People still rely on credible news brands for quality: FT’s Martin Wolf at CII event
2 min read . Updated: 02 Jun 2020, 09:28 PM ISTThe world dominated by elite opinion has collapsed and it’s not coming back, says Wolf
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New Delhi: The way their governments function may be different but the one similarity across media organisations in India and the United Kingdom is the upheaval brought about by technology, that has turned people into producers and consumers of news at the same time, said Financial Times' associate editor on Tuesday. That, however, does not mean professional journalists and commentators have lost value, he added.
“People interested in quality news still rely on brands that have built a reputation for reliability. It’s a niche but a very important one," said Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economic commentator at The Financial Times attributing the revolution in news dissemination to increasing literacy levels besides technology that allows people of all strata to not just access information but also broadcast it themselves through their interactions with groups similar to them.
“The world dominated by elite opinion has collapsed and it’s not coming back," he added.
FT, Wolf said, had more subscribers than ever before who look to it for reliable information though theirs is a very specific target audience. The British journalist was speaking as part of a panel at Getting Growth Back, an annual session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with Prabhu Chawla, editorial director, The New Indian Express and Aroon Purie, chairman and editor-in-chief, India Today Group. The session titled Words and Bytes- The power of pens and voices in shaping the public narrative was moderated by T.V. Narendran, vice-president, CII and CEO and managing director at Tata Steel Ltd. It was aimed at analysing the role of media organizations in the current context of democratization and polarisation where the fear is many only hear what they want to hear.
“The obvious reality of the technological revolution is that it has generated disintermediation between news and the consumer," Wolf said referring to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook that he said allow figures like Donald Trump to create their own narrative without any editorial function. While they do create profound novel pressures for traditional media, they don’t take away from the credibility of serious journalists and storytellers.
“In the end, authoritative processes rely on institutional systems and without that, we would be in chaos which we are, to an extent," Wolf said.
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