[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
hi
all right so how many of you guys know
this person this anti-government up has
got it all sorted so I am
I’d better journalist and I let me just
take you through a sense of what she
really meant when she said a big gay her
government was she just reading to just
a government and since she comes from
Pakistan was it only a reference there
and why did that you know and I with you
I should go why does all over all over
India all over the world so since I was
the journalist let me begin with say an
example on journalism and how it works
so for a moment let’s imagine you are
say farmers living in a pre independence
village you’re out in the field you come
back in the evening and you know there
is some more more and people are
discussing that you know there was an
announcement that was made by Maharaj
min and ene oh my god so what was it
tell us tell me so you go around asking
people and you know a couple of them
don’t know so then you realize that
maybe we should go to somebody who was
actually there when the announcement was
made so you go to this person and
chances are that he could be the Baba
right
traditionally they were the hubs of
information in a village in thank you
maater though ever think about that
so you take the conversation flow you
ask him what really happened what was
the announcement but and they tell you
you know the Maharaja has announced that
the taxes are doubled
do we know the God and you’re like oh
that’s not fair we what do we do about
that and things you know and then what
you do up you know you the things you do
that we’ll come to later but you decide
that okay this power is a good guy he’s
given me right information you ask other
people around and you verify and you
realize that okay he was giving me the
right story I can trust him then you you
know you go on with life other things
happened maybe some other announcement
next time you know the announcement
happens in you know this time the
maharaja has got his senses back is like
okay not Duga now but just there
gonna 1.5 times see like okay at least
we’re moving forward and and you you
take him you go around to the Baba you
thank him for giving you the right
information so that surely brings us to
the larger question of you know whether
our news has existed before all these
newspapers and these television channels
and all these you know mobile phone
information that we keep getting on
whatsapp messages so whether there was
information for chances are it has
existed forever
we’ve had information flow happening
even when it was not organized in fact
even our mythology suggests that you
know there they have been characters
have been taking information back and
forth some very famous people do you
know so so that really takes us to the
larger question of you know where is it
that we feel news should be headed right
and sharing of information has
organically really evolved over over the
last few centuries we’ve seen how some
people take the initiative they create
their newspapers people like you and me
who are reading it will decide okay
what’s the printing cost to say hundred
bucks you put in hundred bucks we create
that use paper for that day but we want
to now expand one more information
Kabaddi match happen in the village
somebody’s got to report on that he
needs more funds so increasingly he
looks for other revenue options he goes
around these big business shops in the
village and he says what if you sponsor
me
I put your ad on the newspaper you pay
me some money
win-win I get money you get ads you know
your business goes that’s all fine so
that’s how traditionally you started
drawing globally we saw creation of
newspapers and they became there were
state newspapers and national newspapers
and global newspapers and a newsstand
allotted coming in cable TV so the same
model continued globally all over the
world but then came a point when that
guy who was advertising said okay we’re
giving you X amount of money what if we
give you double this money if you also
go around and in your newspaper that
article you say that we are the number
one and what we do now that’s a great
area you know so people are like oh hang
on so what do I compromise on my on this
trust staff built with
people the credibility have built with
people they’ve been supporting me all
these years do I compromise on that this
guy says okay okay what about 1.5 times
of that this guy’s short maybe so you
know some people were just blink and
that’s when things start moving in a
certain direction and then over a period
of time you realize that they are now
beginning to control media they decide
how much money they want to give and
they decide what the media starts
writing for you what they start
publishing and then there comes a point
when they decide hang on why are we
giving them money for the ads when we
are much more you know we are much more
wealthy than their so they’re like stop
this business of advertising
let’s just stop controlling and buy the
whole damn thing and that’s the point
where a lot of people then decide that
the news business is really viable they
are no more interested in controlling
what you write they now pay you a salary
so it really comes to a point where a
lot of these newspapers who were earlier
private enterprises only working towards
writing what should be written for the
society for the reader
they were accountable to the reader now
they are accountable to the person who
owns them and that brings us to the
point of conflict of interest and that’s
the largest debate that’s happening in
the media sector across the world how is
that bad what’s what’s wrong with our
you know somebody has the money he’s
just buying something so I imagine
you’re like you want to go to a
restaurant and you read you know go
through a couple of websites and like is
that restaurant really good and then the
