Fact-checking platforms are becoming catalysts of change: Debdatta Das

COVID-19 has changed the world of communication forever. The whole content marketing vertical has gone for a complete overhaul throwing up plenty of new opportunities for storytelling. In this podcast with Mrigashira, Debdatta Das, Head of Content Strategy (Digital), CNBC TV18, shares her experience and learning she has had this year with Radha Radhakrishnan. Excerpts from the interview.

Listen to the podcast here.

Q. In 2020, what are some of the emerging trends that you have seen in digital content consumption in India?

Every crisis is a door opener of a massive opportunity. So, what COVID did was that it snowballed what five years of digitization would look like into a month, and then the whole thing started rolling. And it wasn't very different for news, publishing media as well. During the lockdown, news channels on TV became one of the most important spaces where people were continually visiting for information. People were eager to understand what their lives would be. What is it that is happening around them? 

If people spent almost five hours every day on media, a significant portion of that was in watching TV and consuming information on digital platforms. People were always on the phone, reading, watching, and searching for shops to order Grocery, medicines, and other daily essentials. 

With this, advertising spends also shifted to the digital platform. Advertisers wanted real ROI on their investments. 

Q. How did the monetization game for TV channels and for digital platforms change?

It changed quite a bit. During the lockdown phase, even though TV campaigns happened, these campaigns happened digitally, right? Cameras weren't travelling anywhere. People were using technology platforms like MS Team or WebEx or Google. Now, the other thing I saw for companies in the IT sector, software providers, SAS providers found an opportunity here to reach out to their target audience through customized outreach. 

For instance, we were approached for a webinar where people with a certain income level would participate, and wealth management companies wanted to get across to such profiles. We were asked for retail and CPG companies and their decision-makers to make them understand about SAS and how it enables digitization. 

With COVID, the most prominent concern people have is about their health. We did see a massive spike in health care insurance and companies pushing products like term insurance and innovative health insurance products.

Finally, people and advertisers were waking up to the true potential of what language and custom language products can do in marketing. India is a place of many markets and different kinds of people. As the saying goes at every 50 meters, your market changes practically. Digital allows you to customize your offering and do a specific targeting. It will enable you to understand the efficacy of the campaign.

So Digital and social media platforms and TV has gone through a transformation.

Q: One of the things the Pandemic has also brought with it is the increase in fake news and more sensationalizing of story. How can this be tackled?

Because of our massive population and lower literacy levels, it is an enormous problem to figure out or differentiate between what is fake and what is not. There are fact-checking platforms that are becoming catalysts of change to create awareness. Today, on the one hand, we have media which are being irresponsible, and on the other, we have these fact-checking platforms that help verify the information. In our networks, we have our factoring teams. 

I think this is a phase, and it will move out. Even here, the technology that has come into play. And things like deep fake has also started happening. News media is also trying to find its way through such anomalies as deep fake news, or social media trolls. We, as an industry, are still kind of trying to figure our way out. But one learning we have learnt in the last few months, especially since June, is that, you know ultimately, when the noise dies down, people want the real stuff, people are still looking for what is real news. Finally, there is a limit to how much you can tolerate nonsense. Beyond that, you will also want to sit back and kind of take in the real stuff. I think we're going through that phase. This change is coming.