Handbook of Digital Journalism

The purpose of this chapter is to sketch the contours of digital journalism in the growing mediascape of South Asia. Drawing from the collective understanding across global scholarship, the chapter attempts to define digital journalism, its nature and trajectories post information technology revolution in the world. Looking through diverse frames of reference will aid in identifying various definitions and explanations of digital journalism with an endeavor to arrive at a few consensual conceptual descriptions. For the purpose, it is imperative to explore the theoretical foundations to foreground ‘what digital journalism means and includes’. Navigating the political, social and economic environment in which it operates, the chapter aims to provide understanding of the new models of news framing, media consumption and audience effects. Within the macrocosm of communication in the digital age, the author aims to establish digital journalism as a separate stream of media scholarship. Critical engagement with new media theories would help in describing the practices that exemplify it. Relevant theories in media, society and culture in web 2.0 will provide conceptual understanding of digital journalism, devoid of which, it may succumb to being just another emerging area of practice. Deepening the relationship of various types of digital journalism with old and new media will allow the discipline to find academic expansion it so deserves.

From a print-led news media in the second half of twentieth century in South Asia, the region had decidedly moved to an electronic media (television) led news media in the first two decades of twenty-first century. Interestingly, Nepal had seen a radio boom unlike the others in the region. In the Pre-pandemic years of the last decade, there has been cautious growth of digital divisions of the legacy media. However, the pandemic has leapfrogged digital news media in all the nations in this region, aided and abetted more by protests in some nations (Sri Lanka and Burma particularly). This process was also supported by the gradual bridging of digital divide and people’s changing media consumption habits. This chapter will explore the trajectory of digital news media, with mobile first option increasingly being the way to go. It will also explore the structural limitations inhibiting further growth and the nature and reasons of stunted revenues growth in digital news platforms, except a few honourable exceptions. It will conclude on the future trends and how a more enabling eco-system can give further growth to web-led news media.

The impact of internet on the economy witnessed the emergence of a new term ‘digital economy’ in the mid- 90s. It depicted how digital technology has affected manufacturing and consumption patterns. It also included how goods and services are marketed, traded and paid for. All areas of the economy that take advantage of technological advancements that transform marketplaces, business structures, and everyday operations are also incorporated. As media evolved, the term soon came to include the rise of new companies that focus on digital media as well as the creation of new technologies used in the digital industry. With this background, the chapter explores the digital media economy and the digital journalism start-ups in India that evolved in the last two decades. The author discusses the genesis, evolution, growth, development, founders and their vision, organisational structures, editorial policies, technological leaps forward, revenue and funding and business models of digital ventures in India.

Democracy, as a political system, protects civil liberties and the rights of citizens and people like no other approach. This is where journalism plays a vital role, by reporting incidents and events, creating verifiable information, shaping public opinion and trust, reflecting in the election of government and exerting pressure on them to perform. Within the South Asian regions in the past decades, access and reach to the internet, social media and other communication platforms have increased. Diverse geographical and linguistic masses characterise the region. Social media, where content is generated and shared by users, significantly impacted the overall political communication, public discourse, public policy and bilateral relations among countries in South Asia. With their rising popularity, they are certainly a force, giving rise to alternative content platforms. Innovative platforms like the Glance lock screen have changed the way millions of people access and consume news content, proving to be a disruptive force for the traditional model of media political economy. This chapter looks at the role of journalism in South Asian democracies, the flow and reach of politically relevant information, and presents a few best practices for getting it right for the future.

Role of digital journalism in public policy preparation framework is central as media provides critical and crucial insights on various issues. Since media coverage and analysis of public issues influence public policy framework, policymakers look forward to media inputs as the specific media frame highlights an issue in a larger canvass. It is found that the policymakers respond to the media coverage of public issues on the belief that the media broadly reflects the public opinion. The media salience of an issue to prepare a public policy is seen in the theory of agenda setting; the policymakers view the specific issue from the preparation of public policy. For instance in two issues—corruption in India and crime against women, the digital media combined with mainstream media highlighted the significant issues reflecting the public opinion and compelled the policymakers to come out with a public policy. Similarly, dissemination of fake news needs to be contained by a proper public policy in India on the lines of Singapore model. With the increasing use and utilisation of digital media by different segments of the population, the public policymakers in India need to prepare a public policy by engaging individuals, communities and the government in containing the spread of fake news which is harming the society. The present chapter discusses the significance of digital journalism in the preparation of public policy framework as digital journalism has influenced public policy in two issues in India—corruption in India and violence against women. Digital journalism inter alia digital platforms have played a key role in highlighting the public opinion while mobilising public support to these issues. If digital journalism combined with mainstream media can also influence the preparation of public policy framework in containing the spread of disinformation albeit fake news in the public domain, the digital journalism can attain its objective as a responsible player in societal issues.

The liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation of the market that marked the 1990s, set forth a chain of technological innovations leading to the emergence of the transnational conglomerates in the media industry. The senders, messages, medium and even the receivers are being consolidated and the journalistic and business models are blurring. This chapter looks at the evolution of these phenomena and the perspectives on journalism in the converged environment, its prospects in the converged media and the latest trend of ‘de-convergence’. The chapter includes a general understanding of the phenomenon of convergence, the converged media platforms, the emergence of social media as the converged space, examples of journalism in a converged environment, citizen participation, changing reporting techniques, supply chains and block chains, new regulations, the concept of de-convergence and its effect on journalism. It also includes interviews with working journalists to provide a first-hand experience to the reader and to understand the functioning of multimedia journalists in a converged environment.

