THE CHANGING FACE OF INDIAN MEDIA

What is news? Well when a plane takes off it is no news, when a plane lands it is no
news, but when the plane crashes it becomes news. The word NEWS origination is
information collected collated, shifted, synthesized and disseminated to all from North
East West and South (NEWS)

During our grandfathers time the only via media, of getting news and entertainment was
through the radio 9 pm News read by MELVEL DEMELLOWAR. Benicia Deepmala by
AMIN SAYANI was theatre was through radio and sometimes it was not real time since
false propaganda was also propagated then during 62, 65 and 71 wars

Technology has been changing ever since with the advent of sky labs, satellites, wireless
technology mobiles and internet. A great revolution has taken place ever since .

At present a real-life war theatre in your living room.

A live news programme with participants in different parts of the world speaking to each other at
one platform. A discussion on news in which you can participate anytime you want. These are
just a few examples of what media today is all about.

But rapid strides in information and telecommunication technology made it possible for TV to
reach almost every household in urban and semi-urban areas, while the advent of satellite TV
brought home all the choice in terms of programme content.

The media was among the first industries to feel the impact of the change and absorb the
changes to come out with a better product, whether a newspaper or magazine, or a programme
on radio or TV. The massive structures that had to be installed to compose the newspaper matter
in the hot metal technology till as late as the seventies, gave way - almost overnight - to desktop
terminals that did not involve the use of furnaces or metal or messy ink at all.

Not only did newspaper industry's operations become cleaner, more efficient and time-saving.
The journey towards automation has continued. Today, photographs are scanned noiselessly
and on a table top within minutes, composed matter is transferred from one part of the world to
another in seconds, voice, visual and other data can be integrated in a media product as and
when required to give an entirely new definition to reality.

IT, communication and entertainment sector will see the maximum investment and fund flow
from within and abroad. The maximum number of opportunities is also expected to arise in the
convergence sector. Globally, the activities of media and entertainment giants like Star, Disney,
Time Warner, Sony, NBC and Fox are closely getting interlinked with that of IT companies or
brands like Netscape, AOL and so on.

Newspapers: Fast and reliable satellite linkages, supported by relevant hardware and software,
have made it possible to bring out one uniform newspaper for the entire country. Today, most of
major Indian newspapers in English and other languages are making good use of IT services and
products to come out with multi-editions with uniform content and quality. Not only it is simple
and easy to share contents between centres as far removed as Chennai and Delhi, it is possible
to transmit entire pages from one center to the other within minutes, taking care of any
shortcoming or emergency situation if it arises.

News gathering is another area where the impact has been tremendous. Now, it is immaterial
whether a news event is taking place in a remote corner of the world with no access to electricity
or telecommunication facilities. Laptop computers, digital camera, satellite phones and wireless
data transmission technology have taken care of all such hurdles.An extension of news gathering
technique is the process of information exchange between different centers, as made possible by
video conferencing.

The Internet is the latest frontier for the media world and it is being conquered fast. A medium
with no geographical or time boundaries, it is like a network which is always there, everywhere. A
stock of material on the Internet that is regularly updated is like a newspaper that has the latest
edition for all its readers in all corners of the world. Media organizations have been quick to
realize its potential and have set up their presence in the form of web editions on the Internet.

Coverage of live events with the viewer being involved not as an onlooker but as a participant is
also one distinct possibility. At present, you see things as an onlooker in similar circumstances in
all those reality TV shows, but imagine the excitement and danger of finding yourself-virtually-in
the midst of a full-blown riot.

This brings us to the question of challenges in front of IT professionals in this field. In satellite or
wireless technology, the major areas of some concern are of security, health, fraud and ethical
standards.

As media is all set to move to Cyberspace, the question whether a newspaper is going to be
extinct is an relevant as whether computer will replace shopping malls. It is really not a question
of time but the pace at which people adapt to these new technologies. In the words of a noted IT
expert, "Cyberspace is an image on a computer screen, sometimes called a virtual world - not
actually real. But travel anywhere in the world and you have its risks and rewards. Information is
the currency of cyberspace. Satellite technology plays a major role in global information delivery
and most of our communications today are based on satellites technology, including international
news broadcasting, long distance phone calls, and the Internet.Thus, as journalism moves to the
e-era, principles of news research, gathering, structuring, writing and presentation are set to
undergo a drastic change.

The education and training of students of media is also undergoing a change, with IT skills
becoming an integral part of the curriculum. Accordingly, students have to learn HTML in order to
produce websites as a matter of routine, besides a range of software packages.

Growing strides in the world of media, incidentally, have flip side as well. The dividing line
between a private world and a public world will increasingly be obliterated, since a free media will
have - or try to have - access everywhere. If you are somebody, be sure that the media will be
interested in you. And then forget about having a private world of your own. Technology will
make sure that every moment of your life is made public all over the world. The hair-raising
possibility was explored a recent Hollywood film "The Truman Show" where an ordinary citizen
did not even know that his entire life was part of the script of a never-ending TV drama.

By
PRITIKA JAMWAL