Emergence of Blogging and Micro-Blogging As A New-Age Tool For Mass Communication

Department of Journalism & Mass Communication
Directorate of Correspondence Courses

Punjabi University, Patiala
Emergence of blogging and micro-blogging

as a new-age tool for mass communication
Investigating the ways in which the creation of news,
marketing methodologies for organisations, and public relations
have begun to get influenced by the emergence of
online technologies like blogging and micro-blogging
Arvind Passey
CC Roll No. 758/09
Univ. Exam Roll No. 6751
MJMC
Dissertation Project 2009-10
May 2010
Authorship Declaration Form
Programme: MJMC-II 2009-10
Submission: Dissertation Project
Title: Emergence of blogging and micro-blogging as a new-age tool for mass

communication
Number of words: 16,485 words
Student Name: Arvind Passey

CC Roll No.: 758/09
Univ. Exam Roll No.: 6751
Project Guide: Dr. Gurmeet Singh Mann
Declaration:
“I certify that the contents of this document are entirely my own work and that any quotation or
paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of others is duly acknowledged.”
Signature:
25 May 2010
Abstract
“CHANGE is in the air. A new communications technology threatens a dramatic upheaval in

America’s newspaper industry, overturning the status quo and disrupting the business model
that has served the industry for years. This “great revolution”, warns one editor, will mean that
some publications “must submit to destiny, and go out of existence.” With many American
papers declaring bankruptcy in the past few months, their readers and advertisers lured away by
cheaper alternatives on the internet, this doom-laden prediction sounds familiar.” (from
Newspapers and technology | Network effects | How a new communications technology
disrupted America’s newspaper industry—in 1845 | Dec 17th 2009 | From The Economist print
edition.)
In 1858, one of the first messages on the transatlantic telegraph link was: “PRAY GIVE US
SOME NEWS FOR NEW YORK, THEY ARE MAD FOR NEWS.” Those were times when
people wanted:
• News that reached them fast and before the circumstances changed
• News that told of what happened in distant places
• News that connected people, cultures, and ideas
“To the press the electric telegraph is an invention of immense value,” one journalist observed
in 1868. “It gives you the news before the circumstances have had time to alter. The press is
enabled to lay it fresh before the reader like a steak hot from the gridiron, instead of being
cooled and rendered flavourless by a slow journey from a distant kitchen.”
What are the lessons for newspapers and other traditional media which is struggling with the
newly brewed concepts of the new media? “The telegraph helped contribute to the emergence of
the modern newspaper,” says Ford Risley, head of the journalism department at Penn State
University. “People began to expect the latest news, and a newspaper could not succeed if it was
not timely.”
It must be understood that no new technology ever threatens the one that is prevalent because
every traditional form must introspect and evolve and be able to welcome what is destined to be
the new truth!
This is exactly what this project proposes to discuss.

Table of Contents
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. 7
1 Conventional forms of mass communication: Merger with new media .................................. 8
1.1 Communication is vital .......................................................................................................... 8
1.2 What is Mass Communication? ............................................................................................ 9
1.3 Understanding communication ............................................................................................ 9
1.4 Communication models....................................................................................................... 11
1.5 A final word on mass communication: scope and diversity............................................ 11
1.6 The transition is not just evident but essential.................................................................. 12
1.7 Acceptance of the liberal new media must become a norm ............................................ 13
1.8 Final thought ......................................................................................................................... 14
2 Infectious power of new media: Every man can transmit news .............................................. 15
2.1 Global interconnectedness ................................................................................................... 15
2.2 The future of newspapers ..................................................................................................... 16
2.3 Can the man in the street suddenly become a responsible journalist? .......................... 16
2.4 ‘I’ is powerful in the kingdom of new media ..................................................................... 17
2.5 When I make news, I become more socially dependable ................................................ 17
2.6 Social networks and their role introduced ......................................................................... 18
2.7 Journalism is becoming interactive, and perhaps better .................................................. 19
2.8 Statistical exploration of the common man vs new media14 ........................................... 20
2.9 The truth of creation............................................................................................................. 21
3 Online networked vehicles: The new avatar for news dissemination ..................................... 22
3.1 Statistical presence of online networking in India............................................................ 22
3.2 Strengths of Facebook and Twitter16 .................................................................................. 23
3.3 Social networking in India ................................................................................................... 24
3.4 What do we conclude for online networked vehicles? ..................................................... 25
4 New trends in mass communication: The creative brief of organisational success .............. 27
4.1 Why do organisations need to go online?.......................................................................... 27
4.2 Online marketing trends ...................................................................................................... 28
4.3 Organisational perceptions need to change ...................................................................... 30
4.4 Brand conversations are becoming influential.................................................................. 31
4.5 The highway to powerful image building (PR) ................................................................. 32
5 Micro-blogging: The art of giving conventional journalism an incisive edge ....................... 34
5.1 Micro-blogging defined........................................................................................................ 34
5.2 Micro-blogging dissected ..................................................................................................... 34
5.3 Twitter: Communication model that bridges the traditional and the new-age trends 35
5.4 The ‘jiffy’ element of new media ......................................................................................... 36
5.5 Statistical profiling ................................................................................................................ 38
5.6 The ‘beyond expectations’ edge of micro-blogging .......................................................... 39
5.7 Three examples of traditional journalists embracing twitter .......................................... 41
6 Blogging and micro-blogging: Converging technology perspectives ..................................... 44
6.1 The shades of convergence .................................................................................................. 44
6.2 Usage profiling for technology convergence ..................................................................... 45
6.3 Mobile media is a reality ...................................................................................................... 46
6.4 The final perspective ............................................................................................................. 47
7 The future of mass communication: Still quite a distance away ............................................. 48
7.1 It has happened before too................................................................................................... 48
7.2 India and the world have a similar opinion....................................................................... 48
7.3 Action-scripting by print organisations ............................................................................. 49
7.4 Old technology is still loved by the politician ................................................................... 49
7.5 A brief history of the future as observed today: Concluding observations ................... 50
References ................................................................................................................................................ 53

Acknowledgements
I am primarily indebted to the 31st of May 2010 for the submission of this dissertation project...
as going into the depths of any subject is so enthralling that one never really wishes to reach the
end. However, I must also add that the end is still nowhere in sight – and this is because the
dynamics of mass communication are accelerating and we mortals are trying not to get left
behind.
This work is having inputs from my experience of more than 25 years in the fields of sales,
marketing, and corporate communications at different times. What has also helped is the quest
to see the ‘first-day-first-show’ of anything new that develops or emerges on the internet...
which is how I learnt a lot of newer business models, blogging, and even micro-blogging.
Sincere thanks to my dissertation guide Dr Gurmeet Singh Mann for his revelations of the
intricacies of thesis writing and all the essential ingredients that invariably form a part of it.
My thanks to the simply great analysts and superb writers who exist all over the information
super-highway today for having created websites, blogs, and archives that document everything
from the history of communication to what the future may bring.
The daily dose of a heady mix of encouragement, thrust, and support that my wife Dr Sangita
Passey gave, has been as vital as the threatening stance of the 31st of May 2010! The superb
directions provided by my son Pushkin Passey from more than 5000 miles away in London is
how the final shape of this dissertation has come about.
1 Conventional forms of mass communication:
Merger with new media
Let me begin with an admission. Pearce, Kevin J.23 in his essay ‘Media and Mass
Communication Theories’, has admitted that “the definition of media and mass
communication is in a state of flux. New communication technologies are blurring the lines and
altering the definitions. New theories are being developed to address the changing nature of the
media.” Obviously then, the discussion in this chapter aims to simply give a cursory overview
of the ways at which researchers try to understand the media and their influence on our lives.
1.1 Communication is vital

The word communication has been derived from the Latin word ‘communis’ which means ‘to
make common’, ‘to share’, ‘to impart’ or ‘to transmit’ – that is, make common, share, impart or
transmit ideas, information or knowledge etc.
To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the
world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. The process of
communication signifies a mutual shuttling of ideas or information till we reach the end of the
phenomenon successfully.
It is important to understand that:

a) Communication remains ineffective if it does not influence the subject and the object
simultaneously.
b) The communication should proportionately constitute the outflow and the inflow
ingredient, regardless of the method, means or situation under which it is exercised.
c) Simplicity of observation and simplicity of communication itself and only itself is
functional.
d) Communication is a ‘human connection’ and must be full of meaningful messages that
have profitability/ productivity inbuilt in them.
The process of communication is a means by which you make evaluation and determine
relationships. It could include:
a) to express oneself to other or tell others what you mean;
b) to understand the expression of others or determine what they mean;
c) to interpret the world and events around you or to determine the meaning of things;
d) to understand or to decide what you mean.
Conventional forms of mass communication: 8
1.2 What is Mass Communication?
The dictionary suggests that Mass Communication is a collective term used to describe the
academic study of various means of communication by which individuals and entities relay
information to large segments of the population all at once through mass media. And mass
media is that particular medium through which the information is communicated to a large
section of the audience.
In a nutshell, Mass Communication is the study of mass media and mass media includes all
types of medium used to convey the information to the audience. Examples of mass media
include newspapers, magazines, cinema films, radio, television, etc.
1.3 Understanding communication

Berelson and Steiner gave the entire process of communication clarity through their definition
that went: ‘The transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc., by use of symbols-
words, pictures, figures, graphs etc. It is the act or process of transmission that is usually called
communication.’
The primary goal of communication is to influence through persuasion.
By a communication system we will mean a system of the type indicated schematically in the
Figure below.1 (from: A Mathematical Theory of Communication By C E Shannon)
It consists of essentially five parts:

1. An information source which produces a message or sequence of messages to be
communicated to the receiving terminal.
2. A transmitter which operates on the message in some way to produce a signal suitable
for transmission over the channel.

