Punjab Technical University

BSCMCAJ-602 CONTEMPORARY MEDIA TECHNOLOGY SEMESTER-6

Study Material for PTU Students

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN MEDIA WORLD

Mass communication and Journalism is institutionalized and source specific. It functions through well-organized professionals and has an ever increasing interlace. Mass media has a global availability and it has converted the whole world in to a global village. A qualified journalism professional can take up a job of educating, entertaining, informing, persuading, interpreting, and guiding. Working in print media offers the opportunities to be a news reporter, news presenter, an editor, a feature writer, a photojournalist, etc. Electronic media offers great opportunities of being a news reporter, news editor, newsreader, programme host, interviewer, cameraman, producer, director, etc. Other titles of Mass Communication and Journalism professionals are script writer, production assistant, technical director, floor manager, lighting director, scenic director, coordinator, creative director, advertiser, media planner, media consultant, public relation officer, counselor, front office executive, event manager and others.

INTRODUCTION This book covers the contemporary Media technologies and information technology. Media Technologies are both evolutionary and revolutionary. With newer technological innovations replacing the old technologies, the Mass Communication scenario is changing at a very fast pace. This course intends to acquaint the students with the contemporary media technology. The topics in the book deal with the conventional media scenario. The students will learn the new information communication technologies. The book also covers IT & information management. In recent years, the word telecommunications has been used so often, and applied in so many situations, that it has become part of our daily lexicon. So, learning about moving on digital era is also necessary, which will be covered in the book. Globalization has immensely changed the present media scenario and thus the book deals with the impact of globalization on the media.

SYLLABUS BSCMCAJ-602: Contemporary Media Technology Objective: Media Technologies are both evolutionary and revolutionary. With newer technological innovations replacing the old technologies, the Mass Communication scenario is changing at a very fast pace. This course intends to acquaint the students with the contemporary media technology. Contents: 1. THE CONVENTIONAL MEDIA SCENARIO (Radio, TV & Newspaper). 2. NEW INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES: Need and Cultural contexts. 3. IT & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT. 4. MOVING ON DIGITAL ERA: What is Digitalization? Internet < E-Commerce, Broadcasting, Cable TV, Video Technology Impact of TV Digital Media & Entertainment Technology Telecommunication Revolution New Technological Devices New Communication Revolution 5. GLOBALISATION PROCESS: Cultural Globalization Perspective, Impact of globalization

CONVENTIONAL MEDIA SCENARIO INTRODUCTION

Our world is undergoing significant changes and the bland are leading the blind. Politicians speak in sound bites while newspaper headlines compress the complexities of the world into clichés. Ours is a world in which television talk-show hosts have replaces political commentators as the principal interlocutors of prime ministerial and presidential aspirations at election time, and a world where sleaze have triumphed over sophistication in the media. Politics and public information about it is increasingly ‘packaged’ for ready consumption in a manner more akin to entertainment than instruction or information- hence the advent of a new word ‘infotainment’. Live television brings the dramatic doings of the globe into our living rooms instantaneously. It is a fast world, with fast morals and fast media and seemingly vast problem. On the surface, such phenomena as tabloid journalism and ‘real-time’ television are harmless attempts to explain a complicated world full of complex issues in a manner which helps the public to understand them better, and in an entertaining and exciting manner, so that informed decisions can be made about the collective well-being. As such, it could be argued modern journalism serves the public well as a force for their democratic ‘right to know’, imparting news and information in ways, which serve their democratic ‘need to know’. World events demand better, fuller and more conceptualized reporting than they currently receive. So, does an informed citizenship in an increasingly globalize world. Reducing foreign news coverage to an alleged ‘lowest common denominator’ may well in fact be a recipe for over-simplification to the point of serious distortion and misunderstanding. In reality, does the practice of covering world events in twelve column inches or a three-minute news segment encourage prejudice rather than empathy, national pride rather than international harmony, and emotional rather than rational judgment?

CONVENTIONAL MEDIA- Radio, TV & Newspaper The present era of media convergence demands knowledge and expertise across a diverse range of media technologies and systems. We live at a moment when every important idea, story, brand, image, sound and relationship is apt to travel across every available channel of communication. This spread of media content is fuelled top-down by the consolidation of media industry and bottom-up by popular access to new tools of grassroots media production and distribution. Yet, there is no moment in human history when a single medium operated in isolation. Each medium has its own affordances, its own market, and its own cultural status. These different media interact with each other to constitute the communication environment. Different media interact differently with people across the world. Nowadays we are confronted with the immense density of information and media technologies, which has an impact on our consuming behavior, and our senses and cognition. Our senses and cognition are effected through audio and visual, written and pictured forms for example of infotainment, newstainment and docutainment. There are several ways of getting information: - Newspapers and magazines, - Television, radio, internet, and last but not least - SMS The greater the variety of information channels, the greater the challenge to select the way of getting information. Radio Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space. Information is carried by systematically changing (modulating) some property of the radiated waves, such as amplitude, frequency, or phase. When radio waves pass an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. This can be detected and transformed into sound or other signals that carry information. The radio communication is based on the audio technique. The challenge of the audio technique is two-sided:

• the communicators have to catch the attention of the audience, • the recipients have to keep focusing on the spoken word. Therefore the main requirement for the communicators of the radio -news is to complete the task of providing the information to the recipient and to secure the “remembrance” effect. Media-sciences define several concepts of communication. Lasswell explained the process of communication and the effects of media in simple words “WHO says WHAT in WHICH channel TO WHOM with WHAT EFFECT?” Guglielmo Marconi of Italy invented a way to transmit sound without using wires. By 1901, Marconi succeeded in creating a wireless communication link between Europe and North America. In 1906, Lee Forest with John Fleming perfected the ‘audion’ or the vacuum tube, which made clear transmission of voice and music possible. These developments paved the way for the first ever broadcast that took place on Christmas Eve, in 1906 in USA. Later it took ten years of hard work to perfect the radio. Radio established its place very fast in the minds of listeners. Heavy doses of infotainment including music, drama, talk shows, etc supplemented with news made radio popular overnight. Soon radio industry developed wide spreading networks and by the 1930’s radio became prime mass medium. Radio broadcasting was introduced in India by amateur radio clubs in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Lahore, though even before the clubs launched their ventures, several experimental broadcasts were conducted in Bombay.

Radio programmes may be classified into two broad groups 1. Spoken word programmes, which include news bulletins, talks, discussions, interviews, educational programmes for schools and colleges, specific audience programmes directed at women, children, rural and urban listeners, drama, radio features and documentaries. 2. Music programmes, which include disc jockey programmes, musical performances of all types and variety programmes. Strength of the Radio 1. Radio reaches messages to illiterates, neo-literates and highly educated receivers simultaneously. 2. It is a fairly affordable to be owed by everyone. 3. The want of visual effect is compensated by sound effects, both natural and mechanical and so live effect is moderately high. The quality of voice and sound makes the communication fairly enjoyable. 4. Musical sound effect enlivens the communication and often breaks monotony. 5. It has the capacity to deliver instantaneous messages. 6. Radio does not require captivity. Listeners can receive messages even when they are working. Farmer may listen to farm programmes while working in fields, a busy executive may listen to news bulletin even while driving or a housewife may listen to her favorite programme even while working in the kitchen. 7. Radio does not require power line for operation and so people in remote villages devoid of power lines can also receive messages from this medium. 8. Once a transistor radio is purchased, messages flow constantly and no cost is involved for reception of messages. Weakness of the Radio 1. Communication through radio lacks visual component and so does not demonstrate but suggests. 2. Spoken messages are subject to interpretation of listeners according to their imagination, experience and predisposition; hence possibility of misinterpretation is very high. 3. Listeners need lot of imagination and therefore understanding of message depends largely on the characteristics of the receivers.

4. Communication is time limited and presents tiny fragments of topics in a haphazard mosaic. The medium has also limitations because of its audio nature. 5. Receivers cannot put off listening parts of message for subsequent listening at their convenience. Future of Radio Radio’s future is a mystery. It is not easy to predict the future of radio. The future of radio would depend on changing regulatory scenarios, technological developments and change of listener’s appeal. Radio’s current localization and specialized programming will continue. Technologically, radio transmission will improve greatly. FM will continue to grow faster and bigger. Radio listeners have indeed grown manifold, and the network is expanding a great deal and now it offers a daily service for many hours transmitting news, comments, songs, music, comedies, and thrillers, sports, besides special programmes for children, youth and farmers. One of the best advantages that radio has over other media is that it can serve and entertain an audience, which is otherwise occupied. For example, people can listen to it while working at home, in the fields and factories and even while traveling. Radio communication is relevant for different stages of the news selection: i.e. attention, pre-knowledge, attitudes, feelings, motivation, hearing- ability, recall-strategies. Communicator: Is a person or a group of people, who chooses messages, produces, and spreads these messages. Communicator has the intention of declaring something by shaping, selecting and controlling this process. Communicators are therefore called gatekeepers. Message: It is everything what the communicator is sending through a medium to the recipient. Its meaning is transmitted by symbols and signals, which are producing or stimulating psychological and social processes of the recipient. A medium is a material transporter of these meanings, symbols and signals. Recipient: Is a human being who receives the news, demander or user of the information, and the partner of communicators. Some scientist make the difference between recipients who “decode” a message in connection with “understanding” and the others who just receive that message

Radio– the Challenging Media Nowadays radio is the most accessible information channel in the world. According to one classic definition radio is a mass medium is transferring only acoustics and signals, it is connected to time and fix-broadcasting-dates, radio is brief (every information-sequence is broadcasted one time), radio can be independent of spaces, it can potentially be received from everyone at the same time. What is further making radio interesting for is, that the imagination of spoken language is often abstract – it is not easy to “imagine” in pictures. That’s why it can be said, that radio is rather a concentrating media – as far as the recipient is motivated to consume information broadcasted on the radio. The spoken word has a longer during effect, then motioned pictures. It said that the thought (spoken) word is even not imaginable in pictures. That’s probably why listening news and information on radio is an act of concentration, rather than an act of distraction. Writing for hearing existed already in the Middle Ages - what is left today is, the speaker has to have personal and speaking-performance-skills and sometimes also acting skills. The basic rule of writing for the audience is to create a pronounceable message for the communicator in order to transmit it the most understandable way to the audience, not to produce as many information as possible in the shortest period of time. For the remembrance it is necessary to activate the 3 elements: media-factors, as well as situation and recipient-factors. According to the studies, all these factors are not equally important for the process of remembrance: ¾ Remembrance or recall of radio-news is dependent of the items, but also of the position of the news-information: it seems to be much easier to remember the first news-information. ¾ Speaking about different items is also positively influencing the recall and the remembrance. The broadcasting should be supported by commentaries, repetition and previews like teaser and bumper. ¾ Formal media factors like Original tones, headlines and sound-elements are not directly and strongly influencing the remembrance. From the recipient’s point of view, remembering the news depend more on the interest, motivation and previous knowledge.

¾ Finally there are some indications that the daytime, the activities, like driving car or relaxing in the sofa, and the background-acoustics are influencing the process of remembrance. Throughout the time the radio has not very much changed the technique, but it has broadened the audience. Radio has become a mass-media and it has maintained the role of information provider. The radio-broadcasting today is even the most accessible information channel in the world. And it even can be used as a “weapon” against misunderstanding and disinformation. Television Television (TV) is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. Commercially available since the late 1930s, the television set has become a common communications receiver in homes, businesses and institutions, particularly as a source of entertainment and news. Since the 1970s the availability of video cassettes, laserdiscs, DVDs, have resulted in the television set frequently being used for viewing recorded as well as broadcast material. A standard television set comprises multiple internal electronic circuits, including those for tuning and decoding broadcast signals. A display device which lacks a tuner is properly called a monitor, rather than a television. A television system may use different technical standards such as digital television (DTV) and highdefinition television (HDTV). Television systems are also used for surveillance, industrial process control, and guiding of weapons, in places where direct observation is difficult or dangerous.

Unlike other forms of mass media, television has become one of the most powerful media of Mass communication. With a modest beginning in the 1930s, it has grown into a massive network of mass information and mass entertainment in today’s world. The attraction of the ‘visual ness’ of the medium makes people remain glued to the TV set for hours. Television captures our imagination and is the most complete and dramatic of all mass media. In addition to providing news and events, television also packages fiction, drama, culture, economy and many other things. Thus, this idiot box (because it provides everything on a platter and we need not do any thinking) has been increasing its hold on us. History of Television The inventions and discoveries in the late 1990s and early twentieth century, which gave us radio, films and the telephone, also lead to the invention of the television. Vladimir Zworykin, an American scientist, who developed an all-electronic television system in 1923 and perfected it by 1928, took the first big step in the development of TV. However, only experimental TV broadcasts were conducted in the early days. In 1938, TV sets became widely available and since then there is no looking back. In India, television arrived with small scale experimental telecasting from Delhi in 1959. Slowly the half hour programme experiment grew. While Doordarshan was the only channel available through 1980, the TV in India has completely changed with the arrival of private TV channels. Strength and weakness of Television It has all the strength of radio except that it needs captive audience, has not attained portability and miniaturization and needs power line for inexpensive working. TV viewing is essentially a family affair and so helps family unity. It is far from slow and availability is constant. Repetition of message does not gain expense except nominal fees for cable connections. Television like radio, is in all sense a ‘now’ medium. Television gives cursory overview of the events and is never capable of providing in-depth analysis and reporting. It is severely time limited and presents tiny fragments of topics. Television programmes skip and jumps demands constant change of mental gears from programmes to commercial, from documentary to cartoon and news. Also contents are high in entertainment and low in information. Power line is needed for its inexpensive operation and battery operated television sets are most expensive.

