Shifting Tides: How the Media Landscape and Press Freedom Are Changing Worldwide

Welcome back to Declarations!

In this episode, we’re joined by renowned journalist Kalpana Jain to explore how the media landscape has evolved and how press freedom is shifting across the globe. From the West to South Asia, we unpack the complex forces shaping what gets reported, whose voices are amplified, and how journalism is being redefined today.

The media has undergone a seismic shift over the past two decades, technologically, politically, and economically. Today, journalism faces mounting constraints: declining independence, a shrinking space for investigative work, all amid escalating risks for journalists worldwide. At the same time, newsrooms are evolving rapidly to combat the rise of misinformation in an increasingly complex digital environment.

About the guest:

Kalpana Jain is a senior journalist and currently senior ethics and religion editor at The Conversation US, a global news and commentary-based website.

She has covered a wide range of issues both in the U.S. and internationally. She was senior education editor at The Conversation US, before moving into her current role. She worked as a writer and researcher at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School She was part of a small, select team for a flagship program of Harvard Business School researching 50 years of women at HBS.

She worked for many years as a reporter and editor at India’s leading national daily, The Times of India. Her reporting played a significant role in elevating public health as an important topic of news coverage. Based on her reporting, she was selected a Nieman Fellow in Global Health Reporting in 2009.

She has taught case-writing at Harvard. She has conducted workshops teaching scholars at Harvard Divinity School, Stanford University, on how to write for the general public. She has also conducted such a workshop for religion scholars at the annual conference of American Academy of Religion.

She is an alumna of Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Kennedy School. She holds a Master’s in Theological Studies and a Master’s in Public Administration. In 2010, she was awarded William A. Starr fellowship for innovative thinking in journalism and John Kenneth Galbraith Fellowship for outstanding academic and professional achievements at Harvard.

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Episode Credits

• Host: Muhammad Ali Sohail
• Producer: Muhammad Ali Sohail and Sarah Awan
• Executive Producer: Sarah Awan
• Podcast Lead: Shubham Jain
• Show Notes: Yusan Ghebremeskel
• Publisher and Communications Manager: Evie Nicholson
• Editor: Max Parnell