The proliferation of the internet and the digitalisation of text, video and audio has given rise to digital content which is accessible to the users on mobile phones, tabs, laptops and television sets. This accessibility has blurred the lines between the private and public spheres in the larger network society. The traditional model of one-to-many communication has transformed into many-to-many communication, which has further altered the practice of journalism. The role of the journalists and the audience has changed significantly in this context. The processes of newsgathering, production and distribution have been digitised and the rise of social networking sites has reconfigured the role of journalists and journalistic organisations as gatekeepers. These news actors disseminate news via social media platforms. Desktop publishing, digital video cameras, video/text editing software and computerised graphics/animation have also made the news production processes relatively affordable. The transformation of news distribution and consumption practices shaped by interactivity has led audiences to become active participants in news consumption who also store, alter and share the news. This audience performativity, thus, is active and agentic. This transformed ecology of journalism practices has had a deep and profound impact on journalism education. This chapter aims to study the redefined paradigm of journalism education in Indian classrooms in the context of digital journalism practices over the last decade. The chapter will study the evolution of digital journalism curricula from a theoretical and praxis-based lens. It will also map the trajectory of pedagogical practices that have shaped the teaching of digital journalism in Indian classrooms. This would be done through a detailed analysis of curriculum sourced from the leading journalism schools in the country. The analysis will be complemented with insights from some personal conversations with journalism faculty members, students and working journalists. The chapter also aims to build a framework for future directions in teaching digital journalism in Indian classrooms through this study.

Mojo is yet to be firmly evolve as a subfield of journalism, in Sri Lanka. In mid-2018, Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) initiated the Mojo programme for young journalists to report issues often excluded from the mainstream media. Until 2020, SDJF trained at least 100 journalists on Mojo. Together with Centre for Media and Information Literacy (CMIL), SDJF produced approximately 120 news magazine programmes to cover the presidential election in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic. At least forty (40) mobile journalists, including 20 women, were involved in reporting through smartphones from various parts of Sri Lanka. Since then, at least ten local organisations and three international organisations have started to offer Mojo training to both journalists and future journalists. Within four years, it is estimated that at least 400 journalists have received training in mobile journalism. As a result of this trend, young women journalists are now able to produce stories on issues affecting marginalised communities and on other community issues often under-reported in mainstream media. Given the context, this chapter brings forth insights from a study that explored two research questions: to what extent the Mojo has advanced the journalistic career of young women in Sri Lanka (RQ1), and whether and how Mojo has influenced young women's narratives about marginalised communities in Sri Lanka (RQ2). Data were collected from the 20 women journalists. The study used qualitative—focus groups discussion and individual interviews and quantitative tools—surveys, to collect data. Follow-up interviews were also used for the purpose of methodological triangulation. The study concludes that the Mojo has a significant impact on women in terms of boosting their self-esteem, enabling them to produce stories about marginalised communities, bringing them closer to the communities they report issues that are often under-reported and enhancing their network.

There has been an ongoing debate among scholars across the world about the relevance of traditional standards of professional journalism—whether or not journalism on digital platforms needs a different set of ethical codes due to the platform’s unconventional characteristics, including, but not limited to, interactivity, hypertextuality, immediacy, multimedia use and global readership. Journalists and news media in developing countries like Nepal have been accused of employing arbitrary approaches, meaning they follow the traditional standards if that serve their purposes; otherwise, they break the tradition by unpublishing, altering or modifying the published content, and making post-publication corrections with or without public acknowledgment. This study, therefore, empirically assesses the performances of online news portals in Nepal, how, and to what extent, Nepali journalists working on various online news portals employ journalistic standards on digital platforms. This study may be beneficial to journalists across different countries to understand, compare and, if applicable, avoid the arbitrary practices of Nepali online media and journalists with regard to upholding professional standards of journalism on digital platforms.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is embracing digital media, leapfrogging over decades of isolation. Endowed with a rich legacy of oral traditions, minimal interest in print, social media has emerged as the preferred platform for news dissemination and consumption. Bhutan’s traditional media is in its infancy given that it has had a rather freshly minted democracy since 2007. Its five private newspapers struggle for survival, heavily dependent on government advertising and hand-outs, while the single television channel is owned by the government. The challenge of sustainability of privately owned newspapers has led to a perceptible decline in both the quality and the quantity of news, and high attrition among journalists. On the other hand, more than 72% of the 8 lakh Bhutanese access social media for their news, information and entertainment needs. As a result, newspapers piggyback on Facebook and to a lesser extent Twitter, to reach people. Blogging and use of tik tok are popular, even as people get a taste of citizen journalism. The government through its initial Media Baseline Study (MBS) in 2012 concluded that flourishing of newspapers was unviable. Alternatively, citizen journalism must be boosted with the help of bloggers and online content creators. Overt dependence on social media for information has however led to challenges of malinformation in the absence of gatekeeping. Low levels of media and information literacy have further compounded the problem. This chapter will analyse the existing media matrix in Bhutan and the challenges of sustainability. It will explore the factors contributing to the growth of digital media and its role in democracy.

In recent years, journalists have experimented with 4IR technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and some media organisations, including the BBC, CNN and The New York Times, have set up departments, particularly for its development. In addition to placing the audience in the heart of the action and enhancing reliability, the use of AR and VR for journalistic production calls for innovative skills, responsibilities to the viewers and distribution issues. In this chapter, we have focused on the current state of journalism in Bangladesh in the digital age. As a part of the presentation journalistic aspects and issues associated with using AR and VR in Bangalesh, recommendations for future research are also included.

The phenomenal impact of technology has prompted a new narratology in media content production including news. The continued affection of ethno cross-currents in conventional media is well-identified in the Western world and India as well. Concepts like cultural hierarchy, cultural hegemony and cultural distance are liberally used to refer to the never-ending ethnosubalterisation. The conflict between domineering and resisting sections of society is as old as civilisation. Cultural resistances are newsworthy, but also lead to what has been described as cultural politics. The ethnoequations were predicted to disappear in the corporate age of conditioned equity. However, it has not happened. The subtleties of ethnic relegation can be found in the contents produced by the national media. On the other, it is true that ethnoidentity has strong flavours of religiosity, language and cultural mores that attempt to amplify and strengthen the representational frame. The geographical and cultural segmentation in a multiethnic country like India is natural, but demands a balance of harmony. This is the real issue in digital media production. Overtly or covertly, the distantiation between us and them occurs even in digital media production, especially in news and entertainment. Again these are the facets of hegemony and otherisation. The individuals and their collectives have been contributing to a universal cultural disorder, further marginalising the already marginalised ethnic groups. The imposition of common universals of media production and also in news narration has not spared even the digital media, plausibly due to corporate mainstreaming. For a safe and sound ethnicryption, we have to move from the clichéd pluriversal values to a multiversal prism that reflects ethnic realities. The traditional parameters of objectivity and impartiality have been slowly replaced by advocacy and ideological tilt. More than these the power of corporatisation has encompassed the omnes—every individual and every sector. Added to this is the factor of institutional ethnography, because digital news is not bereft of ethnic affiliations. That makes the idea of cosmopolitanism in digital news production an object of analysis. This chapter intends analysing the character of digital news production as social production also along with the issue of cosmopolitanism which is a Western prescription as against its own ethnocentric practices in news production, digital and otherwise.