Films Films refer to all documentary, educational, feature, informational and advertisement cinemas. A film is considered a mass medium because it reaches to a very large audience. It is not as immediate as newspaper, television or radio, but reaches a large number of people over a long period of time. Film does not have a well-defined audience like other major mass media. It also lacks the overwhelming presence as enjoyed by radio, TV and newspapers, etc. but still it has one very big advantage that is it commands attention. Once inside the darkened theatres, audience members forget the outside world and become captive to the charm of the film. The larger than life format of film (from 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, cinema scope to the most recent I-max format) provides the film producer absolute control over emphasis, order of presentation, continuity, dramatic effect and timing. Thus, film has become a superb medium of entertainment, instruction and persuasion. When individual photographs or visuals are shown one after the other at a very fast rate, then we get an illusion of motion or movement. Cinema works on the principles of ‘persistence of vision’, which means that the eye retains an image for fleeting seconds after it is gone. Efforts had started very early to create illusion of motion. Many devices were invented for this purpose. Long back Leonardo da Vinci developed the camera obscura. In 1671, Kircher developed the ‘magic lanterns’. Photography and projection were united when Stanford developed the ‘Zoopraxinoscope’. Soon Thomas Alva Edison invented the electric bulb and many other such developments took place. Then came the Lumiere brothers who produced and started having commercial shows of short shoot and show films. Soon others followed and by the beginning of the 20th century, film became the second mass medium after newspapers. Very soon films became a form of family entertainment. Movie theaters opened everywhere and people wanted to see more interesting contents. So feature films came into existence. The combination of all these factors made cinema a booming industry. Film has had an enormous impact on the audiences. One reason is it is not imposed. It does not come to us and instead we go to theatres to watch films. Usually the films deal with universal themes so language barrier is minimal and we can thoroughly enjoy film of another language if we like the theme. India is in fact the largest producer of feature films in the world. Commercial cinema is all glamour and fantasy. The usual ingredients are sex, songs, dances, crime, fights, melodrama, and comedy, all bordering on unreality. Then also, these films set trends in styles and tastes, dominate the popular radio and television

entertainment programmes, provide spicy reading material for film magazines, which are published in large numbers. Strength and weakness Cinemas are replica of dramas in natural settings and so influence audience. Even myths are depicted as if they are real. Cinema is an audio-visual medium and is rich in live effect and demonstrates as well as suggests. Details are extensive through sound, music, visual effects, and skillful production, editing and roleplaying. Dramatization of the presentation sets tempo and mood of the audience. And most significant attribute of film is that it reaches messages to illiterates, neo literates, and moderately educated and highly educated people having basic visual literacy. Selection of sets and props in films sometimes confuse the audience, makes the communication abstract and creates misunderstanding. Crime and obscene adversely affect the society and so realistic censorship is required for the welfare of the society. Cost of exposure is moderately high especially in case of commercial cinema. Future of films In its century old existence cinema has faced few shakes ups. First it was television. Skeptics thought no one would watch films in theatres, as so much was available on television within the comforts of one’s home. But soon it was found that TV depends too heavily on films and films form a considerable part of TV programming. Then came videocassettes! Now it is videodiscs. These eliminate the necessity of “going out” to the theatres to be entertained. But the fact that cinema is thriving proves that mass media share a symbiotic relationship and are not mutually destructive. Of course, cinema is not sitting idle. It is facing the threat posed by other media head-on. Highly decorated theatre halls complete with shopping complexes, are now attracting more audience. Multiplexes, like PVR Delhi are another way of film fighting back. Then there are 70 mm and cinemascope. Faster frame rate is another novelty. Hollywood has started delivering films to theatre halls over satellite. Another recent innovation is the I-max screens, which are ten times larger than the traditional 35 mm screen. Dolby stereo system, 16-track recording, etc. also have

added more allure to films. Interactive films, where audience member can have a say about how a film should end, is another novel way of attracting more audience. So it can be safely concluded that film, as a medium of entertainment and communication and as an industry, would continue to grow and hold an important part in our social system. Internet There is a rising use of personal computers by individuals at home and in offices. Today, average person has the skill to use basic computer in daily life. As the essence of mass communication is that professional communicators operate the media to a large and heterogeneous audience, a computer network in which people send messages to each other will be a different kind of process altogether. However, where records of memos, messages, and transactions are done, this medium would be considered to be a medium of mass communication. A more likely prospect is that new mass media will develop by coupling computers to modern variants of cable television. In fact, experimental media using this technology have already come into use. The Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web. The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications. The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, data cards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology. Common uses of the Internet E-mail-The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Even

today it can be important to distinguish between Internet and internal e-mail systems. Internet e-mail may travel and be stored unencrypted on many other machines and networks out of both the sender's and the recipient's control. The World Wide Web-Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines, like Google, millions worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data. Remote access-The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country. Collaboration-The low-cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and test, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place, even among niche interests. Internet 'chat', whether in the form of IRC 'chat rooms' or channels, or via instant messaging systems allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be sent and viewed even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. File sharing-A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a Web site or FTP server for easy download by others. These simple features of the Internet, over a world-wide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of office documents, publications, software products, music, photography, video, animations, graphics and the other arts. Streaming media-Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet 'feeds' of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet 'broadcasters' who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internetconnected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to

access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver. Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full frame rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Voice telephony (VoIP)-VoIP stands for Voice over IP, where IP refers to the Internet Protocol that underlies all Internet communication. This phenomenon began as an optional two-way voice extension to some of the Instant Messaging systems that took off around the year 2000. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the actual voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a normal telephone call, especially over long distances. Online news/ Conventional Media Gone are the days of good old newspaper editorial columns, serious political debate and hard-hitting, watchdog journalism. Newspapers today seem to be more about celebrity reporting, complete with entertainment news, film reviews and horoscopes. Needless to say, the serious news audience is migrating online to their favored news Web sites to quench their need for real news, be it book reviews or witty analysis of issues that matter. For the well-wired elite that used to take newspapers seriously, the Internet has become a more focused, better written, and alternative to legacy media. Cyber news has now taken the place of conventional media when it comes to real debate, policy analysis, and political journalism. In the wake of online news' heightened value today, newspapers must use their Web sites and hire smart bloggers to garner and keep their audience. Media Technologies across Borders Advanced telecommunications and the worldwide expansion of media markets create an urgent need to understand our emerging ‘global media culture’, ‘the cross-pollination of national and international cultural traditions, and the new styles and genres developing in this context. The same media technologies operate differently in different national contexts, as they get absorbed into different cultural traditions, economic contexts, and political structures. Thus, it is important to reflect upon the interplay between globalize and localizing forces in defining the contemporary and historic media landscape.

The emerging digital landscape poses significant challenge for those concerned with the notion of global culture. On one hand, these new technologies potentially accelerate long-standing trends towards the world culture, insuring access to international markets. It continuously erodes traditional national identities and cultural values. On the other hand, the multi-directional character of digital communications in mass media may open the global community to more diverse influences, enabling people to maintain stronger ties to their countries and encouraging stronger global consciousness. Like the ‘information superhighway’, ‘globalization’ is yet another hype term in Information Technology. It assumes that the phenomena of the industries are worldwide, that users of information technologies and mass media make up the majority of the world’s population with no obstacles to access anywhere. While millions across the world access the Internet, it is often forgotten that these belong to elite educated groups in the richer countries. By no means is access universal, nor it is affordable to the vast majority of the world’s population. Thus, there is indeed a yawing gap between the information-rich and the information-poor, and this gap is growing, since the costs of access are nowhere getting any cheaper or easier. Information Superhighway: It is a broad term used for the many emerging and existing paths for accessing electronic information. They include computer networks, electronic mail, enhanced cable TV systems, electronic shopping and banking, etc. The information superhighway was a popular term used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication system. This term was coined to describe a possible upgrade to the existing Internet through the use of fiber optic and/or cable to allow for high speed data transmission. Globalization: In its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional things or phenomena into global ones. It can also be used to describe a process by which the people of the world are unified. Globalization is a set of processes leading to the integration of economic, cultural, political, and social systems across borders. It is the concept used to recognize the continuing integration of local, regional, and national economies which now form a larger economic. Thus, it is a complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural, and political changes seen as increasing, integration, and interaction between people and companies in disparate locations.

Today, the Global Village is mostly used as a metaphor to describe the Internet and World Wide Web. On the Internet, physical distance is even less of a hindrance to the real-time communicative activities of people, and therefore social spheres are greatly expanded by the openness of the web and the ease at which people can search for online communities and interact with others that share the same interests and concerns. Therefore, this technology fosters the idea of a multinational yet unified global community. Due to the enhanced speed of communication online and the ability of people to read about, spread, and react to global news very rapidly, this forces us to become more involved with one another from countries around the world and be more aware of our global responsibilities. Similarly, web-connected computers enable people to link their web sites together. Significance of News Media It is really amazing that how the radio, the television, and the newspaper get all the information, facts and figures from far flung corners of the World? How could all the newspapers, in a very short span of time, gather information? This is where the whole system of news and information gathering and dissemination activities operates. Production and distribution of information has become a very complicated and competitive business. News agencies have performed this role for many years. Since the material is distributed and used by many media establishments, there is concern about the power of these agencies. Significant changes in communications have occurred in the recent past. These changes have implications for both national and international communication flows. These flows have advantages as well as disadvantages. They have also raised a number of issues concerning politics, economy, and culture in different countries, and prompted them to evolve a framework of communication of their own in keeping with their own needs. It is, therefore, necessary to understand the nature and content of communication flows between and among nations and the organizations that are involved in these tasks. There are hundreds of agencies, which are in the business of supplying information to the mass media. These agencies are referred to as news agencies, feature agencies, and syndicates. The news agencies supply material to suit the print as well as the audio-visual media. The impact of these agencies on what we read and

see is quite significant. Therefore, an essential pre-requisite for a student of communication is to understand the background of some of these agencies. New Information Technologies Information technology (IT) is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated. The term Information Technology (IT) is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981. Domsic, who worked as a computer manager for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the outdated phrase "data processing". The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as "the branch of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of information, especially by means of computers". Throughout the world, new information technologies are making it possible for the information ‘have nots’ to catch up and plug in to this increasingly globalized and accessible system, whether it be in Thailand, the fastest growing mobile communications market in the world in 1995, or in places like Hong Kong and Singapore which have joined the top ranks of the world’s economic centers. Despite the costs involved, and the electrical power needed to drive the

technology, expenditure needed for communication is in fact comparatively cheap, or certainly affordable, and is becoming more so. As one scholar has pointed out, this situation may help ‘the poor to move beyond being simply a passive audience. Cheaper and more accessible technologies allow individuals and groups to become their own message makers. Alternative communication networks link together grassroots and policy groups throughout the globe, working on environmental, peace and relief efforts and forging together interests and activists into a new global civil society. Comprehensive list of various choices of Global Media: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Print Media- (newspapers, magazines, etc) Broadcast Media (Television, Radio, Cable, Satellite TV) Video Cinema Outdoor Media (Posters, Hoardings, Banners, Boards, Wall writings, Balloon, Sky writing, etc) Transit Media (Buses, Trains, other transport vehicles) Direct Mail Point of Purchase media Sales Literature (Leaflets, Brochures, Posters, Catalogues, other display materials)

Emergence of New Media Until the 1980s media relied primarily upon print and art analog broadcast models, such as those of television and radio. The last twenty-five years have seen the rapid transformation into media which are predicated upon the use of digital computers, such as the Internet and computer games. However, these examples are only a small representation of new media. The use of digital computers has transformed the remaining 'old' media, as suggested by the advent of digital television and online publications. Even traditional media forms such as the printing press have been transformed through the application of technologies such as image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and desktop publishing tools. The "emergence of new, digital technologies signals "a potentially radical shift of who is in control of information, experience and resources". The "new media" have technical capabilities to pull in one direction, economic and social forces pull

back in the opposite direction. We are witnessing the evolution of a universal interconnected network of audio, video, and electronic text communications that will blur the distinction between interpersonal and mass communication and between public and private communication. Today’s New Media: ƒ Will alter the meaning of geographic distance. ƒ Allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication. ƒ Provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication. ƒ Provide opportunities for interactive communication. ƒ Allow forms of communication that were previously separate to overlap and interconnect. Globalization shortens the distance between people all over the world by the electronic communication. New media "radically break the connection between physical place and social place, making physical location much less significant for our social relationships" However, the changes in the new media environment create a series of tensions in the concept of “public sphere”. “Public sphere” is defined as a process through which public communication becomes restructured and partly disembodied from national political and cultural institutions. This trend of the globalized public sphere is not only as a geographical expansion forms a nation to worldwide, but also changes the relationship between the public, the media and state."Virtual communities" are being established online and transcend geographical boundaries, eliminating social restrictions. "People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, dispute, fall in love, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk". New media is "making the computer into a second self, finding a soul in the machine, can substitute for human relationships". Thus, New media has the ability to connect likeminded others worldwide. Security concerns over new media have increased due to the growing number of cybercrimes. ‘Insurgent terrorist organizations use the media as a conduit for their political message to be heard by the target audience’. However, television is no longer the only means for building mainstream attitudes. User generated websites such as Youtube.com and Facebook.com will play a big role in the recruitment within the mainstream masses as well as the broadcasting of terrorist ideologies. National security experts reach out to computer hackers and train internal operatives in the field of computer security with the need to intercept and

interpret digital communications. Some of these methods go against the intent of new media and contribute to the debate about net neutrality. "The global interactive games industry is large and growing, and is at the forefront of many of the most significant innovations in new media". Interactivity is prominent in these online computer games. These games, developments of "new media", allow for users to establish relationships and experience a sense of belonging, despite temporal and spatial boundaries. These games can be used as an escape or to act out a desired life. New media have created virtual realities that are becoming mere extensions of the world we live in. New Media changes continuously due to the fact that it is constantly modified and redefined by the interaction between the creative use of the masses, emerging technology, cultural changes, etc. The new media industry shares a close association with many market segments in areas such as software/video game design, television, radio, and particularly movies, advertising and marketing, which seeks to gain from the advantages of two-way dialogue with consumers primarily through the internet. The advertising industry has capitalized on the proliferation of new media with large agencies running multi-million dollar interactive advertising subsidiaries. Interactive websites and kiosks have become popular. In a number of cases advertising agencies have also set up new divisions to study new media. Public relations firms are taking advantage of the opportunities in new media through interactive PR practices. A generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. The term is in relation to “old” media forms, such as print newspapers and magazines that are static representations of text and graphics. New Media includes: • • • • • • • •

