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Media convergence and communication features in websites of political parties in India

This is the synopsis of my doctoral thesis. I will be uploading my full thesis on my website very soon. Media convergence and communication features in websites of political parties in India Synopsis of the proposed thesis Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Arts of Department of Communication and Journalism University of Mumbai By Mangesh Manohar Karandikar Under the Supervision of Dr. Kiran Thakur Department of Communication and Journalism University of Mumbai   SYNOPSIS Title: Media convergence and communication features in websites of political parties in India Chapter 1: Introduction Communication technology is evolving at a very fast pace since the last two decades. This researcher has been a witness with a very close view of the rapid changes that have taken place in these two decades. He has also been a part of this change, dabbling with the latest graphic designing software, web designing software, Flash animation, client–server prog

A New Beginning

On Valentine's Day, February 14, 2013, The University of Mumbai declared that I am now a Doctor in Philosophy, a Ph.D. in Communication and Journalism.   So what now? I know many in our profession treat this as the end. For me, who has come back to academics after spending 20 years in the industry and in business, this is just the beginning. Working on a Ph.D. thesis is not a task, its a pleasure. It is also an eye opener. I thought I knew web designing well, until I was humbled by the tremendous amount of work research scholars have done around the world. The quest for Ph.D. degree has opened up so many paths to choose from, so many subjects to study, that I will not be able to travel even a few of them. Though I did get frustrated several times during the study, I am certainly not tired, rather, I feel invigorated. A lot of credit goes to Dr. Sanjay Ranade for introducing research in the department, pursuing it, and then making us all do it. You have to see the way his

Microsoft may yet win the tablet war? Here's an interesting article from TechRepublic

Source: http://m.techrepublic.com/blog/tablets/microsoft-may-still-win-the-tablet-war/2709?tag=nl.e101&s_cid=e101 Microsoft may still win the tablet war By Patrick Gray | January 9, 2013, 10:34 AM PSTAfter spending time with Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet, I was left with more questions than answers. The further I considered Microsoft’s tablet strategy, the more I wondered if it were genius or madness driving its recent moves. Depending on what we see in the next few months, it just might be the former. Leaving the home court Surface was most perplexing in that Microsoft aced the hardware of the device — an area most pundits, myself included, expected it to miss completely. The device was sleek and well-assembled, and it brought unique and noteworthy features to the table rather than simply trying to copy market leaders. If only the software were on par with the hardware, I’d gladly slip the Surface into my bag and leave the laptop at home for the majority of my work and person

Old media New Media 2 - The one's that changed the game

The Balance of Payment crisis in the 80's forced the Indian government to introduce several reforms opening up the economy and placing the country on the 'globalization' map. The 'Licence Raj' partly ended and several industries got a boost. The Information Technology and the Communication Technology got a further boost with the appointment of Mr. Sam Pitroda. The yellow coloured STD PCO's that dot every corner of the roadside around the country are because of Mr. Pitroda's vision. Apart from the parallel evolution of technologies in computers, Internet, cameras and mobile phones which converted the audiences into producers, three major 'events' are also responsible for the way we distribute digital content and communicate with each other in India. The first one was in 1990-91 when Gulshan Kumar, through his T-Series produced and sold audio cassettes at a fraction of the price at which they were generally sold. If I remember right, music cassettes

Old Media New Media 1

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This is in continuation with my earlier post on new and emerging media technologies. New and emerging technologies have changed the way we consume and produce content. The technology has become advanced, cheaper and accesible to us, the common public. This has to be looked at from several angles.   I bought my first computer in 1992 for Rs.35000/-. Many will be surprised by the configuration. It was a 40386 processor, meaning it had a processing power of 386 MHz, much lesser than many mobile phones available today. The computer had a whopping 120MB (Yes, no typo here. Its MB and not GB) and 4 MB of RAM! On that computer I could easily use CorelDraw and PageMaker for my DTP work. It was the best PC in the neighbourhood.   I also remember making my first video using a PC with a 533 MHz processor and 512 MB RAM. I can vouch for the fact that the video can hold its own against any video I have made recently. The only real difference is that it took very long to render the video the. It

New Media = Digital Media = 'Social' Media?

Is 'New Media' always digital? Is it really 'social'? Well, in contemporary times, probably yes. But then, wasn't print a new medium when it was invented?  And radio, and then television? With every 'new' medium, there have been social, political and economic changes, because we have been exposed to different thoughts, ideas and challenges with each of them. With every new medium, there have been changes in how we receive, use and disseminate information. The difference between the 'older' new media and the newer ones is that the content is now stored in a binary form. It is now digital, rather than analogue. Instead of storing data on tapes and records, we now store data in microchips. Instead of data being 'fixed' it is now in a state of flux. This enables content to be converted from one form to another easily and equally easily distributed allowing trans-mediality. Apart from the way content is stored, even the way in which it is p

