Media analysis

Media claims ‘Pakistani conspiracy’ behind trending #GoBackModi. What’s the truth?

Pratik Sinha & Pooja Chaudhuri12th October 201925th October 2019

In an October 11 ‘exclusive’ story, broadcast at around 3:30 PM, Times Now claimed that Pakistani social media accounts were behind trending the hashtag #GoBackModi ahead of the Prime Minister’s…

Facebook purge: The curious case of pages that did not feature in FB press release

Pooja Chaudhuri6th April 2019

On April 1, Facebook took down thousands of pages, groups and accounts from Facebook and Instagram, describing the crackdown as “removing coordinated inauthentic behaviour and spam from India and Pakistan.” Specifying…

India Today deletes article about ‘Amit Shah’s granddaughter refusing to wear BJP hat’

Jignesh Patel31st March 201931st March 2019

A video of Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah sharing candid moments with his granddaughter went viral on social media. To the amusement of social media users, Amit Shah was…

Will birds die as shown in ‘2.0’? Indian media falls for fake news from Netherlands

Pooja Chaudhuri7th December 201818th March 2019

The release of S Shankar’s ‘2.0’, a Tamil science fiction movie starring Rajnikanth and Akshay Kumar, sparked up a discourse on the effects of electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation on birds. The…

Patanjali’s chat app Kimbho runs into multiple controversies. How did top media houses report the news?

Arjun Sidharth2nd June 20189th July 2018

Kimbho, the messaging app launched with much fanfare by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali became the subject of controversy barely a few hours after its launch. In a report dated May 31,…

Jama Masjid electricity bills non payment: Fake news starts on social media, Republic TV takes over

Sam Jawed30th August 201723rd November 2020

“Imam Bukhari has money to buy luxurious cars but can’t pay electricity bills,” asked Republic TV while reporting that electricity has been cut in Jama Masjid due to non-payment of…