Web sites streaming audio and video chat rooms e-mail online communities Web advertising DVD and CD-ROM media virtual reality environments

• • •

integration of digital data with the telephone, such as Internet telephony digital cameras mobile computing

Use of the term new media implies that the data communication is happening between desktop and laptop computers and handhelds, such as PDAs, and the media they take data from, such as compact discs and floppy disks. Stand-Alone Technologies to ‘Convergence’ The concluding decades of the 20th century witnessed revolutionary developments in the mass media, telecommunications and information technologies. The old mass media technologies were stand – alone isolated technologies: radio, television, cinema, the press and book publishing were looked upon and used as distinct and discrete technologies. Telecommunications (primarily the telegraph and the telephone) developed on their own, and were never considered as ‘mass media’. This was also the case with developments in computers and other information technologies, which too were not taken to be ‘mass media’. A computer was just a computer, a telephone was just a telephone and a television set just a box in the corner for watching broadcast programmes. This separate and stand- alone identity was reinforced in government administration, where the mass media, telecommunications and computer technologies were under three different ministries: Information and Broadcasting, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and the Department of Electronics. This was further reinforced in the Indian university system where department of communication and journalism remained isolated from developments in telecommunication and computer science, which of course had their own separate departments. Besides, ownership of such technologies too was generally restricted to one or two of the media. In Europe and the developing countries, radio and television were government-owned and government-run, though the press and book publishing remained the responsibility of the private sector. Film-making was in both the public and private sector: the feature film industry was in private hands, while newsreels, documentaries, short films and animation films were the responsibility of the public sector. Few attempts were made to combine the different print and electronic media; cinema films were shown on the small screen with the help of a ‘tele-cine chain’

(an electronic device which can read the newspapers on television), or listen to the radio on television. The ‘two-in-one’ combined the radio and the audio- recording and playback technologies. The video-recorder was an add-on to television, and to begin with was used primarily for ‘time shifting’. This was the beginning of the asynchronous element in the new media. No longer were listeners and viewers tied down to the exposure of radio and TV programmes at the same time as others; this greater control of the electronic media was gradually leading to the ‘demassification’ of the media. The audio and cassette recorders, the walkman, and later the personal computer were further examples of greater audience control over content, as well as over the time and place of media exposure. The earlier concept of a ‘mass audience’ was giving way to a newer concept, which took into account factors like flexibility and a synchronicity. Further, in telecommunications, the telephone and the telegraph remained isolated from the mass media, except as ‘carriers’ of information. Audio and cassette recording and playback technologies extended radio and television, giving them the facility of ‘delayed’ or flexible exposure. Simultaneity of listening and viewing gave way to media access at one’s convenience. Communication satellites, cable, optical fiber, wireless technologies and computers changed the very nature of mass media and telecommunications. When the computer appeared on the scene in the 1970s and 1980s, it was a standalone desktop technology; interactive, but discrete. Computers could not ‘talk’ to each other; compatibility was a critical stumbling block. Apple-Macs, Apricots, Tangerines, Amstrads and IBM’s were often incompatible, and could not read or understand one another. Magnetic tapes and later floppy disks had to be used to transfer or copy data or graphics from one computer to another. The ‘modern’ revolutionized the entire stand-alone approach. It is an electronic device, which changes analogue to digital signals and vice versa. It brought together the media, the computer and telecommunication technologies so that computers in different parts of the world could start ‘talking’ to each other using the international telephone networks and the supporting satellite and cable hardware. Electronic mail (or e-mail) and the Internet with its World Wide Web were developed in quick succession. Convergence of the various possible, reaching its top in the multi-media system to common today for the transfer and exchange of information, data, graphics screen, or surf the Internet, on the television screen. One could now watch films and video on the computer screen, or surf the Internet on the television screen. One could

also use the computer for sending and receiving fax messages, electronic mail, for surfing the Internet, and even using the Net Phone for phoning and videoconferences. Cable telephony Digitization was the key here, aided by miniaturization, wireless telephony, digital compression, and comparatively low – costs and user-friendliness. Online /Conventional media Gone are the days of good old newspaper editorial columns, serious political debate and hard-hitting, watchdog journalism. Newspapers today seem to be more about celebrity reporting, complete with entertainment news, film reviews and horoscopes. Needless to say, the serious news audience is migrating online to their favored news Web sites to quench their need for real news, be it book reviews or witty analysis of issues that matter. "For the well-wired elite that used to take newspapers seriously, the Internet has become a more focused, better written, and alternative to legacy media". Cyber news has now taken the place of conventional media when it comes to real debate, policy analysis, and political journalism. In the wake of online news' heightened value today, newspapers should use their Web sites and hire smart bloggers to garner and keep their audience.

IT & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Information Technologies in India: A brief History India did not lag behind in the introduction of the new technologies though the progress was tardy, and largely restricted to the elites in urban areas, and to teachers and researchers in national science and research institutes. The first computers to be installed in India were imported in the 1960s and 70s. Most were second and third-generation IBM mainframes using transistors. The major importers were government departments and large corporations. By 1978, India had 800 mainframes maintained by the public sector company, Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC), after the withdrawal of IBM. The decade also saw the emergence of a few Indian producers: ECIL, ICIM, Bull-PSI, and others. Developments in micro computing, the convergence of computer controls with telecommunications, communication satellites, fibre optics and digital switches, as well as liberalization in import policies, led to the rapid growth of the computer industry India, all the while it remained ‘as assembly-oriented industry’. The mushrooming of computer training institutes and university degree courses in computer science provided the much-needed personal needed for creating the software and maintaining the hardware in the growing industry. New Computer Policy-1984 The Rajiv Gandhi government initiated the ‘information revolution’ opening up the Indian market to foreign investors, gradual privatization and deregulation of first telecommunications and later other industries, reducing import and excise duties on electronic goods, computer hardware and software, and providing other incentives to the development of the information industries. The man Rajiv Gandhi chose to lead the revolution in telecommunication was Sam Pitroda, a non-resident Indian technocrat who had made good in the United States, and who passionately believed that India could leapfrog into the age of information, if only it embraced the new information technologies. He was appointed Chairman of the Telecommunication Commission, and later telecommunication adviser to the Prime Minister. He established the Centre for the Development of Telematics (C-DOT), which would design and fabricate digital automatic switching equipment for rural (RAX) and urban (MAX) telephony.

Pitroda lived up to his reputation of getting things done, but in the process he trod on many bureaucrats’ toes. One section of the media wowed him; the other lambasted him for the hype he created about the potential of tele-communication for the nation’s development. Pitroda shared Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of a modern India competing with advanced industrialized nations in the new age of information, the post-industrial age. However, while urban India was swamped by multinational brands of consumer goods, the latest hardware and software, value-added services like cellular telephony, paging, and a plethora of cable and satellite channels, the rural areas and the urban poor were untouched by such happenings. Liberalization and restructuring of the economy in the early 1990s both under the Congress and the United Front regimes, so as to promote foreign investment and private business, reenforces this urban approach. Leftist economists dubbed this approach an instance of ‘selling out to the multinational’. The Private Phone STD/ISD Booth Phenomenon Perhaps the most striking development in Indian telecommunications in recent years has been the phenomenal growth of what are popularly known as ‘STD booths’ in cities and small towns across the land. This was the beginning of the privatization of the basic phone services. Licenses were freely given by the Department of Telecommunications to small-time shopkeepers and operators: unemployed graduates, the handicapped, and women. All that was required was a hole in the wall for a telephone connection. In mid-1998, Maharashtra alone had over 20,000 STD/PCOs, around 15,000 local PCOs, and around 30,000 villages’ public telephones. National Telecommunications Policy In May 1994, the government of India announced a new telecommunication policy which threw open the basic telephone service to the private sector. Value-added services (such as electronic mail, paging. Cellular telephony, video conferencing, audio and videotext services, data services and VSATs) had already been liberalized two year earlier, in July 1992. Foreign companies were permitted up to 495 equity, with two operators (one private company competing with the public sector unit) for each circle in the basic telephone service, and two private operators primary objective of the New Telecommunication Policy was to provide telephone connections to all villages in India, and to offer telephones on demand by May 1997.

The most successful of the new services has been ‘paging’ which has achieved the most extensive penetration, with nearly half a million subscribers in 27 cities. Up to four operators for paging in each city have been given licenses. Cellular services remained concentrated in the metros, with a total of around a million subscribers served by 22 companies running 42 networks. VSAT system comprises small earth stations that communicate with one another via a central earth station (the ‘hub”). A signal from one VSAT is up linked to a satellite, down linked to the hub and then relayed to another VSAT via the satellite. Different branches of a bank or any other organization or by agents or distributors use these systems. The main VSAT operators in India are Hughes-Escorts Communications Ltd. (HECL), a leading user of this technology is the National Stock Exchange. The VSNL, the public sector organization for overseas telecommunications is a partner with other national and international companies for plastic and automatic international roaming voice telecommunications such as Iridium and ICO- Global. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was constituted in February 1997 as an overall regulatory body to monitor the nation’s telecom services and to sort out disputes among operators and between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and private operators. The Indian Paging Service Association (IPSA) and the Cellular phone Operators Association of India (COAI) represent the interests of the paging and cellular phone companies. The Government recognizes that the result of the privatization has so far not been entirely satisfactory. While there has been a rapid rollout of cellular mobile networks in the metros and states with currently over 1 million subscribers, most of the projects today are facing problems. The main reason, according, to the cellular and basic operators, has been the fact that the actual revenues realized by these projects have been far short of the projections and the operators are unable to arrange financing for their projects and therefore complete their projects. Basic telecom services by private operators have only just commenced in a limited way in two of the six circles where licenses were awarded. As a result, some of the targets as envisaged in the objectives of the NTP 1994 have remained unfulfilled. The private sector entry has been slower than what was envisaged in the NTP 1994. The government views the above developments with concern as it would adversely affect the further development of the sector and recognizes the need to take a fresh look at the policy framework for this sector.

In addition to some of the objectives of NTP 1994 not being fulfilled, there have also been far reaching developments in the recent past in the telecom, IT, consumer electronics and media industries world-wide. Convergence of both markets and technologies is a reality that is forcing realignment of the industry. At one level, telephone and broadcasting industries are entering each other’s markets, while at another level; technology is blurring the difference between different channel systems such as wire line and wireless. As in the case of most countries, separate licenses have been issued in our country for basic, cellular, ISP, satellite and cable TV operators each with separate industry structure, terms of entry and varying requirement to create infrastructure. However this convergence now allows operators to use their facilities to deliver some services reserved for other operators, necessitating a relook into the existing policy framework. The new telecom policy framework is also required to facilitate India’s vision of becoming an IT superpower and develop a world class telecom infrastructure in the country. The objectives of the NTP 1999 are as under: Access to telecommunications is of utmost importance for achievement of the country’s social and economic goals. Availability of affordable and effective communications for the citizens is at the core of the vision and goal of the telecom policy. • Strive to provide a balance between the provision of universal service to all uncovered areas, including the rural areas, and the provision of high-level services capable of meeting the needs of the country’s economy. • Encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal areas of the country. Information Technologies: Developments in India Prior to liberalization of the computer industries, the Indian government’s policy was on ‘self-reliance through import substitution’. The setting up of the Electronics corporation of India (ECIL) and the Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMD) under the public sector signaled this policy, as much as the side –lining of the multinational IBM. Liberalization by the Rajiv Gandhi government in the mid1980s and by the Narsimha Rao government in the early 1990s gave a fillip to joint ventures with multinational companies.