In its most conventional set-up, the news media could be seen as a proactive group of academia disseminating information to a wide range of audience. While in its traditional sense, this relationship was rather one-sided based on the parti-pris placing the audience in the role of an oblivious receiver; however, we now challenge this very arrangement and argue for it to be rather archaic in nature and not so relevant in current times. With mediums of broadcasting transcending television, radio and print media and finding their way into various social media platforms, the audience now no longer remains a mere passive recipient. As a result of platforms giving a chance to express, the audience is not shy to present their opinions, views, criticism and appreciation. Furthermore, the advent of the internet in the lives of the masses has made sure that the reach of the audience is almost at par to that of the editor. Like all disciplines, journalism in today’s era is shifting, evolving in ways to bridge the gap between the giver and the receiver wherein the roles of the two are no longer stagnant and often intertwined. The redefining of this status quo calls for a landmark change in the way journalism is carried out. Apart from gaining access and multiple perspectives on a range of topics, it is also a chance to capitalise on the already involved audience, by giving meaning and direction to their involvement in the interest of bettering one’s own style of journalism. Thus, the future of news looks promising in developing frameworks which involve the ever-eager audience in this new media landscape. Through the course of this chapter, we attempt at analysing and deconstructing the possibilities of engagement-driven integrated newsrooms in the twenty-first century, by developing an understanding of it in current times and reassessing audience engagement in digital newsrooms. The latter portions of the chapter would engage with the sourcing, production, assessment, distribution and conceiving, and engagement (SPADE) model and its relevance in modern newsrooms.

Technology has always been crucial in transforming journalism. The digital revolution is the latest one causing deeper and long-lasting impacts on the nature and practices of journalism. During the last decade, hundreds of digital-only news platforms have mushroomed all over India creating altogether a new independent space for journalism by challenging the dominance of legacy news media. This chapter explores this new trend with a focus on the content, audiences, technology and revenue sources of stand-alone digital news portals in the context of Jharkhand. Deeper insights gathered through interviews with digital entrepreneurs and journalists revealed that though evolved in a very haphazard manner, digital platforms present a new form of journalism based on a participatory and viewership-based content generation and revenue model. The mobile revolution has made its way to the remotest rural audiences who have enormous information needs and new emerging digital news platforms are catering to it. Despite the initial stage of financial instability, these digital platforms would eventually be able to generate more revenue by winning the trust of local advertisers in the near future proportionately to their capabilities of engagement with their audiences. And eventually, the issues related to credibility and quality of content would also be resolved.

Liberal democratic societies have taken to a huge shift with regards to media and have raised questions on the undermining of fourth estate by fifth estate. Fourth estate appears to be more and more losing out its strength to the fifth estate, starting right from choosing and formulating the breaking news. In light of the ferocious and mounting competition of live fever, the breaking news has a reverse flow today from the digital media to television and other mainstream media. There also is a shift, in the nature of breaking news from sudden happening, which had importance; to urgent news, which is more catchy, provocative, and engrossing. Usage of social media, the fifth estate in breaking news has become the practice to uncover news quickly. Hence, the patterns of breaking news production and consumption are an important part of the reversal in the making of news. Immediacy is the key reason behind the phenomenon. The use of search engines on social media to find keywords today leads to breaking news. The chapter covers the way news is gathered, distributed, and consumed. It further explores the reasons, challenges, and implications of the emergent phenomena. Various examples to show how social media posts have become, not only the breaking news but full stories in television debates and further in newspapers are cited and discussed. New patterns are definitely shaping the rapidly evolving news ecology. There is clearly a need to study the emerging patterns and designs of new developments in making of news.

With the conceptualisation of news values, episodic attempts have dotted the journalism studies paradigm since (Galtung and Ruge, Journal of International Peace Research 2:64–90, 1965) laid the formal foundation for news-selection criteria to answer the ‘deceptively-simple’ question of ‘what is news?’ Most seminal studies on news values had focussed on traditional journalism, attempting to study what becomes news and understand the factors influencing news prioritisation. In the internet age, this chapter examines the relevance of traditional news values and introduces taxonomies peculiar to the digital space. By doing that, this chapter attempts to associate the assorted forms and presentation styles of digital news with the journalistic values of news prioritisation and identify newer dimensions to this concept contributed by the digital structural and functional fabrics and facets of online news. A selection of Asian news websites is quantitatively content analysed to examine what makes (top) news and secures the top-tier slots of their homepages. Finally, news values are restated, redefined and prioritised based on the analysis. Study results indicate the emergence of visuality, share ability, sociability and progression as factors influencing digital news selection, apart from the traditional-materialistic news values. Also, the analyses indicate that certain news beats and topics are prioritised for the prime slots.

In the age of media convergence, it is a tedious task to understand the consumption of news. It involves the habitual digital practices of the user along with news media but most importantly the mode of consumption. The migration of news consumers from the conventional mode of news consumption to the digital space has diversely affected and enhanced the way in which news content is distributed. The rapid growth of technology has paved the way to have multiple options for digital news consumption. This chapter explores the technologies and the new media involved in news consumption in the digital era. Digital practices and the patterns involving the choice of technology have been studied.

Social media has become an integral part of our lives today. The number of social media platforms and their users is growing rapidly in South Asia. It has provided new opportunities and thrown new challenges for media organisations and journalists. The wealth of information posted on social media is being used by journalists in diverse ways like new breaking, beat monitoring, approaching leaders and experts, and adding flavour to their stories. However, there are formidable challenges too, including information overload, accuracy, credibility and impartiality of both the content and news source. Some useful tools are also available to help journalists in accessing, sorting and analysing useful information. This chapter attempts to throw light on the tools and techniques to source news effectively from social media, the risks involved and the filters that need to be applied to pick the real and verified news from the immense pool of data uploaded on social media platforms and updated every moment.

