Countering fake news | With N. Ram, Sreenivasan Jain, Pratik Sinha | The Hindu Lit Fest 2024

How do you counter the Hindutva ecosystem where the common well is being poisoned by disinformation campaigns and bogus claims, which are impacting lives? A panel of journalists comprising Sreenivasan Jain, N. Ram and Pratik Sinha discussed the issue threadbare in a conversation moderated by Ziya Us Salam at a session titled, “A Viral World: Countering Fake News”, at The Hindu Lit Fest 2024.
In Mr. Jain’s new book, Love Jihad and Other Fictions, co-authored with Mariyam Alavi and Supriya Sharma, the journalists picked the most virulent examples of fake propaganda, including love jihad and population jihad, and debunked the theories with data, on-ground research and investigation.
The problem, said Mr. Jain, is that these theories are being platformed at the highest level, by elected representatives. Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Alt News, who had also co-authored a book, India Misinformed, The True Story in 2019, said before the 2019 election, there was some amount of criticality, which is no longer the case. He said the issue of disinformation is many-layered, “it’s both political and cultural.”
Mr. Ram, Director, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited, said there are two aspects to countering fake news, “and one is to safeguard your own media organisation from the invasion of disinformation and misinformation.” He said disinformation is deliberate, motivated and toxic news is weaponised and scaled up on social media platforms, while misinformation is not intentional; reporting and editing failures can be easily corrected. But the bigger challenge, he said, is how to combat the disinformation spread on bigger platforms like Meta, Google, or even X (formerly Twitter).
Read more: www.thehindu.c...
Thank you for watching our video!
You can subscribe to our channel here: bit.ly/3c8Adi6
Visit www.thehindu.com/ for the latest updates, analysis, opinions, and more.
You can also download our apps:
Android: bit.ly/3nboBEi
iOs: apple.co/3EDCwt4
The Hindu is committed to keeping you up-to-date with information on the developments in India and the world. We promise to deliver quality journalism that stays away from vested interest and political propaganda. You can support us by subscribing to our digital offerings here: bit.ly/3emywiz
Follow us:
Twitter: / the_hindu
Instagram: / the_hindu
#thehindu #litfest #fakenews

[@vijayakrishna4632]

That was really nailing the notorious corrupt family run DMK State Govt. SRINIVASAN was right to point out this Thatha, Patti, Appa, kolende, pers kolende.

[@adityabanerjee7145]

Only by reporting and discussing Love Jihad you reduce and prevent Love Jihad

[@pstudioz8835]

The whole video is the biggest irony 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@sundaramspeaks]

The reason for Alt News failure as accepted by the speaker is that the ground reality is different from what news they say. Understand people know and decide irrespective of the media.

[@Harish-zx8pj]

I thought that countering fake currency 😂 Everything is fake in this world. You also 😅 means personally you

[@suryanarayanachennai9415]

N Ram is correct.

[@vijayakrishna4632]

Ram Ram!! Bhaya! RamRam!!! Ram Kaho,Sree Ram Kaho Sabhi Kasht duur hokar, sukh pavoge. To All the four members on the dias, kindly don't waste your precious time talking mundane useless things. U can't change this ever Changing World 🌎 to ur wims and fancies... So says Sant Kabira

[@libshastra]

If as a journalist, you find yourself battling your friends and family then maybe there's a problem with your reporting and not the people. Journalists should learn to introspect.

[@renjanpai4256]

N Ram is the most unethical person in the world