3. The channel is merely the medium used to transmit the signal from transmitter to
receiver. It may be a pair of wires, a coaxial cable, a band of radio frequencies, a beam of
light, etc.
4. The receiver ordinarily performs the inverse operation of that done by the transmitter,
reconstructing the message from the signal.
5. The destination is the person (or thing) for whom the message is intended.
It was Harold D. Lasswell, the American political scientist who stated that ‘a convenient way to
describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions:
WHO | SAYS WHAT | IN WHICH CHANNEL | TO WHOM | WITH WHAT EFFECT?’
It does not matter here which model of communication is applicable today. It could be the
Lasswell model of communication process OR the Shannon & Weaver mathematical model
of communication OR the Osgood & Schramm circular model OR any other that may have or
will evolve. What is vital is a basic understanding of communication before one can explore its
link with the way/s it reaches the masses.
The base of Western communication theories too has shifted from “mechanistic effects models
of communication acts to those concerned with communication relationships and
communication experience.”2 (Keval J. Kumar. Mass Communication in India) There are other
communication theories too:
1. Communication as a ritual where all members of the ‘public – not just message senders
– are considered to be actors contributing in some way to the pattern of meaning of a
nation or a region.’ (Robert A. White: ‘The significance of recent developments in the
field of mass communication.’) According to this theory, television is more analogous
to the moment of ritual in which myths, values, and meanings of life are recalled and
re-enacted. ‘Communication thus becomes a process of creation, representation, and
celebration of shared beliefs.’2
2. Communication representing a participatory relationship affected through dialogue.
This form is based on the thoughts and writings of the late Paulo Freire, the Brazilian
educationist and much of the South American perspective on communication is based
on his philosophy.
3. Communication representing a power relationship – the power of one person over
another, one person over a group, and that of mass media producers over audiences.
The last point in the above forms is vital as the advent of new media technologies have affected
it the most as will become obvious in later chapters.

1.4 Communication models
Communication Models were discussed at length in a study titled ‘Is Twitter an Individual Mass
Communication Medium?’ which talked of communication being an ambiguous term with
different meanings. Every communication process needs a medium within the message to get
transferred. The study specified: “The term ‘medium’ refers to human communication as an
interpersonal medium as well as a technical device, for transferring a message (Maletzke, 1963).
Littlejohn defines four basic communication forms, whereas each higher communication level
contains the preceding (Littlejohn, 1992):
- Interpersonal communication (face-to-face communication limited to two persons)
- Group communication (one additional person joins the communication process)
- Organisational communication (a process in large cooperative networks)
- Mass communication (deals with public and mediated communication)
In contrast to ‘simple’ communication, mass communication occurs when messages are

mediated public (no limited and personal defined receiver), medial (medial diffused), indirect
(there is a spatial and/or temporal separation between the communication partners) and
unilateral (without role change between sender and receiver) to a disperse public (Maletzke,
1963).”3
1.5 A final word on mass communication: scope and diversity

For a complete appraisal of its force, one needs to look beyond specific outcomes by focusing on
the occurrence of the media. On some matters, and especially at critical times, they provide vital
information. “Even the Internet, often considered an alternative to the mass media, takes
account of the news and, on occasion, serves as the primary source for a major story.”3
Unable ever to catch the full diversity of events and situations, the media supply the bits and
pieces that, when put together, form the symbolic environment to which active citizens,
including bloggers and nerds, are bound to react in one way or other. Hardly anyone — not
even those who scorn the media — escapes their reach.
“When people speak of the media, they usually have in mind corporate bodies or government
agencies whose access to modern technology enables them to disseminate the same uniform
content to a geographically dispersed multitude. At first, this capability was confined to cheap
print, and then later expanded to motion-pictures, both of which were still dependent on
physical transport. This limitation did not extend to either radio or television, which, given
their wide reach, were destined to become the media of mass communication par excellence.”4
“But to develop into mass communication, the new technology had to be employed to reach
a large audience. As late as the end of the 1920s, Ernest W. Burgess (1886-1966), a University

of Chicago sociologist whose interest was mostly in human ecology, could still write about the
conquest of space by new forms of transportation and communication, such as the automobile,
the motion picture, the airplane, and the radio, without even a single reference to the expansion
in the size of audiences and its consequences (1929, p. 1072). Two years later, David O.
Woodbury devoted a book (1931) to “communication at a distance,” grouping mass media with
personal communication forms, such as letters that rely on carriers, or with those which do
not.”4
The conventional forms of mass communication have always had to transpose themselves from
being the new media for an era to resigning to the role of conventional media... and then
subsequently to being accustomed to being put on a pedestal as ‘traditional media’. Thus we see
that in the earlier paragraph, the radio and television are considered to be a part of the new media
that were at that time threatening the conventional media ie, the print newspapers. Now with
changing times, it is the same drama that is being played with the names of the players having
changed.
1.6 The transition is not just evident but essential

Ian Hargreaves in his book on journalism observes: “As the twentieth century gave way to the
twenty-first, and the technologies of analogue radio and television surrendered to digital
communications technologies, making it possible for broadcast-type services to be transmitted
globally and instantly across a range of infrastructures, new challenges would emerge. Now that
newspapers, radio and television could share delivery platforms, via broadband internet, would
it still make sense, or even be possible, to regulate them differently? If not, would the trend be in
the direction of greater market-based freedom associated with the free press? Or would the new
communications networks, in all their complexity, be regulated for content and standards by
some state or political authority?”5
The internet has now become all-pervasive and is the backbone of meaningful and effective
communication platforms. These platforms are constantly being researched and evolved to give
way to those that are more in consonance with the times.
These words read on a website are pertinent at this stage of the dissertation: “Think of the
Internet as a literal place, a newly-conquered frontier. It’s a familiar comparison: the pioneering
switch-circuit supernerds of ARPANET; the trailblazing explorers of Usenet and Mosaic; the
waves of immigrants, establishing Geocities, getting to know their AOL postman by his
ubiquitous catchphrase. Now Google’s twelve-lane freeways roar across the Web, Facebook and
YouTube are visible from space. Unfortunately, as with most frontiers, the development of the
Web has brought with it the swift and ruthless execution of native populations. The old empires
of printed media are undergoing a greater crisis than ever before, one from which they will
never fully recover. They have succumbed to the pox of Internet expansion.

As it stands now, the Internet is the opposite: an unbridled and infinite purveyor of
information—creation unbound—and it has all the delicate subtlety of a tidal wave.”6
This transition in the format of communication medium is making itself felt through a creative
form of expression that is no longer an exclusive domain of a few who called themselves
journalists. This transition is reaching out whole-heartedly to the masses giving each one of
those interested to be a part of the dynamics of the dissemination of news. These new-age
formats are not just dynamic and seeped into contemporary technology but also wield a
creative power that needs to be understood and accepted by all.
1.7 Acceptance of the liberal new media must become a norm
‘Internet freedom in Pakistan -- First Facebook, then the world’ an article published in The
Economist says it all. The article discusses the way creative liberty and freedom of expression
has been given a raw deal by the banning of social networking and even information
websites in Pakistan and points out that “the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA)
argued against the ban on the grounds that it would hurt the country’s economy, but was
overzealous in enforcing it: first Facebook, then YouTube, also for “sacrilegious” content, then
another 450 sites. Parts of Wikipedia, BBC News, Twitter and Webster’s online dictionary have
been blocked, though sometimes only briefly. Proxy servers, which might have been used to
circumvent the prohibitions, were also blocked. Even Blackberry services were hit (to gasps of
horror from the business elite).”7
The article further goes on to say that “the offence was an American cartoonist’s idea for a
“Draw Muhammad Day”. Enthusiasts proceeded to draw thousands of images, many of them
offensive. Facebook’s policy of prohibiting hate speech was apparently in abeyance: drawings of
pigs urinating on the Koran—and worse—were posted. “7
The obvious question then that arises is if the new media forms need a re-think in the way they
define creativity, freedom of expression, news and views OR they need to consider such
incidents as one-off that deserve to be dismissed without so much as even a frivolous thought.
1.8 Final thought

It must be understood that communication in a present-day context needs to be :
1. Down-to-earth and simple

2. Practical and objective
3. Have the ability to call a spade a spade and not a shovel
4. Clear with no scope for ambiguity
5. Ready to accept emerging trends
6. Prepared to exist in a converging world
7. Clearly out of narrow parochial thought
Nothing better than a representative tweet from the emerging new media to give a final touch to
this chapter on the conventional forms of mass communication and its path of merger with the
emerging new media:
Tweetjourno on twitter: “Twitter helped to bare ugly sides of some journalists who were larger
than life on screen or on paper!” via web.
The above tweet tells us simply that the new media intends to distribute the power of
communication without the need for special agents who may call themselves politicians,
lobbyists, columnists, journalists, tycoons or simply power-hungry souls!

2 Infectious power of new media:
Every man can transmit news
2.1 Global interconnectedness

Thats right! There are plenty of us who must’ve written innumerable letters to various editors of
various publications and yet must be thirsting to see even one getting printed. Things have
changed a bit for the conventional media of today as the print, radio, and even television give
ample opportunity to be there addressing the entire audience of the publication through one
mean or another... there could be a weekly photography contest or a ‘share your thought’
column or simply a ‘reader’s corner’ besides the so well known letter to the editor section.
However, bear in mind that most of these are not even remotely near what is called the
‘transmission of news’. Yes, a photograph of a glaring billboard error in TOI or a picture of
some place visited in Mail Today may pretend to be news but they are not. Video clips by the
common man can get some exposure in a TV news channel but that may be an exception.
Citizen journalists may be allowed to get a real feel of the news-world... yes, but most of the
time this happens through an earlier participation through any of the forms of new media.
There are examples where blog writing or a news-worthy tweet has lead to a person being
invited to be a part of the news creation moments... and theses instances are going up. Every
man is indeed getting an increased number of opportunities to be dynamically associated with
news! This is so long as we keep thinking of news as being what the conventional media dishes
out for us.
But this is not all! This is just the beginning of an exciting new era of global
interconnectedness that is geared to spread ideas and innovations around the world faster
than ever before.
We have indeed come a long way from the times when Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were
known to be connected globally through their ham radio stations! Every Tom, Dick, and harry
can now log on to the super highway, register as a member of a blogging, micro-blogging, or a
social networking site and get started with his journalistic instincts!
Infectious power of new media: 15