The present chapter focuses on the art of web searching. Every online information should fulfil the criterion of 5 Cs—current, concise, concrete, clean and contextual. However, this seems to be a big challenge in the present era of information explosion. The vast networks have unimaginable silos of information. People have been made to believe (albeit falsely) that the internet is the vast repository of the ‘quality information’ which is easily accessible through a simple search. However, this is not the case. There are common and specific search operators and commands for effective web searching on various websites. The present chapter outlines many free resources available to web surfers in order to fetch relevant search results compatible with 5 Cs model. The effective web searching techniques by using various tools and techniques can extend a helping hand to the netizens and to sift the ‘information’ from the ‘noise’.

Historically, countries have used mass media to propagate their version during a war or a conflict. Often its layered with varied types of information or disinformation, all targeted to keep up with audience in own country, the enemy country and also opinion makers in other countries. Technological developments since the turn of the millennium have had a greater impact on the dissemination of information than ever before. The digital medium fuelled by billions of smartphone users having 4G connectivity is the reality which most countries and militaries face. It’s an information boom, a dangerous concoction where sifting between lies and truth is tough. Any individual in any country can propel a narrative. The diminishing control of governments over this content is the new facet of war. A digitally connected world of websites, coupled with social media applications that bring up content based on the past browsing history of an individual has allowed for targeted information spread. Smartphone-based social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or WhatsApp provide a ready-made 24 × 7 audience in war or conflict. Digital medium provides almost live coverage of war, the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict is yet another example. In the past, there have been similar events. The killing of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad Pakistan was updated live on Twitter by a local citizen living close. The India-Pak Skirmish in February 2019, the India-China clash in June 2020, or the Israel-Gaza strip missile firing (2021) have seen information and disinformation being spread through digital medium. In military strategy, social media and its use is defined as ‘information warfare’. Satellite images sourced from private operators, live video streams, regular updates and opinions are posted from all over the world. Rise in digital medium means a reduction in the narrative-setting capacity of the government—which, during the era of radio or televised broadcast, sent out a sanitised version. Some 300 years ago newspapers were the first printed means of mass communication to spread information. The first photographs of war date back to 1855 during the Crimean War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Radio broadcast formed the crux of opinion, information and disinformation during the twentieth century. During the World War II (1939–1945) Allies led by USA, UK, Russia, etc., used it and so did the Axis powers led by Germans. In Asia, India, China, Pakistan and Vietnam have used it too. Advent of communication satellites and cable TV meant the US-Vietnam War (1954–75) was the first televised war in the USA. By the time the first Gulf War occurred in 1991 cable TV had spread to third-world countries, allowing the setting up of a narrative as videos were beamed live.

New media plays a pivotal role in disseminating health information. This was apparent during the outbreak of Covid-19 when traditional media moved to the backstage it was new media which led to creating awareness among the public. This study examines the media frames used by the journalists in the news portals ‘in constructing news about the pandemic, the plight of the people and the parameter used by the government to control the outbreak’. In this study, the news articles about Covid-19 published on the news portals from March 2020, March 2021 and March 2022, immediately after the outbreak, middle of the outbreak and at the time of decline were analysed and identified the presence of six public health pandemic frames: consequence, uncertainty, action, reassurance, conflict and new evidence formulated by Shih, Wijaya and Brossard. When media frames were reconnoiter, the persistent pattern adopted in the news portals was recognised. The concept of Michel Foucault’s ‘Media Gaze’ was adopted to analyse the public health pandemic frames.

Digital journalism defined primarily as news produced for a digital environment (Deuze & Witschge, Deuze and Witschge, Journalism 19:165–181, 2018) has resulted in coverage of multiple innovations, entrepreneurship, new practices and success stories of small revolutions that shape the changing rural landscape. With specific case studies from the government, corporate, NGOs and specialised news agencies in rural India, this chapter traces how rural reporting in recent years has grown and contributed to the country’s development. Based on secondary data analysis and study of archives of digital media portals dedicated to rural reporting, it highlight the efforts put by government and businesses under corporate social responsibility (CSR) foundations and the work of some agencies like 101 reporters, Gaon Connection and PARI (People’s Archive of Rural India) who have carved a niche in rural reporting in India.

This chapter discussed how availability of detailed and instant data about content consumption has changed the way news is selected, written and presented. The chapter introduces the concept of web analytics, how it is decoded and used for content creation. The chapter focuses on journalistic practices in India, as experienced by digital journalists working for several digital news platforms. The chapter discusses the need for and use of audience data, skillset required of digital journalists, importance of multi-media story telling etc.

Digital journalism has changed journalism not just in form, but also in content to the extent that some researchers say, forced media to ‘publish information incompatible with the public interest’. The affordances of digital journalism—instantaneity, audience participation, user empowerment, user-generated content, richness and depth of content—have all contributed to this change and have resulted in digital journalism becoming a double-edged sword. Digital journalism has also emerged in a variety of forms. Legacy media has gone online (both on websites and social media); digital only websites (NewsMinute, Quint, Newslaundry and so on) have emerged; opinion spaces that could be from journalists and non-journalists (blogs) have proliferated, aggregators and syndicators for news, and for long form (InShorts, DailyHunt and Medium and Substack, respectively) have become the flavor of the day. There is the business model to contend with, too. Journalism has ranged from mostly free to completely behind the paywall, with various levels in between (say, Indian Express, The Ken and the Times of India). There is also the dilemma of user-generated content and the battle with the prosumer (everyone is a journalist/producer while at the same time being a consumer) on social media. At the same time, there is the wonderful possibility of the long form—the length that might lead to depth which would include other mediums like video, audio, photos, infographics and maps.

From Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabytes and now to Zettabyte—the data have grown so enormous and large today that no one can tackle it using conventional data processing techniques. To describe the stream of such a vast wave of data generation, new terms like ‘zettabyte’ have to be created. And this was made feasible by the world's expanding ease of access to the internet. Today, the internet is used by billions of individuals who engage in a variety of online activities that produce vast amounts of fresh data. It is for this reason that it is now referred to as ‘Big Data’ which has become the game-changer in every field including digital journalism.

