Excerpt
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Definition of Terms
1.2.1 Mass Media
1.2.2 Media Culture
1.3 Media Development
1.4 Function of Media
1.5 Types of Media
1.5.1 Basic Media
1.5.1.1 Oral / Verbal
1.5.1.2 Written
1.5.2 Innovative Media
1.5.2.1 Print Media
1.5.2.1.1 News Papers
1.5.2.1.2 Magazines and Periodicals
1.5.2.1.3 Books
1.5.2.2 Electronic Media
1.5.2.2.1 Radio
1.5.2.2.2 Television
1.5.2.2.2.1 Digital TV
1.5.2.2.2.2 Cable TV
1.5.2.2.3 Motion Pictures and Videos
1.5.2.3 Telecommunication
1.5.2.3.1 Telephones
1.5.2.3.2 Mobile Phones
1.5.2.4 Computer Media
1.5.2.5 Internet as the most Dominant Media of the Times
1.5.2.5.1 Internet and India
1.5.2.5.2 Internet Browsing
1.5.2.5.3 Instant Messaging / Chatting
1.5.2.5.4 E-Mail and Web Mail
1.5.2.5.4.1 E-Mail
1.5.2.5.4.2 Web Mails
1.5.2.5.5 Online Internet Chatting
1.5.2.5.7 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
1.5.2.5.6 Distance Education
1.5.2.5.8 Online Entertainment
1.5.2.5.9 Online Social Networking
1.5.2.5.10 E-Advertising
1.5.2.6 Networking of Computer and Cellular Phone
1.5.2.6.1 Wireless Technology
1.5.2.6.2 Wireless History
1.5.2.6.3 Bluetooth Technology
1.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER TWO THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON YOUTH
2.1 Introduction
2.2 India a Unique Cultural Society
2.2.1 Media and India
2.2.2 Indian Culture and Media Value System
2.2.3 Socio-Cultural Situation in India
2.2.4 Media Culture and Youth
2.2.5 Diverse Effects of Mass Media: Values at Stake
2.2.5.1 Consumerism
2.2.5.2 Creating Global Concern
2.2.5.3 Blind Ambition
2.2.5.4 Conformity
2.2.5.5 Preconception and Prejudice
2.2.5.6 Culture of Violence
2.2.5.7 Sexual Promiscuity
2.2.5.8 Valueless Values
2.3 Challenges of the Changing Media Culture
2.4 Social Effects of Television Media
2.4.1 Effect of Television on Children
2.4.2 Effect of TV on Students and Youth
2.4.2.1 Positive Impact
2.4.2.1.1 Films and Serials as Art
2.4.2.1.2 TV Programmes as Communication
2.4.2.2 Negative impact
2.4.2.2.1 Growth of Consumerism
2.4.2.2.2 Precocious Sexual Stimulation
2.4.2.2.3 Dress and Deportment
2.4.2.2.4 Psychological Influence
2.4.2.2.5 Violence in Movies/ Cinemas
2.4.3 Impact of Advertisements
2.4.3.1 Promotion of Violence
2.4.3.2 Female Stereotypes
2.4.3.3 Consumption of Tobacco and Alcohol
2.4.3.4 Identity Crisis
2.4.3.5 Haves and Have-nots
2.4.3.6 Identifying with the West
2.4.5 Impact on Family Life
2.5 Electronic Indian Youth
2.5.1 Use of Cell Phones
2.5.2 Internet Media
2.5.2.1 The Medium and Nature of Internet
2.5.2.2 Internet a Medium of Great Concern
2.5.2.2.1 Risks of Children on Internet
2.5.2.2.2 Internet Impact on Youth
2.5.2.2.2.1 Internet Addiction
2.5.2.2.2.2 Cyber Sex
2.5.2.2.2.3 Cyber Friendship
2.5.2.2.2.4 Pornography
2.6 Media and Religion of the Youth
2.6.1 Positive Impact
2.6.2 Negative Impact
2.6.2.1 Media has a Narcotizing Effect
2.6.2.2 Media and Individualism
2.6.2.3 Media affects Youth Spirituality
2.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE CHURCH’S RESPONSE TO THE MEDIA AFFECTED YOUTH
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Church and Media Today
3.2.1 Contrasts and Tensions
3.2.2 Tempting Attraction
3.2.3 Becoming Electronic
3.2.4 Attitude of Service
3.2.5 New Beginning
3.2.6 Evangelical Enthusiasm
3.2.7 Prosperous Growth in Catholic Church
3.2.8 Through Troubled Waters
3.2.9 Attraction of Internet Evangelism in the Web World
3.3 Church and Media: Challenging Situations for the Youth Today
3.3.1 Understanding the Transformative Power of Media Languages
3.3.2 Christian Education and all round Development
3.3.3 Participation and Networking
3.3.4 Church’s Net Mission
3.3.5 Christ-Oriented Communication through Media
3.3.6 Christian Witness - Core of the Message
3.4 Response to Media affected Youth
3.4.1 Media Pornography and Violence
3.4.2 Upkeep of Human Dignity
3.4.2.1 Right use of Media
3.4.2.2 Today’s Concern
3.4.2.3 Media a Necessity of the Time
3.4.2.4 Need for Awareness
3.4.3 Obligations for the Youth and Educators
3.4.3.1 Media Values of the Youth
3.4.3.2 Effect of Television on Family
3.4.3.3 Task of Parents towards their Children
3.5 Concern about the Cyber World Youth
3.5.1 The Church and Internet
3.5.2 Need for Liberative Ethics in Internet
3.5.3 Discerning Judgment of the Young
3.6 Media Spirituality of the Indian Youth
3.6.1 Discernment and Spiritual Guidance
3.6.2 Human Formation of the Young
3.6.3 Right choice of Virtue
3.6.4. Uphold a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship
3.6.5 Hold Spiritual Values
3.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR SALESIAN VIRTUES TO FOSTER VIRTUOUS LIFE AMONG THE MEDIA AFFECTED YOUTH
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Francis de Sales –A Brief life Sketch
4.2.1 Birth and Early Life of Francis de Sales
4.2.2 Francis as a Student
4.2.3 Role of his Mother
4.2.4 Role of His Father
4.2.5 His Middle Age Challenges
4.2.6 The Turbulence of the Time
4.2.6.1 Protestant Reformation
4.2.6.2 Influence of Humanism and Paganism
4.2.6.3 Problem of Witchcraft
4.3 Revolutionary in the Chablais
4.3.1 Against Heretics / The Catholic Controversy
4.3.2 His Motivational Courage to the Young
4.3.3 Revival of the True Valentine’s Day
4.4 Task of Francis through the Basic Media
4.4.1 Sermons / Preaching
4.4.2 Spiritual Direction
4.4.3 Letter Writing
4.4.4 Personal Contact
4.4.5 Spiritaul Conferences
4.5 His Apostolate through Innovative Media
4.5.1 Pamphlets
4.5.2 Books
4.5.2.1 Introduction to the Devout Life
4.5.2.2 The Treatise on the Love of God
4.6 Salesian Guides to the Youth amidst the Web of Media Attractions
4.6.1 Necessity to Identify Evil and Frivolous Friendship Today
4.6.2 Flirtation and a Response to ‘Live-in Relationship’ in Today
4.7 Salesian Virtues – For an Integrated Personality
4.7.1 Simplicity
4.7.2 Practice of Humility and Preserve Reputation
4.7.3 Gentleness towards Neighbour and Oneself
4.7.4 Modesty in Language and Dress
4.7.5 True Detachment
4.7.6 Discernment for a Right Action
4.7.7 Lawful and Praiseworthy Pastimes and Recreations
4.7.8 Patience without any Reservations
4.7.9 Hospitality without any Distinction
4.7.10 Need for Genuine Friendship Today
4.8 Conclusion
GENERAL CONCLUSION
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The Paradox of our Times is that:
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less common sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems;
More medicine but less wellness; we spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
Drive too fast; get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired,
Read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life;
We’ve added years to life, not life to years.