2.2 The future of newspapers
Who killed the newspaper? The most useful bit of the media is disappearing. A cause for
concern, but not for panic. Of all the “old” media, newspapers have the most to lose from the
internet.
An article in ‘The Economist’ way back in 2006, had mentioned rather pertinent facts that have
simply refused to fade away... they’ve become hardened and concretized with the passage of
time. The article said: “The usefulness of the press goes much wider than investigating abuses or
even spreading general news; it lies in holding governments to account—trying them in the
court of public opinion. The internet has expanded this court. Anyone looking for information
has never been better equipped. People no longer have to trust a handful of national papers or,
worse, their local city paper. News-aggregation sites such as Google News draw together sources
from around the world. The website of Britain's Guardian now has nearly half as many readers
in America as it does at home.”8
The article further went on to say that “in addition, a new force of “citizen” journalists and
bloggers is itching to hold politicians to account. The web has opened the closed world of
professional editors and reporters to anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection.
Several companies have been chastened by amateur postings—of flames erupting from Dell's
laptops or of cable-TV repairmen asleep on the sofa. Each blogger is capable of bias and slander,
but, taken as a group, bloggers offer the searcher after truth boundless material to chew over. Of
course, the internet panders to closed minds; but so has much of the press.”8
2.3 Can the man in the street suddenly become a responsible

journalist?
Not immediately. But the power of the internet is such that it compels people not only to start
saying pertinent things that are for the good of the societal fabric but also begin to adapt faster
to the changing patterns of the birth of new media technologies.
Read what Karan Johar, the Bollywood director and film maker, has to say in his tweet:
kjohar25: “Critics on television, newspapers, facebook, twitter, websites... and some even send
SMS's... everyone is now a critic!! Where is the audience???” 8:49 PM May 23rd via UberTwitter
The above tweet is proof enough that the masses even in India have begun to exert their right to
criticize and point out what the flaws are. Pritish Nandy, a poet and critic, in one of his tweets
says: “Have you noticed how quickly we move on from tragedy these days? We are a nation
always in denial. Tragedy has the shortest shelf life.” And gets a rely from Rajdeep Sardesai of
CNN-IBN in another tweet 10 minutes later: “Which is why print will survive! tv channels are
the FIRs of news, but for a chargesheet, it needs to be in print.” However, the paradox is that

both these gentlemen of the press are tweeting this information and it is the thousands of
followers who are reading, re-tweeting, or simply replying ther critical analysis of even this
piece of information. Obviously, the internet has ensured that mass participation is immense.
See what is happening at another moment when Pritish Nandy is thinking aloud in the form of
his ubiquitous tweets:
“Amazing how sudden death makes anonymous people famous for a day. Tragedy is the
ultimate newsmaker now. “ via web.
and
“Strange how a whole day of intense live coverage of a tragic event finally hits home with a 8
column banner headline next morning. Habit?” via web.
What is not written but made very obvious here is that the new media has become an effective
vehicle to transmit all elements of news which is then consolidated in a newspaper for breakfast
reading! More of this analysis is there in the chapters that follow.
2.4 ‘I’ is powerful in the kingdom of new media

The following set of tweets sent by Madhur Bhandarkar, the famous film-maker clarifies
beyond doubt the power of micro-blogging and blogging to put the records straight. Incident
report culled from an article on the web9:
mbhandarkar268: “Hr s my denial 2 Chandani Bar-2, a story by Subhash K Jha in a Tabloid” via
web
Furious, Madhur denies making Chandni Bar sequel: "This is absolutely baseless and people
should not speculate", says Bhandarkar who has decided that from here on, he would have none
of such speculative news pieces making the rounds."
And "I know", Bhandarkar gets a little relaxed here, "I guess we have to ignore all rumours and
concentrate on some real and happening stuff now."
It isn’t just celebrities who go in the denial mode, everyone can and does now have a platform
where he or she can justify the stance adopted and fight for what is perceived right.
2.5 When I make news, I become more socially dependable

Another great achievement of the press was to move conversation beyond small talk to “bigger”
things, to persons and images, as we might say today, that have caught the public’s attention.
This goes much beyond shallow forms of meaningless criticism and adopts to responsible garb
of a responsible newsmaker! Lang and Gladys from the University of Washington have given an
interesting analysis of this phenomenon: “From a sociological perspective, the most striking
feature of modern communication technology is its capacity to expand social relations beyond
the clan, the tribe, and the local community. While ancient empires were built on military force
and the loyalty of a small number of chieftains to a central authority, the typical social unit
today covers far more territory and embraces more people than could once have been thought
possible. This expansion is not just a matter of size, but also one of density. Individuals different
in background, orientation, and skill, clustered in and around urban centers, have become more
interdependent, and also, though only indirectly, more active participants in political life.”10
This leads us to the importance of social networking and its spread as well as penetration that
gives an ‘infectious power’ to new media.
2.6 Social networks and their role introduced

In recent years, social media has become ubiquitous and important for social networking and
content sharing. And yet, the content that is generated from these websites remains largely
untapped. Sitaram et al have shown the following in their paper11:
1. Social media content can be used to predict real-world outcomes.
2. The chatter from Twitter.com can be used to forecast box-office revenues for movies.
3. A simple model built from the rate at which tweets are created about particular topics
can outperform market-based predictors.
4. Sentiments extracted from Twitter can be further utilized to improve the forecasting
power of social media.
Online social networks are changing the way people communicate, work and play, and mostly
for the better, says Martin Giles in a special report on social networking in The Economist12:
“The globe’s largest online social network boasts over 350m users—which, were it a nation,
would make Facebook the world’s third most populous after China and India. That is not the
only striking statistic associated with the business. Its users now post over 55m updates a day on
the site and share more than 3.5 billion pieces of content with one another every week.”
Martin goes on to elaborate: “Although Facebook is the world’s biggest social network, there are
a number of other globetrotting sites, such as MySpace, which concentrates on music and
entertainment; LinkedIn, which targets career-minded professionals; and Twitter, a networking
service that lets members send out short, 140-character messages called “tweets”. All of these
appear in a ranking of the world’s most popular networks by total monthly web visits (see
chart), which also includes Orkut, a Google-owned service that is heavily used in India and
Brazil, and QQ, which is big in China. On top of these there are other big national community
sites such as Skyrock in France, VKontakte in Russia, and Cyworld in South Korea, as well as
numerous smaller social networks that appeal to specific interests such as Muxlim, aimed at the
world’s Muslims, and ResearchGATE, which connects scientists and researchers.12”

“Their other great achievement has been to
turn themselves into superb tools for mass
communication. Simply by updating a
personal page on Facebook or sending out a
tweet, users can let their network of
friends—and sometimes the world—know
what is happening in their lives. Moreover,
they can send out videos, pictures and lots of
other content with just a few clicks of a
mouse. “This represents a dramatic and
permanent upgrade in people’s ability to
communicate with one another,” says Marc
Andreessen, a Silicon Valley veteran who has
invested in Facebook, Twitter and Ning, an
American firm that hosts almost 2m social
networks for clients.12”
“Social-networking sites’ impressive growth has attracted much attention because the sites have
made people’s personal relationships more visible and quantifiable than ever before. They have
also become important vehicles for news and channels of influence. Twitter regularly scores
headlines with its real-time updates on events like the Mumbai terrorist attacks and on the
activities of its high-profile users, who include rap stars, writers and royalty. And both Twitter
and Facebook played a starring role in the online campaign strategy that helped sweep Barack
Obama to victory in the presidential race. 12“
2.7 Journalism is becoming interactive, and perhaps better

A media survey from 2006 had pointed out facts that are not only still relevant but also getting
stronger. The role of the citizen journalist as well as the role of a common man using his pen or
his camera, his mobile phone or his ingenuity... loads content that can be verbose or audio-
visual or simple graphics and this is what makes journalism so much more interactive: “Yahoo!
provides an even bigger example of the cheerful mixing of professional and amateur content (as
opposed to Ohmy's insistence on the purely amateur). For instance, a lot of the articles, photos,
audio and video on Yahoo! News come from corporate partners such as Associated Press or
CNN. A tiny bit comes from Yahoo! itself (specifically, from Kevin Sites, a one-man camera
team who travels to exotic and dangerous war zones around the world). But more and more
content comes from citizens—Yahoo!'s users—says Scott Moore, who runs Yahoo!'s news and
finance pages. Indeed, Yahoo! explicitly allows users not only to contribute content but also to
take part in its filtering and placement, he says. These new collaborative processes even have a
name—“folksonomies”—to distinguish them from the top-down “taxonomies” that human
editors traditionally create.13”
The article goes on to explicate further by citing an example that “during the terrorist attacks on
London's Underground last year, quite a few people in the wrecked trains took haunting photos
with their mobile phones. They then wirelessly uploaded these to Flickr, a photo-sharing site
owned by Yahoo! Other users then “tagged” these photos by attaching labels such as “London
Underground” or “bombings” to them so that they could be easily found. The same or other
users then spontaneously rated the pictures. This in turn brought the best pictures to the
attention of Yahoo!'s human editors, who displayed them prominently alongside “professional”
content across Yahoo!'s news sites. All of this happened within minutes.13”
And can anyone guess why this is happening? It is because of the ‘infectious’ power of the new
media which catalyses individuals to get up and look for small occurrences and actions that
need to be shared on a wider platform. This and more is what the new media claims and gives.
2.8 Statistical exploration of the common man vs new media14

According to Google’s AdPlanner stats, Facebook is the #1 most-visited destination on the web.
Weighing in at an unfathomably heavy 570 billion page views and 540 million users, the
ubiquitous social network outranks every other non-Google site, taking more than 35% of all
web traffic measured.
The stats, which do not include data from Google (Google).com and YouTube (YouTube),
detail the categories, users and page views for each of the top 1,000 sites on the Internet
(Internet). They also tell which sites have advertising. Wikipedia (Wikipedia) and Mozilla.com
are the only two sites in the top 10 that remain ad-free.
Destinations such as Mozilla.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com and Live.com sit high in the rankings
due in large part to their status as default landing pages for various browsers.
When it comes to non-Facebook social media properties, Twitter ranks 18th with 5.4 billion
page views, Flickr (Flickr) is 31st with 1.8 billion views and LinkedIn (LinkedIn) sits in 56th
place at 1.7 billion views.
And the usual blogging sites make appearances, too. Blogspot is in 7th place, WordPress
(WordPress) in 12th and Blogger (blogger) in 53rd.
Other popular destinations, according to Google’s report, are international web portals such as
Baidu, Sina, 163.com and Sohu. Though relatively unheard of in American tech press, these
sites are the online equivalent of our solar system’s Jupiter: enormous and a bit out of our reach.

