Just Like That: How social media is reshaping news, TV and the media landscape

There was a time when the morning newspaper told us what had happened yesterday, and the evening television bulletin told us what had happened today. That world has not quite disappeared, but it has lost its monopoly.There was a time when the morning newspaper told us what had happened yesterday (Unsplash)The great transformation taking place in media is not merely technological. It is a redistribution of power. The authority to decide what millions of people should see, hear and discuss is moving, slowly but unmistakably, from the newsroom to the smartphone.The numbers are difficult to ignore. India had about 1.03 billion internet users by the end of 2025, representing 70 per cent internet penetration. It had about 500 million social media user identities. By March 2026, TRAI recorded more than 1.09 billion internet subscribers.Television, however, is hardly dead. Indeed, the Indian television ecosystem remains enormous: the government estimated in 2025 that television reached roughly 900 million viewers across 230 million households. The more accurate conclusion, therefore, is not that social media has simply killed television. It is that television has ceased to be the unquestioned centre of the media universe.In India, YouTube reported more than 650 million monthly logged-in viewers of Shorts alone in 2025, while more than 75 million adults were reached through connected television. The Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report found that 77 per cent of respondents globally consumed online news video during the preceding week; in 45 of the 48 markets surveyed, online news video was watched by more people than broadcast television news.India is particularly fertile territory for this revolution. The Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report says social/video networks have, for the first time globally, become the most widely used source of news, at 54%, while TV news usage has fallen substantially since 2020. The survey also indicated that 55 per cent of Indian respondents used YouTube for news, 37 per cent Instagram, 36 per cent Facebook and 16 per cent X. These figures come from an online, predominantly English-speaking sample and therefore should not be mistaken for a census of all Indians. But the direction is unmistakable.Instagram had an estimated 414 million users in India in early 2025, according to Meta's advertising data. X's corresponding advertising reach was about 24.1 million. X may be much smaller than Instagram, but influence cannot be measured merely by numbers. A single post by a politician, journalist, celebrity, activist or public intellectual can become the subject of national conversation within minutes.This is the extraordinary democratisation of contemporary communication. The citizen who once wrote a letter to the editor, unsure whether the editor would publish it, can now become their own publisher. The independent reporter can reach thousands without owning a printing press, a television studio or a satellite channel. The old gatekeepers have been joined by millions of new ones. And this has altered the nature of news itself.Today, social media can sometimes show reality more immediately and graphically than conventional media. A citizen's mobile-phone recording of a road accident, police action, civic failure or public protest can reach millions before a television crew reaches the scene. CCTV cameras have multiplied the visual record of public life. Smartphones have converted millions of ordinary citizens into potential witnesses.But there are pitfalls too. Evidence requires context, verification and interpretation. A 30-second video can reveal something important while concealing something equally important. A photograph can be authentic but misleading. An AI-generated video can be entirely fictitious while looking astonishingly real. And here lies the paradox of the new media revolution: the same technology that democratises truth can democratise falsehood.The problem is compounded by algorithms. What we see is not necessarily what is most important; it is often what is most likely to keep us watching. Anger travels faster than nuance. Outrage is more transmissible than explanation. Abuse generates engagement. A lie repeated a million times acquires not truth, but familiarity.Not that traditional media is completely pristine. Ownership structures, advertising dependence and corporate interests can influence editorial priorities. Yet, the newspaper still possesses something the influencer often does not: institutional memory. The change is that young readers now increasingly encounter a newspaper through a mobile screen rather than a printed sheet. Legacy organisations are consequently investing heavily in websites, apps, YouTube channels, podcasts, Instagram reels and other forms of digital distribution. Old media is becoming multi-platform media.Perhaps this is the real significance of the revolution. The future newspaper may not look like a newspaper. The future television channel may not require a television set. The future journalist may appear simultaneously on a website, YouTube, Instagram, X and an AI-powered news interface.The old media had too few voices. The new media has too many. The challenge of the future will be to ensure that abundance does not destroy judgement, that immediacy does not eliminate verification, and that democratisation does not become a licence for abuse.