I wrote this write-up for a research journal during May 2012. I am now publishing it on my blog in parts.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
2011 MASS UPRISINGS: SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS - PART-X
NEWS SOURCES HAVE SIMPLY EXPLODED
News sources have simply exploded giving the rare opportunity to have a window into the most opaque regimes. We are not sure of the scale of the massacre brought about by Hafez Assad in Syria
Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Russia, China – scattered geographical dots with poor record of open communication, and yet, many of us in India, and in many countries like India, not directly engaged with the geopolitical realms of these iron-curtained countries, are very well aware of what happened in these countries during the protest phase.
And the source of the information in every such case has been the protester on the street.
He fed the social media platforms on Internet with information consistently. Direct access of the consumer to the Tweets, Facebook posts, blogs and YouTube videos echoed and connected to the strength of the protester. It was good enough reason for the media houses to go for these as the worthy sources to use the information (obviously with the rider, quoting the source as from this or that social media platform.)
If we say media convergence is basically Internet driven, it is an apt reference point.
Internet has made accessing information in the real time much easier and a lot more game. There are specific secondary research tools available to harness information from the Internet. And a tectonic shift in the social media usage habit towards serious issues like protesting corruption or despots has suddenly opened floodgates of information availability.
Sifting of desired from the rubbish is a meticulous task but it is compensated by the volume of the worthy information available.
So even if it might have been boring to monitor the social media trend analytics on Osama bin Laden, it was worth it for the news worms, for, a Tweet broke the news first that he was killed. The only video of Muammar Gaddafi’s fate available was shot on cellphone camera and circulated through the social media platforms. During his August fast last year, Anna Hazare released on YouTube his message from inside the prison.
Almost of the media houses have presence across the communication platforms, print, electronic and web. With increasing count of smartphones, mobile version of the news sites is gaining a steady foothold. The multiplied news sources provide information ‘as-it-happens’. Producers go for instant packaging. Consumers get the information ‘almost-as-it-happens’.
Convergence helps media outfits to synchronize content by making seamless flow of information from one platform to the other possible with sharing and transmission in real time. If being 24/7 counts, Internet has become the primary interface between the consumer and the producer, and in turn, modifying the way information is packaged and consumed. And the positive usage of the social media is the perfect toppings over it.
To continue..