How News Organizations Can Create a Mobile-First Strategy

Came across an interesting post. This is a must for anyone wanting to survive in the media industry of the future. How News Organizations Can Create a Mobile-First Strategy by Steve Buttry Published Dec. 10, 2009 3:43 pm Updated Mar. 4, 2011 9:00 am I used to watch the crowds in airport lounges when I traveled, studying how people read newspapers. Even with circulation declining, you could see people reading newspapers intently. Especially after 9/11, people would have plenty of time to read while waiting for flights, and newsstands stocked a variety of papers to choose from. Look around an airport lounge now. You’ll see more people looking at their phones than holding newspapers. When I see people in the airport lounge, I know time is only accelerating with each tap of their thumbs. My concern over this acceleration pushed me last month to call for news companies to pursue a mobile-first strategy. New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen asked me to “describe wha

Google's Streetview hits a roadblock in Bengaluru

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For the uninitiated, Google (Google Earth) has a feature called the Streetview. The Google Streetview car roams around the streets, clicking pictures as it drives by. These pictures are then stitched together to give you a virtual walkthrough. It's an amazing application, but now seems to be creating a lot of controversy, raising privacy concerns. Citizens are demanding that their street, houses should not be photographed by the car. Pic source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217775/Google_Street_View_blocked_in_Bangalore The other issue is security. After 26/11 in Mumbai, there is generally a lot of concern over security issues. The Karnataka Government has refused to allow the Google Streetview car to photograph sections of Bengaluru. This is going to spark off a debate on technology, government, privacy concerns, freedom of speech, etc. Click here for an article that has appeared on the rediff.com com home page tonight. 

Microsoft puts Office 365 in the cloud, confronts Google

An interesting development. Click --->  Microsoft puts Office 365 in the cloud, confronts Google Recently Nokia chose Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS over Google's Android. Though I personally feel that they are a bit late, because Google is not going to sit idle till the new Windows powered Nokia phones come out (In 2012!). And now this development is going to generate a lot a heat. Let's enjoy the war, because whatever the outcome I am sure the consumers/users will benefit. Probably at a little extra cost, though.

Domain names - an interesting development

Till now we had to book domain names with generic Top Level Domain names. Which means we had to choose between .com, .net. .info, .in etc. Now the rules have changed at least for those who can afford it. Do read this article: http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_not-only-coms-as-internet-body-throws-open-domain-names_1557050

You don't need a high end camera to shoot a feature film...

A few months back, I took a decision to buy Kodak Zi8 cameras for my students. Many were apprehensive about these cameras when I revealed it to them during our study tour. I am sure some thought I had gone crazy. But these cameras are full high definition (1920X1080) with excellent picture quality and also took great stills (5.3 MP). Now that they have been used for projects, I suppose my students are happy. Though the lens of the camera is rather small, like that of a mobile phone and it's not so great in low light, in normal light, the results are fantastic. It also has an audio jack to attach an external microphone and facility to mount it on a standard tripod. Today I read an interesting article in the TOI. Here's the link: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW Electronic Media students should understand that this is the technology of the future. Our Department is rea

INDIA JOINS THE TABLET WAR

Source: www.indiatimes.com (Pl. click on blog title for the original article) Indian government backed ambitious low-cost tablet project is finally set to take off.  And the tablet comes with fantastic specifications especially when you look at the price tag of just Rs.2200/-. It is a   7-inch touchscreen tablet with inbuilt keyboard, video conferencing facility, multimedia content, Wi-Fi, USB Port, 32GB hard drive and 2GB RAM. The tablet will support Open Office, SciLab and Internet browsing.  I have been waiting for Indian companies start competing with the international firms in the market for a long time now. If this tablet lives up to expectations, we could be having a price war, benefitting the consumer. So let's keep our fingers crossed and wish the very best for this tablet.

10 things that will annoy the hell out of your Web site visitors

Making websites is one thing, making them work is another and then keeping those visitors on your site is one more art. Now here's an article that tell us what annoys the visitors. Click on the text below: 10 things that will annoy the hell out of your Web site visitors

World's biggest Internet test on Wednesday

Here is an interesting article I just read on rediff.com: If on Wednesday you find it difficult to connect to websites, such as Facebook or Google, don't worry these sites, along with hundreds of others, will be running the world's biggest test to make the Internet a much bigger place. Currently, the online world runs Internet Protocol version 4, but with new addresses, or websites, being added every day, the system is running out of space to host these addresses, therefore Internet companies will carry out a test on Wednesday to check IPv6 compatibility. According to Arin (the American Registry for Internet Numbers), the number of IPv4 addresses will be exhausted before the end of 2011. Think of it this way: When a telephone company runs of out of digits, it adds one more number. The same rule applies to Internet. Read this article on rediff.com here: http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-tech-worlds-biggest-internet-test-on-wednesday/20110607.htm

