The basic aim of media in the mass communication platform is, to inform, educate and entertain. Media is trying to fulfill its aim from the very beginning. The audience is being continuously bombarded with messages practically throughout the hours it is awake. The life and utility of media are totally dependent on the liking of the audience or consumer. Naturally, all the media are trying to woo and cajole the consumer for his favour with the help of different devices. Technological advancement in this regard plays a vital role. The basic processes of being able to transmit and receive information in major advanced discrete packets via telecommunication networks across the globe has been around for close to 30 years now. These processes are, however, being made cheaper, more information in different formats such as audio and video can now be sent and received and the user now has a choice of instruments through which to access information at a time and place of his or her choice. In fact, news has become an improved and hi-tech product these days. A revolutionary change had come in the media world from the mid-eighties.
Actually, change has come simultaneously in three different sectors – Collecting information, Processing information and Delivering information.
If we consider the print media, correspondents from different corners of the globe used to send their information to their respective offices mostly through telegram, telex, teleprinters and then fax. Telephone is the common medium for receiving and sending information from the day of its inception till date. Information technology has created a remarkable development in this regard. A newspaper office is getting instant information from its correspondent through his cellphone. On the other hand, the office can instruct the correspondent instantly, who is present on the spot. If the bureau requires extra information or wants to try some other angle it can immediately contact its representative through his mobile phone. He is even sending instant photographs through his cell. This situation was unthinkable before the invention and frequent use of such cell-phones. Moreover, correspondents are sending detail reports through e-mails, which are being received in the main office in no time.
In case of audio and visual media, digital transmission has brought sea changes in terms of clear sound and picture and smooth transmission of messages. Hi-tech cameras are being used in this regard. Print media is also getting benefited by such cameras. They are getting photos from across the globe instantly.
In case of processing information also IT has brought a great change. Though electronic messages produced and stored in a computer and read on the video screen sound an expensive proposition, a University of Toronto study predicted that from the middle of the 1990s onwards they would become cheaper than the conventional kind. A study in Norway predicted that 1990 would see the start of the ‘paperless society’ there. We have already seen that the ‘Arpanet’ communication system, which links computers in the USA and Europe has allowed communicators to exchange information even more easily than by mail or telephone. Arpanet has also proved useful for transmitting manuscripts to referees and for other editorial tasks. This and similar interactive systems allow co-workers thousands of miles apart to communicate effectively. Audio cassettes, gramophone records, video cassettes and televised information systems are other types of processes into which editors may find themselves venturing. Be it print, audio or video, advanced software in editing process are helping in better quality news product as a whole. Q-series software, Basy software, Newsmaker software etc are being used in case of visual media to collect news and prepare it for telecasting attractively in short time.
Now comes the question of delivering information. After collecting information, technologically processed complete pages are transmitted through satellites thousands of miles across the globe to be printed in a different city or country, where the paper has an edition. ‘The Hindu’ first used this facsimile system in India years ago. Along with ‘The Hindu’ group, ‘The Indian Express’ group, ‘The Times of India’ group, ‘The Hindustan Times’ group, ‘The Statesman’ group and others are running their multi-edition papers with the help of satellites. Visual media is using Digital Terrestrial Transmission system and Satellite Link Network to deliver information across the world, through which we can even downlink the signals of BBC in Santiniketan, which is centered in London. With the help of advanced software we are even approaching the ‘Interactive TV’ system, where, for example, a viewer could select the angle from which he wants to watch a football match using only a hand-held keypad.
Digital Audio Broadcasting has erased the AM-FM sound quality disparity in the broadcast media. More radio stations have come up to serve the same area as there are less interference with digital signals. Now, digital receiving sets allow the listeners to programme his set to pick up one of his choice.
The article will be incomplete if I do not discuss the latest member of the media club i.c. Cyber Media, which is an outcome of technological advancement. The choice of words is deliberate and eschews the celebratory ‘New Media’ – which is rather like an advertising campaign for a ‘new and improved’ product – since Indian news sites have been around since the mid 1990s at least, with ‘The Hindu’ from Chennai being one of the earliest. Despite the fact that it is no longer new, the growth of online media or the number of users accessing news content, online has belied expectations, with very low user numbers. The latest estimate from the European Commission’s New Media Review’s data from June 2005 lists the numbers of net users in India as 21.3 million or just 2 per cent of the population. While almost every Indian media, whether print or broadcast, has a web presence today in addition to a number of pure play online news sites. A useful study done by Anikar M. Haseloff of Augsburg University, finds, not surprisingly, that the majority of the users come from the upper economic and educational strata of society. While the Internet was seen in the USA as a means to democratic communication and information, in India it remains so far an elite means of communication and information exchange.
In terms of media access, a crucial difference between online and other media is the much higher degree of motivation and decision making required in the former. Unlike print, radio and television, which are described as ‘push technology’, that is, they push content to the media consumer, the Internet is characterized as ‘pull technology’, with the consumer required to seek and obtain information. In the print and television ‘push’ environment, very little technological competence is required from the consumer to access the content. For accessing content online one needs skills going beyond mere literacy, long seen as one of the major problems confronting the growth of the print media in India. The basic difference between print and television on the one hand and the Internet on the other underlines the fact that accessing media content online calls for a set of skills and prior knowledge that goes beyond mere literacy, skills, that are currently unavailable to a large section of Indian society. [Words – 1201]
Reference:
Outline of Editing, - M. K. Joseph, 2002
- ‘News Media & Management’ by P. K. Ravindranath, 2005
- ‘The Indian Media – Illusion, Delusion and Reality’
Edited by Asharani Mathur, 2006
- Image Journeys – Edited by Christiana Brosius & Melissa Butcher
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