We build more computers to hold more information,
To produce more copies than ever, but have less communication;
We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We’ve done larger things, but not better things;
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;
We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice;
We write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less.
We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals;
More food, but less appeasement; more acquaintances, but fewer friends;
More effort but less success.
These are the time of fast foods and slow digestion;
Tall men and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;
More leisure and less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are days of two incomes, but more divorce;
Of fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers,
Throwaway morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies,
And pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the show window, and nothing in the stockroom.
Indeed it’s all true. [1]
What effect has the media had on your life? Most probably our answer would be: I am aware of the media, but I am not affected by it! What influence has your incredible exposure to the media had on your life and on the lives of the people with whom you live?
The rise of digital media and communications technologies have helped redefine experiences of space and time but, in terms of everyday cultural experience, they have supplemented rather than replaced ‘old’ media forms and integrated within youth’s existing cultures and social relationships. It has created a paradox of life, which needs to bridge.
There can be no doubt that media pervades social life. The audio-visual media, print and other communication technologies play major role in modern human existence, mediating diverse interactions between people. Moreover, they are numerous, heterogeneous and multi-faceted. Even more, we cannot deny that media are dynamic and ever changing, constantly reacting to economic and popular forces. The modes like news, advertising, film, radio, television, fashion, the book – have undergone an alarming sea of changes in recent years. Steven Kirsh writes:
As I walked toward the study, I heard the unmistakable clicking of a keyboard in use. My daughter, Michelle, who was 13 at the time, was rapidly typing away at the computer. Given that it was 3:30 in the afternoon, I was impressed, not only by the speed and accuracy of her typing, but also by the fact that she had actually started her homework without my prodding. But what was even more remarkable was that she was able to successively complete her homework while simultaneously listening to Grease on her iPod, instant messaging her friends, checking e-mail, and managing a stable of virtual horses.[2]
Like many teens, Michelle was deeply immersed in media. It is not limited to adolescence, as it occurs throughout children’s formative years. It is just a slice of the vast media pie that youth consume. Babies are exposed to Mozart in an effort to increase their intellect; toddlers watch videos of a friendly purple dinosaur with the hopes of learning to identify colours and picking up a few social skills; preschoolers get a jump-start on their ABCs by playing computer games; grade-schoolers give virtual nurturance to an electronic pet and blow away villains in virtual battles; and teens constantly instant messages to each other, blog their lives, and update their Facebook pages. Such copious amounts of media consumption have proven to be a great source of concern for parents, researchers, and policy makers. Such concerns are not new; they have accompanied media since its inception.
Another alarming fact is about the entry of the computers. Computers are encroaching into the hallowed ground of music with increasing age; adolescents spend more time on the computer and online. Whether it is writing e-mails, instant messaging a friend, or blogging, computer activity becomes increasingly important to youth with development. The fact that computer use more than doubles from middle childhood to late adolescence illustrates the increasing importance of computers in the lives of teenagers. However, in addition to simultaneously surfing the Internet, engaging in discourse, and sending messages to others, adolescents can also use the computer to engage in their other favourite activity, listening to music. Today, youth are multitasking in big numbers. The children and youth who are multitasking consume high levels of media: TV can be viewed while sitting at the computer, the TV is on in the house the most of the time. For youth, media consumption has the ability to promote friendships and maintain relationships. For instance, the youth can watch television, play video games, and listen to music with their friends. They can send instant messages, chat online and play online games with their family and friends.
Imaginary relationships with characters in the media can also give youth the feeling of companionship. People involved in such relationships maintain a vast knowledge base regarding their para-social friend, even going so far as to believe that they know how that character will think, feel and behave. Children and young adults extensively exposed to violent media do become more aggressive or intend to perform violent acts in the future. Television violence accounts in large measure for the association between TV viewing and aggression, and this association is only partially attributed to environmental characteristics, such as education, family traits, social background and personality.
When we consider how the media affects people’s behaviour and thinking, immediate examples that spring to mind are the occasional public outcry about the possible effect of a violent film or television programme on children’s behaviour, the effect of the media’s portrayal of acts of terrorism on instigating further acts of terrorism. Each and every one of us is affected on a daily basis by some media content could be weather forecast, news, information, sports, politics and so on. We also learn about latest products through advertisements. For sure all this must have some kind of influence on our thinking and behaviour.
Through portrayal of various products Media forms various habits among the children and the youth. Sometimes the youth watch TV, play video games, and check their e-mail because of unconscious desires to do so, and because of feelings of relief or comfort when engaging in the activity. Such behaviour indicates that a media habit has been formed, and when media habits strengthen over time, youth may display symptoms characteristic of an addiction.
Another important area of concern is about the video usage and viewing. The usages of videos now-a-days proved to be misleading especially on youth. Video violence has become quite an issue in our society today. Violence is a learned behaviour. Children learn violent behaviours from their family and peers, as well as observe it in their neighbourhoods and in the community at large. These behaviours are reinforced by what youth see on television, on the Internet, in video games, movies, music videos, and what they hear in their music. Children and youths, spend on average, more than four hours a day with television, computers, videotaped movies, and video games. But their exposure to media varies considerably, depending on their age and parental viewing habits.
