Studies in Media

Any product manufactured, has a life cycle. There is a phase of development and launch, followed by the growth and the maturity phase, leading to decline and then the end. So do media products follow a similar life cycle? If not similar, what kind of life cycle do they follow? Do they have a life cycle at all?  (Image source: http://notesdesk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/product-life-cycle-stages-plc.jpg) In this post, lets speak of the economics of news media products. I had a lot of fun when I had presented a paper titled 'The Life-cycle of News'. As soon as I uttered the title, there was a sanctimonious uproar by some members in the audience who actually felt insulted, that I called 'news' a product. Some agreed with what I presented, some did not. I still reiterate - 'news' is a media product. I cannot fathom why some people feel it cannot be so. Interestingly, my friends in the news media agree, but some who 'study' media, don't.

In my last post I wrote about the economics of reality shows. In the same vein, let's explore the economics of re-runs on television.  Some television shows are runaway hits. The only problem is, these shows don't run away; they don't even go away! They keep 'running' on one channel or the other. How many times have your seen Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan?  (Source: http://www.sagartv.com/images/big1005.jpg) And B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat? Whenever any channel buys the rights to a movie, it 'premieres' it. So we see a 'TV Premiere' of the same movie on several channels! The channels also go to the extent of advertising it on radio, newspapers and putting up large hoardings at premier locations for the motorists who drive to office daily. Why do we see these reruns at all? Afterall, audience is always hungry for something new to watch, to enjoy, and to pass time. Well, it's not as simple as that. Television programmers favour

Why do people watch reality shows? Why are they so hooked, mesmerised and addicted to them? Research has shown that some people watch reality because it deals with real people in real-life situations. Some watch simply because they like to see other people in painful, embarrassing and humiliating situations, and enjoy laughing at them. Some people seek catharsis, others seek sensation and seek the pleasure of being openly voyeuristic. The Uses and Gratifications theory states that the audience chooses the programmes that it feels gratified by, and discards or avoids other content in media. The media, in turn, capitalizes on this behaviour and produces reality shows - simply because they sell, and earn the channels the much wanted revenue. But wait... there is also another important thing about these reality shows too. Generally, in a reality show, channels do not have to hire established actors or celebrities (apart from the judges). In many cases, there are no sets other than j

What's so great about media? So it's there, omnipresent, when I eat, sleep, drink, play, study, teach, learn...... So what? Well, let's look at it from the Media Economics angle. Like all the other goods, media also produces so many products. TV serials, news, reality shows, and what not. But there is a difference. Suppose I manufacture, say, a watch. Really speaking, I have no connection with you, the consumer. At the most, I will provide you some after-sales service, and p retend that I care a lot about you. But think of this - with due respect to Amir Khan and Ashutosh Gowarikar ...... I produce a Lagaan. When I am making it, I first connect with you with the promos and ads. I also release music and A R Rehman does his magic for me, my revenue earning starts, and my connection with you gets strengthened. Then I release the film, it becomes a hit, and I earn hundreds of crores. You all love me for the film, you also love the characters. You identify yourself wi

There is a tendency among many media students to say that they have learnt video editing, just because they know how to use a video editing software, like the Final Cut Pro - FCP as it is called, Adobe Premiere Pro, or one of the many such software. But does that make you an 'Editor'? Frankly, NO. What you become when you learn these software is a button pusher, who is able to line up the raw footage, cut, and move the clips as you want. Maybe you also learn to give some transitions and special effects that are available. You are just a machine operator and NOT an editor. So what makes a good editor? An editor is the one who understands the story, is in complete sync with the director of the movie, and is able to tell the story visually exactly as the director wants, create the director's vision, while contributing and suggesting the shots that are available to the director. An editor is the one who site BEHIND the button pusher, the one on the machine. An editor know

The Knowledge Gap Theory was first proposed by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien. The theory states that the capacity to acquire knowledge depends on the access they have to it. People from the higher strata of the society have an advantage of having the means of acquiring knowledge, when they desire to do so, whereas, those in the lower strata of the society fail to acquire knowledge even if they want to. This is simply because they cannot afford to do so. The world is increasingly communicating through digital devices which come at a cost. So if you are in the stratum of society which can afford to buy a digital device, you will be able to communicate better, and in turn, be able to access more content. And if you cannot afford to own a digital divide, you fall in the other stratum. This leads to the society divided into digital have's and have nots -  the Digital Divide. Today students use mobile phones and tablets to compare and share notes, teachers distribute soft copies rathe

I have a problem. Its a bloody small little big problem. I had decided to present myself a tablet to celebrate my becoming a Doctor in Philosophy and all that. The euphoria of getting the degree is already gone, but I still haven't bought myself a tablet. Now you may wonder what prevents me from doing that? Well here comes my small little big problem.... My expections from a tablet are quite simple. I should be able to do basic editing of Word and Powerpoint documents and I should be able to connect it to an LCD projector. I thought I would be able to just breeze into a store and come out with a tablet of my choice. But no. The Samsung, Apple, Acer, Android, IOS and Windows Gods have ganged up against me. No Samsung tablet can be connected to VGA LCD projector with a single cable. You require one HDMI output cable, to which you attach a HDMI to VGA converter and that too requires a power source. After hunting in the Internet jungle I found no solution which guarantees that this c

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

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

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

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

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

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