12. K. G. Suresh - “It’s no more about news, it's about ideology”

In this episode, K G Suresh, Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Journalism and Communication in Bhopal, and formerly PTI's chief political correspondent who’s also worked at Asian News Network, says television journalism in India has been a "big disappointment". He asks what credibility can studio analyses of the ground situation have without reportage from the ground. TV audiences, he says, are now choosing channels according to their ideology, and TV journalists are choosing sides to keep their audiences. Meanwhile, serious audiences are moving to online media, to You Tubers and to some extent, even newspapers.  K G Suresh says for most students who wish to take up journalism, it is just a source of livelihood, with issues of media freedom not being of priority for them. But he also speaks of students who are passionate enough to travel on their own to Punjab or Manipur to find out why people are protesting.