Children and adolescents may use media to help establish or maintain their individual and social identities. Individual identity refers to the traits and attributes used to describe the self, such as beautiful, smart and outgoing. Social identity on the other hand refers to the self-assigned social group membership to which one belongs, and the emotional significance attached to that membership. Thus the questions which arise in the minds of these youngsters: who am I? or where do I stand in the society? Such thoughts incline them towards a typical behaviour. They begin to compare themselves with others and begin to imitate the resembling role models.
This year 2010-2011 is announced by Pope Benedict XVI as ‘the year of Youth’. The theme for the dissertation is dedicated to the cause of the youth. In this dissertation the main focus of the study is to assess the insidious effect of media on the Indian youth and bring out the response of the Church and application of Salesian virtues in the lives of the young.
The dissertation has four chapters:
Chapter one deals with the development of Mass Media from the primitive times now. It deals with the historical background and development of Mass Media. The more emphasis is been given to the predominant electronic Media of the times. The youth are branded as e-generation youth. It is to show that the electronic Media is part and parcel of our daily life. More description is favoured in this chapter on the electronic media of the times.
Chapter two examines the impact and effect of the above predominant media on the lives of the children and the youth. Here, the study is precisely detailed on the insidious effect of media on the youth. The positive effect of media is not dealt in details since the purpose of this paper is to highlight the negative impact of media on the society and especially on the lives of children and youth.
Chapter three highlights the role of the Church in restoring to wholeness the lives of the youth affected by the media. The Church is in the world and is affected by the media and thus uses media to guide and protect the lives of the youngsters to live a genuine and dignified life. Church holds responsible the media and those in the committee of censoring media; the elders, parents and educators for the right teaching and use of media in the lives of children and youth.
Chapter four culminates with the use of media in the life of St. Francis de Sales and the necessary lessons we can learn from his life and writings. In view of his guidance, the most important aspect of Salesian virtuous living is emphasized for the media affected youth today. The virtuous life of St. Francis de Sales and his constant guidance for those who are struggling to follow Christ in the midst of world’s fancies and temptations, become guidelines for the children and youth of today who face similar problems due to media temptations and influences.
The General Conclusion is drawn as to project a need for the youth of today to gain possession of Salesian virtues for a dignified living amidst media congestions such as temptations of violence, self-gratification, pleasures and worldly glory. Re-emphasis is made on the aspect of human dignity and virtuous living amidst the growing technology and media development.
CHAPTER ONE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA
1.1 Introduction
The growth in mass media and its technology is tremendous. The gadgets of communication are quite affordable and cheap. The era of computers has changed the whole attitude towards life. Life demands instant food. No one has time to wait for the other. Everybody is busy.
Faster the development quicker the age differences we find between the young and the old in using the media of communications. The young boys and girls who are just exposed to the world are fast learners and experts, compared to the elders in the family in terms of information technology and the use of latest media.
Today the world of computers and the Internet is pulling the world faster than the actual speed of the humans to move. As a result there is a lot of mental pressure on these youngsters who for no fault of theirs seek to go into it more and more due to its attraction. The media has evolved a culture of its own, a culture that connects people of likeminded and with similar thoughts and ideas. Media uses several languages, but English is the most dominant. However, we see most of the Indian youth and children using computers at times even without knowing proper English. Computers, radio, television, Internet and cellular phones are now in par with the most sophisticated technology but made very easy and cheap for the user due to competition.
Here in this chapter, I wish to define and give the historical development of the mass media in India and how the mass media has undergone development in the human history upto now. India has never lagged behind in any of the media communication; in fact these means have empowered and given new insights to the Indian culture, religion, society and tradition.
1.2 Definition of Terms
To begin with, we shall discuss the meaning and origin of the terms.
1.2.1 Mass Media
Are we bound to consider the two nouns, ‘mass’ and ‘media’, as given? What constitutes ‘mass’? What constitutes ‘media’? The noun ‘mass’ denotes something that usually cannot be counted, but is countable when it refers to units or types of something.[3] A mass is a lump of matter; the word itself conveys a notion of weight and quantity. It is more practical sense, related to weight, the word ‘mass’ has been in the language for many centuries but used in its current sense it is rather recent. Until late in the nineteenth century, the prevalent word for evoking fear and suspicion was ‘multitude’ and, during the French Revolution ‘mob’ was an evocative word to characterize an unsteady, easy to mobilize crowd. But what concerns us more than etymology and early usage is the fact that the word, like any endlessly repeated term, has created a conviction. The idea of ‘mass’ has numbered our powers of observations. We believe we are in a mass society, which denotes the present meaning of the term ‘mass’.[4]
‘Media’ as noun is the main means of communication regarded collectively, both newspapers and broadcasting.[5] Originally, a medium is something lying in a middle or intermediate position – an agent, an object through which a purpose is accomplished.[6] In other words there are two poles or people and between them a medium like a telephone or a fax. Now-a-days, the various media are the means by which information or entertainment is diffused. Whenever there is a medium, there is necessarily someone who acts and someone who receives and we cannot refrain from referring to the image conveyed by the term ‘medium’ which means ‘something between’. Two people behave differently depending on whether they talk by phone or send messages to one another.[7] Inasmuch as they inform, the media form part of the communication process; the special and unique process by which human communities are formed and in which they live. Today we use various means of communication.
When we think of media it is in connection with communication that we can think about. Therefore, the word ‘medium’ can have different meanings. It can mean the spoken, written, audio-visual, non-verbal language. It can also signify a text or message, formulated in a medium, like a story in a book, a song on the radio, a video clip on TV,[8] and different types of networking on computers, Internet and mobiles.
1.2.2 Media Culture
Culture is all material and intellectual, as well as spiritual achievements of a society. It is a way of life, a general social process. It has always to do with cherished values. It includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society. It is a system of ideas, beliefs, values and hopes that shape the conduct of the members of the community or society – it shows the totality of the life of the people. It is the normative consciousness of the people inherited from the past and transmitted, with or without modifications, to coming generations. Culture shapes the thought-patterns, lifestyle, consciousness, behaviour, and all movements in the life of a person. Therefore we can understand that culture embraces all aspects of humanity.[9]
A human being is a relating and communicating being. At every moment a human being communicates, but this communication is done through various medium. One may think of the plans yet to take place: an act of imagination is used to think about the plans. Every human being talks to oneself of what happens in one’s own life. This is a personal and secret communication that takes place within oneself. The thought pattern runs through various sentiments and emotions which express it.
