“Both mainstream and social media are drifting towards ‘manufactured content’, posing a threat to public understanding and misleading readers/viewers and thus crippling democracy. The primary stakeholder — the reader, has been gradually sidelined, while commercial interests have taken centre stage”.
These are among the many concerns expressed by the speakers during the release of ‘The Indian Media Barometer 2025 Report’ aimed at scanning the health of the Indian print, television and social media hosted by Sri Balaji University Pune (SBUP).
Addressing an informed gathering at a function organised to release the report in Pune on Saturday, Maharashtra’s former Principal Secretary Mahesh Zagade described the report as a diagnostic check of the Indian media’s health.
Voicing concerns over the erosion of journalism’s democratic role, Zagade said: “The media, once a fearless watchdog, is increasingly behaving like a product. Both the mainstream and social media are drifting towards `manufactured content’, posing a threat to public understanding and misleading readers/viewers and thus crippling democracy”.
“There is an urgent need to reorient the media if it is to regain its role as the fourth pillar of democracy, which is currently nibbled by `termites’ to the extent of almost not in existence at all,” Zagade said.
Lamenting the deterioration in standards of journalism witnessed during the last one and a half decades, Vinita Deshmukh, Editor, Corporate Citizen Magazine, which co-hosted the event, said: “Journalism was pure public service in its purest form. However, over the one and a half decade, the landscape has changed dramatically. The primary stakeholder — the reader- has been gradually sidelined, while commercial interests have taken centre stage. Meanwhile, digital and social media have democratised news dissemination, but also blurred the lines between information, opinion, and sensationalism”.
Presenting the report, veteran journalist and editor Anand Agashe spoke about the shrinking editorial space in today’s media landscape. “The space for journalism has shrunk. That is why we decided to have this anonymous rating of the media. There are 57 parameters on which performance was recorded. “A thorough ‘health scan’ of the present-day media by its internal and external stakeholders is necessary to understand where the shoe pinches”.
Stressing the need for viewing both content and context and noting that the media often functions under pressure, SBUP Vice Chancellor Dr GK Shirude said: “This Media Barometer presents a measured appraisal of India’s media ecology, covering long-established print and broadcast media as well as the fast-evolving digital sphere. The study identifies institutional strengths, regulatory and ethical gaps, and the commercial and technological pressures that condition news production and distribution.”
“For students, researchers and practitioners, its findings are practical and necessary: they clarify how narratives form, how trust is built and eroded, and what standards are required for professional practice,” Shirude said.
