Parul Agrawal

Lethally scared by regular 9 to 5 jobs I decided in the early years of my student life that I wanted to be a Journalist. However it was only later that I realised it's not just a profession that I chose but an agenda for life.

My career began as a Television Journalist in India around 2006 with the news agency Asian News International. Working for the daily news bulletins I discovered my keen interest in features and my first outstation assignment framed the journalistic ethos I still find hard to resist.

I was in the newly built state of Jharkhand rich in resources, inhabited by tribes, affected by Maoist violence but positioned high on the development radar of Central and state governments.

The stint exposed me to multifaceted yet overly simplified media coverage of realities like development vs. homogeneity, traditional knowledge vs. modernization, state vs. people and the concept of nationality. These questions and debates have constantly followed me all through these years in Journalism while I switched mediums from television to print to online and radio.

In 2008 I shifted to IBN and became a part of an experimental project that later turned into a phenomenon. I produced The Citizen Journalist show which is a platform for citizens to identify, report and follow their 'stories' as Citizen Journalists.

From Bihar floods to Mumbai terror attacks to nationwide anti corruption protests, Citizen Journalism in India has seen it all and constantly reported not just the big breaking stories but stories that need resistance from undue simplification.

Citizen Journalists insistently persist to highlight the complexity and diversity of issues because at times they have spent as much as 12 years following the story vis-à-vis a professional journalist bound by his own deadlines. The growth of Citizen Journalism in partnership with mainstream media intrigued me to opt for the Reuters' fellowship and explore the relationship in India and beyond.

Currently I am working at the BBC Delhi Bureau as a producer for Radio and Online. When I am not working for the daily news cycle, I try to report and understand stories that endlessly and audaciously wait to be covered.