Fakes news, 24x7 television. Impact on a Telugu newspaper

Congress campaign on the highway outside Hyderabad city

We raced across town, trying to beat the traffic of the post 5.30 pm peak time of Hyderabad.' Andhra Jyothi', a leading Telugu daily was my destination and its editorial office is located in the upmarket Jubilee Hills area. 

If large billboards of Chandrababu Naidu greeted us in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, the visage of chief minister of Telangana, K. Chandrashekar Rao  who leads the TRS ( Telangana Rashtra Samithi) beams at us at all the road junctions and from the pillars of the city's Metro rail service.

Andhra Jyothi office in Hyderabad

Andhra Jyothi is a leading Telugu newspaper. The group also has a new website ( www.andhrajyothy.com) and a TV channel, called ABN Andhra Jyothi. Its present promoter is a man whose life, some say is a rags-to-riches story while others say he played smart in the state's politics and made hay when the sun shone.  The TV channel has courted many controversies.

Jubilee Hills is the address of the rich and famous, and of lifestyle stores of top brands. At the multi-storeyed building of Andhra Jyothi, Floor One has large cabin spaces created across a very large hall and in one corner, inside a cabin is the newspaper's editor, Dr. K. Srinivas. With him is a News Feature Editor: they suspend their conversation when I enter.

Editor of Andhra Jyothi, Dr K. Srinivas

There seems to have been a heated editorial meet earlier that evening. Because Andhra Jyothi got suckered into publishing a 'fake' report. And Srinivas is not holding back in sharing with me the huge lapse.

It was a Sunday. A report floating on social media - it wrapped the results of what claimed to be a poll survey in Andhra Pradesh. And it indicated that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by Chandrababu Naidu was climbing up in the ratings against his challenger, Jaganmohan Reddy. Now this result went against the buzz that was floating in that state - that Jaganmohan's party was drawing the most attention across the state.

The Delhi desk of Andhra Jyothi came across this piece of 'news' early on Sunday. That the so-called results were published on the letter-head of  CSDS-Lok Niti, a social science research institute based in Delhi made an impression on the newspaper's journalists. 

One of them tried to call the agency to confirm the 'news' but being a Sunday, could not complete what is the ABC of a newsperson. The desk seems to have had a chat with the newspaper's Hyderabad desk and since it was a lean Sunday team at work, the 'news' was not relayed to a senior editor.

The 'news' was filed from Delhi and front-paged.  The agency that was credited with the survey called the editor's office, saying it had not put out the results of any survey and that the letter-head circulating on social media had been 'faked'.

There were many red faces at Monday's editorial meeting. And to rub it in, a rival Telugu newspaper 'shamed' Andhra Jyothi for publishing fake news, hinting that the daily was trying to mop up support for the TDP.

"Technology has made us vulnerable," Srinivas tells me. "The character of news reporting and publishing has changed a lot and elections shows this up."

Srinivas wears the look and talks like an academic. Behind him are shelves stocked with books, his table loaded with books, magazines, newspapers and files. He takes me through the evolution of journalism since the 80s.  To emphasise the changing character of print journalism.

"I came into journalism when reports were sent and received on teleprinters. We had only two editions ( Hyderabad and Vijaywada). And we depended on two news agencies, UNI and PTI and if it ( news) was from the PTI, we trusted the news. Today, the character of journalism has changed."

Today, news flows from the 1200 mandals of Telangana and AP. "With smartphones and social media news travels thick and fast and the sources are many so credibility is at stake," Srinivas says.

Screen shot of Andhra Jyothi's website

24-hours television is also impacting print journalists. Elections generate not only live coverage of public meetings and rallies but controversies, allegations and colored gossip every hour and most channels put these out as quick as they can.

"Our journalists get excited with what comes on TV. We have to keep tempering them," says Srinivas.

What Srinivas does not elaborate on is the content of his group's own TV channel, which has been into controversies following sting operations and the highly pro-TDP stance that it takes; all of which is acknowledged by people across this state.

Clearly, 24-hour TV programming is heated up at elections time. And it is the biggest influencer on reportage by print journalists - the stringers, the reporters and the desk.