Therefore the type of media that we have developed in the course of centuries is the media of close networking; a media that can associate closely with those who are even at two extremes of the world. “The modern mass media of communication together have created a new culture called popular culture or the mass culture. It is true that popular culture as a way of life has always existed from primitive times, but it has become more complicated and sophisticated with the advent of mass culture.”[10] Douglas so aptly writes:
Culture in the broadest sense is a form of highly participatory activity, in which people create their societies and identities. Culture shapes individuals, drawing out and cultivating their potentialities and capacities for speech, action, and creativity. Media culture is also involved in these processes, yet it is new in the human adventure. Individuals spend tremendous amounts of time listening to the radio, watching television, going to see films, experiencing music, reading magazines and newspapers, and participating in these and other form of media culture. Thus. Media culture has come to dominate everyday life, serving as the ubiquitous background and often the highly seductive foreground of our attention and activity, which many argue is undermining human potentiality and creativity.[11]
In a contemporary media culture, the predominant media of information and entertainment are a profound source of cultural pedagogy: they contribute to educating is how to behave and what to think, feel, believe, fear and desire – and what not to. Therefore, learning how to read, criticize and resist media manipulation can help individuals empower themselves in relation to dominant media and culture. It can enhance individual sovereignty vis-à-vis media culture and give individuals more power over their cultural environment and the necessary literacy to produce new forms of culture. It is a high tech culture, deploying the most advanced technologies. It is a form of techno-culture that merges culture and technology in new form and configurations, producing new types of people in which media and technology become organizing principles. This media culture demonstrates who has power and who is powerless, who is allowed to exercise force and violence, and who is not.[12]
Today, the fact is that our world is moulded and formed into a ‘culture’ which is more and more determined by the media and this happens in many instances without and sometimes even against the influence of the existing culture. The media today have created and are creating their own and new ‘languages’ and rituals. For a better understanding of the new situation one needs also a deeper study on the real media influence in the lives of the people. What are the messages transmitted, what kind of values or non-values are presented and how do these presentations influence, change and / or determine the values of culture, of individuals, their personal lives and their society?[13]
The Mass Media, both nationally and internationally, are rapidly becoming not just an aspect of social cultures, but through their increasing ubiquity across cultures, their functional interrelationship, and their place within the international market and economic system, is becoming the vanguard of a new international culture system.[14] This is how the effects of globalization are seen on the local culture.
1.3 Media Development
Looking at the world in long view, changes in dominant media technologies profoundly affect many dimensions of life. Changes in the dominant medium of communications such as oral, written, print and electronic are as important as the content of the media in determining the dominant definitions of personal and social reality in any given historic period.
Oral communication favours more personalized and localized identities, with tribe and elders and handed down knowledge at the forefront. Print fosters rational, disciplined reasoning and social organization similar to the far-flung British Empire.[15] Electronic media encourage recognition of gestalt fields of information with a less sequential form of thinking and this culture also resurrects certain tribal and non-rational modes suppressed by print culture. Carpenter and McLuhan would say that “Media changes translate into differences between the eye and the ear, between visual and aural cultures, between print and electronic societies, between lineal and non-lineal codifications of reality, and between various other cultural dichotomies.”[16]
Since the spoken language carries only a short distance and disappears immediately, oral societies are time bound and compensable with a heavy emphasis on tradition, religion and morality. Societies reliant on print in contrast are space bound and compensate with an emphasis on expanding the secular state and the technical order.[17]
1.4 Function of Media
When we can look at media in our society today, we can say that it has five different functions; watchman, forum, teacher, entertainer and salesman. These functions foresee various uses. News dissemination, education, propaganda, indoctrinization, religious instructions, advertising, publicity determining are some of the uses of the media.[18] The main function of media is that it is at the best of the disposal of humans in relationship. It is a tool to best communicate with another in various and innovative ways.
Basic functions of the media can be further categorized into three: information, entertainment and advertising. Media gives the information and news about the happenings in the society. The function of media is also entertainment like folk media, which helps the family members and friends to relax and pastime. The most vital function of the media today is the advertisement. It assists in sale of goods and services through sponsorships and commercials.[19]
Ranging from the printing press, through the radio, motion pictures, videos, films, television, telecom, computers and other basic medium of communication it has a great effect on the society today. Due to fast and rapid growth in media the whole world is becoming a single global village.[20]
1.5 Types of Media
The whole human evolution and development has gone through a rapid means of development on the verge of communication. However, the media of the times can be divided into two types; basic and innovative.[21]
1.5.1 Basic Media
Basic Media is the media that we use by the very nature of our existence. This media is more of personal, intra-personal and extra-personal in relationship with the other. This occurs in terms of basic human relationship. Knowingly or unknowingly we communicate in this medium and thus these media become the basic ones.
1.5.1.1 Oral / Verbal
We can well think of oral media as the very first means of communication. That need not always be true, because sign language could be considered the first medium of communication. “As a comprehensive tradition of development of human communication, the oral tradition comes as the first-used powerful pattern in the world. Meanings and ideas, emotions and interactions are communicated through the media of sounds and words. The word of mouth in direct conversation is the style of communication.”[22]
However, we give more importance to oral communication because this means of communication is the first means of communication that leads us to the other means of communications. There is a gradual formation of human language. It can also be vis-à-vis. Pandey says that, “The era of verbal communication began with the development of language, which probably came into use about 35,000 B.C.E. in the Cro-Magnon period, enabled humans to more readily communicate with one another.”[23] Advanced communication bettered this language to make it more and more communicative. The developed for of language we call it as literature today.
1.5.1.2 Written
There is no right record as to know when exactly the writing began, but it can be more or less be traced to “five thousand years after the formation of language. Sumerian writings on clay tablets dating from 4000 B.C.E. mark the start of the period. Writing became humanity’s dominant communication technology for most of the ensuing six centuries.”[24]
The development of writing, led to ability to maintain historical records and develop libraries. Generations were freed having to relearn that which had been learned before and could dedicate themselves to adding to the knowledge of humankind.[25]
1.5.2 Innovative Media
The innovative media begins with the invention of the printing press, which brought about a major change in the society. But all the more the innovativeness of human beings is visible with the higher and sophisticated form of media which we come across today. I call it innovative media because of the precise efforts that humans have made to invent these media and are still making efforts to progress in developing media technology. There are various types of media in this category.
