Muneeta Aneja is an accomplished individual who has made significant contributions to the field of Journalism and Mass Communication. As a Gold medalist in this domain, she has demonstrated exceptional skills and knowledge in her area of expertise. With over six years of experience, Muneeta has established herself as a prominent journalist and communication specialist.
Her passion lies in the promotion of development journalism and rural journalism, recognizing the importance of bringing attention to these critical areas. Muneeta's dedication to shedding light on the stories and issues that impact the development and progress of society sets her apart as a journalist with a mission.
As the Editor-in-Chief and founder of "The New Age by Muneeta Aneja," she has created a platform dedicated to delivering credible and unbiased news across the globe. Through her platform, Muneeta strives to provide readers with insightful and in-depth articles, ensuring they are well-informed about the latest events and developments.
In addition to her journalistic endeavors, Muneeta Aneja is also about to release her book titled "Chhattisgarh - A Land of Infinite Treasures." This forthcoming book showcases her expertise and passion for storytelling, offering readers a captivating exploration of the rich cultural and natural heritage of Chhattisgarh.
Muneeta Aneja's outstanding achievements, including her gold medal in Journalism and Mass Communication, her extensive experience in the field, and her dedication to promoting development and rural journalism, make her a highly respected and influential figure in the industry. Her commitment to delivering unbiased news and her upcoming book demonstrate her drive to inform and inspire readers, ensuring that her impact on journalism and communication continues to grow.
1. Can you tell us about your experience in the field of journalism and editorial work, particularly in the context of leading a publication?
> I have been in the field of Journalism and Mass Communication for more than six years now, and I have tried my hands on diverse forms of editorial content creation. I started with my internship in the first year itself from Dainik Bhaskar headquarters in Bhopal and IBC 24 in Chhattisgarh. By 2017 and 18, I used to contribute blog posts for various national and international blogs, and I headed the editorial team for the fashion segment for some E-magazines. Additionally, I used to create Public Relations content for various brands on my social media handles, with the pace of time, I only collaborated with the brands that let me create my content with authenticity and creativity with my own script and words. Za
By 2019, I started working with the Times of India and I wrote various articles for their supplements of Bhilai-Durg Plus, Gwalior Plus, Jabalpur Plus, Times Fiesta Bridal magazine, Times Internet, Times Chhattisgarh main state edition, their special festive editions, and Chandigarh Times. I contributed a total of approximately 200 articles with the Times ranging from myriad subjects like civic journalism, articles on cyber crime awareness, various interviews, coverage of ancient heritage sites, festive, fashion, and home decor articles, raising awareness on rising suicide rates, mental health crisis and rising divorce rates and their in-depth analysis with research and profound interaction with the experts of the particular niche. By the year 2021, I decided to only contribute in-depth research-based articles that were elaborate in studies and were informative and educational.
By the end of 2019, I was selected as the PR Executive for the DPR, Samvaad for CMO, Chhattisgarh, so my work started revolving around the policies of Chhattisgarh, press release drafting, case studies or framing PR content from the desk of DPR for leading national and international English dailies and magazines, preparing speeches, handling crisis and social media for the desk of DPR and CMO. I worked with them for 18 months, and then I resumed back with freelancing for the Times of India and contributing in-depth articles to them. I was also a part of their various CSR activity projects for rural areas and their editorials for coffee table books for Maharatna companies. I also made it into a central government exam for the post of Anchor Cum Correspondent Grade III officer by clearing various rounds one by one, but the result announcement stays pending since the Covid-19 outbreak
Apart from that, I started up my website "The New Age by Muneeta Aneja", and we happened to gather an audience from 84 countries within a span of just two and half years. The website acted like an all-round keeper and provider of credible news and information from all across the nation, and the events happening all across the globe. We emphasized on sharing credible news and breaking down the important subjects of national and international importance in an easy-to-understand and simplified manner. Major headlines and breaking news was posted from time to time, then we only focused on the editorial section and generated awareness on topics of mainstream importance that often stay neglected like mental health awareness or the state of democracy in the nation, analysis and in-depth research and history of geo-political tensions without passing any judgment or expressing any biases. Apart from that, we focused on bringing out the idea of thrifting, recycling fashion, and repurposing the fashion and lifestyle aesthetic. The website also contains some inspirational short poems and interesting travelogues. Apart from that, many blog posts can be seen on my wordpress blog as well.
