As audiences turn to Reels, social media, and AI for news, journalists are adapting to new demands while trying to protect the depth and quality of their reporting
DELHI, INDIA: On a hot afternoon in Delhi, freelance journalist Suhail Bhat works from his flat, trying to stay cool as he goes about his day.
Like many freelance journalists, Bhat now has to do more than report and write stories. He also takes photographs, shoots videos, and creates social media content. The work has changed, and keeping up with it has become part of making a living as a journalist.
“This field has become increasingly competitive, with many new journalists entering the profession and pitching stories,” he said. “This creates intense competition, and freelancers often face difficulties in getting their work commissioned.”
“As a freelance journalist, sustainability now depends heavily on maintaining connections with multiple organisations and producing content suited to different platforms,” he said.
For freelancers, the pressure is high. Reporting is no longer enough; journalists are expected to take photographs, shoot and edit videos, and present stories across different platforms and to different audiences. This shift is happening worldwide. More people get their news through social media and video platforms, changing how news organisations reach audiences.
Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and a lead author of the Digital News Report, called the shift a tipping point.
In [Reuters] 2026 Digital News Report, we saw it as a tipping point. For the first time, more people say they get their news from social media and video platforms than from television.
As more people get news through social media, news organisations have less control over who sees their stories and how they reach them. “Publishers have less control and a weaker direct connection with their audiences,” Newman said.
Bhat has seen this change in his daily work. “Earlier, most media organisations focused on long-form stories and detailed ground reporting,” he said. “But that has gradually changed.”
He says reporters are expected to tell stories through videos, written reports, photo essays and social media posts. “Stories have become shorter, leaving less room for detail,” Bhat said. “Journalists now have to think about how to present a story visually from the start of their reporting.”
When the algorithm enters the newsroom
As more people get their news through social media feeds, journalists are also having to adapt to how these platforms work.
Newman said algorithms play a major role in determining what people see, particularly among younger audiences. “If you put together social media, video networks and AI platforms, this is the majority behaviour,” he said.
He said most algorithms are designed to keep people watching and scrolling for long periods of time. “If this approach is used for news, it may not be good,” Newman said. “It can give people a distorted view of the world.”
India’s platform-first audience
India is a clear example of this change. With so many people using mobile phones and social media, these platforms have become an important way for people to get their news. News organisations now compete for attention not just with each other, but also with content creators, influencers and independent journalists.
Google reported that 76% of surveyed Gen Z users in India turn to YouTube to learn more when something is happening in the world. For young people scrolling through social media, a news story may appear alongside music videos, memes and posts from creators. News is now competing for attention with almost everything people see online.
Arun Kumar, a 22-year-old student in Delhi, said he often comes across news on Instagram and YouTube. If a story interests him, he looks for more details. Otherwise, he relies on short videos because they are quicker and easier to understand.
Ashish Singh, 24, from Gurugram, said short videos usually give him a basic idea of what is happening. For important issues, however, he prefers to read the full story. “The short video gets my attention, but it doesn’t always give me the whole picture,” he said.
For Delhi-based freelance journalist Aakriti Dhawan, the transformation isn't simply the death of long-form journalism.
“It is not only about aspect ratio,” she said. “I need to keep in mind the duration, the type of content consumed, and what audience we are looking at for each format and duration.”
“Visuals have become very important, especially for video and ground reporting. We have to think about what will grab people’s attention in the first three seconds”. Reporters also need enough footage and extra video clips to keep viewers watching.
When speed competes with depth
Bhat said speed has become a major part of journalism today. The popularity of Reels, short videos and quick data-based stories has put pressure on journalists to publish faster.
He said this helps news reach people faster, but often leaves less room for detail and context. In-depth stories that require time and careful investigation are increasingly being pushed aside.
Newman said the same problem is happening worldwide.
He said short videos can help news reach people who might not actively look for it. They may come across a news story while scrolling through other content. But this can also mean that serious stories get less attention. “Serious content gets squeezed out of the picture,” he said.
Not every newsroom is surrendering to the algorithm
Betwa Sharma, managing editor of the independent Indian news platform Article 14, said social media matters because it helps the organisation reach readers. “We think carefully about how best to present and share our stories on different platforms, but we don’t shape our journalism around social media,” Sharma said.
Sharma said Article 14 has also changed how its stories reach people on X. She said stories critical of the government, police or judiciary, as well as those covering rights and civil liberties, reached fewer people.
But Sharma said Article 14 does not rush to publish stories or chase online engagement. Its reports often take days or weeks to research, edit and publish.
In Jammu, Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Kashmir Times, a regional news publication her father, journalist Ved Bhasin, founded in 1954, sees the transformation from a newsroom that still follows many traditions of old-school journalism. “We work with a very limited budget, but we remain committed to serious journalism and continue to follow the old-school approach,” Bhasin said.
She said the newsroom continues to focus on in-depth stories partly because it has limited resources to invest heavily in YouTube Shorts, Instagram and video.
Bhasin said Kashmir Times is also trying to adapt to the changing media landscape by making serious journalism more appealing to readers. “We are trying to blend something that’s catchy with something serious,” she said.
Bhasin said audience numbers and search rankings matter, but they do not decide what the newspaper publishes. “Everyone is about SEO, but we try to maintain a balance. What matters most to us is the quality of our content, and we do not compromise on that,” she said.
Bhasin further said reporters now have more responsibilities, including shooting videos and working with photographers. She believes the same story can be presented in different formats to reach younger audiences, rather than creating separate content for them.
Her newsroom shows that traditional journalism isn't disappearing; it's adapting to digital platforms. For smaller news organisations, the challenge is to continue detailed reporting while presenting stories in ways that suit the fast-moving online world.
From the article to the feed
Newman said social media platforms have changed over time.
In the past, they worked more like a “post and refer” system. News organisations could share a story on Facebook and users would click on the link to read the full article on their website.
That relationship has weakened over time. Social media platforms now focus more on content that keeps users on their apps, especially short videos.
Newman said the number of people visiting news websites through platforms such as Facebook and X has fallen by roughly half over the past five years. He said AI platforms are creating a similar challenge by giving users answers directly instead of sending them to the news websites that first reported the information.
As AI tools increasingly provide information directly to users, news organisations may need to focus more on original reporting and gathering information that others cannot easily provide. “The role of publishers will change slightly to being much more focused on doing the distinctive news gathering rather than necessarily the distribution."
The change is not just about making news shorter. It also changes how news is presented and reaches people.
A reporter now has to think about the opening sentence of an article and the opening three seconds of a video. Editors have to consider headlines and thumbnails. Newsrooms have to understand audience analytics. Freelancers increasingly have to shoot and edit their own material.
For Newman, the future is unlikely to belong exclusively to short-form video. “I think it is more multimedia,” he said. “More video, more audio definitely.”
Back in Delhi, Bhat’s work reflects this change. In the past, journalists could focus mainly on reporting and writing. Today, they are also expected to handle cameras, record audio, edit videos, understand digital platforms, and track audience trends, all while trying to find and report stories.