1.5.2.1 Print Media
Print Media came into full swing much after the invention of paper. The paper was invented in the 14th century which gradually gave rise to press. The first printed book has been dated C.E. 868. But the real printing technology with moveable types and mechanical power only came into use by the 15th century. Print technology of the industrial order with an abundant supply of paper created an unprecedented revolution in the world of communication media.[26] Prior to this the printing on wooden plates, a method of printing for decoration and ornaments existed in India, already 200 B.C.E.[27]
For the paper production the first machine with mechanical production of paper was introduced by Nicolas Louis Robert in Essonere in 1798 and five years later the first such machine was also in use in England. Instead of handmade paper now it was produced by a machine raising the production per day by ten times. Typesetting was originally done only by hand. A typesetting machine was invented by William Church and also by Mergenthaler in 1822 increasing the typesetting capacity. In printing too we see a lot of development gradually.[28] Introducing the general obligation for schooling of everybody to learn how to read and write increased the readership potential. This obligation was introduced in most of the European states from the end of the 18th Century onwards to the second half of the 19th century.[29]
Today the print media has advanced to so many types of printing and publishing: newspapers, newsletters, bulletins, notices, advertisements, appeals, magazines, Journals, books, pamphlets, posters, brochures and digital printed banners.
In India, the print media began first in the major provincial capitals of British Indian – Calcutta and Madras and later Bombay. As the freedom struggle gained momentum, the newspapers were published from main centres of the agitation like Delhi, Lahore, Lucknow and Kanpur. Other newspapers were concentrated in the princely states of Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Baroda.[30]
The Indian press is experiencing a fundamental transformation because of changes occurring in the larger polity and the economy. Liberalization, globalization and competition from the electronic media are forcing the print media to adopt new technologies by become more professional and more sensitive to the market structure. Today, India’s print media structure offers a product line that is dazzling in its diverse array of languages, ownership structures and topics. Later after the Independence, the government institutionalized regulation of the press through several bodies: the press commissions, the Press council, and the office of the Registrar of the newspapers.[31] These were some of the Institutional regulations applied to the Indian press.
1.5.2.1.1 News Papers
It is one of the oldest mass medium.[32] Newspapers are the major medium of publicity. They are read by millions, enjoy reader confidence, influence public opinion, appear regularly and intensively cover local and regional areas. Newspapers appeal to the special interests of business executives, women, sports enthusiasts and others through sections providing opportunities for product publicity on these subjects.[33]
Newspapers are at the disposal of the reader, who can choose to read at any time one wants to read. Newspapers are a ubiquitous form of print media. There are daily or weekly newspapers that seek to inform a general audience about the news. Newspapers carry retail, directory, business-to-business, corporate and public service advertising, providing a venue for many of the forms of advertising messages.[34]
To discuss about the origin of the Newspapers in India, the British started the first Newspaper. It was called “The Bengal Gazette”.[35] The British however tried to maintain a strict control over the press as they feared any news that was against their policies during the time. Many of these news papers were subsequently taken over by Indian business houses when Independence was gained by India.[36]
Today, India publishes more daily newspapers than any other country in Asia, covering a range of languages and cultural diversity that is unparalleled in the world.[37] News papers have a very vital role to play in the life of every reader. The daily events are reported in the Newspapers. They hardly report the same events. “They are windows, mirrors and gatekeepers of the world. They help us to know about our own country. They also enable us to use a variety of reading skills such as skimming, scanning, interpretation and so on. Newspapers bring alive the exciting, ever-changing field of science.”[38]
With development of growth of newspaper technology and sharp competition, the costs of publishing a newspaper also rose. But the advertisements that pay very highly to the publishers brought down the rate of the newspapers, making them affordable even to the poor and the marginalized.
1.5.2.1.2 Magazines and Periodicals
The other type of Media in Print and Press Media is the Magazines and Periodicals that contain very fresh and conscientizing news, events and happenings. Most magazines are published weekly or monthly. Today, “magazines are an important medium for product news, feature stories and pictorial publicity. They tend to be read leisurely and thoroughly. In some cases, magazines may be preserved for future reference. The attractive appearance, quality paper and fine colour reproduction of magazines make them ideal for picture publicity.”[39]
Magazines can target audiences very specifically for both editorial and advertising content. “Magazines cover regions of the country, demographic groups and types of editorial content; audiences give high marks to magazine articles and advertising for credibility and authority. Magazines have visual quality, and many people collect magazines for the photographs as much as for the writing. People read an issue of magazine for several days, so the stories can be lingered, the ad copy can be more extensive.”[40]
Magazines are not dailies but rather weeklies, fortnightly and monthly. This means that they have to show more in-depth coverage of events. There is enough time to see to the truthfulness of the event and even to give proper emphasis on the event in the news. The Christian missionaries in Bengal left a remarkable memory of the press in India early in the 19th century. Though these journals by Christian Missionaries in Bengal were published by foreigners, these journals were addressed to Indians, and some of them were in Indian languages. They promoted the dual objectives of promoting the Christian religion and the British Empire. It is Raja Rammohun Roy who comes in as the initiator of India’s renaissance in the modern Period.[41]
In the days before television some of the magazines like ‘Look’ and ‘Life’ targeted a broad-based market. These magazines were very popular.[42] Today, magazines and periodicals have made a long way ahead.
1.5.2.1.3 Books
Books are one of the oldest means of transmitting knowledge. Books written on stone, wood, wax, skin, and paper or roles contained laws, poems, philosophical and theological ideas to be kept and transmitted to the different generations. Today books have become a common good for teaching, learning, and entertainment. Through the mass production, worldwide distribution systems and low pricing books are available today for everybody and thus also have to some extent to be considered as a medium for and of the masses. [43]
Books are not bound by time. Their subject matter is of actual interest but they do not lose a certain interest over a longer period. Books are not written for the day but for a longer lasting period of time. Books are necessary instruments for academic studies and scholarly work and discussion. Scientific and academic studies rely on books to quite an extent as well as instruction does in school and church. The growing importance and distribution of books since Gutenberg’s invention of movable letters led to the introduction of censorship at first concerned the printer, later also the publisher and the works themselves.[44]
Today the production of the book can, beside the latest techniques (computer, desktop publishing) apply one of the three major printing methods of letterpress, offset, or (photo) heliogravure. In the old letterpress method, the one used already by Gutenberg, the types of the letters are elevated like the types of a typewriter and respective illustrations have to be prepared in a similar way (block). The letter printing method has been substituted in recent times more and more by offset printing where the image is transferred from an even printing plate to a rubber roller and then set off on paper. Printing machines of now are used for book printing are mostly sheet fed machines where the sheet contains eight pages on each side of the sheet thus giving 16 pages of the book if respectively folded. [45]
Though the electronic media is so advanced, the print media has equally kept up to its relevance and has strong impact on the audience. The fast printing machines have developed the printing quality and the highly glamorous designing is another aspect of raising the inclinations toward books.