website says this is the number one
restaurant all of India and you’re like
okay this we must go there you must
check it out when you finally go with it
the restaurant you realize that they’re
rats all around why is that you know why
why did that really happen then you go
cross-check and you find out that the
websites you read it on are owned by the
restaurant self obviously there is
conflict of interest obviously is going
to work towards his businesses and the
larger question then and you know
another example could be that you have a
telecom company that owns say a big news
and then suddenly there is some more
more arounds there being a scam but
would this news channel that not owned
by the telecom company ever give you the
right picture on a telecom scam chances
are they won’t and that’s how the big
guy I have media right so this is where
you and I need to come in this is where
you and I need to play a role ourselves
we decide that this is where the reader
is superior to those who own it and we
are the crowd and that’s why we need to
clean and reclaim what is ours which is
our free information our news what can
we do about it together you and me what
can we do about it and that’s my startup
it’s called crowd using and what we’ve
been trying to do is we run social media
campaigns where we try to really create
videos and inspiring content to tell you
if there’s a good journalist trying to
really come up with something really
important something that you and I are
directly concerned with that affects us
and what we try to do is we try to find
them a market we try to find them an
audience again people like you and me
who are ready to pay 100 bucks or 200
bucks a small money small amount that
can help that project take off and let
me give you an example of what we did a
very senior journalist called Pangea
guhathakurta was had a career full of
investigative journalism who’s been
exposing corporate political collusion
and how they’ve been working together to
benefit each other and he’s been
somebody who’s been working on those
things after a point he you know a lot
of the news organizations are not able
to you know hire him they’re not able to
afford him because they feel this is a
person who attracts a lot of trouble so
what do we do can we let investigative
journalists just you know be forgotten
and scamp’s happen all the time around
us and do we look beyond it unti doesn’t
really think so anti-government things
we need to fight back this is exactly
what we did we ran a campaign and 500
odd people came together somebody gave
100 rupees 200 rupees some people gave
$5,000 more and finally we raised
18 lakh rupees for his independent
camping and guess what he’s doing now he
is already working on a couple of other
investigative stories and we’re hoping
that it’s gonna come out I’m gonna hear
more about that investigation is one
part of journalism that has been really
coming down and that needs to be
supported but then we also understand in
this entire corporate controlled media
the other problem has many marginalised
groups like like women like Dalits and
minorities and all these other groups
they tend to really get forgotten or
entire system of ratings is not able to
incorporate these smaller groups and
their voices are becoming absent which
is where another electro based
organization called Dalit Media Watch
came in and we decided that you know
Dalits in India they need a voice they
need their media to be very vocal and
this organization basically puts
together all the information that any
news related to this community and it
shares with a wider audience not just in
India but even globally thank you no
point where we realize that views is one
part of fixing things right so you and I
we know being good is good you know we
know being transparent is good
we know paying your taxes is a good
thing we know clean money is a good
thing but that’s the problem is many
other sectors are not able to really
accept those notions really allows that
to clean the system up to fix a few
things around we need to really bring
this whole idea of crowdfunding and
empowering people like you and me into
the mainstream the most important part
is we intervene in the political space
that’s why we decided that how about
instead of our MLAs and all our MPs and
all our politicians all being supported
by those with money power or muscle
power the strongmen that you don’t want
to be you know associated with we want
to have our own lives we don’t want to
be affected by that but their
policymaking really affects us how do we
intervene how do we change that
can we bring in an idea of cleaning up
our politics with clean money with
transparent white money we tried that we
tried a pilot there was this independent
candidate who was contesting the recent
elections in Gujarat his name is Jignesh
pavani and we decided that you know he
was very clear he did not want any funds
from the builders or the corporates or
other political parties so we said short
let’s run a crowdfunding campaign we ran
a campaign for 15 days and by the end of
the 15 days or he was busy campaigning
on the ground we were trying to raise
funds online by the end of this we ended
up raising more than 20 lakh rupees for
Jignesh Bhavani and and he made sure
that the entire campaign all the
expenditures done were paid with white
money so that was one intervention we
made going forward these are just pilots
we know it’s going to be a tough battle
ahead we will be going down to the
villages to all the other tier 2 cities
all across India and we are hoping that
we will be able to replicate these
models so that when that villager is
told once again that you know you have
to pay a Dugan Allegan not only is he
able to take control of the information
he leads the news that he leads but he
is also able to mobilize people the
villagers around him and fight back
thank you so much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