Data-driven journalism is the future whereas visualisation is the key for effective storytelling. As the conventional definition of journalism blended digitally with a great pace over the period of time; so, the Journalists need to be data-savvy. It is necessary on this hand to extend in learning data driven reporting and story writing with effective visualisation techniques. Data driven journalism and visualisation is spanning loops between number experts and ‘word’-smiths. This is an attempt in order to understand the overview of the significance of records analysis and visualisation in various environments, consisting of mind mapping and storyboarding. This study has tried to identify the key strength lies in the variety of choices that convey personal reports to the issue. While this chapter incorporates many snapshots, it would advantage for the readers from crucial wondering questions, conclusions or problems to use tools and the art of storyboarding which is a key equipment for data driven storytelling and visualisation. This chapter covers various case studies and examples. It is lighter on the tangible skills, details, and complexities that can be applied to the projects the students and scholars of media and communication would encounter.

Transmedia storytelling is a technique in which a single story or story experience is conveyed across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. It allows for a more immersive and interactive experience for the audience, as they can choose how they want to consume the story and engage with it on a deeper level. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two technologies that have greatly enhanced transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences. VR transports the user into a fully digital, immersive environment, while AR overlays digital information onto the real world. Both technologies have the ability to create highly realistic and interactive experiences, making them ideal for transmedia storytelling. For example, a VR film might allow the viewer to choose their own path through a story and interact with the environment and characters in ways that traditional film cannot offer. An AR game might allow players to experience the story world in their everyday environment, using their smartphone or other AR device to see and interact with the story elements. Transmedia storytelling using VR and AR allows for a more engaging and personal experience for the audience, as they are able to interact with the story in a way that feels real and meaningful. This can lead to a deeper connection with the story and its characters, and a more memorable and impactful experience overall.

Gamification is the use of game-like mechanics in non-game contexts, such as news organisations. By applying these principles, news organisations can encourage more engagement with their content. Gamification of news does not aim to produce a full-fledged game, but rather to incorporate game aspects into digital interfaces that aim to combine news and games in new interactive storytelling forms that use game mechanics as a distinguishing characteristic. The gamified layer influences human–computer interaction, and the playful logic focuses on the meaning and goals of the interface and system from the user's perspective. When applied to journalism, the playful layer aims to create a story that empowers and informs audiences by producing a user experience that engages consumers with news and broadens their knowledge. On the commercial front, it aims to fulfil business logic, both from a journalism and gamification standpoint, with the goal of increasing the number of consumers, amplifying their news intake, creating a habit of news consumption and driving new and stable revenue streams. The chapter addresses the opportunities in gamification of journalism which is grounded in audience engagement and active participation creating a shift towards a more competitive environment. However, looking at the challenges that this new category of infotainment brings.

In 2022, Dailyhunt, a mobile news-aggregating mobile app achieved unicorn status, joining another app Inshorts in the list as the leading news aggregator in India. While technology firms appluad this shift, legacy media raised its user-friendly nature over news authenticity. This prompts questions about the evolving nature of news curation and repurposing strategies. Why are these mobile-only internet-first news applications gaining popularity in South Asia, including India? While such mobile applications are on the rise, there is also a concern about older and more conventional news producers losing ground. This anxiety is perhaps symptomatic of the development of several start-ups in the space of digital journalism. As the diverse legacy news media are compromised by their weak professional ethics, conflict of interest and short-term profits, this chapter explores through interviews of personnel/news curators working with these firms to understand what goes into curating the content for these apps. This chapter also examines how digital journalism start-ups, especially internet-first news aggregators in South Asia, were built on the scope afforded by the internet growth and the upsurge in mobile usage. It further explores the strategies used to create innovative news for smartphones, particularly in India, looking at the success of ‘Dailyhunt’ and ‘In-shorts apps’. This chapter intends to navigate the other economic, professional, political and proprietary-related issues that will be used as interlocutors in the larger discourse it hopes to fathom.

The computerised audio recordings started gaining commercial acceptability during the late 80s and the emergence of CDs and VCDs had revolutionised the way we preserve audio recordings. Slowly not only storing, but also recording and editing of news stories got the approval of journalists. Broadcasting of bytes became a near normal for all radio channels. Loss of sound quality in repeated ‘dubbings’ became a thing of the past. When ‘Apple’ introduced Ipods in early 2006, playing back and listening to good music and sound through those palm-friendly gadget became a status symbol. The word podcast is derived from a combination of two words, iPod and Broadcast. When the term was coined, most people were using Apples iPod to listen to podcasts. So when Ben Hammersley suggested the word podcasting to describe the new method of delivering content the term stuck. ( https://podcasthero.com › what-is-a-podcast). Today every major newspaper or an electronic media organisation adapted the concept of podcasting and is widely being cross-channel advertised. It has become a million-dollar industry. We need to design and develop courses in podcast journalism and with developments in 5G, digital radio such as DRM, DAB, HD radio, and the concept of visual radio catching up, the future journalists and media educators need a thorough training on podcasting—a field which was given a lacklustre treatment so far. Visual podcasting a new term coined by the author is adapted properly by the media.

This chapter Blogging as Narratives introduces the concept and the importance of the narrative. Blogging presents an alternate view in the way how it provided a participatory culture for the user to not only provide him a space to create content but also a medium that provided to distribute content. This has provided a space for retrospection, representation and diffusion and most importantly, the evolution of communication. This paper discusses the growth from the web and the ways that blogs transformed and expanded over a period of time. From being an online journal where an individual, group, or organisation presents a record of activities, thoughts, or beliefs, this chapter also studies the change in the role of the gatekeeper role of the journalist to the power provided to the common citizen. It will help us to understand blogging and its contributions in digital journalism, and how blogging can be helpful in communicating one’s thoughts and ideas. With major news/media industries in India using blogs as exclusive content for multiple avenues of interactivity, blogs have remained a constant while changing in the ever-evolving online world.

The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown, powered by excessive mobile usage, resulted in a worldwide surge in pandemic memes. A populist form of humour-based communication, internet memes trigger sensitive social, cultural, economic and political discourses on social media. The relevance of memes in online communication is undeniable given their high digital intractability, virality and mass appeal. As a result, the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent events, as well as the creation of public narratives about the pandemic using the power of digital media, constitute an intriguing case in digital journalism. From an Indian perspective, this chapter investigated the function of memes in online communication and digital journalism during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Several recurring themes in the COVID-19 memes were analysed to map out the perception of life during the pandemic and the pandemic itself in popular memory on the Indian digital space. Using the thematic framework by Braun and Clarke, (2006), the scope of COVID-19 memes as popular artefacts of digital journalism in India was explored.