1.5.2.2 Electronic Media
The world is becoming a single village with the networking of the present electronic media[46]. The electronic media provides us with a whole range of opportunities. We can be electronically connected anywhere virtually instantaneously. A satellite orbiting high above the equator had become one of the most coveted media properties. John Edappilly observed that;
Media has become a formative and controlling part of our lives. We are disoriented or completely lost if there is no newspaper, no electricity, and no television. Today’s people scan the papers, listen to the radio, flip through the TV channels, and often do all these simultaneously to discover what is what and who is who. The electronic media have decisive influence today in shaping public opinion. They act as gatekeepers, reducing huge amounts of information and entertainment into fragmented sound bytes and video clips that are edited and packaged into highly marketable commodities of programmes.[47]
Electronic media is redoing in this century what the print media did in the 15th century. The computerized electronic media has unbelievably challenged and changed the potentialities of the communication experience together with the style of learning the norm of truth, the structure of society, the role and rule of authority, and the value systems, world vision and life expectations. Looking at the bewildering and breathtaking changes caused by the electronic media, we are forced to say that this is not just another media revolution but a media explosion.[48] Be it radio, Television, telecom, computers or any other electronic medium, it has doubled up the spirit in the audience.
1.5.2.2.1 Radio
The radio transmission was first invented by an Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi. The First Radio programme was broadcasted in England in 1920 by the Marcony Company. Since then there have been variety of channels coming into play. Radio has its limitations because only one channel can be played at a time unless one records it on another recording device. It is a one way communication transmitted to the listeners who are often passive. Radio is largely a narrative medium, which makes use of narration in the form of sound, music and dialogue.[49]
It was in Bombay that the first radio station was established in the private sector, by the Indian Broadcasting company in 1927,[50] Indian businessmen, enthused by the entertainment and profit potential of radio, cobbled together existing amateur radio clubs in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Lahore to form the Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC).[51] Later the British took up the task of this broadcasting and named it All India Radio (AIR).[52]
However even now we see that the radio still continues to make impact on the lives of the people. Radio is faster than any other electronic media. It is faster and cheaper even for any common man. There are two types of radio stations: AM and FM.[53] This medium is not dying but is getting revived gradually inspite of other electronic media. “The public didn’t stop loving the radio, despite popularity of TV. It just started liking it in a different way – and the radio went to the beach, to the park, the patio and the automobile.”[54]
It is very true even now that radio has its unique relevance and romance. Even now the people love it in the restaurants, gardens, parks, hospitals and now on the computer and mobile phones. The youngsters love to have a mobile phone with FM facility with it. In the villages the employees and the youngsters love to have it in the place of work and while travelling when they seem to be lonely. Radio has become a walkie-talkie. Today it is available on the Internet and mobile phones.
Radio programmes are of various types: songs, radio plays, interviews, talks, discussions and the like. Although audio programmes are not limited to radio, they find powerful expressions on radio. They invoke the magical world of sound to create pictures in the listeners’ mind. These imaginations are like as if one reads a short story or a novel. Cities have their own FM channels that provide programmes in the regional language of the people. The listeners have more choices to switch on to variety of channels. Many channels now-a-days play different types of music shows, short stories, serials and conduct interviews. There is also a lot of interaction with the listeners in the form of contest, requests and suggestions.
1.5.2.2.2 Television
Nineteen twenty-eight was the year of many field trials for television broadcasting. John L. Baird (1888-1946) transmitted TV across the Atlantic and demonstrated colour TV, the station WGY (Schenectady, NY) started regular TV broadcasts and the first TV news. The first teleteaching started in 1932 from the CBS station W2XAB.[55] The first disc for the diffusion of images by Paul Nipkow in Berlin in 1884 gives the origin of Television. With this disc the pictures are diffused for transmission and finally are put together again at the receiving end. First attempts to use the invention in this way were made by Isaac Schoenberg in 1930. The first television test programs began in Berlin from March 1935 onwards. The first regular TV programs were started at the Olympic Games in Berlin on January 15, 1936. The first TV station in the US opened April 30, 1939 for New World Exhibition. However the Second World War interrupted the development and soon after 1945 almost all European countries introduced TV stations. By the early sixties, there began broadcasting in colour.[56]
Television was introduced in India on an experimental basis on September 15, 1959 with a United States offer to provide equipment and with an emphasis on its use in community development and social education. Entertainment and informative programmes were introduced in 1965 in addition to the social education programmes. The programmes in English and Hindi included folk music, folk dance, quiz programme, discussion, news and interviews. Gradually, the programmes for farmers were introduced which were confined to the vicinity of Delhi only. After Delhi it was Bombay in 1972 to have a television and two years later in Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow. Commercials were introduced for the first time in 1976.[57]
What is the condition of the television today? It is the most essential instrument that everyone thinks should have. Television does it the most in our lives today; be it education, etiquettes, cooking therapies, entertainment, music, videos, serials, dance, singing, religious services, discoveries, investigations and whatever we can think of. The world is no more with one Doordarshan today, but with multi-channels. One can choose to watch whatever you can think of watching at that moment. All the channels are categorized under, sports, news, entertainment, music, religion, regional, movies, etc.
The emergence of television in the past decade as a major force in India has brought major changes to the media industry.[58] Ashish Sinha reports in 2008 that
There are over 360 television channels on air in the country and applications for another 160 and more await the government’s nod. With this the number of television channels in the country could go from 360 to over 500. Every genre, be it general entertainment, movies, sports, religion, news, music or kids, has over half a dozen options in every conceivable language. Clearly, the demand for television entertainment is huge.[59] Whereas Dare reports in August 2009 that:
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has so far permitted 410 private satellite TV channels to uplink from India as per uplinking guidelines and 73 private satellite TV channels, uplinked from abroad, to downlink in India as per downlinking guidelines. As on date, applications of 143 TV channels for permission to uplink from India and applications of 20 TV channels, uplinked from abroad, for permission to downlink in India are at various stages of scrutiny in accordance with the existing uplinking and downlinking guidelines. Although no definite time frame can be indicated, once the applicant companies provide all required information/documents and clearances from other Ministries are received, the applications are considered for permission in the minimum time frame. This information was given by C. M. Jatua Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.[60]
At present, most of the rural areas have access to television, and the large metropolitan areas use large flat TVs and LCD TVs. People can afford to make even home theatre with original audio-visual effects in their own homes.