Bank of America and PayPal also made the list, coming in at 93rd and 39th, respectively. And in
the news category we find the BBC, which was ranked 43rd with 2.5 billion hits, followed by the
New York Times’ website, ranked 83rd with 600 million views.
2.9 The truth of creation

For society as a whole, all this new talent—from bloggers, who are “journal-ists” in the classic
sense, to citizen journalists—should amount to something overwhelmingly positive. “The more
journalism the better; I don't care who does it,” says Dan Gillmor. In a poem ‘The truth of
creation’, the writer of this report expresses the same thought, adding a little warning note for
journalists who oppose in incursion of the non-journalist in the area of news creation:
The search for sights and insights too

can take one far away...
though, what appeals and what is true
will simply stay or stray.
And some will stay and some will stray
but all will pose as new:
thoughts too will change their garb and way
and that don't, will rue!
Arvind Passey
07 July 2007

3 Online networked vehicles:
The new avatar for news dissemination
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are
misinformed.' - Mark Twain.
Craig Newmark, of Craigslist, says that “journalism needs to become a community service
rather than a profit centre.” Obviously, what this implies is that even professional journalists
today need to suggest the right direction to the issues emerging at the local level... though with
the internet bringing the world to your doorstep, the definition of local does tend to stretch a
bit. It is through the interactive platforms provided by the networking sites that can help the
right news emerge from the primary source and reach all those who must be reached.
3.1 Statistical presence of online networking in India

To prevent the malady of misinformation that mark twain wrote about, the new media has
ensured an easy entry into social networking sites. Top Social Media Traffic Sources for India
that includes Facebook, Digg, SU and Twitter says on its website15:
“Its a worldwide phenomena that Digg is losing relevance [and will go the 2X route with the
launch of Facebook ‘Like’ button] – what is interesting is the rise of Facebook sharing over
other social networks. After Facebook and Digg, whats matter in India is StumpledUpon,
Twitter and Delicious (though ‘other’ category is also important, which might include Orkut?).
Globally, Twitter generates almost one in ten Social Media global hits to website [read:
Facebook Driving More Traffic to Yahoo than Google). What this means is that integrating
Facebook into your website is as important as optimizing your site for Google. And for Google,
this is a red flag.”
The figure on the next page illustrates these statistics. As things stand now, it is Facebook that is
poised to become the primary vehicle for social networking and sharing of ideas and for
suggesting remedial action for issues that are either dumped by the conventional press or
simply buried in a 2-line mention in some obscure corner.
What can be more heartening than the fact that even the Delhi Police has decided to go the
social networking way to get closer to a meaningful interaction with society. This is something
that the traditional press was unable to activate effectively and consistently. Delhi Traffic Police
Joins Facebook [Social Media at works for CWG]. Whatever perception you have about Delhi
Online networked vehicles: 22
Traffic police, there is an attempt by authority to connect with netizens and Facebook is the
chosen platform for the same. Delhi traffic police has launched a FB page which within few
weeks of the launched has garnered 2,900 fans.
3.2 Strengths of Facebook and Twitter16

Strengths of Facebook
More Personal: Facebook is actually more personal compared to twitter. With facebook it is a
whole different level of relationship. However, I don’t really like facebook algorithm updates
which don’t really show everyone’s updates. You get to hear longer thoughts from people
compared to twitter.
Profile Versatility: What do I mean by this? With facebook you are able to set up a personal
profile, a professional profile, a business page or a fan page. Although you are able to to set up
different accounts on twitter, they really have the same functions as facebook.
Facebook ads: For business, Facebook gives you the opportunity to purchase ads which you can
target specific niches, age or segmentation.
Strengths of Twitter
Speed: Twitter’s biggest strength is its speed. No one can defeat twitter when it comes to speed.
Not even reporters. When things happened around the word, you’re going to hear it on twitter.
Information and Research: It is easy to get information on twitter. All you have to do is do a
simple search using twitter search. You will hear what people are talking about your brand and
what people are talking about your competitors as well.
Viral: Twitter is the king of speed. Tweets go viral as well. One tweet can get you tons of
retweets and views. It is harder to get a message to go as viral on facebook compared to twitter.

3.3 Social networking in India
2009 has been a milestone for social networking, especially for Internet-devoid-and-chatty
citizens of India. Most of homegrown social networks took the back seat and the ones to survive
are driven by media companies (with deep pockets). Twitter’s explosive growth in 2009 is being
reinforced by the tool being embraced by Indian media. Nevertheless, what’s really happening
in the entire process is that “Twitter is getting all sorts of media attention (news channels keep
promoting their twitter channel) and is being introduced to the layman (at least there is
curiosity about the tool).17”
Data18 on the internet suggests that LinkedIn too has reached a milestone in India with almost 4
million users as on Jan 8, 2010 where globally it has 55 million members. The last 3 million
mark has been achieved in just 1.5 years (and it’s important to note that LinkedIn opened it’s
office in India just a few months back before this milestone was reached, it’s first ever office in
Asia).
LinkedIn, widely known as the #1 professional networking website globally, has a large and
rapidly growing base in India and is now establishing a local presence in the country as well.
Alexa ranks it in the top 15 websites in the country in terms of traffic “and ~15% of the traffic
on the website seems to be from India. It has enviable revenue per employee ratio, something
that definitely speaks of scale in the internet industry. 19“

The graphical representation is to show the growth and the size of linkedin in India. This goes
on to show that the prevalence of online networked vehicles and the fact that they are in no way
having a less speedy evolution than in the West of any other country. Now linkedin too has
status updates as well as the facility to link up with one’s twitter account. Thus the individual is
ready to not just feel frivolous whiles updating status as he may have felt on facebook, but feel
the grave association of a professional network while he updates. Updates, incidentally, aren’t
just about what time a person shaved and how many nicks he has had that day... updates
include what the person may have observed and felt as right or wrong which actually is
development journalism in a different form. “The nature of change is changing20 “ and the new
pattern has the added advantage of improving communication and enhancing online
dissemination of news besides having the potential to earn money as well. A site like linkedin
can be said to be the real competition for naukri and monster. “LinkedIn monetizes through
recruiters in much the same way that these job portals do. Yes, the business models are very
different; we have active job seekers on one site and at best, passive job seekers and non-seekers
on the other; but at the end of the day, both will be competing for the same wallets with the
same segment of end users (recruiters and HR professionals). Principally, LinkedIn is a social
network with greater engagement than any jobs site and solving for a lot more use cases but
purely on its current monetization model of charging recruiters for access to candidates, it is
directly competing with Naukri. LinkedIn might do it with a P2P model but any online jobsite
with a P2A (Peer to Application) on one side and an A2P on the other side is essentially solving
for the same use case.20”
3.4 What do we conclude for online networked vehicles?

Opinions exist in every person... what has been the case until now is that these opinions either
remained in the confined circle of friends through verbal banter or a few managed to reach out

to wider audiences through journalists who happened to hear them and found them agreeable
for being given precious space in a print publication. This is no longer the case. Social
networking has gently taught and groomed people to start expressing their opinion in writing
that remains visible and readable long after it has been forgotten even by the person who
originated it. Opinions have the power to travel on their own without any monetary or
marketing effort and can even generate mass movements of big and small stature.
It has been said that at least in democratic societies, everybody does have the right to hold
opinions, and that the urge to connect and converse with others is so basic that it might as well
be added to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. “It's about democratisation, where people
can participate by writing back,” says Sabeer Bhatia, who in March 2006 launched a company
called BlogEverywhere.com that lets people attach blogs to any web page with a single click.
“Just as everybody has an e-mail account today, everybody will have a blog in five years,” says
Mr Bhatia, who helped to make e-mail ubiquitous by starting Hotmail, a web-based e-mail
service now owned by Microsoft. This means, Mr Bhatia adds, that “journalism won't be a
sermon any more, it will be a conversation.” How prophetic!

4 New trends in mass communication:
The creative brief of organisational success
4.1 Why do organisations need to go online?

Shade, Leslie Regan21 in her essay ‘Technological Determinism’, has remarked: “Futuristic
scenarios for communication technologies provide a good example of technologically
determinist discourse. Many of the technologies were heralded as signaling a revolution in
social applications, leading to widespread social change. For instance, early pronouncements on
the telegraph assumed that global peace would transpire after its advent, as everyone would be
“linked up.” Another example of technological determinist theorizing can be found in early
“information superhighway” discourse in both media and governmental policy statements,
which positioned the Internet as a necessary technology for economic competitiveness, social
edification, and job creation. This was also extended to proclamations that the Internet could
connect and revive dispersed communities in a sympathetic global village.”
Think of most of the new media as a low-cost and fast publishing tool that can provide an
important dimension to an individual and/or organization in terms of getting news out quickly.
Because the diary is available to all at the same time, it is faster to use than media like e-mail and
because it requires no coding or expertise to use, it can appear at the speed of thought. One
need only type the journal entry and push a button to get it published. In some cases there is the
impermanence of Instant Messaging and in others like blogging there is a greater possibility of
an accessible trail of ideas, facts and comments into which one can reach to develop a history of
an issue, question or challenge without resorting to reconstructing e-mail threads from different
places and times. This is exactly why the new media has a defined role in businesses today.
Business find it as their business to see what people do on the net and keep following them
around to study individualistic as well as group and community trends. In an article ‘Where Do
People Go After They Visit Twitter.com?22’ “Hitwise recently posted, Twitter and News and
Media Websites, that took a look at where Twitters go after they visit Twitter.com. The report
found that almost sixty percent of them visit another social network (appx. 30%) or an
entertainment site (appx. 30%). This was followed by search engines (appx. 7%), lifestyle sites
(appx. 5%), news and media sites (appx. 4.5%), portal frontpages (appx. 4%), and then shopping
/ classifieds, business and finance sites, and email service (all appx. 3.5%). The report also
looked at "down stream" visits to media / news sites versus all other categories. Visits to media /
news sites increased by 54%, while all other categories increased by 138%.”
New trends in mass communication: 27

These trends are dynamic and keep changing thus necessitating the need for a continual
updation of trend analysis. Google through its SEO capabilities does it effectively and has made
a profitable business out of it but that is another story.
4.2 Online marketing trends

New trends in mass communication form the creative brief for organisations. It isn’t just a
matter of survival but is also a matter of who reaches and masters the latest online trend to
make the right strategic move. As expected, Social Media is the most sought out marketing
strategy. The obvious reason that “social media connect people with brands, build relations,
engage in conversation rather then getting
intrusive, who pop in front of people with
marketing message for no reason . I would
say Social Media has improved the overall
web experience as it has somehow restricted
the keyword exploitation.24”
The report (What worked in 2009 and what

to expect in 2010) puts “Social Media at
third just after website and email marketing.
This is understood as for proper Social
Media implementation and creating funnel,
both email and websites are needed. So the
fact is that Social Media is being used along with website and email marketing. The report says
93% of marketers surveyed have website and same % of marketers use email marketing. SEO
stands next to Social Media, and interestingly social media is a tool for natural SEO and
commonly we call it Social SEO.24”
The important outcomes from the report are:
1. Improved Brand Awareness
2. Improved Customer Service. (In fact a report from Forester quoted that almost
60% of Fortune 500 companies will be implementing Social CRM.)
3. Email Marketing for Traffic and Sales
4. Social Media for Online Community, Traffic, Engagement, Awareness.
Budget Allocation
The top three focus of marketers in 2010 are: Email Marketing, Online Community, and
Integrated Campaigns.
4.2.1 Data mining

