LAHORE: BBC journalist Zeinab Badawi, Nukta editor Amber Rahim Shamsi and Azad Essa of Middle East Eye discussed the changing media landscape across the world.

The session was titled, Does the media serve truth or polarise?’ was moderated by Fahd Hussain.

Ms Shamsi said while working at the TV, they were very concerned about ratings and popular things, instead of more nuanced stories. “The same thing is on TV and digital platforms because there is just too much information.” She gave the example of the Tirah operation which was not covered by the mainstream media.

Ms Shamsi talked about the advantages of digital platforms compared to the mainstream, saying that they were not sent lines or tickers to run.

“I was on the mainstream media for about four years between 2016 and 2020 and I was constantly told that I can’t have this guest on my show and have that guest. It was dictated by the state.”

Ms Shamsi said she believed that there was a need to have diverse opinions and original reporting. The original reports might not get as many likes as the mainstream but people are still seeking fresh perspective and investigative reporting.

Ms Badawi termed the world more fragmented.

“Some members of the audience and the public opinion may seek the kind of coverage which enforces their own prejudices but there are others who actually are trying to kind of light on a topic that may be difficult.”

She said the mainstream media were constantly seeking different platforms, “for example the BBC Radio is listened to more digitally than it is on the radio and that’s the direction of travel. The old business model for the mainstream has been busted. The dependent channels that sought advertising as revenue, advertisers now can now go to Google and YouTube.”

The BBC journalist said the current landscape was much more than the digital versus mainstream media and the line between them was becoming more blurred. I think the dust is settling, it’s not quite clear where it is going but we do know the old model of TV news is finished, she declared.

Speaking of the definition of journalism, Azad Essa said that “we assumed that journalism was one particular thing before this moment. It was always a contested thing but the level of dissemination of information that we have today has created a crisis where we think what journalism is and what journalism is not”.

He said we had to consider different forms of journalism that existed for example, non-profit investigation in the US and the UK and other countries. “In the same way in the past we had newspapers but not everybody was reading the newspaper. The people were going to town squares to get the news.”

Social media also plays that role and there are always streams of journalism but people consume what they want to consume, he said.

To the question whether it was possible in Pakistan to do journalism if one is not serving A, B, C, Ms Shamsi said probably not. She said the content

creators and online commentators were also relying on the information gathered and processed by the journalists.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2026