From 2021 to 2022, I was also engaged in the meta-analysis and formation of elaborate book reviews for many authors, and their publications. My work revolved around crisis management, Journalism, Public relations, and editorials in the past two years. By the end of December 2022, I decided that I wanted to contribute to the cause of rural Journalism and promote India at an international level, where people look at our country and understand it from a different perspective. I embarked on this project with the state of Chhattisgarh, where 78% population of the state is still rural, my idea was that if I interacted about such hidden treasures in my book, and that resulted in the promotion of those villages, then it would thereby enhance the micro tourism of those rural areas and generate a chain of income and employment over there, and the rural economy would get a boost.
I started driving to all of these places, crossing mountains and riverbeds, documenting my findings, interviewing people, and studying the culture and heritage of different places, I studied archaeology and also understood Chhattisgarh from various dimensions and points of view. I had to keep the work holistic sharing the perspective of archaeology, Mythology, anthropology, and psychology of various mindsets ranging from the common man to the tribals to the folk artists to the royalties and I had to somehow bring it all together and form a coherent whole with it. The final draft is prepared and is still due for publication. In a nation like India, where 64.61% population of the country is still rural, we need to talk about development journalism and take a closer look at the figures of differences between policy formulation and implementation, and we need to promote these areas and their scope of tourism so that they become a hotspot of micro-tourism and the villagers could prosper and lead up with new and innovative ideas.
2. What sets The New Age apart from other news outlets, and what is your vision for the publication under your leadership as Editor-in-Chief?
> The New Age has acted like a credible news portal and E-magazine, As the Editor-in-chief of the website, I ensured that public relations, advertisement, or any form of biases towards anything do not peep into the articles of the page. The geopolitical tensions that are often presented or explained in a very complicated manner, have been broken down simply so that the new generation could easily understand it in short paragraphs. We have interacted about mental health and its importance, and we have covered topics that needed attention. It was my primal responsibility to ensure that whenever the headlines go up, they always come up from authentic and verified news sources and we never published anything for higher viewership or sensationalism. We refrained from the publication of sensational news or Bollywood or Hollywood sagas, we kept it strictly associated with the topics that I felt needed attention. I had to maintain a balance with the severity of the topics that went up on the website, so I had to balance it out with various fashion, lifestyle, and travel feature articles to make the page look balanced.
3. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in journalism, and how do you ensure that The New Age remains relevant in today's rapidly changing media landscape?
> I stay updated by staying in touch with various credible news sources and agencies throughout the country and the globe. For press releases that are coming from the side of any central or state government, I keep in check with their DPR department or the various press releases from the official heads. In that manner, you can refrain from falling into a trap of fabricated news. While contributing to the dimension of the website and while interacting about the topics, I made sure that the topics that I am choosing would always stay relevant and they would never age, for example, if I am interacting about the Israel-Palestine conflict or the Myanmar coup in it, and I am simplifying them, then I am sure of the fact that many people want to look out for such geo-political tensions broken down easily. We have interacted about repurposing and recycling fashion, we have stayed up to date with the new-age trends so that we don't lag behind, and we have interacted about mental health awareness at the core level because that is something that many youngsters can resonate with and click a chord with. Our topics would be relevant even for ages to come. There are various inspirational poems and travelogues on the website that can stay timeless forever, it's not something that would get old or irrelevant with time.
4. As Editor-in-Chief, what strategies would you employ to maintain the credibility and integrity of The New Age's reporting?
> It is my primal responsibility to filter out the fake news and understand where public relations is intruding with journalism. I have to differentiate between honest news and propagandist news and publish it likewise. I have to keep my biases aside and put everything in a balanced and credible manner in front of my audience. I have only prepared thorough research on the subjects and I have compiled the articles in a well-phrased manner, but I have never tried to influence my audience into taking action on that news, I have just broken down the affairs for them after thorough investigative research, but I have left the decision making on them. I have not tried to be manipulative via my words on my website even for once.
5. The New Age covers a wide range of topics and issues. How do you plan to strike a balance between providing in-depth coverage of important stories and catering to a diverse readership with varying interests?
> When we started with the website, we took a very closer look at the readers' interests and the performance analytics of various kinds of articles. By doing so, we understood that we are catering to a very large audience with a widespread interest range and therefore, we had to make sure to keep up with an important topic of geopolitics or an investigative article as the core subject, because our major target audience consisted of people, who used to love reading such elaborate pieces with empirical data and secondly, we had the fashion, lifestyle and traveling audience and we made sure, that we don't neglect them as well.
6. How do you plan to leverage digital platforms and emerging technologies to enhance The New Age's reach and engage with a broader audience?
> I used LinkedIn, Twitter, and WordPress at a large level to increase the reach of my website, because the major target audience of my content was predominantly on these platforms only. Additionally, I used my page to spread the word about new articles every month as well. The subscribers used to get a newsletter every month, that informed them about the new content alert on the website. We made use of the right hashtags to reach out and connect with the right target audience that may be looking for the kind of content we are serving.
