TV
Social media empowers the real meaning of democracy, said eminent news anchor and journalist Shubhankar Mishra while attending an interesting session during Odisha Television Limited’s (OTV) annual convention ‘Foresight 2025--Changing Times Changing Minds’ held in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
Mishra shared a lot of insights on the topic, ‘Role of Social Media and Technology in Politics’ along with BJP’s National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala and Congress’ National Spokesperson Mumtaz Ahmed Patel.
While sharing his views in an interactive session with Litisha Mangat Panda, Senior Business Associate, OTN, Mishra said that democracy understood its true power through social media. There was time in the country when it was believed that whatever was shown in TV was true. Today, TV’s fact-check is being done on social media. Social media has given power and freedom to discharge its duty as fourth pillar, said Mishra.
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“Social media also have its demerits, but it is a challenge how to use it properly. Social media has given opportunity to all that they are not depended any longer. In Indian politics or global politics, social media has its impact. This year, the Prime Minister gave his first interview on podcast. Today, new definition of journalism is being written through social media. How to strike a balance, it needs to be thought of,” he said.
In democracy, people are given rights to have their opinion on social media. Those who incite on social media, are sent to jail and there have been several such instances. There was a time when narratives were being set on TV. Now, one can find out whether it is right or wrong in 10 minutes through fact-checking, said Mishra.
Are Strict Laws Needed to Curb Fake News?
As far as fake news is concerned, it was said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee called Indira Gandhi as Durga. But in his interview, Atal ji denied it. Similarly, there was also no accountability on TV during reporting of Sushant Singh Rajput and Riya case and nobody issued an apology. Same is the case of social media. But today, four people cannot decide what will be the narrative of the country. If any channel doesn’t want to show it on prime time, the country will watch it anyways, said Shubhankar Mishra.
Taking about social media impact, Mishra said that one has to do stories or talk on a subject or incident happening in Odisha or any other part of the country. Social media has empowered the real meaning of democracy. The beauty of social media is that there are a lot of platforms like Twitter, Facebook. There was time when people used to ask for news, now breaking news are coming from X (Twitter) and that’s how TV is running, he said.
Youths in the country are now actively involved in politics and it has happened through social media platforms. Be it through meme wars between political parties or any other forms, it has ensured that people get to know about their leaders and show interest in politics, Mishra added.