Open-source journalism or open data journalism is a method of reporting that utilises publicly available data to enhance reports. To make a report conform to facts, journalists must rely on information—via private or internal sources—which otherwise would be hard to source. But in the age of open data and online platforms, reporters can use multiple avenues to look for information that can be used as evidence in their work. For instance, the information available via advanced Google searches, archives, annual reports, open data, or self-disclosed information. With the breakthrough of big data, outlets like BBC, Bellingcat, New York Times have been utilising this reporting style to backup evidence standards. These outlets have used and reported on issues related to human rights violations in South Asia on countries such as Myanmar and China. How they utilise data is something that South Asian media is still grasping. As we move towards this new breed of reporting, it's important to analyse how to best use this information for reporting accuracy and maintaining the privacy standards. It's essential to understand what information can be used for reporting while respecting the privacy standards online. With no concept of ‘gatekeepers’ on the internet it's important to understand the difference between false and real evidence. Online platforms and databases harbour all sorts of information—some of which many a times could be private. Any research based on data, that has no clarity on where it was sourced from, could potentially backfire. In short covering leaks or sensitive data could lead to more questions than answers. In this chapter, we will learn what open-source journalism means, what tools we can use, and some examples and things to be mindful of while using this method.

The news media landscape is evolving worldwide, thanks to various factors, such as market interventions, the changing political economy, integration of emerging communication technologies and the like. The economic and regulatory pressures on news media are becoming more visible in contemporary times with a majority of journalism organisations shifting from public service models to market models (Livingstone, & Lunt, 1994). Indian journalism, particularly, is witnessing its best times in terms of the vastness of viewership and readership and is also going through its worst phase with the ethical foundations plummeting drastically and with advertising dominating everything (Lloyd, 2013). In the World Press Freedom Index 2021, India ranked 142 out of 180 countries surveyed as compared to 2002 when India ranked 80 out of 139 countries (Gopalakrishnan, 2018, April 26). Indian journalists say they feel intimidated, ostracised if they are critical of political parties and policies. U.S. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-politics-media-analysis-idUSKBN1HX1F4 ). These developments are bound to affect the nature of duties journalists perform in their newsrooms some of which may include losing their critical voices. This chapter intends to analyse Indian journalists’ use of social media and the relational gratification that they draw from their direct public engagement vis-à-vis their functions in the newsrooms. It will also examine the identities they form for themselves through their social media usage and the impact of such engagements in the virtual, as well as physical, world in the light of the virality of their social media posts. Methodologically, the article builds on the formal and informal interactions with select journalists and reviews of their social media posts along with the subsequent user engagement with these posts.

The Covid pandemic affected three major processes of communications: manufacturing and dissemination of news; new patterns of news and media consumption by consumers; and paradigm shift in the construction and decoding of new social realities. The influence of the internet, digital and social media have redefined our ways of entertainment, bonding and social engagements. It has led to the collapse of the traditional filters that shaped our consciousness and presented us with new windows of comprehending realities. Knowledge and information sharing have become far more democratic, and there is an unwritten consensus on free-flow of exchange of ideas and opinion. The chapter explores the emergence of new media consumption patterns and new social realities in digital India.

The post-pandemic times witnessed a spurt in digitalisation in the whole of South Asia. Augmented digitalisation has resulted in disrupting almost all facets of human life there. In India, everything kickstarted in 1995 when the telecommunications company VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) unravelled the first internet service in India—in the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata. Even in the digital era, social media is in a transitional stage. The global social mediascape is overwhelmed by wikis, blogs, micro-blogs, social networking sites, instant messaging, podcasts, widgets etc. The whole ambiance is beset with bits, bytes, lights and sounds of media. Manual Castells called this social media community a ‘networked society’. Social Media users in India reached 448 million as per statistics in January 2021. In China this comes to 999.95 million in 2021 as compared to US with 295.48 million. China, the country with the biggest population is also the largest global social media market ahead of India which comes second. In this cyber era, social media pervades all facets of human life. Nonetheless, the digital divide has widened between the information-haves and have-nots. Truly, societal development of a country is determined by internet penetration, mobile phone subscriptions, press freedom enjoyed by journalists, news organisations and citizens of a country. High income countries exhibit greater penetration of digital technology as compared to less developed countries. The torrential winds of industrialisation, commoditisation, monopolisation, corporatisation and market and quality. While legacy media produces linear content, social media reverberates with multi-vocality and interactivity.

Mobile journalism is a participatory and democratic style of journalism that has grown in popularity over the past few years. A professional journalist composes, records, edits and publishes news articles on mobile devices with extensive multimedia capabilities. It is a crucial medium for inventive and experimental journalistic endeavours, and journalists can employ current multimedia technologies to get the required impact. Mobile phones make it feasible for news programmes and media to reach an audience that was previously inaccessible via print newspapers and other means. Most of the people who answered pointed out how easy it is to stay in touch with family and friends and how useful mobile phones are for getting medical help and doctor advice. Yet, a lack of understanding and enthusiasm for journalistic projects has led to a decline in the prevalence of mobile journalism and a rise in incarceration. This chapter addresses the rising popularity, challenges and status of mobile journalism to a great extent in West Bengal, India.

The current media model is failing to deliver the full promise of democracy. As it focuses on the pre-occupations of urban society, rural India is excluded and marginalised. This has adverse effects particularly on Adivasi communities who speak the Gondi language in the forests of central and eastern India. Facing isolation from the state, and rarely addressed by mainstream media, they have little agency in a long-running conflict driven by Maoists. This chapter looks at an experiment in participatory citizen journalism in the forest area by CGnet Swara, employing the innovative use of mobile phones to develop a different media model.