Import duties for hardware and software were slashed and incentives offered for private investment in the industry. Over forty multinational companies such as Texas Instruments, Motorola, Honeywell, IBM, Digital, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft have set up operations in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gandhinagar, Pune, and other cities, primarily for exporting software. Indian software exports are tied to the Unites States market, which accounts for up to 58% of export destinations, with Europe at 20%. India’s total computer software exports in 1997-98 was US$1, 743 million, an increase of 50% over the previous year, and is expected to cross US$2,500 million in 1998-99. Computer Software is thus one of the global software business is 16.7% for customized software, but only .05% of the product and package market. A second area of impressive growth has been in the education and training sector. Indian software education is also an export item: the National institute of Information Technology (NIIT), its leading institution, is an exporter of educational software and provides courses through offices in Southeast Asian capitals. National institutes offering advanced training in computers number 1,675, training over 55,000 professionals every year. Around a hundred doctorates in computer science and over 2000 M.Techs and 14,060 B.Techs. Besides 2,250 M.Scs and 2600 B.Scs and 16,200 diploma graduates are trained every year. The Indian information technology industry is growing at the annual rate of more than 40%, with software alone worth US$1.2billion. ‘Body shopping’, a common practice in the United States and other countries, involves employing Indian software professionals overseas at low wages. More common is the practice now of contracting companies in India to service foreign clients; most of this exported software is in the form of customized work for corporate clients in the United States. Technology Parks are being established in collaboration with Singapore, South Korea and other nations in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, and other cities to promote the software and applications industry. The Information Revolution How did the Information Revolution differ from the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century? The Industrial Revolution ushered in the factory system at the hub of which was the division of labour. Mass production of goods and their mass distribution in the markets of the world were the driving forces. Both depended on massive labour recruitment. This was the origin of the need for the mass media, which would promote the mass- produced goods to potential customers in cities

and villages. The Manufacturing industries were labour- intensive, while the new service industries were capital intensive, new modes of energy like steam, gas and electricity, the railways, the automobile and the aircraft. The concept of ‘information society’ gained widespread currency in he 1970s and 1980s to explain the social, economic and technological changes that were taking place during those decades in advanced industrialized societies. The social changes included the entry of entertainment media, and computers in the home and the growth of telecommunication that is working from home. The divisions between home and the factory or office were breaking down. The main work telecommuters did was gathering, processing and storing information with the help of personal computers. Where the economy was concerned, more workers were involved with information-related industries travel, tourism, hospitality, banking, insurance) than the production of commodities for a mass consumer market, This was because such production had been move to developing countries where low- paid labour was easily available. Later this was known by the euphemism, ‘outsourcing’. Industrialized economics were therefore gradually turning into ‘information economics’; they were non-polluting, were capital-intensive, and were oriented to ‘service’ rather than ‘production’. But it was the technological changes that made the new kind of social changes and economic changes that economic change possible. The innovations in information and communications, technologies brought about by the integration of telecommunications, mass media and computing, promised greater flexibility, greater efficiency and lower costs. In sum, these societies were on the way to becoming information cent red societies. Their primary resource was information of all kinds rather than production of consumer goods. Some sociologists believed that ‘information revolution’ was taking place, a complete break from the ‘industrial revolution’ of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Japanese writer, Yoneji Masuda, pioneered the use of the term ‘information society’ to describe a society which would eventually ‘move to the point at which the production of information values becomes the formative force for the development of society’. Daniel Bell, the American sociologist, and author of ‘ The coming of Post- Industrial Society’, preferred the term ‘Post-industrial society’ to describe the same socio-economic process, and Alvin Toffler and John Naisbett,

authors of ‘Future Shock’ and ‘Megatrends’ respectively, popularized the concept of ‘information society’. However, the information that has been transformed into a resource and a commodity is technology –mediated, most of it in digital form. Since different countries are at different stages of the adoption of information technologies, we have several ‘information societies’ rather than only one type. Indeed, every society is in a sense an information society, for information and communication is what holds it together, despite its many diversities and rivalries. An alternative view suggests that the information society is a continuation of the industrial society rather than a revolutionary break from it, as consumer-oriented free-market capitalism is still at its heart. Others like Martin (1995) would rather label it a ‘broadband society’ since it is telecommunication (rather than computers. Vincent Moscow of Canada has opted for the more vivid term, the ‘pay-per society’ The Information Superhighway This image or metaphor for a wired universe interlinked by networks of the computers was popularized by AI Gore, the Vice-President of the United States, in the early 1990s. The information highway is an electronic net work that connects libraries, corporations, Government department and individuals. The information superhighway can be defined as ‘an information and communication technology network, which delivers all kinds of electronic service –audio, video, text, and data- to households and business’. It is usually assumed that the network will allow for two –way communication, which can deliver ‘narrow-band’ services like telephone calls as well as ‘broad-band’ capitalist such as video-on-demand, tele-shopping, and other ‘interactive TV’ multi-media applications. Services on the superhighway can be: • One-to-one (telephones, electronic mail, fax, etc.) • One –to –many (broadcasting, interactive TV, videoconferencing) • or many-to-many (bulletin-boards forums on the Internet) The example of the ‘Information Superhighway’ is the Internet, which had its roots in the need during the mid-1960s for linking military computer researchers in the United States. The United Stated Defense Department established a computer network that permitted military contractors and universities involved in military research to exchange information. This was the origin of Arpanet, the network of the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). In 1975, Arpanet, which had grown from four to about one hundred nodes, was handed over to the Defense

communication Agency. Meanwhile, in the 1980s, The National Science Foundation developed its own academic networks (NSFNET), providing researchers’ access to super-computers at Cornell, Illinois, Pittsburg and San Diego. It comprised high capacity telephone lines, microwave relay systems, lasers, fiber optics and satellites. The NSF network became a backbone connecting several other networks of educational agencies, government agencies and research organizations. The cost of the backbone was borne by NSF, with members funding cost of their local networks including cost of outsiders who enter the system. By 1990, NSFNET had replaced Arpanet. This later developed into INTERNET, a network, Up to this time, access to the networks was ‘universal’ and free in academic and research institutions. In 1992, NERN or the National Education and Research Network, or ‘enhanced Internet’ permitted the exchange of more and lengthier material, even full- motion video. Doctors could send x-rays and cat-scans to faraway colleagues in other countries, students could access the Library of Congress, and have whole books transmitted to them, and farmers and weather pundits could receive maps from satellite phones. The Department of Science and Technology (India) established the ERNET in India, serving to link the institutes for science and technology across the nation. Later, the universities and other teaching and research institutes too were linked together. Other networks the government of India established included NICNET (for administration and planning), Indonet (for access to specialized information through satellite communication), And Railnet (for the Indian Railways’ ticketing, scheduling and planning activities). Commercialization of the networks began when the Internet was opened up to private service providers like prodigy, Delphi, Genie, America Online (AOL), and compuserve. The World Wide Web was developed at the European Centre for Particle Research in 1989, but took off only in 1993 when software developed at the University of Illinois, and subsequently elsewhere, created ‘browsers’ and graphical interfaces making the search and interrogation of ‘pages’ on the WWW possible. Hundreds of ‘sites’ were placed on the Web, but the number of commercial (.com) sites soon outnumbered the education (.edu), government (.gov) and organization (.org) domain names. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television and cable channels from around the world set up their own websites, offering news services, headline news, accompanied with

colorful graphics. The services were offered free to begin with, but gradually most of the services were restricted to ‘subscribers’. By min-1998, most major Indian newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, political parties, commercial firms, banks, etc, had their own sites; so did most State governments, All India Radio, Doordarshan, police department, municipalities and non- governments organizations. However, one could not wade through the excess of information on offer without encountering ‘banner’ advertisements on almost every home page. The information offered was replete with propaganda and hype. Surfing the net often turned into an irritating experience, especially with the frequent breaks in power supply and the monopolistic service provider VSNL’s tendency to let the sites ‘hang’ intermittently. The accessing of e-mail too had turned into a nightmare: one cannot read one’s mail without having to leap over ‘junk mail’ (also termed ‘spasm’ or unsolicited mail). Entertainment rather than information is the primary motivation for accessing the Net; games, pornography and sex chat lines and crossnational prostitution have proved extremely popular in the United States and elsewhere. The lack of control over the net has led to the development of ‘blocking’ software (such as NetNanny and Surf Watch) to protect children and young people from obscenity and pornography on the Net. Advertising and commercial interests have taken over the Internet, and e-commerce is on the upswing. Perhaps one of the greatest success stories has been the ‘virtual’ bookstore, Amazon.com. It has no physical bookstore anywhere in the world, but has more titles for sale than any other, with offers of up to 40% discount on online using one’s credit card. The marketing of other products too, especially computer software programmes, browsers, computer games, and CD-ROMs has caught on. Once security of payment is assured through introduction of encryption technology, the Web is bound to be transformed into the largest cross-national shopping mall in the world. The Internet has already been turned into the latest medium for advertising, marketing and public relations. Free e-mail facilities offered by Hotmail, Yahoo, Altavista, IndiaSite and other search engines are not free at all: ads clutter their home pages, and unsolicited direct mail (termed ‘spasm’) has to be tolerated. However, the numerous positive benefits of the internet must not be overlooked. It has helped to network non-Government organizations in India and across the world, social action groups fighting for human rights, the environment, and AIDS awareness in different continents. Communities like the overseas Chinese, nonresident Indians, and groups with similar interests have come together to form ‘electronic communities’. The Internet has thus become a force for lobbying with authorities on various issues at local, national and international levels. It was

instrumental in bringing the world’s attention to the attempted genocide in BosniaHerzegovina, and to the struggle of peasants’ movement in South America. Electronic mail assists families scattered across the globe to keep in touch. In the United States, males represent 66% of Internet users and account for 77% of Internet usage. On average, Web users are upscale (25% have an income over$80,000), professional (50% are professional or managerial), and educated (64% have at least college degrees). The upper and middle socio-economic strata dominate internet and e-mail usage in India. The typical Indian Internet user is young, educated, and has easy access to computers at his institutes or workplace. The home PC has yet to find a market in the country. Build-up of Globalization Like the ‘information superhighway’, ‘globalization’ is yet another hype term in information technology. It assumes that the phenomenon of the industries is worldwide, that users of information technologies make up the majority of the world’s population with no obstacles to access anywhere. While millions across the world access the internet (56 millions in the united states compared with 12.2 million in Asia-Pacific, 10 millions in Japan, five million in china and around a million in India at the close of 1998) it is often forgotten that these belong to elite educated groups in the richer countries. By no means is access universal; nor it is affordable to the vast majority of the world’s population. There is indeed a yawning gap between the information-rich and the information-poor, and this gap is growing since the costs of access are nowhere getting any easier or cheaper. According to one estimate, in 1996, 64% of all hosts in the world were in the United States; 17% were in Western Europe; four percent in Asia; Eastern Europe, Africa and Central and South America accounted for around one percent each. Another estimate suggests that out of the 13 million were in the United States; the UK and Germany had around 600,000 each; South Africa had just over80, 000 and India had around 2,000. At the end of 1996, a search suggested that barely three out of the over 1,400 internet-based electronic newspapers were from the continent of Africa. What is more, most internet sites and databases are located in the United States; so Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as VSNL in India and ISPs in other countries have to lease links to American backbones. United States ‘carriers’ charge $20,000 for 2mbps circuit monthly rental, as against only $3, 000 to ISPs in the united states itself.

E-Commerce and E-Banking Electronic Commerce involves the production, advertising, sale and distribution of production via telecommunication networks. It includes intranets and extranets. Ecommerce via the Internet has already made inroads into traditional business and trade at both local and global levels. Shopping via the internet (e-shopping) especially for computer hardware, software, books, music cassettes and compact discs is becoming commonplace among Internet users in the United States. By the turn of the century, it is estimated that e-commerce would be worth over $300 billion. The United States is pushing for e-commerce to be a free trade zone and devoid of any tax regimes whatsoever. Social and Cultural Implications Telecommunications and information technologies were developed in advanced industrialized societies to serve their needs and interests. These societies needed capital-intensive labour saving technologies to make up for high labour costs and low populations. The ‘new’ technologies brought about speed, efficiency and a nonpolluting environment. As the technologies became cheaper with greater volumes of users, business and administration needed fewer and fewer workers. Thus several workers were rendered redundant or were provided part-time jobs. The worst sufferers were women who worked as typists, stenographers, telephone operators, packers, etc. the low paid jobs were the first to go. Two Bombay economists, Sudha Deshpande and L.K. Deshpande, suggest that since the eighties, when liberalization was introduced in India, female employment has increased. The female work participation rate-the ratio of women workers to their population has increased to 9.74% in 1991 from 8.3% in 1981. In urban areas, there were 178 women workers for every thousand male workers in 1991 compared to 139 to 1981. However, the increase in female employment was most likely in the lowpaying traditional manufacturing industries rather than in high paid technologyoriented services. Computer technologies change the nature of work and employment. Work takes on a new orientation, related more to the storage, processing, retrieval and distribution of information than to traditional modes of labour and industry. Information is thus turned into a commodity, which has a market price instead of being a public resource and a public good available to all in the community. Further, computer technologies tend to work and service into something impersonal, mechanical,

routine, though less laborious; certainly more efficient, neater, faster, but one that lacks the personal touch. The vulnerability of the new information technologies to attacks by hackers, crackers, and viruses as well as to breakdowns without prior warning is rarely touched on. Computers can go on the blink at airports, railway stations, and supermarkets and even in hospitals leading to chaotic situation. This is especially so in countries like India where breakdowns in power supply are frequent and unexpected. It is widely assumed that corruption is reduced with the introduction of computers in administration, but the securities scam in Bombay demonstrates that computers can play a role in promoting corruption too. Information technologies make it quite easy for governments, revenue and police departments to keep a close watch on citizens, and to invade their privacy. At the same time, they also afford challenges to hackers to break into the computers of government and private organizations, as the recent breaks into the computers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, and the Bioinformatics Centre at the Pune University indicate.

