News Broadcasting
Govt. studying ways to ensure greater responsibility in social media
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, while regretting that the new media had been used without any sense of responsibility in events like the Muzaffarnagar riots, feels that one way out of this is to put more credible information in public space ‘to counter mis-information’.
The Minister told the National Integration Council in a meeting today that while this was causing concern, the United Progressive Alliance’s policy over the last nine years had been ‘an essay in persuasion rather than regulation as far as the media goes’.
He said that the government is working on how misuse of the new social media can be prevented and said that he would like to hear from all stakeholders at the Council meeting.
He said it was now possible for any individual to reach out to the world with any news within a second, often ‘without responsibility and restraint’.
He added: ‘Every individual has become a broadcaster in his own right without editorial control.’
The social media had empowered the people but this power should be used with responsibility, he said.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI: Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
