Trust is one of the most important resources of all time. It's significance is further enhanced in the 21st century with the multitude of information sources around us and the pace at which we witness technology growing. AI applications can already generate seemingly authentic images and videos. What does this do to our trust in images? Numerous other questions come in mind when we speak about trust: On what information can we rely? What makes a source reputable? Why is there a continuous loss of trust in the media? How is the business of media changing?

Bringing together leading journalists and academics in the field, we present a discussion aimed at addressing these questions - and many more.

Speakers: 

Ritu Kapur, Co-Founder and Managing Editor, The Quint - has led digital innovation, from The Quint’s multimedia storytelling and Innovation Lab to the fact-checking initiative WebQoof. Ritu is also a board member at the Reuters Institute Of Journalism, Oxford University. 

Peter Hornung, Correspondent and South Asia Bureau Chief, ARD German Radio - has studied politics and history in Vienna and Regensburg and journalism in Mainz. In 2004, Peter became a correspondent in Prague and head of the ARD radio and television studio there. From 2009 to 2021, he was an editor and investigative reporter for the radio programme NDR Info and in the NDR's investigation department, during which time he participated in several international investigations (Panama Papers, Offshore Leaks, China Leaks) and organised others (Fake Science). Since April 2021, Peter has been South Asia correspondent and head of the ARD radio studio in New Delhi.

Dr. Vibodh Parthasarathi, Associate Professor, Center for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia - has been at the forefront of media policy research in India since 2005. With a Masters from Erasmus University, and a Ph.D. from University of Helsinki, he maintains a multidisciplinary interest across media regulation, digital transitions, and policy literacy.

Prof. Dr. Parthasarathi has won research grants from Ford Foundation, Canada’s IDRC, Social Science Research Council, India-New Zealand Education Council, and University Grants Commission; been invited as a visiting scholar by University of Queensland, KU Leuven, University of Helsinki, IIT Bombay, and Lund University; and, collaborated with academics and policymakers in Australia, South Africa, Belgium, France, Sweden, UK, and USA. Besides his 50 publications in journals and books, his edited works include the best-selling Platform Capitalism in India (Palgrave, 2020) , and the critically acclaimed double-volume Indian Media Economy (Oxford University Press, 2018). Prof. Dr. Parthasarathi’s innovations in the teaching of media governance have been significantly featured in Pedagogy in Practice (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Actively contributing to growing the media policy ecosystem, he is involved with institutions such as Media and Journalism Research Centre, and The Media Foundation; publishers such as MIT Press, and Oxford University Press; and, scientific journals including Platforms & Society (SAGE) , and Journal of Digital Media and Policy (Intellect). Since 2023, his research has focused on the online video market in India, and the globally emerging field of media infrastructures.

Shalini Singh, Co-founder at the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) - is a Delhi-based journalist since 2006. Her most impactful work has been on environment issues: investigation into illegal mining in Goa and livelihood rights in rural Odisha. These won all the top Indian journalism awards including the first Cushrow Irani Prize, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Award, and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism during 2011-13. She has also written extensively about gender, culture, and society during a decade at the Hindustan Times newspaper and The Week magazine. She was selected to spend 2017-18 as a Nieman fellow for journalism at Harvard University. Her 2019 work, documenting climate change in Delhi through the lives of its remaining farmers and fishermen, was shortlisted for the international Fetisov Journalism Awards 2020 while winning the Ramnath Goenka team award for 2019.

Shalini was invited as accredited media to COP27 held in Egypt in 2022. Her stint as a fellow at IndiaSpend for the series, Women @ Work, from December 2020 to June 2021 led to four stories about women's employment and entrepreneurship in India's informal and formal sectors that got shortlisted for the 2021 Fetisov Journalism Awards. She was awarded the Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize (silver) from the United Nations Correspondents Association for her work on climate change in NYC in December 2023.
This conversation is part of the Indo-German fellowship program “Journalism Connect - Rewiring Trust in Media”.