Journalism in India: Covering a changing land

Name: Chinki Sinha

Background: Raised in India, attended j-school there, then attended j-school in the U.S. before getting a job at a local U.S. newspaper. Now, she writes for The Indian Express based  in New Delhi.

Chinki Sinha

Cross-cultural challenges: “(In the U.S.) it was difficult for me to understand the culture and its subtleties. But that I resolved by being observant and talking to people. Yet another challenge was getting used to the newspaper industry in the United States, where a lot of focus is on community and local news… In India, newspapers have regional bureaus but they are mostly national newspapers.”

Building sources, gaining trust: “People (in the U.S.) were willing to talk and town board meetings were open to the public. Public officials were available. In India, it is entirely different. Here, you cultivate sources in the departments you cover so they can tip you off.”

Back to India: “After working in the States for around two years, I decided to move back (to India) because I felt local news was not something I could latch onto for the rest of my life. I wanted to travel, write on poverty, hunger, people and social policies in our country…I am glad I got a job and my editors let me travel extensively. I have learned a lot in the process, from keeping deadlines by filing stories from a crowded shop in a rural market because they had a generator and we could plug our laptops in, to understanding how to make way through closed communities that are unwilling to talk.”

Working hard: “Given the intense competition in India among daily newspapers, a reporter is expected to beat all others when it comes to news reporting… a reporter is expected to think of innovative ways to do a story, and to file investigative reports every week.”

Breaking stereotypes: “Most U.S. journalists based in India as foreign correspondents don’t get the country and write misleading, stereotypical reports. When you decide to be a journalist, you must set aside the prejudices and be open to the society and its quirks.”

What U.S. journalists can learn from Indian journalists: “(They) can learn about cultivating sources…and how to stay on top of the news and to get a larger perspective on news.”

Accuracy and creativity: “In the U.S., we checked the names from the phone book to make sure we were spelling them correctly. Here, we are trying to focus more on such accuracy… A lot of my (Indian) friends feel that a reporter’s job is to collect information…So often, the news reports are straight copies without much imagination or creativity fused into them. I have always felt that a journalist needs to be a storyteller and for that we all must learn to write well…It is how you package it and how you tell the story that will ultimately set us apart and make us stay in the game.”

Read Chinki’s recent story, Baby Boom Town, here.

Read a story, by UPIU writer Arwa Sultanali, about journalism in India here.