In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, billed by some as the world's largest democratic exercise, many are concerned that they do not have the necessary information to make the right decision. There is no trust in news overall, a India digital report by the Reuters Institute showed.
According to the report, many expressed concerns over disinformation (57%), hyper-partisan content (51%), and poor journalism (51%) prevalent in news today. With the future of news in India increasingly shifting to mobile-first and platform-dominated, anyone with a smartphone and access to Internet is capable of putting out content that can be passed off as “news”. Therein lies the problem. As the majority of the audience (68%) largely access news via “side-doors” such as search (32%) and social media (24%), rather than going directly to source of news (18%), they often end up consuming fake or inaccurate news.
As many as 55% were also worried about explicitly expressing their political views that are in conflict with the general opinion trending on social media sites. They are worried about how they might be perceived by their close ones (49%) and colleagues or acquaintances (50%). A lot of them were also worried that doing so could find them in trouble with the authorities or worse, the trolls. Since 2012, as many has 17 people have been arrested for posting material that was considered offensive or threatening to a politician, and several have been harassed by online trolls.
The report, however, only covered English speakers with Internet access. “The number of people accessing news via print and television will be higher for regional language news consumers ... though as mobile web use spreads we expect to see this change in the years ahead,” the report added.
WhatsApp is the biggest social media platform in the country with 82% of respondents using the private messaging app, while 75% of respondents use Facebook.
The report warned that this trend is likely to only increase in the coming years, and that Indian publishers reliance on advertising is putting them at risk.
Significantly, the survey also showed that a considerable number of people were willing to pay for online news. “Of our respondents who do not currently pay, 39% said they are at least 'somewhat likely' and 9% said that were 'very likely' to pay for online news in the future”.
The Reuters Institute said that the report was based on data from a survey of English-speaking, online news users in India. “Our respondents are generally more affluent, have higher levels of formal education, skews male, and are more likely to live in cities than the wider Indian population and our findings only concern our sample, and thus cannot be taken to be more broadly representative.”