MOVING ON DIGITAL ERA Digital Media Digital media usually refers to electronic media that work on digital codes. Today, computing is primarily based on the binary numeral system. In this case digital refers to the discrete states of "0" and "1" for representing arbitrary data. Computers are machines that (usually) interpret binary digital data as information and thus represent the predominating class of digital information processing machines. Digital media ("Formats for presenting information”) like digital audio, digital video and other digital "content" can be created, referred to and distributed via digital information processing machines. Digital media represents a profound change from previous (analog) media. Florida's digital media industry association, Digital Media Alliance Florida, defines digital media as "the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction and education". Unconsciously, you do work in digital media these days. In the near future, your careers will depend upon your ability to use digital media to your advantage. It's not just the creative department or media; it will drive how every person in the company creates and operates, from human resources to accounting. Today, digital is not a department-it's a competitive advantage. No longer is digital a "department" within an agency-it's an essential competitive advantage for everyone in the company. It is time to get on with it. Second, you might want to create a “first.” It was easier to discover new lands back in the days when guys like Christopher Columbus could accidentally bump into continents. Today, countless uncharted digital territories still wait. Now is your chance to conquer one. Third, you should get outside your comfort zone. The best way to get smart about the digital space is to constantly expand into new forms of media by actually working with them. Take on assignments outside your area of expertise. Become a media-person in thinking, with specialist application as needed. Fourth, you might want to embrace technology in your personal life. You shouldn't spend life tethered to a BlackBerry, but you also don't want to become known as the slowpoke that can't access e-mail out of the office. Don't allow personal resistance

to technology to become a pain for the people you work with. In this case, it's not OK for the cobbler's child to go barefoot. Examples of Digital Media The following list of digital media is based on a rather technical view of the term media. Other views might lead to different lists. • • • • • • • • • •

Cellphones Compact disc Digital video Digital television e-book Internet Minidisc Video game World Wide Web and many interactive media

Communication Revolution What we take for granted today, satellite television or cellular telephone or even a humble Walkman, were part of sci-fi a mere quarter of a century ago. Even as we debate a new convergence policy in India and wonder whether we need a content regulator, the viability or desirability of direct-to-home television and broadband, a socio-economic revolution is quietly taking place. Close to 400 million Indians watch TV regularly. Our tele density has grown from 1 to 3 in less than a decade. India is fast emerging from the backwaters of poverty and scarcity to a front-runner in the digital area. One opportunity, which exists, is in media and entertainment. If the government of India through its myriad arms is able to create an ecosystem conducive to growth and the development of digital entertainment, there is no reason why we cannot turn this into a truly Indian century. While India has a mere 8.5 million Internet connections, there are over a billion Internet users worldwide. This number is expected to rise to about 1.5 billion in the next three years.

What is responsible for this phenomenal growth and the manner in which the world is beginning to communicate? As the micro chip increases in power at a lower cost and more memory is crammed on to silicon wafers (or whatever replaces them) we will see a convergence of telecom, broadcasting and data communication driven by quantum leaps in light wave and wireless communication. A few years ago Moore's Law stated that computer chip power would double every 18 months but we have seen that it is actually happening much faster. Today the Internet provides the equivalent of 50,000 daily newspapers in all languages, including online editions of several print newspapers that have web editions. In fact, many newspapers and magazines offer their subscribers access to online editions for continuous updates. Nothing has changed journalism more than the advent of the blog (weblog) and what we are seeing are just the beginnings of blogging. Already it is becoming a favoured form of disseminating news and information. Soon there will be a proliferation of the video blog. A version of peer-to-peer TV streaming is already on the Internet. These developments are still in their blossoming stages but have the potential to change the whole concept of mass communication. New digital technologies are causing a standard shift for the media and entertainment industry. By leveraging newer technologies, we have seen media companies not only make up for lost revenue but also add many new streams. The very nature of the music industry has been changed first by Napster and more recently by Apple I-Pod. Despite the opportunities which digital media presents, the industry's energies have been largely spent on the 'non compensated trading' or copyright theft of content. The inconsistencies of global copyright laws and lack of technical standards in digital rights management have also retarded the development of a viable and robust economic model. This is changing fast both on the technology as well as the regulatory fronts and should help the transition of the old media giants into more skillful gladiators. The other change agent is sheer demographics. Teenagers today are the first real citizens of the digital world. Unlike their parents, they have grown up in a world in which electronic delivery of information and entertainment is natural and more accepted than conventional forms like the newspaper, tape or film. Being a

powerful consumer group with increasing purchasing muscle, they are also determining both content and its access modes around the world. It is these digital generations that will take the world online further and eventually wholly, embracing the universe in a virtual abundance of information and entertainment. New Information Technologies Throughout the world, new information technologies are making it possible for the information ‘have nots’ to catch up and plug in to this increasingly globalized and accessible system, whether it be in Thailand, the fastest growing mobile communications market in the world in 1995, or in places like Hong Kong and Singapore which have joined the top ranks of the world’s economic centers. Despite the costs involved, and the electrical power needed to drive the technology, expenditure needed for communication is in fact comparatively cheap, or certainly affordable, and is becoming more so. As one scholar has pointed out, this situation may help ‘the poor to move beyond being simply a passive audience. Cheaper and more accessible technologies allow individuals and groups to become their own message makers. Alternative communication networks link together grassroots and policy groups throughout the globe, working on environmental, peace and relief efforts and forging together interests and activists into a new global civil society. Global Market Environment The post-second world war era was marked by revolutionary technological advancement in the field of the telecommunications. The information explosion provided the impetus for this technology to disseminate news and information across national boundaries. The electronic and computer systems have vast potential for information storage, retrieval, and delivery. Thus, it revolutionized the media in the developed world in Europe, North America, and Japan. With the introduction of the communication satellites in outer space, the TV, and the radio, the impact of information revolution could be felt in the remotest villages in the Himalayas and the Sahara. The scientific and technological revolution led to the borderless outflow of information to the Third World countries, and the advanced industrialized nations,

grasping the scope of this technological advancement, have set up control over information flow. Over 5.5 billion people on this planet own over one billion radio receivers and 500 million television sets. The world receives information from 150 major news agencies, 30,000 radio and television stations, and 8,200 daily newspapers with a total run of 446 million copies a day. This global picture hides major regional imbalance. For instance, there are only 4.5 newspapers per 100, and one television set for 3,000 Africans. This is several times less than the corresponding figures for the Europeans and Americans. What is worse is that eight African countries publish no newspaper at all, 113 have only one each. The television is non-existent in nearly 30 Asian, African and Latin American nations. Further, 18 African and 16 Asian nations have no news agencies of their own. Asia, Africa and Latin America, where about two-thirds of the world population lives, account for only 5% of the world television sets, and 12% of world’s newspapers. This statistical detail gives us an insight into the truth. The figures clearly provide us a feeling of the extent of the disparities that exist, and the dominance of the north in the field of information, thus making the countries in the south dependent on them. Need for self-reliance Self-reliance in news and information distribution, both in disseminating news to the outside world, or in getting news and information from various places in the world, for internal consumption, is essential for the following reasons: 1. To provide the media a national identity and personality 2. To facilitate the analyses of the world events not from the perspective of the west but from the national perspective 3. To foster better understanding among the developing countries, which is far more essential now than ever before 4. To prevent the unwarranted entry of foreign and alien ideas, cultures, and life-styles, that always tend to contribute to shaping public opinion in favor of foreign countries, particularly of the west, and

5. To provide an objective account of the news and developments that was considered newsworthy by the indigenous media. Media Trends and International Relations With the end of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America, there seems to be a new, more relaxed and more cooperative environment prevailing in the world politics. But the situation is very deceptive. Developments in the US, on the domestic front, and their balance of payment position, and in Russia, on the political and economic front, have dampened the dominant outlook presented at the beginning of the current decade. The fight to influence the developing countries has ended. Most of the communist countries are now desperately trying to get aid and cooperation possible for reconstructing their own countries. In India, the new economic policy has been formulated and is being implemented now. The economy is opening up for the participation of the foreign companies. But this is not shaping up as planned, already there are misgivings, internally, and fears expressed about the stability of the country by the foreign investors. Ironically, in such a fluid situation, the experts from both the west and third world countries, like India, are discussing such issues –like environment protection, AIDS, etc to salvage mankind from being wiped off form the face of the earth. All these issues are reflected in the television and radio programmes. Satellite communication has wired the whole earth. People sitting in any town in any country can hook their TV sets to the satellite and watch programmes of their choice. Due to spread with which things are happening, decades or even centuries could be compressed in a few years time. The media of the Third World does realize this change in the national and international political and economical spheres. Exchanges of the TV programmes, especially educational programmes, are quiet frequent, though the flow is still imbalances, because more western programmes are seen on the TV screens of the Third World countries. The truth remains that despite the large-scale changes brought about by technology, imbalance persists in the media and coverage of the developed west vis-à-vis the developing countries of the Third World. Cable Television DTH stands for- ‘Direct-To-Home television’. DTH is defined as the reception of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual home. DTH does away

with the need for the local cable operator and puts the broadcaster directly in touch with the consumer. Only cable operators can receive satellite programmes and they then distribute them to individual homes. A DTH network consists of a broadcasting centre, satellites, encoders, multiplexers, modulators and DTH receivers. A DTH service provider has to lease Ku-band transponders from the satellite. The encoder converts the audio, video and data signals into the digital format and the multiplexer mixes these signals. At the user end, there will be a small dish antenna and set-top boxes to decode and view numerous channels. On the user's end, receiving dishes can be as small as 45 cm in diameter. DTH is an encrypted transmission that travels to the consumer directly through a satellite. DTH transmission is received directly by the consumer at his end through the small dish antenna. A set-top box, unlike the regular cable connection, decodes the encrypted transmission. The way DTH reaches a consumer's home is different from the way cable TV does. In DTH, TV channels would be transmitted from the satellite to a small dish antenna mounted on the window or rooftop of the subscriber's home. So the broadcaster directly connects to the user. DTH can also reach the remotest of areas since it does away with the intermediate step of a cable operator and the wires (cables) that come from the cable operator to your house. In DTH, signals directly come from the satellite to your DTH dish. Also, with DTH, a user can scan nearly 700 channels! Impact of Television This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is nothing but wires and lights in a box. — Edward R. Murrow Critics blame television for everything from obesity to the murder rate. While TV is easy to criticize, and much of the criticism is justified, we also need to keep in mind that television benefits society in many important ways. Watching disturbing news footage on television may exacerbate post-traumatic stress and nightmares, according to a study. The research revealed that people were most likely to have dreams with imagery directly related to the attacks – such as

smoke and explosions – if they spent many hours watching television reports of the attacks. This type of dream content indicated a difficulty coping with the events, the authors of the study claim. The researchers say their dream analysis shows that viewing television coverage of a traumatic event can intensify stress and trauma. Some psychologists, however, object to this conclusion, contending that dreams do not necessarily reflect a person's mental state. Today, the average American watches close to four hours of TV each day. Based on this, by age 65, the average U.S. citizen will have spent nearly 9 nonstop hours glued to "the tube" everyday. It has been found that most viewers do not turn on television to watch a specific program. They simply decide to "watch television" and then find a program that looks interesting. We also know that most children and adults watch TV in a kind of relaxed, transfixed state of awareness. In the view of some psychologists the fact that people aren't critically thinking about what they are seeing while in this state means that situations (and commercials) are passively accepted on somewhat of an unconscious level. Some go so far as to say that because of this, TV has a kind of hypnotic influence. Why We Watch TV We like to be entertained. We like excitement. We like to see handsome men and good looking women. We like to vicariously (and safely) experience the experiences of other people. We like to be drawn into fantasy worlds that we will probably never be able to experience first hand. But, maybe most of all, we like to passively relax in front of "the tube," select our vicarious experiences, and let them flood over us without any real effort on our part. What's wrong with that? Nothing, in moderation! In fact, to stay mentally and physically healthy, it's important to spend some time relaxing each day.

Plus, it's been proven that it's healthy to laugh and release our tensions. With TV we can enjoy the humorous escapades of our TV friends. And then there's the information we gain from TV. We first realized the impact of TV during the mid-1900s. U.S. citizens had been reading about the civil rights struggle for decades. But, it was only when TV came along in the 50s and 60s and viewers saw in TV news footage what was really happening, that the country amassed political pressure to take action to change thing U.S. citizens had also read about war for decades. But when they started seeing newsreel footage of dead, maimed, and wounded American soldiers every night on TV as a result of the Vietnam War, the majority of the country soon tuned against the war. All these things had been reported in great detail in newspapers for decades; but reading about them was one thing, seeing them was another. Before television, children had no idea what most foreign countries or their peoples looked like, or how they lived. Most exotic animals and fish were only names in books. Letters, numbers, and words were things that you started learning when you got to first grade. However, because of television, most children are now familiar with these things even before they start school. "Free TV" Is Not Exactly Free Of course, in countries like the United States where most TV relies on commercials to exist, viewers pay a price for their "free TV." We are approaching the 50% level on TV -- half of the programming is taken up with commercials. Not all commercials are in breaks from programming; some are in the programs, themselves. This is called product placement, and it may simply be a conspicuous can of Coke, or a cup of Starbuck's coffee held by an actor. Advertisers pay for this visibility. This advertising cost is the added cost of goods and services that we buy, and it amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But there are also other "costs."

