'Social and traditional media complement each other’

Audience interjections from the young to the decidedly grey made for a discussion with broad appeal at the session “Freedom Online: The Net and Democracy” with researcher Chinmayi Arun, writer and journalist Lyndee Prickitt, and Times Internet chief editor Rajesh Kalra addressing Internet access and challenges of authenticating information online.
Strides in technology can often fail to translate in the face of social norms, said Arun, research director of Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi.“You can take Internet anywhere, but can’t take it out of the context of politics, markets, social norms. Rural women may not be able to access mobiles, they may not have the privacy to use Internet freely,” Arun pointed out. Prickitt sees potential for online radio to fi ll the gap for local language content online. “It is oral, and cheap,” she said.
Many wanted to know how to authenticate online information. “It’s not just a challenge for traditional media, but also for consumers,” said Prickitt while Arun believes traditional and online media inform each other. “Traditional media spends time checking facts. Internet is an uncontrolled space. They both have value. But sometimes you want to see what the editor judged in the space, which a machine can’t do with its algorithms,” said Arun.
Prickitt said a story may appear on social media, but people still check details on traditional news media.