Defeating Fake News is the Biggest Agenda of Digital Journalism : Chetan Sharma
Kolkata : Chetan Sharma, one of India’s top journalists, primarily delved on fake news on the first day of #MediaNext 2020 that focused on Digital Journalism. #MediaNext 2020 is being organized by the Kolkata-based Adamas University in association with Sharda University, Birla Global University, DME, AIMEC, Lok Samvad Sansthan, exchange4media, ABP Education and IndiaReal. The mega
Kolkata : Chetan Sharma, one of India’s top journalists, primarily delved on fake news on the first day of #MediaNext 2020 that focused on Digital Journalism.
#MediaNext 2020 is being organized by the Kolkata-based Adamas University in association with Sharda University, Birla Global University, DME, AIMEC, Lok Samvad Sansthan, exchange4media, ABP Education and IndiaReal. The mega conclave is being organized over a period of 10 days from June 1, 2020 to June 10, 2020. Each day of the conclave focuses on one specialized domain of the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on that specific domain.
The Founder, CEO of India Ahead and founder of Edumate.tv, Chetan Sharma has been a prolific face on prime time national television for over 25 years. He has worked across multiple news organizations including NDTV, India Today, Aajtak, Zee News, Star News, ESPN, Bloomberg and AI Jazeera English. A national awardee for his interview with Narendra Modi, several of Chetan’s lauded interviews with Warren Buffet, Michael Dell, Carly Fiorina, Queen Maxima, P. Chidambaram, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, among other remain etched in public memory.
Chetan Said, “The biggest pandemic of the media world is fake news and fortunately it did not originate from China, but it’s antidote like corona is yet to come. Fake News has taken over our lives even some livelihood and became most deadly attack on unsuspecting mankind.”
Chetan made some interesting acronyms like “FAKE”, “where F stands for Freedom, A for Access, K for Knowledge and E for Expression”.
He added, “In a democratic country, freedom is a constitutional right and then it’s a fundamental right in the digital world. Access allows easy decimation at the simple touch of a button. The knowledge, which is now commonly available if you want it, it’s there for you, as it depends weather someone use it or misuse it. Expression is a natural human need which is no longer limited to few privileged people in the field of journalism and it was curtailed because it is in the hands of few. Now-a-days everyone has the power without any responsibility, discipline, etiquette because of the technology.”
Chetan distinguished between fake news and unsubstantiated news by stating that “fake news is driven by a purpose or agenda, on the other hand, there is no agenda in unsubstantiated news. It is not necessarily fake but it is not credible”. He has introduced many more acronyms for easy understanding like, Fake also stands for ‘Forward’ is something which is very easy to connect, ‘Anxiety’ it is now shifted from livelihood more to live and it has become more critical, ‘Keen’ it is just a need to be seen, heard, promote. ‘Emotion’ often associated to attract attention.
Chetan Added, “To overcome this fake news there is another acronym as Find – find out the resources of the news, where the news does comes from. Analyze – to find reason, logic, common sense behind the news otherwise analysis can be paralysis. Knots – stories have knots, we need to unknot those knots. After untying the knots we would come to know whether there is any agenda or not. Embrace – once you identify whether you need this news, credible or its districted be make your choice either trash it or stash it.”
Finally, he said, “However in overall analysis, things keep changing and when you up against speak which is critical for news in a digital environment. Then all it has to be done in the quick time so, try and build up a structure of yourself and when you do that you will it become a matter of practice.”
Chetan has created guidelines for India Ahead like: “Debate to Decide, Not Divide”; “Stir the Conscience, Not Controversies”; “Don’t Create Heat, Shed Light”; “Look for Answers, not just Questions”; “Look for Solutions, not just Opinions”.
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