New Delhi, Feb 11: You carry today a newspaper, radio, television, Internet, enjoy a movie or listen to a favourite number, receive instant messages, pay your electricity or any other bills, book your train or flight tickets from anywhere anytime, all in one device the smart phone on the palm of your hand! “Media is faced with the frantic pace of digital technology”, said Soumitra Sen, the head of the content TV, ESPN Sports, New Delhi, while addressing the staff and students of National Institute of Communication and Research Training (NISCORT), here today.
NISCORT was discussing the topic, ‘New Media and Digital Technology’ which is hot and happening. “The biggest news in the media these days has everything to do with mobile phone”, explained Mr. Sen. Of course the controversy is centred on 2G spectrum allocation. The former telecom minister, A.Raja and his associates are in the dock and who knows how many heads yet to roll. Only time will tell.
What is this 2G, 3G and 4G? The speaker simplified the response with an example of the traffic jam from Shipra Mall to the U.P border as the vehicles move at a snail’s pace on the narrow road on one hand and the wide road near Akshardham making the traffic flow smooth on the other. In the same way 2G spectrum is a narrow bandwidth which is sold to various operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Indicom, etc. Due to a large quantity of data flow, there happens to be choking and network problems. Whereas, the 3G spectrum which was under the control of the defence ministry for the security reasons, is now thrown open to private operators by the government. And so, there is a revolution in media communication.
However, we cannot bypass the basics. Giving the analogy of sports, Mr. Sen explained that to be a sportsperson, one has to be fit. So too for a media person the basic ‘fitness’ comes from the print journalism. Claiming that before moving to broadcast he began his career as a journalist for ‘The Telegraph’ in Kolkata, he concluded, “Top journalists in India, like Arnab Goswami, Vir Singhvi, Burkha Dutt, Rajeev Sardesai, etc. were first in the newspaper journalism before going into broadcast”. The print journalism faced the threat of television and now the television is challenged by the new wave of digital technology which gives ‘everything in a platter’ to the audience!
The Digital technologies like PCs, laptops and feature-rich mobile handsets with internet connections have changed the very nature and definition of mass media. The digital media has made communication personal and interactive. Mr. Sen showed how the communication from print and broadcast has evolved into email, gmail chatting, Orkut , Facebook and Twitter communication and comments. “Armed with web cameras we can see and speak to someone thousands of miles away using Skype programme”, said Mr. Sen.
The new media gadgets have effected a massive transformation in communication. Formerly people used to write letters to the editors. Now there are blogs and instant interactive comments posted. The celebrities and fans are connected through ‘twitter’. People know the Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, etc., through tweets. The Mangalore aircraft crash in May 2010 was authenticated by Shashi Taroor, the then minister of state for External Affairs, through twitter. The personal videos are easily uploaded on YouTube for the world to watch.
Through Power Point presentation and audio-visual clippings, Mr. Sen showed the way the digital media been manipulated. The Sholay film dialogue to promote the cricket match between India and England, the Bollywood stars Akshay promoting T-20 World Cup, Amitabh Bacchan promoting Airtel Champions League, SMSs on cricket alerts, etc. are all examples of manipulating the digital technologies. The ultimate example of a comprehensive use of the new media is Indian Premium League (IPL) cricket, where Bollywood, commercialization, sports, television rights, mobile companies all have come together under one banner. That is why many competitions named as: Karbon Cup, Micromax Cup, Reliance cup, etc.
To the question, whether the digital media has degraded the mass media, Mr. Sen reiterated, “Basics remain the same. It all depends on the users. There have been misuses like pornographic videos in circulation, etc.” But one thing is clear, the young generation is increasingly asserting its right to communicate in an effectively and instantly using the gen-next gadgets.
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