Critics say that commercials make us materialistic and suggest that happiness and well-being revolve around material possessions. Commercials often pair happiness with products we need to buy. Examples they give are the simplistic scenarios we often see in commercials. If you have a disappointing love life you can solve the problem by changing to a new brand of toothpaste, a new breath mint, a new brand of jeans, or a different shampoo. Although you may laugh and assume that these commercial messages don't affect you, advertisers know they do. They don't pay million-dollars a minute for a commercial on the remote chance that it might increase sales — they still know it will. How many tubes of toothpaste do you have to sell in 30 seconds to pay for that million-dollar commercial? Such is the power of television. Television's Impact on Kids Television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids' lives. According to Kids' Take on Media, a survey conducted in 2003 by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, watching TV is a daily pastime for 75 percent of Canadian children, both boys and girls from Grade 3 to Grade 10. How much impact TV has on children depends on many factors: how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV. To minimize the potential negative effects of television, it's important to understand what the impact of television can be on children. Violence Over the past two decades, hundreds of studies have examined how violent programming on TV affects children and young people. While a direct "cause and effect" link is difficult to establish, there is a growing consensus that some children may be vulnerable to violent images and messages. Researchers have identified three potential responses to media violence in children: •

Increased fear—also known as the "mean and scary world" syndrome Children, particularly girls, are much more likely than adults to be portrayed

as victims of violence on TV, and this can make them more afraid of the world around them. •

Desensitization to real-life violence Some of the most violent TV shows are children's cartoons, in which violence is portrayed as humorous—and realistic consequences of violence are seldom shown.

•

Increased aggressive behaviour This can be especially true of young children, who are more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviour after viewing violent TV shows or movies.

Parents should also pay close attention to what their children see in the news since studies have shown that kids are more afraid of violence in news coverage than in any other media content. Fear based on real news events, increases, as children get older and is better able to distinguish fantasy from reality. Effects on healthy child development Television can affect learning and school performance if it cuts into the time kids need for activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. Most of children's free time, especially during the early formative years, should be spent in activities such as playing, reading, exploring nature, learning about music or participating in sports. TV viewing is a sedentary activity, and has been proven to be a significant factor in childhood obesity. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation almost one in four children, between seven and 12, is obese. Time spent in front of the TV is often at the expense of more active pastimes. A Scientific American article entitled "Television Addiction" examined why children and adults may find it hard to turn their TVs off. According to researchers, viewers feel an instant sense of relaxation when they start to watch TV—but that feeling disappears just as quickly when the box is turned off. While people generally feel more energized after playing sports or engaging in hobbies, after watching TV they usually feel depleted of energy. According to the article "this is the irony of TV: people watch a great deal longer than they plan to, even though prolonged viewing is less rewarding." As well as encouraging a sedentary lifestyle, television can also contribute to childhood obesity by aggressively marketing junk food to young audiences. Most

food advertising on children's TV shows is for fast foods, candy and pre-sweetened cereals. Commercials for healthy food make up only 4 per cent of those shown. A lot of money goes into making ads that are successful in influencing consumer behaviour. McDonald's, the largest food advertiser on TV, reportedly spent $500 million on their "We love to see you smile" ad campaign. Sexual content Kids today are bombarded with sexual messages and images in all media— television, magazines, advertisements, music, movies and the Internet. Parents are often concerned about whether these messages are healthy. While television can be a powerful tool for educating young people about the responsibilities and risks of sexual behaviour, such issues are seldom mentioned or dealt with in a meaningful way in programs containing sexual content. The Good Things about Television Television is an inescapable part of modern culture. We depend on TV for entertainment, news, education, culture, weather, sports—and even music, since the advent of music videos. With the recent explosion in satellite and digital specialty channels, we now have access to a plethora of both good quality and inappropriate TV content. In this crowded television environment, the key for parents is to search out high quality TV programs for their kids, and whenever possible, enjoy them together as a family. Television offers lots of benefits including: • • •

• •

Because of its ability to create powerful touchstones, TV enables young people to share cultural experiences with others. Shared viewing gives family members of all ages an opportunity to spend time together. Parents can use TV as a catalyst to get kids reading—following up on TV programs by getting books on the same subjects or reading authors whose work was adapted for the programs. Great television can teach kids important values and life lessons. TV programs often explore controversial or sensitive issues, which can make it easier for parents and kids to discuss them.

• • • • •

Educational programming can develop young children's socialization and learning skills. News, current events and historical programming can help make young people more aware of other cultures and people. Documentaries can help develop critical thinking about society and the world. TV can help introduce your family to classic Hollywood/Bollywood films and foreign movies that may not be available in your local video store. Cultural programming can open up the world of music and art for young people.

Telecommunication Revolution While traditional telecommunications networks have allowed us to cross barriers associated with time and distance, the new multimedia realm is allowing us to include vital physical cues in the information stream, introducing a physical reality into the world of electronic communications, goods, and services. Not surprisingly, some of the industries that are being most radically revolutionized are those that deal with the human senses, including entertainment, health care, education, advertising, and, sadly, warfare. Simply put, technology changes your way and pace of life. In recent years, the word telecommunications has been used so often, and applied in so many situations, that it has become part of our daily lexicon, yet its definition remains elusive. So, let's start with a definition. The word telecommunications has its roots in Greek: tele means "over a distance," and communicara means "the ability to share." Hence, telecommunications literally means "the sharing of information over a distance." Telecommunications is more than a set of technologies, it's more than an enormous global industry (estimated to be US$2.5 trillion), it's more than twenty-first-century business and law that is being re-created to accommodate a virtual world, and it's more than a creator and destroyer of the state of the economy. Telecommunications is a way of life. Telecommunications affects how and where you do everything—live, work, play, socialize, entertain, serve, study, teach, rest, heal, and protect. Telecommunications has served a critical role in shaping society and culture, as well as in shaping business and economics. It is important to examine telecommunications from the broadest perspective possible to truly appreciate the depth and complexity of this field and thereby

understand the opportunities it affords. The best way to learn to "think telecom" is to quickly examine how it is changing both business and lifestyle. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, much of the IT&T (information technologies and telecommunications) industry's focus was on how to reengineer the likes of financial institutions, manufacturing, retail, service, and government. These technology deployments were largely pursued and justified on the grounds of reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness by speeding communications. Today, we are shifting our focus to another set of objectives: Our technology deployments are targeted at supporting not just the needs of a business enterprise, but also those of the consumers. The revolution in integrated media is transforming all aspects of human activity related to communication and information. We are moving to computer-based environments that support the creation, sharing, and distribution of multimodal information. Whereas traditional telecommunications networks have allowed us to cross barriers associated with time and distance, the new multimedia realm is allowing us to include vital physical cues in the information stream, introducing a physical reality into the world of electronic communications, goods, and services. Not surprisingly, some of the industries that are being most radically revolutionized are those that deal with the human senses, including entertainment, health care, education, advertising, and, sadly, warfare. In each of these key sectors, there are telecommunications solutions that address the business need, reduce costs, or enhance operations by speeding business processes and aiding communications. These industries are also examining how to virtualize their products and/or services—that is, how to apply telecommunications to support electronic services targeted at the consumers of that industry's products. Not surprisingly, changing the way you attend a class, see a doctor, watch a movie, get a date, shop for software, take a cruise, and stay in touch creates significant changes in how you use your time and money. Simply put, technology changes your way and pace of life. Changes in Telecommunications A quick orientation of how emerging technologies are affecting industries and lifestyle highlights the importance of understanding the principles of telecommunications, and, hopefully, to inspire you to "think telecom." The changes discussed here are ultimately very important to how telecommunications networks will evolve and to where the growth areas will be. An enormous amount of the

activity driving telecommunications has to do with the emergence of advanced applications; likewise, advances in telecommunications capabilities spur developments in computing platforms and capabilities. The two are intimately and forever intertwined. The following sections discuss some of the changes that are occurring in both telecommunications and in computing platforms and applications, as well as some of the changes expected in the next several years. Incorporating Human Senses in Telecommunications Telecommunications has allowed a virtual world to emerge—one in which time and distance no longer represent a barrier to doing business or communicating— but we're still lacking something that is a critical part of the human informationprocessing realm. The human mind acts on physical sensations in the course of its information processing; the senses of sight, sound, touch, and motion are keys to our perception and decision making. Developments in sensory technologies and networks will allow a new genre of sensory reality to emerge, bridging the gap between humans and machines. One of the most significant evolutions occurring in computing and communications is the introduction of the human senses into electronic information streams. Digital media: Art, photography, TV, Radio & Audio Digital Art: Digital art most commonly refers to art created on a computer in digital form. In an expanded sense, "digital art" is a term applied to contemporary art that uses the methods of mass production or digital media. The impact of digital technology has transformed traditional activities such as painting, drawing and sculpture, while new forms, such as net art, digital installation art, and virtual reality, have been recognized artistic practices. More generally the term digital artist is used to describe an artist who makes use of digital technologies in the production of art. Digital artists are artists who make digital art using computer graphics software, digital photography technology and computer assisted painting to create art. Though technically the term may be applied to art done using other media or processes and merely scanned in, it is usually reserved for art that has been nontrivially modified by a computing process; digitized text data and raw audio and video recordings are not usually considered digital art in themselves, but can be part of the larger project of computer art and information art. Artworks are considered digital painting when created in similar fashion to non-

digital paintings but using software on a computer platform and digitally outputting the resulting image as painted on canvas. The availability and popularity of photograph manipulation software has spawned a vast and creative library of highly modified images, many bearing little or no hint of the original image. Using electronic versions of brushes filters and enlargers, produce images unattainable through conventional photographic tools. In addition, digital artists may manipulate scanned drawings, paintings, as well as using any of the above-mentioned techniques in combination. 3D graphics are created via the process of designing complex imagery from geometric shapes, polygons to create 3 dimensional shapes, objects and scenes for use in various media such as film, television, print, rapid prototyping and the special visual effects. There are many software programs for doing this. The technology can enable collaboration, lending itself to sharing and augmenting by a creative effort similar to the open source movement, and the creative commons in which users can collaborate in a project to create unique pieces of art. The mainstream media uses a lot of digital art in advertisements and computers are used extensively in film to produce special effects. Desktop publishing has had a huge impact on the publishing world, although that is more related to graphic design. Computers are also commonly used to make music, especially electronic music, since they present a powerful way to arrange and create sound samples. It is possible that general acceptance of the value of digital art will progress in much the same way as the increased acceptance of electronically produced music over the last three decades. Digital Photography and digital printing is now an acceptable medium of creation and presentation of digital artists is gaining ground. But the work of artists who produce digital paintings and digital printmakers is beginning to find acceptance, as the output capabilities advance and quality increases. Digital tools have now become an integral part of the process of making art. Digital audio: Digital audio is sound (usually music) which is recorded (or converted) and stored in a digitized format. Digital audio can be stored on a compact disc, audio CD, audio DVD, DAT tape, or as a computer file. Playing equipment then decodes the stored signal. As of 2005, lots of the music is downloaded from the Internet in the MP3 format, onto USB storage devices for

lightweight portability. Other players use CD or DVD, superseding the cassette tape player. Digital radio: Digital radio describes radio technologies which carry information as a digital signal, by means of a digital modulation method. The most common meaning is digital audio broadcasting technologies, but may also cover two-way digital wireless communication technologies. While digital broadcasting offers many potential benefits, its introduction has been hindered by a lack of global agreement on standards. Digital photography: Digital photography is a form of photography that utilizes digital technology to make images of subjects. Until the advent of such technology, photography used photographic film to create images which could be made visible by photographic processing. By contrast, digital photographs can be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted, and archived using digital and computer techniques, without chemical processing. Digital photography is one of several forms of digital imaging. Digital images are also created by nonphotographic equipment such as computer tomography scanners and radio telescopes. Digital images can also be made by scanning conventional photographic images. Digital film-making: Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common. Several mainstream Hollywood movies have now been shot digitally, and many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors, new vendors and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony and Panasonic. The benefits and drawbacks of digital vs. film acquisition are still hotly debated, but digital cinematography cameras sales have surpassed mechanical cameras in the classic 35mm Digital TV: Digital television (DTV) is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by discrete (digital) signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV. The first country to make a wholesale switch to Digital Over-the-Air broadcasting was the Netherlands, in 2006. This was followed by Finland and Sweden in 2007.

