Reporters Without Orders Ep 205: Online political ads, election issues in Mathura and Jewar

This week, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry’s Nabeel Ahmed and Basant Kumar.

Basant, who is reporting from Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming assembly election, talks about his report from Mathura. A colony in Vikasnagar is refusing to vote, he says, since residents are dealing with multiple issues, from open sewage to crumbling roads. He explains the irony of a colony named “vikas” seeing no vikas, or development. Basant also talks about his other report from Jewar, which is getting a new airport, and how locals lost their farmland and homes.

Nabeel explains his report on political ads online. He defines “micro-targeting” on search engines as “subgrouping individuals in certain areas based on their leanings”. Companies use this data for targeted ads, he says, though it’s disallowed for political ads in particular.

This, and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in.

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Produced and recorded byJude Weston and Tehreem Roshan, edited by Umrav Singh.