Mass media are going through a great change in the contemporary times. One hardly needs to mention that mass media offer a huge platform with amazing reach among the audience. People depend on various mediums to get information on events and issues, be it news or entertainment. Newspapers, radio and television used to be the major vehicles of mass communication. But now the digital medium is becoming the most powerful agency. So powerful that it is forcing other mediums to depend on it. Newspapers are coming out with online editions. Printed books are fast turning into e-books. Radio and television are having digital versions. Movie industry is being threatened by the rise of web series. Online sites of various pre-Internet media are becoming increasingly interactive, adding advanced features and devices. The features include news chats, blogs, comments and various kinds of audio-visuals. Audiences are also being invited to contribute, giving them the feel of reporters. No doubt, the number of people contributing are increasing. It is injecting a participatory flavour to one sided traditional broadcasting. Let me be a bit more specific about the change.
Newspapers cover a broad area— from hard news to entertainment, from description to analysis. Now conventional newspapers are facing challenge from the digital. There are some limitations of newspapers. It is slow in production. It is not possible to get current updated second-to-second information from all around. At least a day is required to get news physically and process them for publication. Newspapers also need lot of material and human resources— buildings, machines, paper, ink, people— to get going. In order to get rid of slow pace newspaper proprietors are now utilising the Internet to provide updated information to readers. Even a traditional newspaper like The Hindu, established in 1878 and considered by many to be India’s best newspaper, has online presence through The Hindu News App since 2010. The Hindu online subscription is free. Even without registering one can read twenty articles per month. The Times of India, another prominent newspaper in existence since 1861, also has a powerful online presence. All newspapers, national and local, prefer to go digital with e-papers to attract readers with the promise of access to news anytime anywhere. Being digital has a major advantage. The contents can be uploaded and updated instantly.
Radio is the most cost effective medium. But in the face of competition from electronic and digital media it has witnessed a steep decline in last few decades. In recent times radio in India has received a boost through commercial stations. These channels, not being allowed to present news, have effected an entertainment mode of presentation. But alongside this change in the conventional mode of broadcasting radio stations are managing online audience interactions through local, station-branded websites. They are also making use of social media to increase their popularity among the youth. The stations are moving forward to adopt universal ‘audio platform’ tag facing increasing competition from audio-streaming platforms and other formats of digital media consumption. Thus, radio stations are becoming radio channels, increasingly building their online presence across audio and video content formats. The YouTube channel of Red FM, for instance, has 3.6 million subscribers. It has provisions for behind-the-scenes videos, contents created exclusively for the digital world, and digital versions of channel’s radio shows. Radio Mirchi has a strong digital content strategy. This brand has about thirty online radio stations and multiple YouTube channels including Filmy Mirchi, Mirchi Murga, Mirchi Bangla and Mirchi Tamil with a combined subscriber base of eight million. Various radio channels are also latching on to the trend of creating podcasts. Radio City, Radio Mirchi and Red FM are building a library of podcast content exclusive to their digital channels. The original content for digital platforms gives radio channels extra avenues for monetisation and brand integrations.
If newspapers and radio channels do so can the television be far behind? Television in India began its journey in September 1959 in a skeletal form with limited hours of telecast. The regular service started from 1965. There has been a huge change in the world of television since the coming of the privatisation of airwaves and the end of monopoly of Doordarshan by a Supreme Court judgement in mid 1990s. Now private commercial channels are vying with each other to go digital. Many innovative and more sharply focused programmes are being devised by television channels opting for Internet-based services. It is happening with increasing popularity of online streaming and connected TV sets. Subscription video on demand (SVoD) for watching full-length TV shows and movies for a monthly fee is also becoming popular. Netflix is a prime example. Many traditional broadcasters are making their content available for streaming on their website, both live and on demand. The types of content provided are called ‘over-the-top’ (OTT). It means that Internet service providers (ISPs) only have responsibility for delivering the IP packages and leave distribution rights, viewing abilities etc. over to another actor. OTT services uses the same network services as regular web browsing does. Smart TV, also known as connected TV or hybrid TV, is the collective term for TV sets that have an internal TV-tuner but also integrated Internet-connected technologies and applications that can be run; a convergence between television and computers. TV contents are being continuously complexed with the expansion of Internet and increasing presence of screens like smartphones and tablets on which content can be presented. There are online streamings of news and entertainments at the same time as that of television in the Internet. The audiences can view the shows of their preferences even if they are outside their homes. They can watch movies via Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hoichoi etc. News can be seen through mobiles and laptops via Jio TV, Hotstar, and Zee apps. These are all for catering the audiences whole day and at any time any place. All channels ensure online internet presence for viewers to be updated with latest information.
So it is a happening scene in the Indian media world. Different media are vying to go digital. The strict boundaries between print media, audio media, visual media and audio visual media are weakening steadily. Digital is holding the show.
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