Vivek Agnihotri launches fact-check show to bust fake news impairing our judgement: Exclusive

After receiving applause for his chat shows 'The Future of Life' and 'Success Plus', Vivek Agnihotri is gearing up to launch a new fact-based show. Soon after the announcement was made, International Business Times, India, got in touch with Vivek to delve further.

What led to the conception of this fact-based show? Was there any particular news that triggered your desire to start it? What would be the areas of discussions?

During this corona lockdown, I realized that when we watch the news on social media, there is a lot of fake news, damaging news that gets circulated everywhere. Wrong facts are being circulated and passed on as facts. I started researching and I realized that the truth is not something difficult to find. It is available everywhere. There are scientific studies, journals, records that have been published and are available to people. In politics, almost everything is there on the govt website. As I started reading more and more, my perspective changed.

I realised how little did I know and how much wrong data was being consumed by me which were hampering my judgements and decisions. I decided why not to share this with people and share subjects which impact and affect our daily life. Be it economy, sociology, health, food, entertainment business, education, creative streams. In everything, the facts are there, the research is there. We don't always necessarily run after finding the truth because of laziness or not having that scientific temperament. I said why not put all these things together and put forth for people to see and then form their own opinions.

How would you ensure that the show remains unbiased and your perspective doesn't interfere with it?

I am not going to be concluding or saying this is wrong or right. I would just be collating different analyses, different scientific data, world's top studies and researches behind whatever topic I choose and leave it to my audience to form their own conclusion. If need be, I will also invite experts to discuss with me and then let people decide.

Tell us more about the topics you'd be covering.

The first episode would be about how dopamine makes us news, social media or video game addict. This is one aspect not many are aware that how the manufacturers use it to make us an addict. My next episode would be on China. I wouldn't be getting into what is happening currently or the win or loss; I would just be talking about the wars China has waged worldwide in the last several thousand years. And its latest war on the modern world and what can we learn from it. This will be my attempt to bring correct information to people.

When are you planning to launch it?

We are launching it on June 20 at 7 pm on my Facebook page. Every week, we will premiere a new episode and I am also planning to do a mid-week show, where I will either analyse the current topic or I will invite an expert to talk with me live on the trending issues.