1.5.2.2.2.1 Digital TV
Digital TV transmission and HDTV displays are not quite the same though: it should be noted that digital television transmission could be, and is, used with older non-HDTV programming, as well as being used with HDTV. Digital TV is the basis of systems for satellite TV, cable TV and over-the-air TV that can work as well with standard definition analogue televisions as it does with HDTV.[61]
As the 21st century dawns, we are witnessing a major change in how telecommunications (TV, Radio, telephone and internet) is delivered to individuals. There is an ongoing shift away from the previous standard of land-based TV and radio transmission. Such terrestrial broadcast is being replaced by two competing technologies: satellite-based transmission and technologies based on wiring put in place for analogue cable TV.[62]
1.5.2.2.2.2 Cable TV
The mid-1980s saw the rising popularity of television serials (Hum Log, for example) which triggered an increase in the number of television sets purchased, and created a need for changes in the nature of television programming [as most of Doordarshan’s programs were perceived as boring and educational]. Thus, a niche market for alternative entertainment fare was created, and smalltime cable television entrepreneurs fulfilled this need for the urban public in India.[63]
Cable television began in Maharashtra and Gujarat in the mid-1980s through the efforts of private entrepreneurs, who wired apartment buildings and charged a monthly subscription fee to transmit films and serials via a central video-playing unit. Cable services took off in popularity throughout India in 1991-92 with the availability of foreign satellite channels. Only the government-controlled television system Doordarshan, however, was allowed to broadcast from Indian soil.[64] Today there is unhealthy competition among private sectors to get permission for more channels.
1.5.2.2.3 Motion Pictures and Videos
The history of the films and motion pictures goes back to 1895 – 1908. As soon as the principles of photography had been discovered by Niepce and Daguerre, there were various attempts to add movement to these new and wonderfully accurate pictures.[65] Videos were available only in the early eighties. First research and tests for video as a means to preserve and tape TV programs and films date back to 1940. Ampex, in 1956 produced the first video machines mainly for professional use in broadcasting stations. Sony had begun the development process in 1952, which was even earlier to Ampex.[66]
Technology has transformed the technology of editing, the speed of editing and conceptually the aesthetics of editing. Both in production and post-production, the digital revolution has had a profound impact on sound and image. The goal of these two phases as well as pre-production is story-telling. The most significant technologies have developed from the advent of the VCR and the growing availability of films on videotape, videodisc, and now on digital versatile disc (DVD). The number of movies available on the discs is great. This technology is now accessible for most homes, and more and more educational institutions are realizing the benefit of this technology. The classics of international cinema and a growing number of more and recent films on videodisc can give the viewer a clearer picture and better sound that ever before technologically possible.[67]
The technology has taken a big jump in the multimedia field. Today everybody talks about YouTube videos. In fact, until YouTube came along, there were few easy ways to share videos on the Web. YouTube made millions of videos instantly accessible by the majority of people on the Internet. Anyone can make a short movie and make it instantly available to the world.[68]
1.5.2.3 Telecommunication
1.5.2.3.1 Telephones
Will it not surprise us that a few decades ago, the telephone service in India was one of the worst in the world? There was only about one telephone for every 200 persons.[69] Arvind and Everett say;
Telephone service was considered a luxury, and accorded a low priority by government policy-makers. This perspective was replaced, beginning in the mid-1980s, with a view that telecom services are essential for business, industry, and economic development. The revolution in telecommunications services began under the leadership of India’s ‘high-tech’ Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and Satyen (Sam) Pitroda, a U.S. - returned expatriate Indian. Telephone density in 2000 had risen steeply to one telephone for 34 people, still low for a nation pursuing an informatization path to development. Telephone services reach out to India’s villages and market towns, aided by the establishment of digital automatic exchanges and some 650,000 public call offices, which are to be found everywhere.[70]
What shall we say today about the telecommunication? There are so many private and Government operators.[71]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) formed in October, 2000, is World’s 7th largest Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India: Wire line, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Presently it is one of the largest and leading public sector units in India. There are so many other private operators which operate the different communication networks in India.[72]
1.5.2.3.2 Mobile Phones
Mobile phones trace back its history in the 18th Century as wireless communication.[73] The traditional mobile phone only had a simple black and white text display and could send/receive voice or short messages. Today, however, mobile phones migrate more and more toward PDAs. Mobile phones with full colour graphic display, touch screen, and Internet browser are available. The mobile and wireless devices now-a-days are more powerful, less heavy, and comprise new interfaces to the user and to new networks. Mobile communication is greatly influenced by the merging of telecommunication and computer networks. Mobiles have the same functions as that of the computer.[74]
A development like VoIP has made a great impact on easy communication. Digital Cellular Networks (DCN) is the segment of the market for mobile and wireless devices which are growing most rapidly. They are the wireless extensions of traditional PSTN or ISDN networks and allow for nationwide or even worldwide seamless roaming with the same mobile phone. Today these systems are mainly used for voice traffic; however data traffic is continuously growing.[75] Not enough to say that the mobiles have only the function of the voice traffic, but it includes Internet browsing, downloading music, pictures and videos. It does work like the computer.
In the year 2009 the Indian mobile operators added a record 15.64 million customers in March, helped by the expansion of networks to smaller towns and rural areas, data from the telecoms regulator showed. The mobile subscriber base in the world’s fastest-growing wireless market rose by 50 percent, or more than 130 million, to 391.8 million in the 12 months ended March, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said. India is the second-biggest market for wireless services, lagging only China which has more than 600 million users. Indian operators had added 15.41 million customers in January 2009 and 13.45 million users in February.[76] Naturally there are many telecom companies, both Government and private companies in India to facilitate this medium of communication with very less of interruptions and confusions.
1.5.2.4 Computer Media
If we look around, we can see that everything we do today is influenced in some way by computers. Today computers do much more than simply compute; the supermarket scanners calculate our grocery bill while keeping store inventory, computerized telephone switching centres control millions of calls and keep lines of communication untangled automatic teller machines (ATMs) let us conduct banking transactions from virtually anywhere in the world.
The origin and beginning of computers in a way can be traced as early as 1000 B.C.E.[77]
The more sophisticated mechanical applications of mechanical computers were the brainchild of Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), an American. But the modern computers of the first generation from 1945 to 1956 were built using Vacuum tubes for calculations and magnetic tapes for memory. They were huge in size and needed a team of specialised technical people to look after them. The second generation computers had transistors instead of vacuum tubes. To describe what is Computer [78] in the second generation is all about than we should know that it is an electronic device designed to store and process data by following programmed instructions. Mathematical idea about computing had been developing for many decades, evidenced for example by Charles Babbage’s nineteenth century concept of the ‘Analytical Engine’, before practical machines were built. The credibility of modern computing goes to North America. [79]
As Donald Sanders predicts in his book, Computers Today,[80] it is true of the computers today that have reached such a stage of media development of manipulating and transmitting Information.
