Hafta letters: Creators vs journalists, NL-TNM subscriptions, Ravish Kumar

On the blurring between YouTube creators and journalists, it is surprising that the Hafta missed two important distinctions – the social media news creators who hold a journalism degree versus those who don’t.

Does the latter construe citizen journalism? I still don’t understand what citizen journalism is. While credibility and viewership is built through the ease of information, comprehension and type of information and mere exposure of the channel, some of us also build our trust based on the source of their information. And only licensed journalists can have a primary credible source. And only that information is NEWS.

If the government is unwilling to build regulations, at least platforms like YouTube and Instagram could bring in a verification badge to distinguish journalists from others. More specifically, a badge indicating this creator or channel is not a verified journalist. I am unable to fathom what implications this badge would have on viewership and subscriber numbers.

Sri

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The subcategorisation of SC reservations is a positive development in principle, but its implementation has been deeply flawed. The original purpose of reservations was to ensure representation for Dalits in key areas like government, education, and leadership. Yet despite this, we still see upper castes dominating these spaces, even though they only make up about 15 percent of the population. It's evident that upper castes, rather than SCs, hold the majority of economic and digital resources. Logic would suggest that to create room for underrepresented groups within Dalits, or any other marginalised community, it’s the shares of the privileged upper castes that should be reduced. Blaming certain Dalit subgroups that may have achieved relative economic progress, but still suffer from untouchability, is a misguided and distorted viewpoint.

Noaman

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Hello peeps,

It’s been seven years that I’ve been following Newslaundry. Writing to you after a long time.

My question to the panel is – isn’t Ravish, because of his niche audience, becoming more biased day by day??? A few inaccuracies were also found in his show. 

Yogesh

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Hey team,

Thank you for everything you do. I am curious – and forgive me if I am overstepping here – but is there a way for new subscribers to subscribe to NL without TNM? I was recently recommending NL in my friends’ WhatsApp groups and saw the option to subscribe to NL has now been changed. I am from the south but not particularly interested in TNM. Thanks!

Nithin

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Hi NL team,

Thank you for your great work, I enjoy your detailed reports and content.

In Hafta 501 you mentioned that you resist inviting people who converse mainly in Hindi, because people from the south get upset which is something I do not agree with. As I am also from the south, not a native Hindi speaker, but would love to hear ideas and opinions from any language.

I understand your concern to cater to the audience but the audience demand is quality discussions and assistance to interpret and understand the discussions.

On that basis, I would suggest that you could work on adding subtitles which could help us get ideas from across the languages. This could be a great value add even to South Hafta, as many good and knowledgeable thinkers from South may not converse that well in English but their ideas and opinions need to be heard as well.

Thank you for your amazing work, I am proud to have made two of my friends as your subscribers will keep spreading the word. 

Vivek Velu

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How can we as Indians rise above religion, caste and class in our outrage on the evils of society like rape and sexual assault? From Nirbhaya to Abhaya, these outrages catch fire only when they meet certain criteria, location, who is in power, who is in power, and who the victim is. I see this outrage failing too because we, the people, are not genuine.

Ghyas

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First, some feedback about the app. The app is seriously lacking in the podcast section and does not go well with the quality of the content of the podcast. Some suggestions:

(1) Podcast just stops for a few seconds when we get a message or notification, and it’s jarring.

(2) Navigating forward and backward feels like using old resistive touch phones. Sometimes the skipping doesn’t happen even after multiple clicks. 

(3) Overall navigation is sluggish and sometimes requires you to force-stop the app and restart. 

I heard you are starting a podcast on trans issues. I just want you to keep a balanced panel so as to not lead to an echo chamber and keep in mind that there are prominent biologists on the other side of the issue. The way people are being silenced on your own panel from speaking their mind on this is scary. It’s beginning to feel like another religious dogmatism and we have enough in this world already. 

Dheeraj

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I recently saw a programme by Ravish Kumar on how the sales of cars have decreased and how Nirmala Sitharaman said Gen-Z doesn’t like cars. And I also saw NL’s report on how people are being killed by shooting at cars and all.

To tell you the truth, I am afraid. I am afraid of driving my car as I don’t know if a mishap might happen and people will drag me out of a car and give me a death sentence there itself. Honestly, these people who claim themselves to be Hindu nationalists are making this country unsafe and unlivable. I am afraid that I will have to leave this country. I am a deshbhakt but what will happen to my two daughters if something happens to me? And what will I do if something happens to them?

Sangharsh

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