@Inditalk
Matters that matter to the average Indian
Karan Dev
@Karan.Dev · 1:09
Journalism today: In Conversation with Ananya Bhattacharya - Senior Associate Editor at India Today
She's covered news for nearly a decade from terrorist attacks in Assam, and she's done stories such as sex trafficking in the tea gags of doors to the Bengal Assembly elections. She is currently editor of Daily 2.0, a new project under the India Today Group. Ananya, thank you so much for joining us this evening on Swell. You've been working in this field for several years now
And then I sort of chose to give up engineering and move to Delhi for my English graduation. And then ever since, right after graduation, I joined journalism. And it's sort of been a crazy a decade since then
Karan Dev
@Karan.Dev · 0:34
Sananja. I'm a big fan of stories as well, and storytelling specifically. So, you know, how do you really go about approaching your writing? So I know that's a subjective question. But other certain tenants that you fall or that you think about when approaching a story, is there a certain narrative that you like to go with when you're telling a story which is uniquely you, or do you go about sort of figuring out what your audience would like?
I think that's how I approach a story. Of course with feature you need a lot more color, you need a lot more adjectives which we try and cut out when you are doing hard news. So we're
Karan Dev
@Karan.Dev · 0:31
Thanks for giving us that outline, Ananya. And I think that also follows from the inverted pyramid concept that is very useful when presenting a story. So in terms of compelling stories and, you know, news items that might have influenced you, I know you mentioned quite a few and over the years, you've world on so many important stories. But if there is one path breaking or compelling story that really changed the way you approach the profession or something that you worked, what would that be
So yeah, this was a story which sort of showed us that you could do something while you are somewhere else to do something else, if that makes any sense. So, yeah, these are, I think, stories that have shaped my journey and of course the election coverage obviously is a different high altogether. So this year when I went to cover the elections in North Bengal, I was on special stories, basically
Karan Dev
@Karan.Dev · 0:52
Anandya, Firstly, I'd like to applaud you and congratulate you on bringing that sex trafficking story to life. It must have been a huge test of your resolve. And all I can say is Kudos. And, you know, I think a lot of young aspiring journalists will draw inspiration from hearing you describe the ordeal and the real difficulty you faced in reporting on it. And thanks also for giving us the background on the Punjab case
So these are stories where we really aren't going to be holding back. So anything that needs to be told will be told. It is as simple as that. This has always been our brief here. This is a brief that every journalist gets the moment they enter this building. Actually, no matter what capacity, they could be a social media executive. They could be a person on the TV front of it
Kavya Jain
@kavvyyyyaaa · 0:06
Hello ma'am. So I have a question. Which journalist do you look up to? The most
So having said that, I think you should look up to stories. And because, see, every journalist is as good as the last story they've told. So it's simply that
Bhomik Mathur
@Bmat · 0:27
Thank you so much, Ma'am, for coming to Swell and sharing your experiences and thoughts. My question to you would be with the rise of digital media and social media, what changes do you anticipate in the journey industry going forward? Any new trends or any new changes? And what would your advice for people who are entering the journalism industry, how to adapt to those changes
Everyone, I think needs to exercise a lot of caution in approaching any story as a journalist. And also if you're a journalism student, please invest your time in trying and understanding what is real story from a fake story. Even if there's a tweet saying claiming something or a Facebook post claiming something, do not fall for it. All of us know the men is called WhatsApp where? Our generation, the generation under us or above us have all fallen prey to fake news. On WhatsApp?
Olivia Debroy
@itsoliviaaaa · 0:14
Hello Ma'am. Thank you so much for this insightful conversation. So my question to you is what is the biggest challenge that you have faced while working in the mainstream media
Nimisha Dhami
@NimishaDhami · 0:09
Hello. Good evening. The question that I want to ask is that what's that one journalism principle you have stuck to since you started working
So I used to be on the road for about 10 hours, 12 hours, even 16 hours on a certain day. And being a woman, I think the biggest challenge is where do you pee? So that was one problem in these remote corners of West Springfield, but we have a beautiful country and the people here are just the poorest of people. They opened up their homes for us, and it just was very good. The interaction was so good, and everything was really good
I don't think anyone is going to read this. So then I went back and redid the entire thing. So this is the writing part of it of course. And as far as stories are concerned, as far as reports are concerned, as far as reporting is concerned, actually you need to see where the story takes you and you shouldn't have anything in your head