Mobile Journalism

Writing for mobile media is a trick every future journalist should learn. What we see today is that all journalistic content is still written for traditional media and is 'designed' in terms of layout and placement for the mobile media. By mobile media, I mean mobile phones, iPods, iPads, tablet PCs, etc. What is necessary is that not layout, but content itself has to be re-written for smaller spaces and lesser word limits. So how does one learn to write for these new media? I had gone to train media students in Tezpur University at the beginning of this month. One trick I suggested is as follows: Write your story as you would normally do so in about 300 to 500 words. Now edit it to about 200 words. Again edit it to about 100 words. Take care that you don't lose the context and the important facts in the story while re-editing it. Now consider this: Facebook allows  420 characters to share with your friends Twitter allows 140 characters Your SMS allows about 150

At last, an Indian vernacular language translation tool

This is what I have been waiting for. A tool, a software that can translate ( not transliterate ) English into Indian languages and vice-versa. Kudos to IIIT Hyderabad and the IITs who have collaborated, to have come up with such a tool - Indian Language Machine Translation System . Google, for example, offers to translate into English a webpage into several languages, once you get the search results. If you try this for Indian languages, all you normally get it gibberish.This is exactly what India needs to stay ahead in the global village. I recall that a few years back, an OCR tool for Hindi and other Indian languages was developed in Kolkata, if I am right. I hope that that software too is perfected, which will allow users to scan printed vernacular documents and convert them to editable text files. The Indian Language Machine Tranaslation System is an application, a software to be installed on a computer. You will just have to copy-paste the content from one language in one win

Media Economics

Recently, I came across a book on Media Economics. I was, and still am fascinated by the subject and have decided to include it in our curriculum. Though change in the syllabus will take some time, I have already started discussing the subject in the classroom. Most of the posts on this blog will deal with the subject of Media Economics for some time. Here are some facts and figures:   Media & Entertainment, 6th June 2009 Indian media and entertainment industry expected to clock a growth of about 19% by 2010 compared with a growth of 17% in year 2008. The turnover of India's Media and Entertainment sector expected to double to about $20 billion (Rs.100,000 crore) by 2011-12. Total turnover of the sector estimated at about $10 billion (Rs.50,000 crore) in 2008-09. The turnover (including both subscription and advertising revenue) of the television segment expected to reach at $10.4 billion (Rs.52,000 crore) in the next three years from the current level of about $4 billio

Crowd Power

What do YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have in common? Crowds. That applies to all blogs and all online social media websites. If these websites don't have crowds with them, they will have to be shut down. This is the age of crowdsourcing and crowd computing. For the time being let's not talk of TV channels, which are anyway facing problems in generating content. But the newly arriving 3G telephony is where we need to concentrate on. If 3G services are to be successful, all service providers will have to create or buy compelling content to keep their viewers hooked. The service providers cannot be content (pun intended) and dependent on revenues generated by users browsing the internet or making phone calls. It is video that will play the most important role and it will not be surprising if 3G service providers turn to the crowds to generate their content. The videos will have to be short, relevant and compelling, because longer videos will involve more data transfer and h

How effective are New Media campaigns?

Very briefly, the CNN Effect emphasizes on the effect of media on government policy decisions. There have been instances where wide coverage given by the media has partially had an effect on policy. However, the CNN Effect concept has generated a lot of debates and controversies. However, it needs to be seen how effective are the new media - blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. in having an impact on government policy. The Clinton - Lewinsky story was first broken in a blog and picked up by the media. However, the scaandal, if one may call it had little impact on Clinton's career. Back home, Shashi Tharoor's tweets led to his downfall, at least for the time being. The 'Pink Chaddi Campaign' was an equally sensationalist and radical campaign against a sensationalist and radical Muthalik. But what about real issues? What kind of issues are discussed on these new media and how many read them? Recently I got a lot of requests asking me to join the 'Save the Tiger' campa

IPL is live on YouTube! I really don't NEED the TV anymore!

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This was a comment I made on Buzz, Facebook and Twitter. And I stand by it. The future is here and we are still living in the past. For the past 3 months, because I wanted my son to concentrate on his studies for his 10th standard examinations, my TataSky set top box was bundled back into its carton and kept out of his reach. Some of my friends and colleagues thought I was being cruel and authoritarian, but I am sure all the fathers will agree, that sometimes one has to be. I only hope that his brain has not already got fuddled by the crap that is dished out on the idiot box. I am sure that he is sensible enough and will not restart his day long vigil in front of the television once his exams are over on Wednesday. Coming back to my statement, we are living in the past. No one can deny the power of television and its vivid, real-time imagery. The images evoke emotions, bring laughter and enjoyment to our households. They keep us engrossed for hours. But the power is quickly fadin

The Language of the Government

The Language of the Government In my earlier study I had emphasized the need for the importance of vernacular language in websites of political parties. In the study, it was clear that many political parties in India have not realized the importance of creating content in Indian languages for their websites. They are missing the convergence bus. Today, there are 48 million Internet users in India and the figures are rising every year. The literacy rate in India stands at about 66%. Out of this literate population, 83% of rural literates are not conversent with English. If we are talking of growing literacy along with growing Internet users, it can be argued that the number of Internet users who do not understand English will keep on growing. This new literate internet users will understand and like to read/browse through online content in their own language. This was my premise for conducting another study, this time of the websites of State Governments in India. As in the previous