Changing Trends from Conventional to Digital Media It's true that people still consume media the old-fashioned way – but fewer and fewer does so every day. Most of the content industries are seeing flat or declining revenues and audiences. And these trends are particularly notable among younger people. As a result, the music industry is a shambles; the film and television businesses are running scared; and newspapers are disappearing or instituting cutbacks and layoffs. The handwriting is on the wall, or the laptop screen. User generated content is often a poor substitute for professional content or traditional media. But that’s little comfort. Alternate goods don’t have to be perfect substitutes in order to acquire market share at the expense of the competition. And, yes, in some cases, new media make money for creators and companies – but the money’s much less than it used to be. Another effect is that the market for professional content is becoming more concentrated and less diverse. Thus, at least in some media, audiences are shifting more of their spending to hit properties – the most popular movies and books, for instance – to the detriment of specialized content such as art house films and midlist titles. Similarly, in a trend that predates the Internet but continues today, media businesses are consolidating and becoming conglomerates, as individual companies find it harder and harder to compete. Some commentators welcome these changes. “Information wants to be free,” they say, and more content is good for users. Persuasively, they point to the variety of viewpoints that new technologies bring. That development is indeed valuable – very much so, in a democracy premised on freedom of speech. But when everyone’s a creator, there’s less room for high-quality professional content. It’s a dilemma with no easy answers. The future of traditional media is murky, but one thing is clear: disruptive change will be with us for many years to come.

GLOBALIZATION PROCESS Global Media A wide range of media is used as means of reaching the consumers with the advertising message. Though media do not play any active or direct role in advertising, but still they are an important part of advertising. In fact, most of the Global Media of Advertising-particularly the mass media depend on advertising to a great extent for their revenues. The different media used for advertising have got different characteristics and they reach different audiences. Advertisers use only those media, which reach their target audiences. This matching of media and audience is called media planning. The various media have different objectives. These are basically ‘service’ organizations and try to fulfill the needs of their customers (readers, listeners, viewers, or travelers). Each medium tries to design itself to be more and more attractive to its consumers. Larger the audience of a medium more advertising revenue it earns. Advertising revenue is a major source of income of mass media. Today each medium, be it a newspaper, magazine, radio, or television has an advertising department. This department is responsible for selling advertising space and time. Global Print Media The computerization of editorial staff and journalists has caused big changes in the gathering and production of news. Although it frightens some journalists, and it has brought up bitter resistance from print union representatives, the truth is that computers were responsible for a huge development in presswork. The new technology made it possible for journalists to type their articles, type copy and enter it directly into a computer system has completely changed this profession. Similarly, the manual composition of pages carried out by the editing supervisor and carried out by copy producers is being substituted by computer assisted page composition. As a result of the automation of printing sequence, the number of staff in the print industry, from journalists to graphic artists or photographers, has been considerably reduced.

These new technologies have penetrated the press marked very deeply because of the need, common to every newspaper, to go to press as late as possible in order to print the most up-to-date news and keep manufacturing costs down. Production has become more streamlined, but an entire breed of print workers is on the verge of extinction as a result. However, the deployment of the new technologies has undoubtedly had a positive effect. Editing abroad has led to the creation of completed news pieces with a better integration of pictures and words. It is no longer the norm to send scrambled kits of unassembled parts back to base for transmission three days after the event. The advantage of the new ways of working is clear: reporters are able to fully author their own work and produce a script in conjunction with pictures that they can use. Some journalists admit to having a streak and worried about the headlong rush into the newer and the faster technology. Many journalists insist that the need to be right, and accuracy should not be sacrificed in the rush to be on air first. Direct news supply by satellite television and computer networks, the explosion of information and the increasing communication autonomy of the people suggest that media is becoming redundant and its traditional function is being eroded with the advance of the ‘information society’. Global Electronic Media While there has been a continuous effort to establish news and information distribution systems in the world, the recent global changes have had a deep impact on the information scene. This has especially to do a lot what the Third World efforts to usher in alternative information flow through electronic media, between and among themselves, on one hand, and with the developed world on the other hand. The west has been for a long time using the concept of ‘freedom of information’ as an ideological weapon, and successfully deploying it to deflect the Third World from its pursuit of a new world information and communication order. In matter of broadcasting the Western powers insist upon the ‘open skies’ policy, which they claim to be consistent with the principles of freedom of information. On the face of things, this seems a plausible argument. The metaphor of open skies

seems to connote a situation of an unfettered information exchange of knowledge flowing freely across the national boundaries. On the contrary, the same Western countries, in a different forum-the multilateral trade negotiations, popularly called GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade)-show a complete disinclination towards free trade by imposing heavy tariffs to protect their own products. These developments call for a greater unity among the Third World countries to come out of the dependence and dominance in the ‘field of information, and promote self-reliance. So, any emergence of alternative information systems should be understood in this changing world scenario and current concepts of a ‘unipolar’ world dominated by the West, particularly the USA. The existing world information order provides an opportunity to the richer nations to use the scarce global natural resources, such as the radio and satellite frequency range, and exclude the poor nations from using the same. For instance, the radio frequency range and the geo-synchronous orbital slots for parking communication satellites are both natural Western monopolies today. Added to this, an attempt is made through the ongoing GATT talks to impose stronger form of monopoly control over the content of information flows. Global News Media & News Agencies The new phenomenon of global instantaneous news reporting, particularly by television, has distorted the foreign policies of the Western countries in the aftermath of the Cold War by forcing military intervention in such areas such as former Yugoslavia, Somalia or Cambodia, while at the same time preventing that intervention from becoming effective by imposing arbitrary constraints on the level of force used and on the willingness to risk taking causalities and inflicting them. Whether the media are really this significant is in fact questionable, but the very existence of such complaints is not just a recognition that an important player has indeed arrived in the international arena. This was the Global News Media. It is frequently said that prior to the advent of the mass media, diplomacy was the sport of kings and it had little to do with public opinion. Similarly, in 1866 when ‘The Times’ lauded the achievements of those responsible for laying the first transAtlantic cable under the banner ‘Shrinking World’ it identified three major likely beneficiaries: Governments, mercantile interests and the newspapers.

The modern media has proved to be considerable means of selling the war and sustaining public support for it. As a newspaper baron Lord Northcliffe puts it: ‘God made people read so that I could fill their brains with facts, facts, facts- and later tell them whom to love, whom to hate, and what to think.’ The establishment of the League of Nations in 1919, with its dedication to ‘open covenants, openly arrived at’, combined with extension to franchise which made it near-universal, and the growing competition which newspapers were subjected to as principal source of news, first from radio and then from cinema newsreels and later television, all contributed to the advent of a new, more public, era for the foreign-policy-making process. Subsequently, with the advent of sound film, politicians and statesmen could be seen and heard speaking directly to cinema audiences around the world. Radio penetrated the very walls of people’s home. Once-distant places and peoples became more familiar, as news appeared from anywhere and everywhere by a variety of new media in ways that one could only marvel of. Reuters: This news agency takes its name after its founder, Paul Julius Reuter. As the employee of the Havas agency and through his friendship with a well-known physicist of his time, Carl Fredrich Gauses, he came to know the advantage of the electric telegraph. Around 1850, he set up a carrier pigeon service. When he moved to the UK, in 1851, he opened a telegraph office near the London Stock Exchange. Initially, his services were confined to commercial information. When he was able to persuade more newspapers to subscribe to his service, he diversified into other areas. Historians suggest that his first major breakthrough came in 1859, when he sent a dispatch for shadowing a war in Italy. Since then the agency has expanded and is regarded as a global news agency. Reuters supply news to its media clients such as other news agencies, newspapers, and the radio and television stations under various categories. These include general and economic news, news pictures and the TV news. Information is collected from around 160 exchanges and markets. It has a network of about 1200 journalists, photographers and cameramen, who operate through 100 bureaus in different parts of the world.

Associated Press (AP): The impetus to provide speedy transmission of news was given by the telegraph invented by Samuel F.B.Morse, in 1844. The telegraph enables many small town newspapers in the US to get their news. It is in this context that the meeting of the leading New York publishers, in 1848, gains significance. Although a decision was made to start a news agency, the name, Associated Press, was not used till about 1860. It is said that the newspapers, which formed the Associated Press, were able to demonstrate their enterprise during the Mexican War. Associated Press has since expanded its operations to include economic and financial international news service called AP-DJ (Dow Jones). This service is run in conjunction with Dow Jones Inc, publisher of the Wall Street Journal and with Telerate a major US computer based financial data service. Associated Press took a concrete form, in 1900, as a modern news gathering association. In 1848, six leading newspapers of New York City launched a cooperative effort through the creation of the Associated Press of New York. It was founded by the newspapers to share the cost of telegraphing the news brought by ship to different ports in the US. Competition and rivalry was very much evident in the formative years, which was overcome by AP. Yet, AP was unhappy that its news exchange contracts of 1893 with European news agencies had restricted its entry into the British Empire area. Reuters was controlling the area, with Havas (French Agency) and Wolf (German) controlling other areas. Although it was unable to establish foreign bureaus before World War I, it could not sell news abroad. The long struggle, which ended in 1934, resulted in the creation of the AP World Service, in 1946. Kent Cooper, as the AP traffic chief, is credited with establishing AP as a world service. AP with its wide communications network using advanced technology has bureaus in more than 100 countries. Its 5000 plus correspondents and a host of stringers cater to about 1300 newspapers, 3400 broadcasters in the US and 1000 private subscribers. United Press International (UPI): The growth of AP spurred the rise of competitors. Edward Wyllis Scripps, the founder of the famous Scripps chain of newspapers in the US, formed the United Press Association, in 1907. One of the reasons for starting this association was the closed membership policy of the ‘Associated Press’. Scripps is on record in trusting AP over all others. Further, AP was interested in serving the big morning newspapers, while Scripps was

publishing the evening newspapers. Running his own news service was therefore, attractive. Initially, Scripps started two regional news services to cater to his own newspapers. At the same time, there was another association, the Publishers’ Press Association formed in 1898 by the non-AP eastern newspapers. In 1907, Scripps merged his United Press Association with the Publishers’ Press Association to form the United Press Association. This association could enter areas, which AP could not due to contractual limitations. Therefore, UPA’s influence grew. UPI claims to have an overseas electronic strength of about 200 journalists overseas distributed in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. Unlike the AP and the Reuters, UPI has not diversified much into specialized economic services. However, its broadcast related services are considered to be a specialization. Agence France Presse: AFP is a post-war successor to the Agence Havas founded in 1835. The French newspapers control the agency by having the maximum representation on its board of directors. Although AFP is described as an unsubsidized autonomous organization, in effect, the French government and various agencies under its control subscribed to AFP, and provided good support. Through a wide network of bureaus within the country and abroad, AFP is regarded as one of the major global news agencies. AFP is important in another sense, and that is its history. As already mentioned, it was a successor of Havas it grew out of a translation agency, which sold the translations to various newspapers. Two of its employees, Paul Julius Reuter and Bernard Wolff, started news agencies in the UK and Germany. All the three countries, France, UK and Germany were leading European empires. Accordingly, the news agencies, Havas, Reuters and the Wolff took control of large segments of the world for news coverage. Many writers argue that this laid the foundation for a close relationship between communication and empire building. AFP has more than 10,000 newspaper and 70 agencies as its subscribers. It operations are in more than 150 countries with a network of 110 foreign bureaus. Its daily output is about 3,350,000 words contributed by 170 full time correspondents and more than 500 stringers. Global Broadcasting Broadcasting beyond national boundaries has been a parallel activity for many countries along with the development of their domestic systems. The external

services or international broadcasting by different countries are aimed at serving their people settled in other countries, and also to propagate the policies of the respective countries. Since broadcasting developed in the colonial era, the colonial powers sought through the radio to build stronger ties between themselves and the peoples they ruled around the world. England and Holland were the first to think along these lines. However, it was Adolf Hitler of Germany who saw the potential use of the domestic and international radio for purposes of propaganda. During World War II, the international short wave radio was a weapon to conquer people’s minds. Some of the leading broadcasting organizations are: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): Authors interested in broadcasting suggests that the British were adept in using, international radio. Broadcasting in the United Kingdom has undergone phenomenal changes since then. Yet, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) occupies a central place in terms of its international reach and influence. The ‘BBC World Service’ has, always fascinated us in India, and now through satellites, we have the benefit of watching the BBC TV. BBC is a central institution in the broadcasting system of the United Kingdom. In 1922, several radio manufacturers established the British Broadcasting Company. In 1926, it became a public corporation. It currently operates two national color television networks (BBC-I and BBC-II) and four national radio networks. BBC draws international news from its correspondents. BBC’s international character is based on the fact that it is in the forefront of the United Kingdom’s international broadcasting operations. The operations are not commercial, and finance is provided in the form of a special grant approved by the British Parliament. Consequently, the government is directly involved in the international broadcasting system. The scope, nature and character of BBC External Services was affected during the Falkland crisis. It was also the target of criticism during the Iranian Revolution and the recent Gulf War. However, contemporary developments indicate that international broadcasting is here to stay. Voice of America (VOA): Another country, which has systematically used and realized the potential of the radio and television in international affairs, is the United States of America.

