India has always had a rich and storied relationship with food, deeply regional, historically layered, and emotionally resonant. For decades, food journalism reflected this complexity through thoughtful essays, anonymous restaurant reviews, interviews with chefs, and explorations of culinary heritage. But in recent years, the rise of social media has ushered in a new breed of food content, bite-sized, highly visual, and often promotional. Today, a viral reel or influencer review can make or break a food business faster than any newspaper column. This shift, while more inclusive in some ways, has also raised questions about authenticity, accountability, and the future of food storytelling in India. Influencing India spoke with feature writers and journalists who cover food, at least in part, across newspapers and digital platforms. Here are some of the insights they shared on the changing landscape of food journalism, the influencer boom, and why long-form storytelling still m

According to founder and editor of Qualbert.com, Ben Schuster - who is also Marketing and Creative Content Specialist at Spunge Games team - nearly anyone can play Cartoon Survivor, the latest version of the game just launched by the company.  Schuster told Influencing, “You play as the last dodo on Earth, set in a prehistoric setting, and you've got to get from one end of the level to the finish line within a set period of time. “The dodo has a stick of explosives attached to him. So, the length of the wick on the explosives, which you can choose, determines how long you have to finish the level. There are a lot of obstacles in the way. There are things you might run into. There's lava. It's a bit chaotic, but it's very easy to play.”  Cartoon Survivor launched on Steam on July 3, with the first three game levels free, while two worlds are available. Schuster added there's “plenty more content coming down the track”.  “We have just released the first two worlds

Peter Ryan OAM. Ex-ABC Washington bureau chief Peter Ryan OAM died on Friday after announcing his departure from the national broadcaster just last month.  Ryan had worked at the ABC for 45 years, and retired to battle thyroid cancer.  He was the ABC’s Senior Business Correspondent since 2016, reporting for AM, The World Today, PM, and was also part of the ABC Radio National Breakfast Show team.  Ryan won the Walkley Award in 2017 for breaking the story that the Commonwealth Bank had allowed money launderers to exploit its deposit machines. He was also recognised with the Order of Australia medal in 2022 for his significant service to journalism. Former ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland said on LinkedIn: “Peter was a distinguished ABC Washington bureau chief and, later, one of Australia’s pre-eminent business journalists. If you wanted to know what was going in corporate Australia, Peter was your man. His contacts and record of story-breaking were unrivalled. He

Tight Tassie election sees brilliant Mercury front page this morning. Coalition Support Hits 40-Year Low As Labor Consolidates Post-Election Lead The Coalition spent last week trying to tear down Anthony Albanese’s China visit as a diplomatic junket, a jolly, a lark. But no amount of poo-pooing is going to distract anyone from the stone-cold reality of today’s Coalition numbers, the worst in terms of core support for 40 years. In his report on the first post-election opinion polls, the Nine masthead’s Shane Wright (“Voters desert Coalition as Labor builds on win") quotes Resolve Political Monitor’s strategic director Jim Reed  saying the “Coalition is in ‘real strife’, arguing that while the Coalition needed a primary vote in the 40s to be competitive, it was struggling to get into the 30s’”. Meanwhile in The Australian, Simon Benson, citing Newspoll, confirms that the Coalition’s core support has “collapsed to the lowest point in 40 years”

              AI is no longer an experiment tucked away in the backrooms of media companies. It has become the invisible engine rewriting how news is gathered, drafted, edited and delivered at breakneck speed. Across newsrooms large and small, AI tools now draft briefs, translate reports, spot viral trends and repackage stories for different platforms faster than any human team ever could. For editors, this new reality brings a burst of productivity and a growing unease about what might be lost along the way. Rachel Chitra has seen this transformation unfold from the inside. When she first stepped into a newsroom, automation was barely more than a handful of templated stock updates and sports roundups. Today, as an assistant editor at The Federal and a former AI consultant at True Info Labs, Rachel knows better than most how deeply AI has moved into the control room of modern newsrooms. She remembers when the first wave arrived. Reuters and Bloomberg were among the pi

Image source: TOI, India Today; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has slammed a Wall Street Journal report that squarely blamed the Captain of the Air India flight AI-171 for the crash based on cockpit conversation and called the reportage "irresponsible". The report by WSJ and other international outlets solely based on conversation between the pilots while ignoring a technical snag in the aircraft reported just hours before the crash happened and an air advisory warning regarding fuel switches in Boeing 787 aircrafts has fuelled speculation here that serious efforts are underway to absolve the aircraft manufacturer while blaming dead pilots for the mishap that killed over 250 people. While a preliminary report has been out last week regarding the crash, a final conclusion into the exact reason be can be conclusively determined only after a full investigation. Hot off the Press The preliminary report released by AAIB had not mentioned

On World PR Day this year, as the communications industry reflects on the theme ”Building bridges and navigating polarisation,” public relations leaders are focusing on what truly anchors their profession: trust, adaptability and real-world impact. Abhinay Kumar Singh, founder and MD of Adgcraft PR finds this year’s theme a reminder of the deeper responsibilitiesof a PR professional. “We are in the middle of brands and the target groups,” he says. “Therefore, it is essential to focus on their understanding, effective communication and authenticity.” Singh focuses on “trust, opportunity and growth” for the upcoming year. With shifting platforms giving way to social media and AI, he believes in crafting resonant and adaptive strategies. His agency recently launched their new PR vertical, Adgcraft.AI, to help AI brands with their communication strategies.  “Finding the right people for PR has always been crucial. We need to be prompt, understanding and deep