7. The media industry often faces challenges in terms of bias, fake news, and disinformation. What steps would you take to ensure that The New Age maintains a high standard of accuracy and objectivity?
> When I was starting up my website, it was my oath to not let fake and propagandist news seep into my work, I may have sounded very firm in some of my articles with an urgent voice, but I never intended to make any article biased in any manner. They are all breakdowns and analyses of history and politics, but they are not the kind of articles that pass judgment on any community, caste, creed, race, nationality, or gender. To maintain accuracy in serving news, we always relied on trusting the data provided by the government agencies or NCRB data, so that we don't end up making wrong calculations with our work. We followed the most credible world news sources and even after that, we used to fact-check the news two to three times from different trustworthy sources, to ensure that the data would be right.
8. How do you plan to foster a collaborative and inclusive environment within The New Age's newsroom, encouraging diverse perspectives and promoting journalistic excellence?
> To promote journalistic excellence, I need to have faith in my team and I also have a responsibility to be a good mentor to them, listen to their ideas and objectives patiently, and encourage them. It becomes a motto to strive for excellence and work on our agenda of honesty, no matter what. It is our aim, to stand firm on our grounds, especially when we are sure of the facts and data. Misinformation is something that we refrain from, and having a fearless voice is something that we would always carry with us. Regardless of our personal biases, we owe a responsibility to our community and nation, and we have to do the best we can.
9. The New Age has a strong online presence and social media following. How would you use these platforms to engage with readers, build a community, and respond to feedback and criticism?
> Fortunately, we have not faced a lot of criticism despite our good subscription rates and readership analytics, I guess it was partly because we were engaged with a highly intellectual target audience that understood the idea behind me merely being an investigative journalist who would seldom pass a piece of beneficial advice, and not being an advocate for any party or community at any cost. But, there have been times, when the left wing or the right wing felt attacked and they have questioned us about a certain thing in general, but in that case, also, we have tried to handle the matter with utmost patience and prudence, by not making them feel unheard or unacknowledged, we made sure to provide them with an open platform to interact and share their concerns with us, and we heard their opinion, even understood it from the position they are sitting in and the forces that act on it, and then we would present them with our answers along with the empirical data so that they feel satisfied and not neglected. Since the past two years and six months of holding up the website, we have received very few such responses, and they have resumed following our website and its updates in the same manner as before, without having any malice or grudges, amidst the moment of understanding and explanation.
10. What strategies would you implement to monetize The New Age's digital content and ensure its long-term financial sustainability?
> I guess I am quite close to the time where I would like to monetize it, but a few things need to be taken care of before advancing with the idea, I need to see what my audience demands the most, and also I have to keep the technical things in check before monetizing my website fully, one needs to have a good interface and a good understanding of their target audience and their minds. To ensure the finances of "The New Age", I would like to keep its editorial content free of cost and accessible for everyone, and I would not like to interfere with the editorial quality and credibility of my content, there are other mass communication services that can be provided via the website as well to ensure its smooth financial stability over the years.
11. Journalism ethics and responsibility are crucial in today's media landscape. How do you plan to uphold these principles at The New Age, particularly when it comes to sensitive topics or controversial issues?
> As a journalist, you take an oath to uphold your media ethics, you have a good understanding of the media laws, but most importantly you need to be an empathetic and understanding human being who doesn't indulge in yellow journalism. I could start writing about Bollywood and Hollywood from tomorrow and cover sensational topics, but it is up to me to uphold the standard of my content and not indulge in a rat race and keep my lane clean. In that manner, people would remember me, my words, and my work for what it was, despite of any unethical substances that get forgotten with the pace of time. I have a very strict rule in that parameter, and I will keep on holding that upright, if there's a problem it has to be published that way, no one can buy journalism, at least not for my website, no matter how small or large it may be.
12. The role of journalism in holding power accountable is significant. How would you ensure that The New Age remains committed to investigative reporting and uncovering stories that may be challenging to cover?
> No matter how challenging certain things seem to be, we have to get them done. If my audience relies on me for proper research and facts, then I need to dig deeper into the stories and bring the facts out, and no amount of threat should stop a journalist from practicing their job. Journalism is not a crime, and if I hold any respect for my oath, then I would rather not publish anything at all or I would publish something with due modesty and honesty.
13. What steps would you take to foster innovation and experimentation within The New Age, encouraging new storytelling formats and engaging with younger audiences?
