 

00:45:57 - Suhasini Haidar’s recommendation

00:49:07 - Gaza peace agreement 

01:28:39 - Khinvraj’s recommendation 

01:31:29 - Letters

01:37:39 - Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistant Priyali Dhingra and sound recordist Anil Kumar. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, and Anand Vardhan are joined by senior journalist Nirupama Subramaniam and lawyer and author Prashant Reddy. 

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This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande, and The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran and Sudipto Mondal áre joined by senior journalist Josy Joseph for a special Hafta and South Central crossover episode on the future of media.

Josy begins the discussion by arguing that the decline of newspapers and television is accelerating, not only due to technology, but also because of a compromised business model. He points out that while balance sheets are “artificially protected” through government and corporate advertising, the reality is stark

Dhanya shares hard lessons on what audiences pay for. While issues like climate change receive constant calls for coverage, they draw little financial support. “Everybody’s always asking why you guys are not reporting on the environment… but that is one fund people hardly pay,” she says. 

Manisha adds that the future role of journalism lies in helping audiences think critically in an “age of reels and feels.” 

“While others can trigger emotions, journalists can provide context, history, and perspective,” she says. 

On the replacement for legacy media, Josy says, “What you people are doing at The News Minute and Newslaundry, to me, is a great laboratory of experiment. You are actually bringing journalism back as the intellectual property for which people should pay,” he says. 

Timecodes

00:00:00 – Introductions and announcements

00:12:26 – Headlines 

00:37:42 -  Discussion on the future of media 

01:28:17 - Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Produced by Priyali Dhingra (Newslaundry), Bhuvan Malik (TNM), with production assistance by Ajay. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande are joined by Pooja Prasanna, editor-in-chief of reporting at The News Minute; senior lawyer Mishi Choudhary; independent journalist Smita Sharma; and senior journalist Sanjoy Hazarika from the Northeast.

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute, and Nitin Sethi, founding editor of the Reporter’s Collective. 

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan, and Raman Kirpal are joined by Kanak Mani Dixit, founder-editor of Himal South Asian, and writer and podcaster Anurag Minus Verma. 

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Akshay Bhambri, doctoral fellow at the Institute for Chinese Studies, Harvard Yenching Institute, and Sumeet Mhaskar, professor at OP Jindal Global University. 

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by economist and author Vivek Kaul and sports journalist Sharda Ugra. 

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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Faizan Mustafa, legal scholar and VC of Chanakya National Law University, Patna, and Anuradha M Chenoy, former dean of JNU’s School of International Affairs.

Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. 

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.