As India's big election season dragged on for months, hundreds of cable news stations across the country seemed to be competing with one another, predicting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would win, and win in a landslide victory.
However, the actual election results on 4 June saw his fortunes plummet, and he only secured re-election with the support of a coalition government.
It was a shocking result for many, and India is now wondering why so few predicted the popularity of the opposition movement. Some media outlets had predicted that Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win 400 of the 543 seats in parliament, but in the end the party won just 240.
Many see this difference as a sign of how thoroughly the prime minister has intimidated the mainstream media, how thorough his control over the information system has become, and how hype has obscured the true feelings of the electorate.
During Modi's decade in power, a combination of pressures and incentives led major news channels to cheer his every move. They presented him as a powerful leader, unstoppable and unchallenged by any opposition. It was unthinkable to debate with him on policies or even on the delivery of campaign promises.
Many reporters from established news organizations have accepted what Modi has become: pride in his vision of a Hindu-first India. Journalists who investigated the less-than-savory aspects of his tenure, including from independent outlets that harshly criticized his policies, have been expelled, hunted down or forced to surrender.
After exit polls were released on election night, one TV station even said Mr. Modi's coalition would win 30 seats in a state with just 25. Another news anchor seemed to mock one of its own reporters for suggesting there was discontent over economic stress.
Analysts said the huge miss in predictions by most news outlets shows that Indians are either too afraid to voice their opinions or too suspicious of the broadcast media to trust their real opinions.
“The media were actually campaigning for the ruling party,” said Yogendra Yadav, a political activist and veteran election analyst, adding: “They are a stain on our democracy.”
Analysts say Modi and the mainstream media underestimated how much of the information space had strayed from the bubble they created. As the mainstream media has lost credibility, a parallel system of online news reporters with more independent perspectives has grown.
Indeed, much of the election campaign took place online, with opposition parties seeing the online space as a key avenue for voicing their criticism of Mr Modi for making India undemocratic and unequal.
“There is a lack of centrist journalism and it is a loss for the country,” said Saurabh Shukla, co-founder of the YouTube channel The Red Mic.
Shukla, an award-winning reporter who left a news station to start a YouTube channel with other journalists, said there was a clear discrepancy between what was being reported on TV news and what he and many other journalists saw on the ground.
In a sign that Modi himself is beginning to notice the divide, he has sent his cabinet members onto his YouTube channel to discuss the party's performance, at times trolling mainstream media that praises him.
“If you are in the media and are dedicated and waving the Modi flag, who can stop you?” the prime minister told four interviewers from New Delhi-based media organisations.
With a population of 1.4 billion, India has 880 satellite TV channels, more than 350 news outlets and the most YouTube users in the world.
Since gaining independence in 1947, India has built a reputation as a country with a vast and independently-minded media culture, punctuated only by the Emergency and censorship imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for several months in the mid-1970s.
But that independent bent has been shifting over the years of Modi's leadership, as leaders in the Hindu nationalist camp have found different ways to exert pressure to control media groups.
Journalists and editors critical of the government began to leave traditional news organisations and move online in droves. Unlike the TV news channels that gave Modi hours of coverage during the election, this independent corps of reporters told the people, their stories and their problems.
One of them is Ravish Kumar. After quitting his job as a prime-time news anchor, Mr. Kumar began broadcasting on YouTube. For months, he has focused on issues like rising rural unemployment and loopholes in competitive exams that have led hundreds of thousands of students to take to the streets in protest.
While Kumar, who has an audience of more than a million people most days, accused Modi of using religious polarisation to garner votes instead of talking about his development record, his TV news colleagues used prime time to attack Modi's opponents.
Network news anchors spent their interviews with Modi mainly asking simple questions unrelated to national issues, such as, “Are these elections just a formality?” and “Why aren't you tired?”
Another independent journalist, Ajit Anjum, reported on voter anger against a Union Minister in Uttar Pradesh after spending a few days in the minister's constituency. Many news channels predicted that she would win in a landslide victory, but she was heavily defeated by a more subdued rival, the longtime campaign manager of an opposition leader. This was another accurate prediction by an independent YouTube news channel.
“YouTube has given a tough call to the BJP and its media allies,” said Shukla, the journalist.As the election results become clearer, more viewers are turning to online news for updates.
Several independent media organisations came together to provide their own election night coverage, and many Indians followed the coverage online, seeking calmer analysis rather than the insults on TV news.
It's unclear whether the sudden move toward independent journalism will continue.
“We don't know if this will continue,” said Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist, adding that while more people are watching his content, the new law also makes it easier for the government to censor online articles.
Despite government challenges, online news providers held the edge in credibility during this election, and the accuracy of their election outcome predictions stood in stark contrast to those of cable news networks.
After touring Hindi-speaking northern India, the traditional base of Modi's party, Mr. Yadav, the political activist, said he expected the BJP to win around 260 seats. Few believed his prediction, especially among TV news commentators. But he was right.