Has Indian Journalism Lost Its Spine?

Storytelling may win the moment. Journalism, practiced with honesty, wins trust. Trust remains this industry’s only true currency.

In the mid-80s at The Indian Post, (like in every newspaper across the country then) a story went through two layers of editing by no-nonsense mafiosi of the desk. No reporter dared file a piece without confirming at least two sources. Emotion had to be earned, not performed. Today, a well-timed sigh on camera often gets more reach than a day’s fieldwork.

Once upon a time, calling someone a “storyteller” in a newsroom was a compliment. It meant they could write with grace, clarity, and flair. I remember our chain-smoking Pakistani news desk editor at The Khaleej Times, Dubai, telling me, “Don’t just inform, make the reader feel something.” But that feeling had to rest on a foundation of rigour. Today, in many Indian media circles, “storyteller” feels like code for someone who can spin drama over detail.

In the chase for ratings, retweets, and relevance, journalism has taken on a theatrical air. Reporters sound like narrators. Headlines resemble movie trailers. Emotions routinely overpower evidence.

The question remains. Have good journalists become mere storytellers? Or is this just a midlife crisis in the life of Indian journalism?

Time to pull back the curtain with the scepticism once reserved for dodgy press releases. 

The “public interest” ideal has quietly packed its bags. The new tenants are algorithms, advertisers, and attention spans that flicker like fairy lights in a power cut.

Celebrity deaths, weddings, and trials preferably all in one week now dominate prime time. Even potholes get the full blockbuster treatment. Explosive sound effects. Breaking tickers. “Exclusive” drone shots of the same flooded streets that reappear every monsoon like clockwork. Much of the content is not inaccurate. But the packaging feels like a theatrical release. Popcorn, sadly, not included.

Print and digital haven’t been spared. Sponsored content often masquerades as news. That glowing “review” of a tech product might just be a disguised press handout. Readers deserve better. So do junior reporters asked to "tweak" facts.Some independent digital platforms do resist this tide. They file honest, fact-checked stories without fluff. 

Indian journalism has always had soul. Regional papers in Marathi and Hindi have carried powerful, emotionally resonant pieces for decades. What’s new is the speed and scale at which emotion now drives the editorial wheel.

Images of grieving families. Language designed to stir outrage. Headlines engineered for maximum shareability. Empathy is good. Exploitation, less so. Nuance becomes an inconvenience.

At Khaleej Times, I was once told by our veteran, stamp-collecting editor: “If it moves you, don’t stop there. Ask why.” That habit is disappearing. More reporters now begin with emotion and work backward. Advocacy often precedes accuracy.

I remember filing a piece on South Asian labour conditions in the UAE. I was furious after my first visit to a workers' camp. My editor with a soft spot for facts, made me rewrite the piece three times. “This reads like a protest banner, not a report,” he said. He wasn’t wrong. He taught me that outrage without evidence is just noise.

Later, our Lucknowi sports editor who wrote beautifully on everything from biryani diplomacy to Wasim Akram's speed once read my particularly melodramatic Dubai Desert Classic golf report and sighed, “Boss, is this reporting or the Bible in bullet points?” He had a way of skewering pretension without raising his voice.

Today, some of the best field reporters I know are reduced to click-chasers. That slow, steady craft of building a story from the ground up is being replaced by template outrage.Fieldwork has been replaced by screen-time. Headlines are guided by trending topics, not public relevance. 

Newsrooms now operate under quieter, more calculating forces. Commercial survival. Political convenience. Analytics dashboards.Journalists in legacy media know the drill. Some stories cannot be pitched. Others get toned down or mysteriously shelved. This is not Emergency-style censorship. This is silent steering! 

Ownership shifts often bring ideological pivots. Publications once known for holding power accountable now echo it politely. Readers notice. So do interns, who watch what gets approved and what quietly disappears.Speed kills depth. Journalists are expected to file within minutes. Social media reactions often double as sources. Verification can come later. Sometimes, it never comes at all.

At The Daily, the desk spent two days cross-checking a crime beat story. The idea of filing straight off a gossip page (or Twitter/X if the SM platform was there during those days) would have got you thrown out, or worse, reassigned to horoscopes. (Which, incidentally, was the fate of one over-eager reporter who confused two names in a political scam and nearly sparked a libel case.)

One story I still regret not pushing hard enough was a Bombay Hockey Association internal wranglings that threatened to disrupt the soon to be organised Gold Cup Hockey tournament and create an earthquake in New Delhi. I had the names, confirmed sources who promised to stand by what was said, even a Bangalore-based National coach who trusted me. But the Indian Post sports desk chose to spike the copy. The big story got buried. A week later, it exploded in a rival paper. The moment passed, and I learned something painful: in journalism, sometimes the ones that get away are the ones that stay with you the longest.

So are we just storytellers now? Not entirely. But the gravitational pull is strong.

Clickbait, emotional framing, and editorial pressure encourage storytelling over journalism. Reports may look polished and passionate. But too often, the facts are barely holding up the script.

Intent makes the difference. A journalist begins with evidence. A storyteller begins with a hook. The journalist wants to inform. The storyteller wants to move. Both can be powerful. Only one is bound by accountability.

Some still swim against the tide. Independent platforms. Regional reporters. Old-school editors. Their work rarely trends. It still matters.

Media professionals must rethink reward systems. If virality becomes the only yardstick, trust will erode faster than a leaky studio roof in July.

Advertisers and brands must stop dressing up promotions as news. Readers are smart. Audiences notice and pause. They Read past the headline, verify before sharing and have started  valuing clarity over noise.

Good journalists haven’t vanished. They are swimming upstream. The rest of us including readers, editors, marketers must decide whether to cheer them on or add weight to their ankles.

Storytelling may win the moment. Journalism, practiced with honesty, wins trust. Trust remains this industry’s only true currency.