Indian govt mulling new media outreach plan; GoM makes recommendations

In a bid to ramp up Indian government's media and public outreach, group of ministers (GoM) comprising of nine Union ministers, have laid out focus areas to streamline Centre's communication strategy and remove communication gaps.

According to a report accessed by Hindustan Times, GoM recommended ways to address criticism and spread positive messages wider in the most effective manner. The report recommends tracking "negative influencers" on social media and engage with "positive influencers" to put forth the right perspective of government's view point.

"The deliberations of the GoM focused on evolving multipronged strategy to take these 10 big narratives to the people by various means including direct connect by elected representatives and state and district level representatives, engaging with media houses and academia at national and international level, utilising all types of media, feeding them with positive stories and testimonials, developing institutional mechanisms for structured engagements, developing DD International on lines of best international public broadcasters and strengthening a resource pool of domain experts," the report said.

The recommendations in the report were made by GoM after nearly six meetings since June 14. The group of ministers include Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar, S Jaishankar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and Union ministers Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Anurag Thakur and Babul Supriyo, Hindustan Times reported.

Government Communication: Key highlights

Developing Prasar Bharti News Service as a key news agency in India and DD International to match the standards of international public broadcasters.

Utilise all types of media, feed positive stories and testimonials and develop institutional community for structured engagements.

Project India's soft power and its standing in the international community as well as government initiatives such as Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Digital India.

Ensure unbiased news reporting on digital media due to influence of FDI.

Identify journalists who lost their jobs recently and are supportive of the government or are neutral to utilise their services in various ministries.

Need for local-level outreach with the help of National Service Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps, National Youth Corps (NYK) volunteers.

All-year-round coverage of government programs, which will be a joint responsibility of every ministry.

Establish Fact Check Unit to debunk miscommunications