Where traditional businesses generally collect information about customers from their
purchases or from surveys, internet companies have the luxury of being able to gather data from
everything that happens on their sites. The biggest websites have long recognised that
information itself is their biggest treasure. And it can immediately be put to use in a way that
traditional firms cannot match.
‘A special report on managing information25’ in The Economist has pointed out that “Facebook,
a social-networking website, is home to 40 billion photos. And decoding the human genome
involves analysing 3 billion base pairs—which took ten years the first time it was done, in 2003,
but can now be achieved in one week.”
“All these examples tell the same story: that the world contains an unimaginably vast amount of
digital information which is getting ever vaster ever more rapidly. This makes it possible to do
many things that previously could not be done: spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat
crime and so on. Managed well, the data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value,
provide fresh insights into science and hold governments to account.”
4.2.2 About Blogs and Blog mining

The New Economist takes us for a stroll into the world of blogging in these pithy lines: “The
word “blog” appears to date back to 1997, when one of the few practitioners at the time, Jorn
Barger, called his site a “weblog”. In 1999, another user, Peter Merholz, playfully broke the word
into “we blog”, and somehow the new term—blog—stuck as both a verb and a noun.
Technically, it means a web page to which its owner regularly adds new entries, or “posts”,
which tend to be (but need not be) short and often contain hyperlinks to other blogs or
websites. Besides text and hypertext, posts can also contain pictures (“photoblogs”) and video
(“vlogs”). Each post is stored on its own distinct archive page, the so-called “permalink”, where
it can always be found. On average, Technorati tracks some 50,000 new posts an hour.30”
The article goes further and gives this heart-warming insight: Blogging is also about style. Dave
Winer, a software engineer who pioneered several blogging technologies, and who keeps what
by his own estimate is the longest-running blog of all (dating back to 1997), has argued that the
essence of blogginess is “the unedited voice of a single person”, preferably an amateur. Blogs, in
other words, usually have a raw, unpolished authenticity and individuality. This definition
would exclude quite a few of the blogs that firms, public-relations people or newspapers set up
nowadays. If an editor vets, softens or otherwise messes about with the writing, Mr Winer
would argue, it is no longer a blog.30”
The web can also be mined to track information about emerging trends and behaviours,
covering everything from drug use or racial tension to interest in films or new products. The
nature of blogging means that people are quick to comment on events in their daily lives.
Mining this sort of information might therefore also reveal information about exactly how ideas
are spread and trends are set.

This concept as opposed to the times when what people wrote was not accessible to public
scrutiny, is brought out rather well in an article in The Economist: “In the world before the web,
chatter about the trivialities of everyday life was shared in person, and not written down, so it
could not be subjected to such analysis. While recording their words for posterity and
obsessively checking their hit counters to see if anyone is reading them, today’s blog authors can
console themselves with the thought that computers, at least, find their work fascinating.27”
4.3 Organisational perceptions need to change

Sasha Gusain from Mumbai remarked on twitter:
SashG: “It is stunning that in 2010 people still don't know the difference between a portal and a
blog. “via HootSuite.
He above tweet is enough to tell us that missing or not missing the new media bus is as much
about the will to adopt as it is about learning and understanding its finer aspects. The old order
must give way to the rumblings of the new regime, so to say!
An article on www.pluggedin.com26 says that “Indian media missed the blogging bus, and they
couldn’t afford to miss the microblogging one.” The site further goes on to say that “India being
a traditional media market, the creative types and agencies do not see any glory beyond the 30
second commercial and print ads. The client too is looking for a solution that is tried and tested.
This coupled with lack of understanding of the new media, creates an inertia that is hard to
surmount.”
Thus it is this lack of understanding has resulted in ‘us vs them’ debate between traditional and
digital (emerging media). This debate is completely wrong. Digital is not something alien. What
is required is to understand how consumers actually interact with media, brands and one
another. Thereafter, design a compelling experience (and communication) by extrapolating it to
the real world. V. Subramaniam, in his blog http://www.thefreeunion.blogspot.com, says:
"Simply doing social and digital, such as creating Facebook accounts and developing banner
ads, isn't going to be enough as marketers get hungrier for better direction – and results – in
the digital/social world. The agency that can help clients understand how to use social/digital
and how to integrate these [media] effectively into more traditional initiatives will, in the end,
win the day."
The blog by Brent Nau (http://einfo.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog) dated Monday, June 08,

2009, has an article ‘Cost Effectiveness of Search Advertising/Marketing’ that describes such a
scenario very well: “Over the years, I have been selling search advertising/marketing and one of
the ways necessary to better sell especially to businesses that are new to search is to prove that it
is a far more cost effective way of advertising as compared to many other forms of advertising
mediums. Not too long ago, I posted a short but important blog post on my company's blog
that search advertising is the most cost effective method of advertising. The study done by
Piper Jaffray shows that the cost per lead from the search engines is a fraction of the cost of
email marketing, direct mail, online banners or yellow pages.”
4.4 Brand conversations are becoming influential

Taking the role of online participation one step further, Richard Pinder28, chief operating
officer, Publicis Worldwide, has written in an article that "we're living in a world of digital,
mobile and viral marketing. However, strangely, some Indians I interacted with at the Goafest
seem to harbour doubts about how strong digital is in their country!" Elaborating further on the
growing importance of the digital medium he said that digital is not the 'next big thing' but is a
phenomenon that is gaining momentum by the second, even in India. “India is not just about
creative ideas but also digital, which sits right at the top of the global impression of brand
India," he said. In Pinder's observation, “conversations are the way brands and categories live
today, be it at the school gate, the playground, the café, the bar, among family, friends, casual
contacts, business colleagues or even online with communities and experts. Conversations are
becoming faster, broader and more influential, particularly with the rise of digital content.”
Earlier, people shared their brand experiences over the phone or other one-to-one means while
now, conversations also happen online. Word of mouth speed has given way to word of click
speed, while contained, temporary and casual conversations through WoM are being replaced
with borderless, permanent and 'searchable when needed' kind of online conversations.
Interestingly, Pinder said: "Type your brand name before the word 'sucks' on any search engine
and you'll know you cannot control the conversation."
He went on to “cite a fact from the London School of Economics which reveals that brands with
the most recommendations in their category grow four times faster than the category average.
As per Bain Consulting, increasing recommendation by 12 per cent doubles sales growth.28”
4.4.1 What TGI Friday did to enhance Brand Conversation

TGI Fridays created a Facebook character called Woody (and got a dorky looking fellow to
essay it) who, in webisodes and on Facebook pages, told consumers that they could get free
burgers at TGI Fridays if he got half a million fans on Facebook by a certain date. 'Woody' was
even made to perform stunts on the streets such as dress up like a burger and ring doorbells,
asking people to become his fans on Facebook.
“The quirky, funny webisodes caught people's fancy and led to half a million fans on Facebook
within 12 days of the activity. Currently, Woody's Facebook page has four million hits and more
than one million fans. Needless to say, the brand started buzzing while its sales shot up.28”

4.5 The highway to powerful image building (PR)
When mass communication, businesses and online activities converge, what emerges is a
natural proclivity towards the genius of PR. Much like atmospheric pressure, the practi ce of
public relations affects all of us even though we usually are not aware of its presence. What you
read, what you see, and what you hear in the media are often the direct or indirect effects of
organizations trying to establish and maintain relationships with those important to their
success or failure. The organizations include corporations, nonprofits, associations, health care
organizations, educational institutions, governmental agencies, military branches, and many
more.
Successful marketing attracts and satisfies customers on a sustained basis to secure “market
share” and to achieve an organization's economic objectives. It is the special relationship—two
parties exchanging something of value with each other— that creates quid pro quo relationships
in which ownership changes hands that distinguishes marketing from public relations:
“Marketing is the management function that identifies human needs and wants, offers products
and services to satisfy those demands, and causes transactions that deliver products and services
in exchange for something of value to the provider” (Broom, 2009, p. 6)29.
Product publicity and media relations are among the tactics used to support marketing.
Because public relations specialists typically know how to write for the news media, how to
work with journalists, and how to plan and implement internal communication programs for
sales staff, marketers call on them to help in the marketing effort. The advent of new media
means that the organisation itself can disseminate news, clips, and views through blogs,
messaging, and their website. It has been noticed that the more effectively and powerfully this is
done, it is the journalists who reach these sites to pick up information for their own online
articles or even for the print publications they work for.
“We know perfectly well that business does not function by divine right, but, like any other part
of society, exists with the sanction of the community as a whole…. Today's public opinion,
though it may appear as light as air, may become tomorrow's legislation for better or worse.”
(Cutlip & Center, 1958, p. 6)29
4.5.1 PR through blogging

Blogs can be a great PR tool because even with 8.5 million people blogging these days and a new
blog started every seven seconds, “there are PR and legal hoops to jump through before an
upper level exec takes the plunge into posting his or her thoughts on the Internet.” (Blogs as PR
Tools. From Apryl Duncan, former About.com Guide
http://advertising.about.com/od/publicrelationsresources/a/prblogs.htm)

Blogging can be a very effective tool for any company or even an individual. Just be sure the
blog is real without masking it a blatant advertisement or the message will be transparent and
the blog won't be read.
A few examples of company blogs are given below for reference. These blogs are a good
indicator of how new media needs to be adopted and adapted, nurtured and nourished for
profits from the prevailing markets.
http://www.boeing.com/randy/
Blog of Randy Baseler, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes
http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/
Blog of Richard Edelman, president and CEO of PR firm Edelman and Craig Newmark
http://blogs.msdn.com/heatherleigh/
Blog of Heather Hamilton, Senior Marketing Recruiter at Microsoft Corporation
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/
Blog of GM's FastLane blog, penned by execs like Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, receives 150,000-
200,000 visits a month.
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan
Blog of Sun Microsystems was one of the first companies to enter the corporate blog trend.
President Jonathan Schwartz maintains the blog and gets about 300,000 visits per month.