This realization is traced to the year 1944, when the USA entered World War II. Given the private nature of broadcasting within the country, the Government did not have any broadcasting outlet of its own. However, the private companies had short wave transmitters, which the Government procured on a lease basis. Two government organizations, the Office of War Information and the Council of InterAmerican Affairs were responsible for international broadcasts during the period. The private US broadcast corporations did the programme titled Voice of America on a contractual basis. After the war ended, VOA would have closed down, had it not been for the dawn of a cold war between the USA and the USSR. Therefore, when the United States Information Agency (USIA) was established, in 1953, VOA became one of its divisions. At a time when many countries did not have their own local stations, VOA and BBC could command huge audience bases. When local stations developed, VOA directed its programmes to the politically curious. Although VOA has grown and expanded considerably, its influence is debatable. Critics argue that the disapproval of the US politics in many lands had its impact on VOA’s operation and its influence. On many fronts, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf Conflict, VOA has been criticized. VISNEWS: It is related to the international broadcasting service in the supply of audio-visual material similar to the news agency services. One of the major suppliers of visuals for the TV networks around the world is VISNEWS. VISNEWS is a London based international TV news film agency owned by a consortium of the BBC, Reuters, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and New Zealand TV. The service has over 170 subscribers in 95 countries and the largest contributor to the daily Eurovision exchange programme. Global Campaign ‘Media-mix’ or ‘multi-media communication’ is frequently used as concepts in explaining the media communication. Persuasion is considered to be the most vital activity in communication for development. Endeavor has been made, to explain the aspect of persuasion and persuasiveness of mass media and it has been said that change agents make efforts to influence people to alter their attitudes and behaviors toward their existing way of living. Media campaigns are aimed towards their environment and to motivate them to accept and implement recommended practices that will provide them greater benefit economically and socially.

Global methods for Persuasion and publicity are therefore essential for flourishing of any global campaign. Persuasion act involves change agents at the source or sender end and target people at the receiver end. Change agent applies various method of communication in persuasion. They may meet individuals personally and persuade them to accept new idea. They may meet individuals in groups to discuss them on the needs for adoption of recommended practices or may invite people to attend exhibitions or demonstrations or convey the messages repeatedly through different mass media. Dorwin Cartwright, on the basis of the findings of his experiment on sale of War Bonds during World War II in USA, concluded that more than one medium made the campaign on influencing people to see more possible ways to one goal. Channels of interpersonal communication carry the idea further discuss, interpret and often talk back. A global campaign that is intended to appeal to a wide spectrum of persons and bring about decisions for adoption among persons, usually gains by using a number of channels, both media and interpersonal. Mass media are efficient at carrying information and interpersonal channels are likely to carry influence. Each medium has its own characteristic, capability and efficiency for carrying out global media campaigns: • Radio is important in developing awareness and interest about new ideas and efficient in providing reminders about information already communicated. • Television is capable of demonstrating skills, methods and effectively related to the campaign. • Print is unparalleled in providing in-depth analysis and enables the readers to preserve information for future reference. • Cinema is efficient in demonstrating the development and effect of campaign developments. • Folk media are forceful in creating popular impact on the audience for adopting these global campaigns in their lives • Formal personal channels (change agents who have already adopted the media campaign) are important for creating detailed acquaintance of the people with the information through face-to-face contacts.

• Informal personal channels (opinion leaders) are efficient in influencing the community on acceptance of the campaign. Ethical and legal considerations in global media environment The recent flurry of code writing suggests that editors and news staffs are taking issues of ethics seriously. The process of drafting and redrafting and debating and implementing the codes has good therapeutic value in and of itself. Even better, newspapers with clearly enunciated principles and stated values, combined with strong ethical decision making skills, can better serve their readers and the public interests. Therein lays an essential connection to the credibility in global media. 1. Newspaper codes of ethics, like most professional institutions, should try to serve at least two important functions: Public Relation and Education. A good newspaper promotes ethical thought and behavior within the newspaper organization, showing newcomers where the landmines are and reminding veterans of the newsroom’s values and norms. 2. The first obligation of any media organization should be credibility to the public a large and not to any other person, business, or special interest. Employees should avoid any activity that would impair their integrity or jeopardize readers’ trust in them. 3. Conflict of interest including matters such as independence and personal behavior of the staff, ethical newsgathering, source-reporter relationship, confidentiality, manipulation and alteration of photographs should be dealt according to the law and order situation of the particular country. 4. Matters of the Internet are also dealt in the ethical policy of any country because of use of new technology in global media. Code of ethics states: apply high standards for accuracy and attribution to anything one finds on the net. Also one shouldn’t present other people’s ideas or writing and pass them off as one’s own. With the explosion of the Internet, we have more access to more information from more sources, but we have to resist the temptation to use it without attribution. 5. A reporter who pledges confidentiality to a source must not violate that pledge. 6. Clear line should be maintained between advertising and news. Also care should be taken when cooperating with government and other institutions on public journalism projects, as often these efforts are worthwhile and in the reader’s interest. But they can also compromises on the freedom and independence of the editorial staff.

7. Do not describe a person by race, religion or ethnic background unless it is pertinent to the story. Do not quote racial, ethnic or religious jokes. In description of crime suspects, do not use racial or ethnic characterization. Be careful dealing with sensitive issues. Blind obedience to rules is about blind obedience to authority or unquestioned tradition. Carefully written codes highlight and anticipate ethics in media world and inspire media persons about unique roles and responsibilities. Broadcasting Codes Members of the Radio Television News Directors Association agree that their prime responsibility as journalists-and that of the broadcasting industry as the collective sponsor of news broadcasting-is to provide to the public they serve news service as accurate, full and prompt as human integrity and devotion can devise. 1. The primary purpose of broadcast journalists-to inform the public of events of importance and appropriate interest in a manner that is accurate and comprehensive 2. Broadcast news presentation is should be designed not only to offer timely and accurate information, but also to present it in the light of relevant circumstances, 3. News should be selected on the criteria of significance, community, and regional relevance, appropriate human interest, and service to defined audiences. It excludes sensationalism or mis-leading emphasis in any form. Promotional or publicity material should be sharply scrutinized before use in news broadcasting. 4. Broadcast journalists shall at all times display humane respect for the dignity, privacy and the well-being of persons with whom the news deals 5. Broadcast journalist should present all news, which will serve the public interest. In places like the court, the broadcast journalists shall conduct themselves in dignity and keep broadcast equipment as unobtrusive and silent as possible. Impact of Globalization Impact of Globalization, both theoretically and practically, can be observed in different economic, social, cultural, political, finance, and technological dimensions of the world. Globalization brought about a new world order and is gradually reaching new heights, integrating all the fields to form a cohesive

network. The Impact of Globalization has crossed the economy to influence all phases of human life challenging their national and individual particularities. Globalization impact has touched all political, cultural, economic, and ideological dimensions. With the onset of the western democratic system the Impact of Globalization on politics is visible. In economic globalization the impact ranges from production, consumption, commercial exchange, and distribution. In the cultural domain, globalization had its impact on the imagination, idealism, theories, thought process, and practices of humankind. However, the Impact of Globalization had the best possible results on the Information and Communication system. This globalization of information is observed with the globalized telecommunications and information technologies operating in today's world. For instance, the satellite TV channels, cellular phones, broadband, Internet, and so forth. All these have successfully transformed the world into a global village. The globalization of information is also proved from the usage of the most popular language, English, in the Internet. Moreover, there is the diminished use of paper with the spread of the new globalized information technology. Today, at present only few international news agencies dominate the total information system, such as, the Associated Press and the United Press of USA, Reuters of Great Britain, and Agence France Presse of France. Another Impact of Globalization is in the field of Science, with the introduction of new fresh attempts in scientific research and capabilities of invention. In this, the nations like the United States of America, the European Union, and Japan have reached heights. This globalization of science leads to the fusion of scientific data and rules to form a uniform network of database. The Impact of the Globalization of economy, politics, information, and technology, results in the globalization of culture. The present day TV channels, movies and advertisements are open to all parts of the world imparting modern education. This again transforms the values, ethics, religion, and thought processes of the mankind as a whole. The best outcome of the globalized culture is the evaluation and improvement in the status of women. Another significant change is the demand for equal rights by the emerging "third gender" in today's world. According to them against global human right system, there should be division of humankind into three genders along with the males and females. The Impact of Globalization on culture is also observed in the discussions held at the World Intellectual Property Organization, in which the Americans requested the original bearer of all types of intellectual items, like books, songs, scripts, to

give up their copyrights for large private groups. However, this was countered by the European Union countries and on the other hand accepted by Great Britain. Again, France, one of the European countries, got engaged in a movement for the grant of cultural exclusiveness in the fields of audio-visual and cinematic production. Impact of Globalization on Media Different people define globalization differently. Some define it as a set of processes changing the nature of human interaction across a wide range of spheres including the economic, political, social, technological, and environmental. Furthermore, it is perceived as the process of integration of the world community into a common system either economic or social. It essentially means the growing increase in the interconnectedness and interdependences among the world’s regions, nations, governments, business and institutions. Some others say it is a process, which engenders free flow of ideas, people, goods, services and capital thereby fostering integration of economies and societies. The most visible aspect of globalization is the spread of information and communication technologies. The advance in technology has made available computer equipment, facsimile machines, telex systems, and satellite communications, to name a few. The advent of newspapers, television, and radio and internet haven immensely helped in the spread to information and has also helped bring people from different parts of the world in contact with each other. Although they have their own disadvantages, the advantages are many more. Earlier to communicate, people use to write letters send them through post or through other mediums. No city had any idea of what was going on in their neighboring city. The press media was the first breakthrough. The beginning of the Press media was seen after the information revolution. The press became an active participant in the tasks of promoting, projecting, and supporting the process. Globalization has assisted in networking among journalists; and these facilities have revolutionized news, printing, editing and reportage. More importantly it has aided considerably in news circulation. Generally speaking, globalization has made possible adequate and timely processing and dissemination of information. As the costs of worldwide communication had decreased, nearly everyone in a news organization is able to get access to international news. A wide coverage of international print media output, could be read on the domestic grounds. News and features that were previously being suppressed became

worldwide knowledge. For example: earlier when a social crime had been committed, no one would have known but today the press has helped oppose and expose almost all crimes committed, and people are becoming more and more aware of what is happening around the city. The press has been stimulating political parties and candidates out of their shells and exposes their programs to public scrutiny. The press has been playing its traditional role of informing and educating citizens on political parties, sport events, glamorous celebrity gossip, and international happenings. After the press media, came the discovery of the radio and the television. The advent of radio and television networks emerging in the early 20th century received a number of viewers. It appealed to another sense, for the press we could only read, but television and radio had audio video effects which was more attractive for the consumers. Television and radio could be used to address illiterate people also, because it was made available in different languages and the audience need not be literate to be able to read. Earlier television started with only a few channels, showing cable, but today there are over 200 channels screening 200 different things. Today, you can view channels from across the nation which helps you get an idea of the lifestyle and culture of the westernized nations. In China, English is taught through radio and television. Therefore watching television and hearing radio is also a learning process for many. On news channels one can view the happenings of other countries, the climate there, the problems they are facing, and also the kind of soap operas made there, the cinema they watch, and everything that helps us understand the people in other countries. For example, India represents immensely attractive markets to the major corporations that provide television program content and services across borders and regions. Also, the advertising industry has used television and radio as a medium to very effectively expose global products daily to its audience. They have the advantage of video and audio facilities so then can effectively advertise on television and radio. But this also has its own disadvantage, the value for that advertising slot on television or radio is proportional to the number of viewers or listeners it reaches, which is massive. But on the whole, considering the setbacks, television has proved to be a very effective form for entertainment, for advertising, for sharing cross cultural values and for educating. Radio is also another helpful form of entertainment. It also comes in very handy during traffic jams, floods, or any other important happening. Today every house has a radio, be it the rich or the poor. Therefore, when needed to reach the mass audience together, we have the radio. It is only recently, with the coming up of

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Besides the inventions of newspapers, television and radio, over the years we have also come to see a completely diverse form of cinema. It started off when cameras had come in. At first there were silent movies being made and then with the advent to video they started making longer movies with different genres. In India cinema started at a much later stage. At first we use to have live dramas being performed by artists. Then “Bollywood”, the Indian cinema as it is called, was started. The cinema industry also shows signs of globalization. From the kind of movies we use to see and the kind of movies that are now produced are very different. Earlier movies had all the characters, an actor, actress, and a villain but their roles were different, their dressing was different. As the years have passed, with the coming in of technology a whole new set of genre has come, of animated movies. Animation has raised the standards of cinema. Even the theaters that screen these movies have changed over a period. Now we have multiplexes all over, screening 5 to 6 movies at the same time. The emergence of the global concepts of movies, shows and series, as well as the emergence of a global audience, with its impact on program contents, is a concept with precedence. Media contents present itself today as a global form of entertainment and information providing which in my opinion has been excellent. Today having good knowledge is also partly because of the media.

SUGGESTED READINGS: 1. Mass Communication Perspective Uma Narula 2. Globalisation Albrowm & King E 3. Technology & Communication Behaviour Belmont C A Wadsworth

SAMPLE PAPER CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGY BSCMCAJ-602 PART A 1. i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii. xiii. xiv. xv.

State the types of conventional media. Define digitalization. What is E-commerce? Internet is a network of networks. Comment. Enumerate the new technological devices in media technology. How has broadcasting changed with digital era? What do you understand by information management? What is digital media? What is meant by globalization? What is impact of globalization? What is the need of new information communication technologies? Write a note on entertainment technology in digital era What are challenges and promises of the Internet? Does the new media undermine the importance of conventional media? Comment Media technologies are evolutionary as well revolutionary. Comment PART B

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

What is the role of IT in information management? Trace the conventional media scenario. What are the various components of the digital era? Discuss. How has Internet revolutionized the world of communication? What is the impact of TV in the current media scene? Write a critique on telecommunication revolution. Internet has transformed the world into a global village. Comment. Describe the globalization process. Comment on the cultural globalization perspective. What are the cultural contexts in new information communication technologies? How has digital era moved on with new communication revolution? Write a note on Cable TV in India.