Community media are grassroots-media that works in service of, for, about and by a community. Alternatively, it could comprise unconventional, oppositional, participatory and collaborative media practices that have been developed in the journalistic context of ‘community media’. While most community media are centred in one geographical area thereby limiting its spread, it is digital journalism that brings the community together irrespective of the place. From disaster to pandemic, from cultural interchange to political upheaval, often communities now rely on information that is more accessible and digitalised. Digital media has been extremely crucial in archiving the art, literature and historical significance of a community. At the same time digital journalism acts as a binding force that keeps both the internal and diaspora community connected. Digital journalism provides a foreground for getting into a diverse and sustainable communication. Instances of uncovering lost heritage, preserving endangered languages and providing an international voice against community apartheid and raising funds for community crises are not few and far in between. Compiling together such stories of digital journalism intervention in community development would be extremely crucial to understand the strengths and combating the challenges in a global scenario.

Digital media has ushered in two things which made it highly popular- interactivity and immediacy. The subaltern spaces in Indian digital platforms are interactive by nature and invoke opinions from across the community. Media is regarded as the fourth pillar as it enables the citizens to participate in the democratic process in an active and responsible manner. Comparing the two, digital media is far more vocal, interactive and representative than the traditional media. It provides space to the subaltern in various ways due to its interactive nature. In the mass mediated world, the subaltern had limited space for voicing out whereas digital media provides an alternative space to share grievances, opinion, thoughts which may not be possible in the mainstream media due to its biases and structural limitations. In the digital world of news and information, there are dedicated pages on the marginalised communities like Dalits, Scheduled Tribes, LGBTQ, religious minorities, linguistic minorities with relevant and resonant content. This chapter describes the nature and impact of such blogs, social media pages, alternative news platforms that focus on the subaltern to facilitate the marginalised. As the impact of digital platform on the people from the marginalised communities in our country grows, a critical look is required. In this respect, the chapter will shed light upon the subaltern spaces in the digital media to establish sub altern digital journalism in South Asia.

India is believed to be a media-rich poor country. Here, the basic infrastructure required to practise citizen journalism—electricity, computers, smartphones, internet services—is available for a small segment of the population. However, several indications suggest that citizen journalism is beginning to take root in the country and realise its potential. The rise of citizen journalism in India is linked to the notion of active citizenship and the need to strengthen democratic governance. In fact, citizen journalism derives its legitimacy from Article 19(i)(a) of the Indian Constitution, that guarantees freedom of expression for every citizen, which includes right to publish news and comment on public affairs, and right to receive information. Mahatma Gandhi writes in Young India that democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all. In today’s context, information is the biggest tool, while the means to share it is the biggest power. The roots of citizen journalism lie in the self-printed pamphlets that used to be distributed on the streetside. Citizen journalism has come a long way since then. Today citizen journalism is not just practised by amateurs, but by professional news outlets as well that provide a platform to ordinary people so as to help them share their issues. The current chapter discusses how citizen journalism has evolved over the years in India and what are going to be the future perspectives.

Digital communities around social media are increasingly becoming vibrant, impactful and inevitable in daily life, with over a billion users regularly engaging within groups. The business and communication centred around mega influencers is now making transitions to smaller and more authentic communities. Sharing, connecting and listening have become more important and indispensable in digital-oriented social media platforms, and the media has evolved and elevated into a medium that is user based, user centric and user oriented. User response in these platforms plays a significant role in crisis communication, socio-political agenda setting, strategic business decisions, product developments, etc. Social listening is a key trend for organisations and brands that partner wisely with creators through social media channels, to connect with audiences, gather insights, earn their trust, make strategic decisions and gain cultural capital. The concept includes social media monitoring, a quantitative component that deals with collecting data, counting likes, shares, tweets, retweets, brand mentions, etc., thus measuring what has already happened in terms of numbers. Social listening is a qualitative component, that deals with finding mentions and discussions linked to a topic or brand, analyse them to draw insights from online conversations, apply them as strategy and find out opportunities to act. It looks ahead of the numbers to reflect on the online mood behind the data. This is part of social media sentiment. Real-time monitoring makes it an incredible online research. This chapter elaborates on social media platforms, monitoring and listening with tools and worksheets.

Media literacy’s conceptualisations have largely been Western. Media literacy can be reimagined to adopt a community awareness role, especially in societies where access to digital discourse is compounded by social hierarchies. Media literacy endeavours to help media audiences detect misinformation from media and non-media sources and understand the multiplicity of media-disseminated realities. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic of the early 2020s accelerated the use of virtual interfaces in media literacy training programmes for communities. Learners are asked to scour the information landscape to verify, trust available texts on mainstream media, and in general consume and disseminate responsibly. ‘Mainstream’ media thrives on the virality of digital discourse. This fluid discursive interface between social media and mainstream media is problematic for media literacy’s efforts in creating rubrics users can follow in sifting information from misinformation. Digital discourse can appropriate what the mainstream news media may leave in visibilised: For example, one of the refrains among politically active WhatsApp groups that discredit mainstream media is that they hide truths and over represent minorities, or the converse. These are issues of absence, invisibility and unavailability of texts and communities. This chapter identifies media literacy’s limitations in addressing these issues. It debates whether media literacy can resolve these contradictions between digital and mainstream media. A model that can be further developed into an operational framework is warranted, and this chapter offers one.

Journalism, once a highly specialised field built on the concept of the ‘journalistic truth’, the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts, has become highly sophisticated, technology and data-driven. With increasing corporatisation of media, consolidation of ownership, and backward and forward linkages, it is becoming increasingly commercial and emerging as one of the most competitive and high-risk professions in the world. It is predominantly a two-step process: discovering news and reporting it. In recent years, especially post Covid-19, the majority of the news organisations in the South Asian region have attempted to pivot to a digital business model, leading to a phase of hyper-competition where journalists are under tremendous pressure to not just bring in quick news reports but also drive traffic and engagement to websites, apps and portals. The era of pins, pokes, likes, shares and favourites also has an impact of the role of the journalist, editor, media owners. This pressure has led to news reports which are quick and sensational, especially where this is a lack of a clear ethical editorial board and no checks and balances. The obsession for sensation, in addition to editorial influence of the big advertisers, has led to an era of misinformation, disinformation and fake news, and the latter being an oxymoron as ‘news’ meant to be fact-based, objective, verifiable information. It is more critical than ever for the media in South Asian countries to develop rigourous norms for engaging with, creating and sharing information while empowering their audiences to do the same. For the media to be the fourth pillar of democracy, journalists have to be doubly sure about their sources, allowing their audiences to make their own assessment of the information. The digital space has given people both voice and agency with each user now having a significant opportunity to influence others without the gatekeepers. In this context, it has become more important than ever to ‘get it right’, ‘it’ including the 4 Cs—context, content, criticism and conversations. This chapter looks at the current state of journalism in the digital space, the mis/disinformation challenge and various factors that govern news with the aim of providing recommendations for course correction, enhancing and building digital trust.

Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everybody has the right to expression including freedom to hold opinions without interference and freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Democratic countries have incorporated this right in their constitutional and legal framework but with reasonable restrictions. Like any other media platform, internet-based digital media also enjoys freedom of expression but with too many regulations prescribing multiple levels of restrictions/limitations not only within the four walls of a country but with international ramifications. When an individual is exercising her/his right to speech and expression on any digital platform, laws like Contempt of Court [covered in Indian Constitution under Article 19(2) and an Act of Parliament], Defamation [covered in India under criminal law as also in Indian Constitution], decency and morality [covered in Indian Constitution under Article 19(2) and various provisions of Indian Penal Code] come handy in the hands of the state. Sedition as a criminal law in India, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia and a handful of countries also curbs freedom of expression on digital platforms. Besides the laws of general application, South Asian countries have framed laws specific to information technology covering the entire gamut of software and applications, digital media and social media, internet service providing companies and content generators, cyber-crime and electronic commerce, pornography and voyeurism. Amendments and additions keep happening in these laws from time to time. For instance, Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code/Rules (2021) have been added in Indian Information Technology Act.

Marshall McLuhan proposed that technological changes impact society. Digital media has enabled journalists to reach their audiences instantly with the news. Journalists need more time to decide what to report and how to present it. Ethics is the belief about what is morally correct or acceptable. Traditionally, newspaper reporters devised moral codes to help them in their professional decision-making. There emerged an almost universal set of principles that guided journalists in their profession. Television journalists were compelled to draw up a code of ethics to ward off criticism about sensationalism. Digital media has blurred the distinction between professional and citizen journalists. Twitter allows the man in the street to break the news as it happens. Privacy and copyright are just two of the significant issues that digital journalists must deal with. Digital media throws up these challenges, and this chapter aims to answer them. Is it acceptable to extend the ethical standards of old media to the digital space, or do we need a new set of ethics to guide digital journalists? New principles and ethical standards are being framed to tackle the unique challenges of digital news media.

Workplace practices for journalists involve the collection or generation, processing, storing and sharing of data during the lifecycle of any news story. Today’s digital workplaces generate reams of data which are normally stored in a digital format on various platforms and devices by a journalist and media organisations. This digital data can be scraped programmatically from websites, apps, intranet, messaging applications and social media accounts by motivated individuals, organisations or state/non-state actors and agencies. New media has given tremendous power to third-party data brokers to collect myriad personal and non-personal data without the concept of ‘owner consent’ and this data available to threat actors can not only create a 360-degree profile of a journalist but can also put the journalist of today in grave bodily harm and/or financial and reputational loss. As digital engagement in workplaces increases and as convergence of personal and professional speeds up, it is important for a journalist in a digital data field world to understand how the new media technology works and how to engage with it responsibly. This chapter discusses the various facets of the new media world and the generation, collection, processing and sharing of digital data along with the various threats and threat actors a journalist may face during the course of his or her work. The chapter also discusses some best digital security practices and how to avoid the obvious pitfalls during the process of constructing a story.

In the digital world, every profession has seen a massive transformation in terms of working mechanisms, approaches to the problem, dealing with prospects, moving forward to conceptualising the solution and so on. Likewise, the media field has also seen a massive transformation. The working pattern and the types of problems employees face also become a significant threat to many media professionals, especially journalists. The threat to journalists is a significant hindrance today to the younger generation, and journalism has become one of the dangerous professions, citing the transformation and risks involved. In many countries, especially in South Asia, journalists face surveillance, legislation, threats, violence, conflicts, workplace harassment, intimidation, impersonation, forced detention, kidnapping and killing, which affect their work patterns and result in a lack of free speech and press freedom. Many countries have faced allegations dealing with journalist threats in the last 25 years. Especially women journalists today face various consequences inside and outside the organisation when they are physically and emotionally at work. The war and conflict zone reporting also burdens the journalists, who must undergo safety and security training to mitigate the risks. Digital surveillance, safety and security concerns for journalists are increasing internally and externally. Hence, many organisations are training their journalists to secure them from risks by assessing complications and processes involved in their duty. The high increase in insecurities and threats has become a potential area to study. This study will assess journalist’s risks and threats in South Asian countries. The level of media freedom, the measures taken by the media organisations/government to manage risk, journalist’s current situation, work culture, protection level in different countries, and different types of risks (physical, psychological, financial, digital, gender-specific, public and legal) evaluated through secondary data. It will help us to understand and evaluate the current situation by comparing different countries in South Asia. The information presented in this research will be helpful for policymaking to secure the journalists from threats.

The devastating Covid-19 pandemic destroyed lives and livelihoods, closed down international borders and induced domestic lockdowns. But, it forced the human race to rethink and recalibrate on every aspect of life. Several lessons learnt through this period of collective human suffering will continue to impact strategic, social to economic decisions moving forward. As the world braces up to face the real financial impact of the pandemic with fears of recession and slowdowns looming, work from home to other cost-cutting practices across industries have become common place. As a reflection of society, these trends will prominently show in the media and news industry too which had to experiment massively with technology to tell stories and report amid catastrophic covid waves and severe lockdowns. Over the past few years, MoJo or mobile journalism has made it easier and cheaper to report on developing news and tell stories. It became the perfect tool to help the mushrooming digital platforms create content with small young teams. MoJo also became the need of the hour for journalists on the ground covering the Covid pandemic worldwide. But, the risks involved are real when you operate as a one person team on the ground under high-pressure situations. The chapter will explore the challenges of mobile journalism as well as key risks involved for online platforms today in these polarising times. It will additionally seek to look into the fundamental question—whether digital journalism has democratised the newsroom or diluted the quality of traditional journalism. Laced with anecdotal memories from the author’s travels and ground reportage of two decades, the chapter seeks to give a practical view of the transition of traditional newsrooms, digital challenges today as well as some useful on ground tips to decode MoJo.