Published by Emil Abraham, August 19th, 2022

• Concept
• Basic elements and features
• Changes in news-gathering and dissemination
• Implications
• Challenges

• Concept
• Shift in Infrastructure, skillset and activities in bringing news to people
• Seamless network of info gathering and dissemination where text, sound images and video combine in one platform
• No more working separately for print and web
• Example
• Hindustan Times, NDTV 24x7
• The Quint, The Wire
• Basic elements & features
• Seamless network of info gathering and dissemination where text, sound images and video combine in one platform
• No more working separately for print and web
• Example
• Hindustan Times, NDTV 24x7
• The Quint, The Wire
• Changes in news gathering and dissemination
• Process of functioning
• Journalists’ WhatsApp group for breaking news alerts
• Details/documents are uploaded onto a common server - editors access the content and adapt to TV & Web
• Procedural steps on news updates
• First - Breaking news is flashed through a headline both on News TV screen and the Web portal
• Second - Details on the unfolding events
• Third - Interpretation and analysis
• Delivery platforms
• Through phones - as videos, op-eds, infographics, documentaries
• Other changes
• New protocols in some organisation
• No longer single medium - multi-media platforms through convergence; digital media facilitates collective work
• No more single dominant platform
• Web portals are not merely a replica - wider and varied information
• Changes in delivery methods - just a click away through apps/social media platforms

• The practice of the craft
• The organisational setup
• Financial impact

• New opportunities
• Multi-media, multi-opportunities/scope of providing news - breadth and depth
• Can cater to varied needs of the audience - from snippets to features to long form to episodes
• Photo-only stories/photo essays
• Debate sessions
• News stories solely through graphic explainers
• Simplification of information gathering
• Single person vs. a team to cover news
• NDTV reporters with Samsung Galaxy S8 & S9 phones
• Reporters shoot their own reports, interviews
• Multitasking & multidimensional skills
• A journalist is required to do multiple tasks - no longer confined to one single primary activity: Write news, do news copy, think visually, shoot, narrate both still photo and video, so VO, report on camera
• Journalists need more than domain knowledge - acquire multimedia production skills
• Command over many languages & ability to express any issue in simple language
• Train oneself on research skills & be updated on multidimensional aspects of any issue
• To speak into the camera and present
• Write and edit text/copy
• Photography/video making & editing
• Wide knowledge base
• Attitudinal change & flexibility

• News media organisations are reducing the number of employees causing an adverse impact
• Outsourcing reporting to regional and local stringers
• In journalism, a stringer is a freelance journalist, photographer, or videographer who contributes reports, photos, or videos to a news organization on an ongoing basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work.
• Single person dependency - reliance on network of stringres - lack of diversity in ground reporting
• News become urban focused vs. rural focused

• Reliance on news portal for revenues
• Companies are investing heavily in digital marketing
• Reduction of ad revenue in print media
• Growth of online audience/subscribers
• India ranks second in digital consumption