News Broadcasting
Covid2019 is a financial earthquake: Faye D’Souza
MUMBAI: For former Mirror Now executive editor Faye D’Souza, Covid2019 is not just a pandemic but also a financial earthquake with no clear end time. Speaking to former Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak on his recently-launched digital chat show, D’Souza, who turned independent journalist last year, revealed details on the kind of journalism manufactured on TV today.
D’Souza believes that we’re entering a phase where our relationship with money is going to change. Her advice to young professionals who own money is to not feel anxious as many in the society don’t even have that luxury. As far as investment is concerned, she urges people to wait and watch.
According to D’Souza, in the news business, the audience is not a consumer but a commodity and the real consumer of news channels is advertisers. “News broadcasters are least bothered about what’s good for the viewers or the society and are playing with their emotions,” she said.
In a scathing attack on the advertising-dependent journalism, she said, “Advertisers don’t care about the quality of journalism and give money to the channels with the highest TRPs. The majority of the money is going to the top two news channels with the highest TRPs, and both are doing extremely poor journalism, and everybody is getting crushed by them. The news channel’s sheer existence depends on whether or not it is able to please its biggest advertisers and if you can’t then you’re an impediment in the chicken assembly line.”
Knowing the intricacies of how it works, she said that honest journalism or asking hard questions to the government can lead to repercussions. The government is the biggest advertiser on news channels and such channels would then be barred from getting PSAs and elections ads, she observed.
Her main aim in launching her own platform is to give a place for journalists, who believe in the core value of this profession, to participate. Freelance journalists, who want to do good journalism, can contribute to the platform and earn on the story or photo they cover through hits. She wants to show that a journalist doesn’t have to be a part of media conglomerates to do good journalism and serve society. According to her, the biggest responsibility of a news presenter or journalist is to inform the audience in an even-tone manner.
D’Souza confirmed that she is ready to launch her website soon and it would be linked to all social media platforms. She is in the process of logo designing and some animation for the website. The platform would be a freemium subscriber-model and it would be completely based on news.
Faye started her career as a news presenter and jockey with All India Radio (AIR). A business journalist by choice, she worked a couple of years with Network18’s CNBC-TV18 as producer and reporter and then moving to Times Network’s ET Now business news channel as an anchor and producer in 2008. But it was her three-year stint at Mirror Now that shot her to fame as she asked compelling questions during her debate show.
A Mangalorean by heart, D’Souza said that if she wasn’t a journalist, she, being a hardcore foodie, would have been a teacher or doing something in the food industry.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