5 Micro-blogging:
The art of giving conventional journalism an incisive
edge
Taking a look at the newest trends, social networks are increasing dramatically. Especially the
microblogging tool Twitter (http://twitter.com) grows 1382% within one year what is even 6
times faster than Facebook (http://facebook.com) - the worldwide largest social networking
platform (Schroeder, 2009). From a research point of view these facts are quite interesting –
why are people using Twitter, for which purpose and why is Twitter that popular? The answer
to such queries includes a wish in every mortal heart to give an incisive edge to one’s
communication abilities. However, first things first.
5.1 Micro-blogging defined

<http://microblink.com/2008/11/11/microblogging-defined/> defines Microblogging:
microblogging [mahy-kroh-blog-ing] verb
“A small-scale form of blogging, generally made up of short, succinct messages, used by both
consumers and businesses to share news, post status updates and carry on conversations.”
Other characteristics of generic micro-blogging could include:
1. All microblogging platforms share the concept of limited overhead and ease of entry.
2. There are no databases to build or themes to install.
3. Starting a microblogging account on any of these websites is as easy as choosing a
username and password. From there you just start typing.
Is this really micro-blogging? Let us explore further.
5.2 Micro-blogging dissected

Though many have debated over the “micro-blogging” term and whether or not it fits the
medium, we believe it fits perfectly. Some do agree with Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd) that “the
hyphenated version must certainly be dropped.” Micro-blogging is a term that was logically
derived by the masses to describe what people were doing on Twitter and other platforms.
Whether you are writing about your personal life, promoting a product or having a
discussion with someone else, you are still composing small (micro) blog posts.
Other Forms of Micro-blogging: micro-sharing, micro-messaging and micro-logging.
• Microsharing – This was coined by Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) of Pistachio Consulting
in reference to one type of micro-blogging where users are focused on sharing links
and other content with their community.
Micro-blogging: 34
The art of giving conventional journalism an incisive edge
• Micro-messaging – This is similar to instant messaging, with the exception that it is
not instant. Most platforms utilize the @ symbol along with a person’s username to
direct a message to someone in particular. The message will travel fairly quickly, but it
requires the person on the other end to refresh the page or to wait for their application
to retrieve it.
• Micro-logging – This refers to a user using their micro-blogging account as a
personal log for their activities. This might mean the person is using it to chronicle
their daily movements or they are using it in conjunction with a 3rd party service that
requires them to submit data for tracking purposes.
Akshay Java, Xiaodan Song, Tim Finin, Belle Tseng in their paper ‘Why We Twitter:
Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities’ have mentioned that “In each of these
instances, the micro portion refers to the size of posts and has no relation to the effort
involved!”
It is lastly vital to know that about 13% of all the posts in the collection contain some URL in
them. Due to the small character limit a URL shortening service like TinyURL9 is frequently used
to make this feature feasible.
5.3 Twitter: Communication model that bridges the traditional and the
new age trends
If we look a bit closer we find out that within Twitter the users can change their roles from
communicator to receiver and back any time. The communication behaviour within Twitter
shows different types of tweets and can be adapted to the basic communication forms of
Littlejohn: As the theory says, each communication level includes the former level.
After this, mass communication includes interpersonal, group and organizational
communication. This means in relation to Twitter that all public messages on the platform are
mass communication but the messages can be sorted into different categories of
communication as figured below.31
1. Interpersonal Communication directed tweets (all tweets with the @-symbol and
direct messages)
2. Group Communication all tweets within the group of followers which pass
information containing links and re-tweets
+ directed tweets (all tweets with the @-symbol and direct messages)
3. Organisational Communication all tweets outside the group of followers which pass
information (links, retweets)
+ all tweets within the group of followers which pass information (links, re-tweets)
4. Mass communication Tweets in general (status updates, private information)
Micro-blogging: 35
+ all tweets outside the group of followers which pass information (links, re-tweets)
+ all tweets within the group of followers which pass information (links, re-tweets)
5.3.1 The field-schema of mass communication referring to Twitter31
Field-Schema of Mass Communication after Maletzke, 1963
Referring to this communication model we have the following four factors on Twitter: user
(communicator), tweet (message), Twitter via mobile, client or web interface (medium) and the
follower or user (receiver). As in the traditional schema, all included factors are interactive. In
the case of a traditional mass medium like television or newspaper, the communicator side is
mostly made up of several persons who are involved in the selection and presentation of
messages. The Twitter user (in the role of a communicator) is usually an individual and decides
about the content of his messages. All readers of Twitter messages can be seen as particular
receivers or as a complete receiver-side.
5.4 The ‘jiffy’ element of new media

Reading tweets makes u jump from cricket to poetry to politics to economics to stocks to profits
to losses to yes yes to no no to... and so on and so forth. Reading tweets is also like reading
news as it is made & reading all that may never be in any newspaper. Opinions from diverse
mind-sets are available to all those who seek. All this is done the instant something happens. If
Priety Zinta, the Indian film actress, gets trapped in a washroom at an airport, she tweets and
lets the world know of her predicament and, of-course, seeks assistance. If there is a fire in a
building in Banglore, tweets and tweet-pics reach out globally – maybe even to the fire tenders
that are speeding towards the site – to inform and to seek advise and to secure assistance! These
things make twitter the right tool for instant action! Something akin to: ...and God said 'Let
there be light.' And there was light! :)
The entire universe was probably created in a 'jiffy' -- to use a word that was created, obviously,
much later than God's handiwork.
Micro-blogging: 36
But 'jiffy' describes what people desire today... and they're all learning fast to make even 140
characters go much beyond mere status updating! If you compare the first and the 600th tweet
of any person, you'll know what I mean. We're all fast becoming little Gods in our own private
universes!
The old and the new media will 'be a perfect compliment' to each other. Yes, but with a rider...
the new media will set the pointers to the truth and the old media will simply pick them up to
create a reading diversion on the breakfast table the next morning!
The bottom line is targeting. You need to go to the right people at the right time with the right
Tweet... oops SPEED!
News tends to reach the moment it is created... eg. an opinion in the mind of a celebrity. and
there are no unnecessary journalistic add-ons to the purity of info that now travels on the
virtual highways.
I have a distinct feeling (and it isn't an 'uneasy one') that with evolved blogs and micro-blogs (&
these have actually ceased to be mere status updates), the traditional newspaper will sift and
consolidate the nutrients from the garnishing, so to say... and present them the next morning.
Micro-blogging also gives extensive and interesting forays into the TG's mind through online
gluons may automatically result in print presence... thus ruling out the major concern today: 'Is
news being paid for?'
5.4.1 Industry opinion on micro-blogging

“While research begins to provide answers to the question of what makes for a successful virtual
community, remaining questions include:
• Whether and to what extent some face-to-face contact is necessary
• The effect of identity continuity on interpersonal relationships and community
cohesiveness, including the question of balancing accountability and anonymity;
• What role various types of economic relationships play in such communities.
One certainty is that people do continue to have an interest in connecting to and
communicating with each other online; therefore, discussions of these issues and many others
are likely to remain central to ongoing debates about the Internet and online life.30”
Rahul Rakesh. Account Manager, Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick once wrote to me:
“Today Karan may be tweeting about his new venture or Rajdeep may be breaking news before
his channel actually does the story the fact is we still go back to the traditional media for our bit
of information fodder. So to me essentially these new media are a supple appetizer or in media
term the teaser which makes us go back to the traditional mode for in depth and trustworthy
details.
More over, you cannot say much in 140 characters and blogging is still considered painted with
value judgments. Media with all its controversies is still considered to be a third and neutral
party and hence referred to for unbiased and correct information. In the beginning it may be
Micro-blogging: 37
seen like online media taking up gradually over the old traditional media but in the long run the
new media would in fact work in sync with the traditional media and act as a perfect
complement to each other.
So it may become true that every one of us may turn into a source of information (which we are
actually even now) the verdict, trust and detailed information would still be considered that
from the traditional houses. After all, the new may be titanium; platinum….the old always
remains The Gold! “
5.5 Statistical profiling

According to data culled from the internet, the Top 10 Tweeting Countries are: US, Brazil, UK,
Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, Netherlands, India and Japan (via)
As far as total number of tweets from a country is concerned, India stands at 10th position
(contributes 0.97% of total tweets).32
Micro-blogging: 38
Twitter in India – People Use it as a News Service [Survey Report]
India Online Aug 26, 2009
There is a large percentage of users who are still figuring out what they’d like to do on twitter or
how they can put twitter to some productive use for individual or business gain. However, what
no graph is able to point out accurately is the fact that traditional journalists do access tweets
through seismic or tweetdeck or any other appropriate program to get an update! Yes, the new
media does update the press today... so isn’t it right to call the new media the super press?
5.6 The ‘beyond expectations’ edge of micro-blogging

Tekriti tweeted some time back that this micro-blogging platform has the ability to do box-
office analysis too!
Tekriti: “Twitter” can predict how a movie will do in box office better than industry experts
http://goo.gl/s0pw via @gautamGhosh #movie #twitter 26 minutes ago via HootSuite Retweeted
by paavani
Micro-blogging: 39
http://socialagain.com/twitter-can-predict-how-a-movie-will-do-in-box-
office?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SocialAgain+
%28Social+Again%29&utm_content=Twitter
“Twitter” can predict how a movie will do in box office better than industry experts is clearly
explained on the URL given above and parts will be quoted in this chapter. The print-screen
below shows how the twitterverse develops an opinion.
The duo Sitaram Asur with Bernardo A. Huberman can predict the performance for the
initial weeks in boxoffice for Hollywood movies, the accuracy rate of their tests are very
precise – and it was more accurate than the current gold standard, the Hollywood Stock
Exchange, which industry follows.
The site explains: “It started by monitoring movie mentions in 2.9 million tweets from 1.2
million users for three month. The second step was to understand the Tweets and trend they
depict. The key performance metrics were first week performance when the movie is driven by
buzz and hype, and second week performance when movie is majorly driven by reviews,
whether people really liked the movie.
For first key performance indicator, that is “First Week Performance”, computer system was
created to evaluate and provide movie forecast. The system takes account of the rate of tweets
about movie and number of places where movie will be showcased. The model came out to be
97.3% accurate, which is impressive compared to the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which had
Micro-blogging: 40
96.5% accuracy. For second week performance the system takes ratio of positive tweets and of
negative tweets and created an algorithm to predict the performance of the given movie.
Predictions were 94% accurate.”
“Twitter Buzz Predicts Box-Office Success Better Than Hollywood Stock Exchange
Social media predictive power might also extend beyond box office success”
To the above article on the net, Jeremy Hsu posted this comment on 04.02.2010 at 11:47 am:
“Tapping into the wisdom of the crowds to forecast future trends has served prediction markets
well for years, but Twitter might be even more effective than even the biggest and most widely
used market, the Hollywood Stock Exchange. In a recent study, watching tweets among Twitter
users allowed HP Labs researchers to predict box office figures better than the Hollywood Stock
Exchange, Fast Company reports.”
Sitaram Asur and Bernardo Huberman of HP Labs kept track of movie mentions on among 2.9
million tweets from 1.2 million users for three months. Their sample focus included 24 movies
such as box office king Avatar and Twilight: New Moon. For opening weekend, their computer
model monitored the rate of tweets near a movie's release date and also factored in the number
of theaters showing the flick. That allowed the model to predict the opening weekend revenues
with 97.3 percent accuracy, compared to the Hollywood Stock Exchange's 96.5 percent
accuracy.
For the second weekend, the model examined both tweet rates and the ratio of positive to
negative tweets. That different approach reflects second-weekend performance success based on
word-of-mouth, rather than opening-weekend performance buzz. Again, the model delivered
quite splendidly with 94 percent accuracy.
5.7 Three examples of traditional journalists embracing twitter