hi
all right so how many of you guys know
this person this anti-government up has
got it all sorted so I am
I’d better journalist and I let me just
take you through a sense of what she
really meant when she said a big gay her
government was she just reading to just
a government and since she comes from
Pakistan was it only a reference there
and why did that you know and I with you
I should go why does all over all over
India all over the world so since I was
the journalist let me begin with say an
example on journalism and how it works
so for a moment let’s imagine you are
say farmers living in a pre independence
village you’re out in the field you come
back in the evening and you know there
is some more more and people are
discussing that you know there was an
announcement that was made by Maharaj
min and ene oh my god so what was it
tell us tell me so you go around asking
people and you know a couple of them
don’t know so then you realize that
maybe we should go to somebody who was
actually there when the announcement was
made so you go to this person and
chances are that he could be the Baba
right
traditionally they were the hubs of
information in a village in thank you
maater though ever think about that
so you take the conversation flow you
ask him what really happened what was
the announcement but and they tell you
you know the Maharaja has announced that
the taxes are doubled
do we know the God and you’re like oh
that’s not fair we what do we do about
that and things you know and then what
you do up you know you the things you do
that we’ll come to later but you decide
that okay this power is a good guy he’s
given me right information you ask other
people around and you verify and you
realize that okay he was giving me the
right story I can trust him then you you
know you go on with life other things
happened maybe some other announcement
next time you know the announcement
happens in you know this time the
maharaja has got his senses back is like
okay not Duga now but just there
gonna 1.5 times see like okay at least
we’re moving forward and and you you
take him you go around to the Baba you
thank him for giving you the right
information so that surely brings us to
the larger question of you know whether
our news has existed before all these
newspapers and these television channels
and all these you know mobile phone
information that we keep getting on
whatsapp messages so whether there was
information for chances are it has
existed forever
we’ve had information flow happening
even when it was not organized in fact
even our mythology suggests that you
know there they have been characters
have been taking information back and
forth some very famous people do you
know so so that really takes us to the
larger question of you know where is it
that we feel news should be headed right
and sharing of information has
organically really evolved over over the
last few centuries we’ve seen how some
people take the initiative they create
their newspapers people like you and me
who are reading it will decide okay
what’s the printing cost to say hundred
bucks you put in hundred bucks we create
that use paper for that day but we want
to now expand one more information
Kabaddi match happen in the village
somebody’s got to report on that he
needs more funds so increasingly he
looks for other revenue options he goes
around these big business shops in the
village and he says what if you sponsor
me
I put your ad on the newspaper you pay
me some money
win-win I get money you get ads you know
your business goes that’s all fine so
that’s how traditionally you started
drawing globally we saw creation of
newspapers and they became there were
state newspapers and national newspapers
and global newspapers and a newsstand
allotted coming in cable TV so the same
model continued globally all over the
world but then came a point when that
guy who was advertising said okay we’re
giving you X amount of money what if we
give you double this money if you also
go around and in your newspaper that
article you say that we are the number
one and what we do now that’s a great
area you know so people are like oh hang
on so what do I compromise on my on this
trust staff built with
people the credibility have built with
people they’ve been supporting me all
these years do I compromise on that this
guy says okay okay what about 1.5 times
of that this guy’s short maybe so you
know some people were just blink and
that’s when things start moving in a
certain direction and then over a period
of time you realize that they are now
beginning to control media they decide
how much money they want to give and
they decide what the media starts
writing for you what they start
publishing and then there comes a point
when they decide hang on why are we
giving them money for the ads when we
are much more you know we are much more
wealthy than their so they’re like stop
this business of advertising
let’s just stop controlling and buy the
whole damn thing and that’s the point
where a lot of people then decide that
the news business is really viable they
are no more interested in controlling
what you write they now pay you a salary
so it really comes to a point where a
lot of these newspapers who were earlier
private enterprises only working towards
writing what should be written for the
society for the reader
they were accountable to the reader now
they are accountable to the person who
owns them and that brings us to the
point of conflict of interest and that’s
the largest debate that’s happening in
the media sector across the world how is
that bad what’s what’s wrong with our
you know somebody has the money he’s
just buying something so I imagine
you’re like you want to go to a
restaurant and you read you know go
through a couple of websites and like is
that restaurant really good and then the
website says this is the number one
