The camera is rolling. Maya Sharma is reporting live, trying to make sense of a developing story. Anything can go wrong in those seconds, but there is no time to pause or look back to find the perfect sentence. The story is happening and she has to tell it quickly and accurately. It was a rhythm Sharma had followed for decades. When she finally stepped away from the daily rush of TV news, she found herself looking back at the profession she had spent much of her life inside. Good News, Bad News: A Life in Television (Westland; Rs 547) grew from this particular pause. “When you’re full-time in TV news, you’re running from one deadline to another. And you’re so much inside what’s happening that you don’t get the big picture,” she says. Stepping back, Sharma realised that her ‘unique’ path offered a window into the transformation of television news.
Her journey began with Doordarshan before she moved into private television, the book growing out of watching television news evolve. Looking back also brought back the optimism of being a young journalist. “You think you can make a difference and that journalism is going to make a difference, you’re going to help people and make the world a better place,” she recalls.
Sharma sees the possibilities of TV journalism as its ‘good news’. Field reporting, conversations with people and holding those in power accountable were, for her, among the strongest aspects. The problems began when speed and competition started taking precedence. Television’s dependence on headlines, she says, often leaves little room for the ‘why’ and ‘what next’. The rise of ‘shouting’ studio debates, sensational coverage, bias and misinformation has further weakened the medium. Sharma highlights coverage of cases such as actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and the scrutiny faced by MP Shashi Tharoor following the death of his wife as examples of how the pursuit of attention can overtake journalism. “The form takes over the content because you want to get people to watch,” she opines.
As audiences gained more ways to access information through digital platforms, television channels increasingly sought ways to hold attention. In the process, she thinks, fact-checking and carefully researched field stories became casualties. However, Sharma has not given up on the medium. Recent protests, particularly young people speaking about social issues with humour and courage have given her hope, but she finds it ‘troubling that women in 2026 still have to protest for basic safety and freedom’.
Writing the book meant Sharma had to look inward. Her editors urged her to explore what she herself felt about the changes she had witnessed, leading Sharma to a larger point. “Be true to who you are and what you believe in,” she says, adding that while she has doubted the role of journalists today, she has never doubted the role of journalism. “Good journalists are always required,” she says before she signs off, bringing back the nostalgia of her piece-to-camera days.