Barkha Dutt
TV Journalist
Twitter id: @BDUTT (on 18 April 2010 - 9089 tweets | f105,540 followers)
Twitter bio: News addict. Editor, Anchor-Journalist at NDTV. Wannabe Lawyer. Voracious
reader.
Tweet cloud upto 18 April 2010: 1531 mentions for 'thanks', 796 mentions of 'think', 72
mentions of 'women', 315 mentions of 'people', 479 mentions of 'yes', 146 mentions of 'tweets',
130 mentions of 'media', 59 mentions of 'gandhi', 47 mentions of 'kargil', 90 mentions of
'headley', 56 mentions of 'kashmir', 71 mnetions of 'pakistan', 47 mentions of 'parliament', 237
mentions of 'india', 81 mentions of 'indian', 71 mentions of 'politics', 60 mentions of 'political'...
Micro-blogging: 41
Prabhu Chawla
Journalist – Mail Today, India Today, Headlines TV channel
Twitter id: @Prabhuchawla (on 18 April 2010 - 530 tweets | 11,397 followers)
Twitter bio: nil
Tweet cloud on 18 April 2010: 32 today, 31 modi, 86 india, 15 advani, 40 bjp, 16 indian, 7
ambani, 13 china, 20 congress, 19 ipl, 7 guj, 7 gujarat, 10 upa, 6 terrorists, 11 obama, 5 andhra, 8
south, 24 minister, 28 money...
Pankaj Pachauri
Micro-blogging: 42
TV journalist (Hindi)
Twitter id: @PankajPachauri (on 18 April 2010 - 518 tweets | 1798 followers)
Twitter bio: Journalist Mediajunky NDTV Anchor Dog whisperer
Tweet cloud on 18 April 2010: 44 humlog, 74 india, 16 indian, 59 ndtv, 14 political, 7 amar, 6
austerity, 9 bjp, 15 budget, 8 congress, 7 cricket, 7 mayawati, 11 @iamsrk, 15 modi, 16 money,
52 pm, 5 sena, 12 tharoor...
Micro-blogging: 43
6 Blogging and micro-blogging:
Converging technology perspectives
We have certainly evolved... from struggling with a DOS environment and computer access that
was limited to a small percentage of fortunate ones to times where one doesn’t hesitate to access
blogging and micro-blogging through one’s mobile phone. What happened in Star Trek
decades back has become a reality today! Technology converged to enable hand-held devices to
give you the power of communication equal to anyone else on the globe. Technology is still
converging and evolving in that direction. It is true that conversations with convergence aren’t
new nor are they limited.
In its SURVEY: NEW MEDIA, The Economist
published an article ‘It's the links, stupid –
Blogging is just another word for having
conversations’ on Apr 20th 2006 that mentioned
clearly: “While research begins to provide
answers to the question of what makes for a
successful virtual community, remaining
questions include: 1) whether and to what
extent some face-to-face contact is necessary; 2)
the effect of identity continuity on interpersonal
relationships and community cohesiveness,
including the question of balancing
accountability and anonymity; and 3) what role various types of economic relationships play in
such communities. One certainty is that people do continue to have an interest in connecting
to and communicating with each other online; therefore, discussions of these issues and many
others are likely to remain central to ongoing debates about the Internet and online life.”
6.1 The shades of convergence

Ian Hargreaves mentioned in his book ‘JOURNALISM’: “On-line media also provide a unique
opportunity for journalists to combine still and moving pictures, sound, and text. Here lies a
great and as yet barely attempted creative challenge, to develop a way of reporting and
informing people which feels fresh, startling, and memorable in the way that newspaper
publishers did when they first understood how to use headlines, typography, pictures and
layout to make navigation of a newspaper more rewarding. Radio made its mark on journalism
by bringing the sound of real events to the listener in the Second World War. Television has
transfixed us with images of the moment – the young man waving down a tank in Tiananmen
Blogging and micro-blogging: 44
Square, the crumbling World Trade Center towers, as well as transforming our relationship
with political leaders through the intimacy of the interview.33”
The internet has also put into reporters’ hands new research tools, sometimes called ‘Computer
Assisted Reporting’, and greatly enhanced the ability of reporters to interrogate public
databases, which are slowly becoming more accessible under freedom of information
legislation. “In purely creative terms too, there are also flares in the night. The work of
organizations like the Centre for Digital Storytelling builds upon traditions of oral history and
community journalism and puts the tools of multimedia storytelling and journalism into the
hands of ordinary citizens.33”
6.2 Usage profiling for technology convergence

Urban Mobile Users in India – What do they access Internet For? [Market Report] of Aug 10,
2009 and taken from the following URL: http://www.pluggd.in/mobile-internet-users-in-india-
297/, says:
Approx 9.3 million urban Indians used their mobile phones to access the Internet for quarter
ending June 2009, a reach of approximately 3.3%. Number of people accessing the net via
mobile phones has witnessed a 6% growth from quarter ending May 2009.
Top 5 reasons for accessing net over mobile phones (Urban Indian mobile phone users, Quarter
ending June 2009 data):
Frequency of accessing Internet Reach

Checking email 2.8%
Searching for information 2.5%
Information about specific product/service 2.3%
Downloads 2.2%
Sports updates 2.1%
Another report from India Online dated Apr 6, 2010, http://www.pluggd.in/internet-usage-in-

india-market-statistics-297/, says: Internet in India – 52 Million Active Users in India, 37%
Internet access happens from cybercafés. The total number of active Internet users in India is a
big mystery (see the top confusions in digital space in India) and the number ranges from 25
million to 50 million; and the latest report by I-cube pegs the number to 71 million users who
used Internet in 2009 [report has taken data from September 2008 – 2009 into account].
Few other interesting statistics taken from the above mentioned website:
• The report claims that the Internet usage has gone up from 9.3 hrs/week to 15.7
hrs/week i.e. a steep 70% rise – primarily due to more entertainment content, content
delivery etc [details here].

• 37% Internet access happens from cybercafes, followed by 30% who access from offices
and 23% from home.
• Around 4% browse the net via mobile phone (read: Mobile Internet Users in India –
Only 2 Million are Serious Users [Report])
Active users, those who use internet at least once a month according the international standards
of reckoning, rose from 42 million in September 2008 to 52 million in September 2009
according to the study, registering a year on year growth of 19%.
Whether or not convergence turns out to merit the hype, the industry has convinced itself that
it is worth pursuing, and anyone who disagrees risks being left behind. “As soon as one operator
adopts convergence, all the others have to follow,” says Mr Lombard. Quite how far and how
fast the process will go remains to be seen. But like it or not, convergence is coming.
6.3 Mobile media is a reality

‘Get prepared for mobile media’ by Kunal Doley and published in Mail Today - Education Mail
- April 13, 2010 talks of Bloss who worked as an editor at The Providence Journal in Rhode
Island, USA, for 25 years. According to him “mobile phone journalism, in particular will be
the next big thing in media. For a country with low Internet connectivity but comparatively

high mobile density, the next level of journalism will take place on this platform.” Kunal further
writes: “Although print journalism has survived over the years, the scene could change in the
next five or ten years. It’s little too early to say that now, but the change will happen.”
John Carey remarks: "Convergence in the production and distribution of news content is well
underway. In the changing media environment, journalists require a broader set of skills.
Writing is no less important than in the past, but writing for multiple media is now a
prerequisite for the professional journalist. Convergence has led to more competition as the
location of a news organization becomes less important and media that were separated in the
past by their means of distribution (e.g., print and broadcast) now occupy the same space on the
web. CNN, The Washington Post, ABC Radio, the BBC, and Time magazine are direct
competitors in the web environment.
If there is a threat to journalism from the convergence process, it may be in the

commoditization of news. News organizations are under significant financial pressure to create
more news, for more media, with fewer resources. Technology and repurposing stories help
them do this but will professional reporting be squeezed out in the process and news quality
be reduced to the point where it is just a commodity like water or soap? The answer is
probably no, but the danger exists. If groups such as Google can create news services with no
reporters, simply by aggregating content from other sources, how can news organizations
with costly staffs of reporters compete?34”
6.4 The final perspective

‘Aggregating content from other sources’ from the above quote is quite a heart-rending
observation and will need a proactive solution-seeking from professional bodies that are
connected to communicating for business or pleasure, individuals who swear by the name of
online liberation, and the Governments.