restaurant all of India and you’re like
okay this we must go there you must
check it out when you finally go with it
the restaurant you realize that they’re
rats all around why is that you know why
why did that really happen then you go
cross-check and you find out that the
websites you read it on are owned by the
restaurant self obviously there is
conflict of interest obviously is going
to work towards his businesses and the
larger question then and you know
another example could be that you have a
telecom company that owns say a big news
and then suddenly there is some more
more arounds there being a scam but
would this news channel that not owned
by the telecom company ever give you the
right picture on a telecom scam chances
are they won’t and that’s how the big
guy I have media right so this is where
you and I need to come in this is where
you and I need to play a role ourselves
we decide that this is where the reader
is superior to those who own it and we
are the crowd and that’s why we need to
clean and reclaim what is ours which is
our free information our news what can
we do about it together you and me what
can we do about it and that’s my startup
it’s called crowd using and what we’ve
been trying to do is we run social media
campaigns where we try to really create
videos and inspiring content to tell you
if there’s a good journalist trying to
really come up with something really
important something that you and I are
directly concerned with that affects us
and what we try to do is we try to find
them a market we try to find them an
audience again people like you and me
who are ready to pay 100 bucks or 200
bucks a small money small amount that
can help that project take off and let
me give you an example of what we did a
very senior journalist called Pangea
guhathakurta was had a career full of
investigative journalism who’s been
exposing corporate political collusion
and how they’ve been working together to
benefit each other and he’s been
somebody who’s been working on those
things after a point he you know a lot
of the news organizations are not able
to you know hire him they’re not able to
afford him because they feel this is a
person who attracts a lot of trouble so
what do we do can we let investigative
journalists just you know be forgotten
and scamp’s happen all the time around
us and do we look beyond it unti doesn’t
really think so anti-government things
we need to fight back this is exactly
what we did we ran a campaign and 500
odd people came together somebody gave
100 rupees 200 rupees some people gave
$5,000 more and finally we raised
18 lakh rupees for his independent
camping and guess what he’s doing now he
is already working on a couple of other
investigative stories and we’re hoping
that it’s gonna come out I’m gonna hear
more about that investigation is one
part of journalism that has been really
coming down and that needs to be
supported but then we also understand in
this entire corporate controlled media
the other problem has many marginalised
groups like like women like Dalits and
minorities and all these other groups
they tend to really get forgotten or
entire system of ratings is not able to
incorporate these smaller groups and
their voices are becoming absent which
is where another electro based
organization called Dalit Media Watch
came in and we decided that you know
Dalits in India they need a voice they
need their media to be very vocal and
this organization basically puts
together all the information that any
news related to this community and it
shares with a wider audience not just in
India but even globally thank you no
point where we realize that views is one
part of fixing things right so you and I
we know being good is good you know we
know being transparent is good
we know paying your taxes is a good
thing we know clean money is a good
thing but that’s the problem is many
other sectors are not able to really
accept those notions really allows that
to clean the system up to fix a few
things around we need to really bring
this whole idea of crowdfunding and
empowering people like you and me into
the mainstream the most important part
is we intervene in the political space
that’s why we decided that how about
instead of our MLAs and all our MPs and
all our politicians all being supported
by those with money power or muscle
power the strongmen that you don’t want
to be you know associated with we want
to have our own lives we don’t want to
be affected by that but their
policymaking really affects us how do we
intervene how do we change that
can we bring in an idea of cleaning up
our politics with clean money with
transparent white money we tried that we
tried a pilot there was this independent
candidate who was contesting the recent
elections in Gujarat his name is Jignesh
pavani and we decided that you know he
was very clear he did not want any funds
from the builders or the corporates or
other political parties so we said short
let’s run a crowdfunding campaign we ran
a campaign for 15 days and by the end of
the 15 days or he was busy campaigning
on the ground we were trying to raise
funds online by the end of this we ended
up raising more than 20 lakh rupees for
Jignesh Bhavani and and he made sure
that the entire campaign all the
expenditures done were paid with white
money so that was one intervention we
made going forward these are just pilots
we know it’s going to be a tough battle
ahead we will be going down to the
villages to all the other tier 2 cities
all across India and we are hoping that
we will be able to replicate these
models so that when that villager is
told once again that you know you have
to pay a Dugan Allegan not only is he
able to take control of the information
he leads the news that he leads but he
is also able to mobilize people the
villagers around him and fight back
thank you so much
[Applause]
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