Behind Viral Tweets & Trends: The Wire’s Karnika Kohli On Anxiety, Social Media & More
“I did not expect that the BJP will turn into what it has under its pradhan sevak.”
The Wire is arguably one of India’s most read as well as progressive publications online. Just over 3 years old, millions read its content every month, and it is known for bold, edgy and exclusive stories like the one on ‘The golden touch of Jay Shah’. So, what does it feel like to handle the social media for the publication, and empower thousands of readers with reading material and stories? The Reader caught up with The Wire’s Social Media Editor, Karnika Kohli, to find out.
1. How did you get interested in social media and how did working with ‘The Wire’ come about?
To be honest, I just wanted to work for ‘The Times of India’ and they were only looking for a social media manager. But once I started working there, I realised how awesome social media can be if you use it to do the right thing. I had an awesome mentor there who was patient and kind enough to let me make mistakes and learn from them.
I was there for almost 4 years, out of which for over 1.5 years I was allowed to head the social media team (how crazy were TOI people! they let a 20-something manage some of the biggest social media accounts in the world!). As far as ‘The Wire’ is concerned, it just happened without any planning (like most of the good things in my life).
I was looking for a job and on one fateful Thursday I saw a post by them on Facebook… applied for the job… got a call… went for the interview at 2 pm the next Friday and Siddharth Varadarajan mailed me my offer letter by 2:50 pm on the same day. And bang! I have been working for TW for over 1.5 years now and every day is an adventure.
2. The content you post is read by and reaches millions. How does this feel? A lot of people think a social media editor just schedules posts. Do you agree?
It’s an AMAZING feeling. I keep telling my journalist friends that one of the best things about digital journalism is that we know exactly how many people read us, where the belong to, what they like, etc. (Getting a little creepy, right?) But like uncle Ben said, “With great following comes great responsibility.”
SM managers just schedule posts? Umm yea sure!
3. What key activities constitute a typical day in your work life?
I usually start my day early to make sure I have enough time to go through as many newspapers and news websites I can before 8 am. After that, I look at the last day’s stats (FB Insights, GA, Parsley), decide which stories didn’t get enough traction and need to be plugged again.
Then, I go through our publishing schedule to see what all we have planned for that day and figure out if there is any way I can help add value to those pieces — that can mean a lot of things: helping the desk give social media-friendly headlines, finding relevant images, creating illustrations, figuring out ways to share it on different social media platforms, etc. I usually work from home till noon and then go to office. Throughout the day, I track news sites, agencies, social media trends/influencers, Google trends/news to look for stories that The Wire can cover/follow up.
My favourite thing, of course, is tracking what The Wire readers/haters/fans are saying about us and every now and then interacting with them. We need to do more of that tbh — interact with our awesome community. Working on that.
The second favourite part of my job — bugging reporters and my bosses to make sure they do enough Live videos on FB and interact with their readers on social media. Since we are a small team, I get to work on a lot of different projects (it is really awesome). Somedays, I help desk with SEO on other days I make illustrations for stories. And every now and then, I write about media and fake news.
Oh! I am also incharge for ordering cakes on birthdays (this is the most important aspect of my job here).
4. What’s your reaction to the everyday trolling? If you are open to sharing — what are the emotional or mental health costs beyond the activities of report and block?
I’d be lying if i said the trolling doesn’t bug me. People are RTing my old tweets as I answer this question. Yes, I wanted to get rid of a corrupt government before 2014 and NO I did not expect that the BJP would turn into what it has under its pradhan sevak. People need to wrap their head around this and get over it already.
Funny thing — a couple of right-wing “influencers”/writers troll me on a weekly basis and then follow it up on DM with — “Sorry ma’am. Don’t take this personally. I really like you but yeh sab karna padta hai.” Sab performers hai! At least, I can sleep at night peacefully knowing that thanks to me and others (who have actually made a difference in the field of journalism, unlike me) a lot of people are getting employed (*cough* BJP IT Cell *cough*). You’re welcome!
Jokes apart, I have always suffered from anxiety and it has gotten worse in the last few months. Anxiety attacks are not fun. They can have a paralysing effect. And I tend to go down a self-loathing spiral with every single attack that makes getting out of bed or working really difficult. In my case, anxiety brings along its horrible friend, insomnia, also. It was a lot worse when it started — the co-ordinated trolling. But now I am learning to deal with it. It was not easy and if you can afford professional help, you should go for therapy. Mental health is very important.
Having a support system also helps. I have a really awesome team here and my bosses have been very supportive. And most of my friends are not journalists so they don’t care about things like ‘Twitter’. So that makes it better. I have switched off notifications for my personal social media accounts. It wasn’t easy but it makes a huge difference. Apart from that, i recently started meditating using Headspace app. When it gets too crazy, I dance.
It is really easy to become an “influencer” now. (I hate the term, btw). We live in such a messed up world that people put you up on a pedestal for standing up for very basic things. And the same people won’t take a second before kicking you off that pedestal if you don’t say the right thing every single time.
It is easy to forget that the person behind that Twitter handle is someone who will evolve with time, make mistakes and learn from them.
And often realise what they believed in was actually a result of the privilege that they didn’t realise they enjoyed. I have decided to listen more and speak less. Do whatever I can to amplify voices of those who actually have something to say. It is still WIP.
5. A social media editor’s job is pretty much 24/7. What keeps you going and what empowers you?
I love my job! You have to or you won’t be able to do it. We don’t get offs on festivals, most of us work on weekends, we get paid peanuts, we don’t have fixed hours and most of the readers hate us no matter what we do. So yes, you can’t do it if you don’t absolutely love it. All journos will agree with me on this — you need to be a certain level of crazy to survive in this field.
One of the things that keeps me going — messages from readers (especially students). Not kidding. We often get adorable mails from students across the country who have donated small amounts to TW from their pocket money.
A young lawyer walked up to me at a bar recently to tell me how much he loved our coverage of Cobrapost expose and that he donated a small amount of money when we turned three.
Similarly, I was in a small city in Madhya Pradesh a couple of months ago and was talking to a local tourist guide there. He asked me what I did for a living and because Iwas so sure that he wouldn’t have heard of TW, I just said Iam a journalist. He asked who I worked for and I reluctantly mentioned The Wire (reluctantly because I wasn’t in a mood to explain what we do etc. etc.) and he looked at me and said — “Wahi website na jisne Amit Shah ke beta ke story ki thi?”
6. Any words of advice to other young people interested in taking up this career?
Not everybody can do social media. No, it is NOT just posting on FB and Twitter. You need to understand data, multitask, understand news and more importantly care about news (that’s not something you can teach to people). It is one of the most exciting careers out there and there aren’t many people in the field. So, if you are willing to work hard and forget everything you think you know about social media every six months (that’s how often things/rules completely change), apply for a SM job!
To push Karnika’s inspiring work forward, you can follow her on Twitter and donate to The Wire here.