7 The future of mass communication:
Still quite a distance away
The future always disrupts! However, the future of mass communication is quite unlike the
kind of disruption that Alvin Toffler was talking about when he remarked that future shock was
the shattering disorientation brought about by a pre-mature arrival of the future! The future of
media is neither pre-mature nor is it poised to inflict any disorienting blow to the masses.
7.1 It has happened before too

Talking of the way news originated from businessmen wanting to share relevant information,
The Economist, in an article published last year, wrote: “The most avid collectors of news were
businessmen, some of whom acted as correspondents to papers. But merchants who passed on
news in this way would already have made use of it, and they kept anything that was still
commercially valuable to themselves. Some merchants exchanged information with each other
in special clubs, called newsrooms, in which items of interest (the arrival of particular ships, say,
or reports from abroad) were recorded in shared books to be accessed by paying subscribers
only. Journalists would sometimes frequent such newsrooms to pick up stories. But they rarely
sought out news themselves.35” The new media is also inextricably inter-woven with the
businesses of the day and so are all the platforms that belong to this medium.
7.2 India and the world have a similar opinion

The future of the way communication will take place is evident from what the Indian actor
Ritesh Deshmukh said on twitter:
“Good morning guys, woke up a bit late n I missed reading the news papers. Post me some
Headlines. Off to shoot at MTV now.” via UberTwitter
And then, a few minutes later, there was another tweet from him, saying:
“Thank you all- this was the fastest news update.” via UberTwitter
Observe another tweet from a print journalist from The Hindustan Times:
Prempanicker tweets: “And thanks to the Sunday papers, feel remarkably uninformed. What a
lot of ink to say absolutely nothing new, or to the point.” via UberTwitter
Obviously then, the future of news is going to include the following words in its definition: fast,
speedy, diverse, global, local, big news, small news, updates from friends, ideation from bosses,
The future of mass communication: 48

business needs, solutions, questions, anguish, anger... well, probably the entire dictionary may
need to be used to describe the future of mass communication!
Even Barkha Dutt of NDTV tweeted: @BDUTT: “Twitter is like T20 matches. Miniature form
of expression but maximum on power, reach and entertainment. Every tweet a sixer :)”
Will micro-blogging or blogging need any more endorsements?
7.3 Action-scripting by print organisations

“Hindustan Times Now Available On iPhone
Becomes the first Indian newspaper to be available on iPhone.
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | May 24, 2010”
The above three lines say it all. However, the details of the article are: “Hindustan Times has
released The Hindustan Times iPhone application. It is the first newspaper in India to offer
the iPhone application, which gives readers access to the latest news and photos from
Hindustan Times National, World, Business, Cinema & Cricket sections, a photo browser with
links to the related articles and personalization options for the iPhone models.
The key features of the Hindustan Times iPhone application include:

* Complete coverage of the day’s top stories in text and pictures
* National, world and business news
* Complete coverage of India’s two ultimate passions – Bollywood and Cricket
* Simple navigation – view articles and pictures quickly
* Photo view – browse the news in pictures and link to the related articles”
We have now started talking of mass communication in earnest, surely!
7.4 Old technology is still loved by the politician

From the article ‘The shock of the old – Despite expectations, traditional media are dominating
the election’ in The Economist: “A survey carried out during the first week in April by the
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts found that 79% of Britons could not
recall seeing any online electioneering—not even an e-mail. The outfit concluded that
politicians were failing to take advantage of new media’s huge potential to engage with voters.
Perhaps. Or perhaps this is to confuse novelty with importance. For several reasons, traditional
media are rather good at delivering political messages.”
(http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15964393)
The article went on further to say that “television is the only technology that can reach so many
people in a single day. But others are not far behind. Although their circulation has declined,
newspapers still reach large audiences. The Sun, which supports the Conservatives, is read by
8m people each day. By comparison, much-touted social media like Twitter are so niche as
to be almost invisible. Get Elected, a political-research outfit, has examined 100 tight races,
where online campaigning should presumably be fierce. It found that only 45% of the
candidates in those races had Twitter accounts. The politicians who used it attracted an average
of just 614 followers. The average English
constituency contains 70,000 people.”
The graph taken from the article published
in The Economist amply shows that the tilt
of the traditional media (TV and
newspapers) is towards the old and it is
obviously the new media forms that reach
out well to the not so old! Thus the new
media are handy for firing up committed
youthful supporters and the old
technologies reach out to the voters! Fully
47% of the audience for the first debate was
aged 55 or older. Some 36% of the Daily
Mail’s readers, and 41% of the Daily
Telegraph’s, are aged 65 or older, according to the National Readership Survey.
All political debates are refracted & dissected through emails and tweets just as much as it is
done on the TV or in the newspapers.
7.5 A brief history of the future as observed today: Concluding

observations
7.5.1 Observation 1
“The internet, both fixed and mobile, poses a growing challenge to television. It lures
advertisers with promises of precision: why pay huge sums to scatter a message among millions
of people when you can target the few who seem to be interested in your product? To
consumers it promises choice, engagement and a low (or no) price. And the internet has
powerful backers. Despite all that hand-wringing over the dangers of technology,
governments from South Korea to Sweden seem to regard universal fast broadband as a
human right, to be paid for out of general taxation.”
(http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15980787)
7.5.2 Observation 2
Technology also competes for attention. Although families still gather around the TV set as they
have done for decades, they now bring electronic distractions with them. Nielsen reckons that
13% of people who watched the Academy Awards ceremony this year went online during the
programme, up from 9% last year. The multitaskers did not appear to gravitate to
entertainment websites. Google and Facebook topped the list of websites visited during the
Oscars, just as they did during the Super Bowl and the opening ceremony of the Winter
Olympics.
7.5.3 Observation 3
Chris Silbermann, president of International Creative Management, a talent agency, says
Facebook and Twitter function a bit like large digital water coolers.
7.5.4 Observation 4
But it(new media) is desirable for any news outfit. In a country where even subway systems
have Facebook pages, news networks must fight to hold onto people’s attention. And ordinary
folk want to interact with news. A recent survey by the Pew Research Centre found that 25% of
American internet users had commented on online news stories or blogs and 48% had e-mailed
links to such stories to others. A surprising 9% had contributed stories or videos to news sites.
7.5.5 Observation 5
The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. For society, what matters is
that people should have access to news, not that it should be delivered through any particular
medium; and, for the consumer, the faster it travels, the better.
(How a new communications technology disrupted America’s newspaper industry—in 1845
Dec 17th 2009 | From The Economist print edition)
7.5.6 Observation 6
New media proliferation raises questions about how much news will be gathered. But there is
no sign of falling demand for news, and technology has cut the cost of collecting and
distributing it, so the supply is likely to increase.
7.5.7 Observation 7
If paper editions die, then Bennett’s prediction that communications technology would be the
death of newspapers will be belatedly proved right. But that is not the same as the death of
news.
7.5.8 Observation 8
At first, from the late 1990s until around 2002, newspaper companies simply replicated their
print editions online. Now online editions have their own identity and have their own business
models. E-papers are fast becoming popular and though most have free access now, this may
not remain as it is.

7.5.9 Observation 9
Another early mistake was for papers to save their best journalists for print. This meant that the
quality of new online editions was often poor. Websites hired younger, cheaper staff. Blogging
and micro-blogging has not just brought in freshers into the midst of hard-core mass
communication but has also made media houses look for changes that accord unique profiling
to online journalism.
7.5.10 Observation 10
Mr Chisholm, “newspapers are halfway to realising an audience on the internet and about a
tenth of the way to building a business online.” ROIs are prime and the online world is
galloping towards this target.
Doing the obvious—having excellent websites and selling ad space on them—may not be
enough. The papers with the best chance of seeing their revenues grow are those experimenting
with entirely new businesses online and off.
“Deciding whether or not to start a freesheet, indeed, perfectly encapsulates the unpalatable
choice that faces the paid-for newspaper industry today as it attempts to find a future for itself.
Over the next few years it must decide whether to compromise on its notion of “fine
journalism” and take a more innovative, more businesslike approach—or risk becoming a
beautiful old museum piece.”

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Emergence of Blogging and Micro-Blogging As A New-Age Tool For Mass Communication

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Department of Journalism & Mass Communication

Directorate of Correspondence Courses

Emergence of blogging and micro-blogging

Programme: MJMC-II 2009-10

Submission: Dissertation Project

Title: Emergence of blogging and micro-blogging as a new-age tool for mass

Number of words: 16,485 words

Student Name: Arvind Passey

Project Guide: Dr. Gurmeet Singh Mann

“CHANGE is in the air. A new communications technology threatens a dramatic upheaval in

This is exactly what this project proposes to discuss.

1 Conventional forms of mass communication: Merger with new media .................................. 8

1.1 Communication is vital .......................................................................................................... 8

1.2 What is Mass Communication? ............................................................................................ 9

1.3 Understanding communication ............................................................................................ 9

1.4 Communication models....................................................................................................... 11

1.5 A final word on mass communication: scope and diversity............................................ 11

1.6 The transition is not just evident but essential.................................................................. 12

1.8 Final thought ......................................................................................................................... 14

2.1 Global interconnectedness ................................................................................................... 15

2.2 The future of newspapers ..................................................................................................... 16

2.4 ‘I’ is powerful in the kingdom of new media ..................................................................... 17

2.6 Social networks and their role introduced ......................................................................... 18

2.7 Journalism is becoming interactive, and perhaps better .................................................. 19

2.9 The truth of creation............................................................................................................. 21

3.1 Statistical presence of online networking in India............................................................ 22

3.2 Strengths of Facebook and Twitter16 .................................................................................. 23

3.3 Social networking in India ................................................................................................... 24

3.4 What do we conclude for online networked vehicles? ..................................................... 25

4.2 Online marketing trends ...................................................................................................... 28

4.3 Organisational perceptions need to change ...................................................................... 30

4.4 Brand conversations are becoming influential.................................................................. 31

4.5 The highway to powerful image building (PR) ................................................................. 32

5.1 Micro-blogging defined........................................................................................................ 34

5.2 Micro-blogging dissected ..................................................................................................... 34

5.4 The ‘jiffy’ element of new media ......................................................................................... 36

5.5 Statistical profiling ................................................................................................................ 38

5.6 The ‘beyond expectations’ edge of micro-blogging .......................................................... 39

5.7 Three examples of traditional journalists embracing twitter .......................................... 41

6 Blogging and micro-blogging: Converging technology perspectives ..................................... 44

6.1 The shades of convergence .................................................................................................. 44

6.2 Usage profiling for technology convergence ..................................................................... 45

6.3 Mobile media is a reality ...................................................................................................... 46

6.4 The final perspective ............................................................................................................. 47

7.1 It has happened before too................................................................................................... 48

7.2 India and the world have a similar opinion....................................................................... 48

7.3 Action-scripting by print organisations ............................................................................. 49

7.4 Old technology is still loved by the politician ................................................................... 49

References ................................................................................................................................................ 53

1.1 Communication is vital

It is important to understand that:

1.3 Understanding communication

The primary goal of communication is to influence through persuasion.

It consists of essentially five parts:

Conventional forms of mass communication: 9

Conventional forms of mass communication: 10

In contrast to ‘simple’ communication, mass communication occurs when messages are

1.5 A final word on mass communication: scope and diversity

Conventional forms of mass communication: 11

1.6 The transition is not just evident but essential

Conventional forms of mass communication: 12

1.7 Acceptance of the liberal new media must become a norm

1.8 Final thought