> I have tried a lot of experiments with my website in terms of hues and fonts, but the most important thing I have learned is that people mostly skim through your content or read very fast on the internet, so you need to form short paragraphs with pepper subheads, you need to make it much more lucrative, simple, user-friendly and your tone should be conversational. We would be encouraging more of youth debate on our website with the pace of time, we would like to provide them with an open platform to speak their heart out. We would be encouraging young startups to interact about their journey via our medium. We have already done that, and in the future, we would be looking forward to more of it.
14. The New Age aims to provide a global perspective on news and events. How would you ensure that international coverage remains a priority, and how would you navigate the challenges of reporting on complex global issues?
> International and national coverage of global issues would always remain a priority for The New Age, and to ensure its coverage, one needs to be patient with the process first and should not write about deep tensions hastily, that way you can avoid deep tensions and feelings of hatred brewing among people with misinformation. We have our sources from certain key locations and even under complex circumstances, we have received our coverage that has been fact-checked from many sources back to back, and then it was published. Plus, we are in constant touch with the most trustworthy world news sources.
15. How would you measure the success of The New Age under your leadership as Editor-in-Chief, and what specific goals would you set for the publication in the next few years?
> I have been satisfied with the work under my leadership, I did not expect as much coverage of nations, and especially the kind of audience connection that we have built throughout the nation is impeccable, and we have been successful in bringing people of all world closer together via this medium, and that is something which makes me happy. When young children message me or send me a mail asking any question in general or about any socio-political tension that they do not understand, I make it my primary responsibility to research it on my own, and then present the work in a very clean and credible manner. In the upcoming years, I have to make the interface more user-friendly for the people and I need to make it more open for larger group communications for certain subjects.
16. Can you tell us about your journey exploring the tribal rituals, archaeological sites, and mythological grounds in Chhattisgarh? What inspired you to undertake this exploration?
> As I mentioned earlier, my aim to promote rural journalism and development journalism was placed on the highest pedestal. In a country where 64.61% population resides in the rural and villages carry the heart and soul of India, how come their coverage in the National media stays less than 0.08%, and that too when a policy is formulated and then the name of a particular village comes up? Where are the journalists who are supposed to visit the same site and see if the project or policy is implemented in the village or not? How many villages in India still lack access to clean drinking water? How many villages in India have solid roads, great health, and educational infrastructure, and lights at every pole? How many villages in India house the most magnificent temples and ancient edifices that have been lost in glory due to the lack of promotion and advertisement? And who would look after the cause of investigative journalism because no media house wants to invest in a good investigation and its costings, plus these are the same people who provide you with the advertisement, so how can you write against them, and this is what ticked me the most, and I wanted to do something about it. I started contributing 16 to 21 hours of work per day to understand the demographics of Chhattisgarh, understanding the tribal lifestyle and their culture, breaking down the stereotypes and stigmas that revolve around the state, and watching things for what they are, and how they came into existence. I wanted people of the world, to witness India from my perspective for once, and see how the simplest of things have such ornate and intricate details, and how India resides as a beautiful country with images of unity in diversity. Whenever I am talking about anything in terms of mythology, I have strictly mentioned that it is associated with folklore, legends, and beliefs and whenever I am presenting something with an archaeological perspective, it has been kept crystal clear on those grounds. It was a pleasure to see how different empires rule, leave their legacy, and die but one thing that survives with the pace of time is excellence and art, we still adore the sculptures and idols, and the hands that would have carved them and that is where we should understand a lot about life.
17. What were some of the unique tribal rituals and practices you encountered during your time in Chhattisgarh? How did they shape your understanding of the culture and traditions of the region?
> The Tribals of Chhattisgarh especially the Tribals of Bastar have very unique cultures and practices. I would like to maintain some suspense for my book, so I won't say a lot, but they believe in animism, their gods do not have a form or shape, the Gonds worship their ancestors and there are other deities as well, the tribes and the royalties of Bastar host the longest festival in the world, the tribes of Bastar do not practice Ravana Dahan as they consider themselves to be of the same Asura clan, they have very unique gods and extremely precise practices. In certain belts of Dakshin Bastar, The girls and boys can socialize with each other freely before marriage in dormitories, have a free say on the partner they want to choose and understand their compatibility with each other. Living Relationship was way more common for certain tribal communities to check the compatibility of two people way before the urban landscape took it. Their food is extremely rich in nutritional value, they eat Chaupar, the red ant chutney, bami fishes, and Aamat (vegetable stew/ sambhar) prepared in bamboo shoots. Godna (tattooing) and jewellery stays very close to their heart and most of these tribes are very humble and simple. For more information, one has to pick up my book.
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