1.5.2.5 Internet as the most Dominant Media of the Times
With the advent of new technologies like Internet, we are now enjoying the benefits of high technology mass media, which is not only faster than the old-school mass media, but also has a widespread range. Mobile phones, computers and Internet are often referred to as the new-age media. Internet has opened up several new opportunities for mass communication which include email, websites, blogging, Internet Radio, TV and many other mass media which are booming today.[81]
The Internet[82] has profoundly influenced the way we communicate, do business, entertain ourselves and acquire information. It is already all-pervading and is going to increase its impact on our lives in leaps and bounds. This is because all sources of information, entertainment and business are increasingly moving to the internet to communicate with us. As an ordinary person, we will also find it increasingly easier to hook on to the vast network of the internet with the help of a home computer. “Internet is a powerful tool. It can be home, school or a library. The internet can help family find educational resources, help children with their homework and allow family members to learn and have fun together.”[83]
1.5.2.5.1 Internet and India
The Internet is a worldwide series of interconnected computer networks that may be used by the public to send data using a standard called the Internet Protocol (IP). The data may be in the form of e-mails or files containing pictures, video or audio clips. Data Transfer between the user and Websites allow us to open Web pages and view the contents like news, stories, pictures and anything else that we can view in a newspaper or magazine. “It is a ‘network of networks’ that consists of millions of small and big news service, academic, business and government networks, which together carry various information and services and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the ‘world wide web’ (www).”[84]
India has a larger number of English – speakers than does England.[85] When we look at Internet in India We see by the end of 2007, over 1.2 billion people, (the total population of India), use the internet worldwide. It has been said that the internet has already become a basic feature of global civilisation. As a result, traditional ‘civil society’ is being transformed into an IT based society with the use of internet. However, the US still retains its top ranking with 153 million internet users.[86] India will rapidly rank with other countries in number of persons accessing Internet compared to other countries.
Internet covers up the most of the other media through it. Therefore Internet acts as an mediation for other media of communication, like the TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Journals, Books, Novels, all these can be accessed through Internet. Internet as a result acts as an accessory for all these about type of Media. Therefore, we can call it the master of Media.[87]
Moreover, today we see even in the rural India people have begun using Internet. The government schemes to make Internet accessible to the villages is working fine. Even the unfortunate are made available the Internet facility.
1.5.2.5.2 Internet Browsing
In internet browsing we begin by looking at the main reasons for surfing. A moment’s thought will convince us that our purpose is usually one of the following: to gather information, to be entertained or to do business on the Web, which is called e-business. The last item is recent, but its influence is growing. Until a couple of years ago e-bay was a foreign website. Today, thousands of Web surfers in India buy and sell their products on the Indian avatar of e-bay! Internet is all things to all people, whether you want to communicate with business associates or friends quickly and cheaply, or you are looking for entertainment, or your need for information of any kind at all, it is out there on the Internet![88]
Searching the Web[89] is finding the right information related to one’s need. It is the work of the Search engine to get the information you seek.
1.5.2.5.3 Instant Messaging / Chatting
Instant messaging (IM)[90] lets you to have real-time communication with other users on the internet. IM allows easy collaboration amongst a group of users. It is closer to genuine conversation than the e-mail’s ‘letter’ format.[91] In contrast to e-mail, each user knows whether the other users are available online. This is because IM systems allow the user to display an online status or away message for other users (called peers) to see. “People are not forced to reply immediately to incoming messages. So, IM is actually less intrusive than a telephone call. Some systems do allow the sending of messages to people not correctly logged on, thus removing much of the difference between IM and e-mail.”[92]
1.5.2.5.4 E-Mail and Web Mail
Ten years ago we were familiar with mails; that is handwritten letter or typed letter posted to communicate a message. But now there will have been many of us who must have not sent mails by post, because emails do the work within few seconds or minutes. The post mailing is e-mails used mostly for festive greetings by those who were traditionally used to be doing earlier. We can hardly be sure of the posted mail to reach in time. Sometimes the mail might not reach at all.
The e-mail and the web mail have substituted with most of such letters and written sentiments. E-mail and web mail being very quick and fast, we are used to expecting fast replies. We shall see what exactly the e-mail and web mail does.
1.5.2.5.4.1 E-Mail
E-mail[93] is a method of transmitting data, text files, digital files, digital photos, and audio and video files from one computer to another over the Internet. E-mails did not become popular until 1990. However, today it is perhaps the most important means for business and personal communications, and it is growing rapidly.[94] “An e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today. Conversion from the ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current service.”[95]
E-mail users create and send messages from individual computers using commercial programmes or mail-user agents (MUAs). An E-mail programme will enable the user to compose a message and send it via the Internet. To send the message, the user has to specify the address of the recipient(s) of the e-mails. If the user sends a message to more than one recipient, it is called broadcasting. “There are many different ways to write an e-mail address, depending on the e-mail destination.”[96]
The necessary functions of sending, reading, deleting, forwarding, replying are always as headers or footers of the emails opened. “Most e-mails programmes allow attaching files and photos to e-mails. These attachments permit users to append large text – or graphics-based files to e-mail messages. These files may include audio and video files and digital photographs.”[97]
1.5.2.5.4.2 Web Mails
For personal use there are free web-based e-mail programmes called Web mails.[98] If you have a Web mail account, you can login to your account from any computer using the computer’s Web browser and Internet connection. Therefore, it is not necessary to configure separate e-mail client software such as Outlook Express with your ISPs access number, your username and password you have only to open the Web mail’s Website and login with your username and password. However there are a few draw backs with regard to web mails.[99]
1.5.2.5.5 Online Internet Chatting
To give the applications its full name, Internet Relay Chat, or IRC,[100] is a means of chatting online in real-time through a client application like mIRC, through which data is sent via connected servers to various computers which are in turn connected to those servers all across the world. When we compare online chat with ‘Instant message’ we come to understand that IM is mostly an individual contact and an online chat is with one or even many at a time.
Online chat is a way of linking with many people at once in real time. You can enter some chat rooms simply through the Internet such as Yahoo! Chat. Some others require a separate software programme. Online chat rooms allow multiple users to join in conversation and see what the other online users are typing. Typically chat rooms deal with certain themes, such as Teen Chat, Macintosh chat or religious chat. Using online chat, you can meet new people in an anonymous environment. On the other hand, IM is a way of communicating online with a select group of people, usually as individuals. To IM someone, you need to know his or her screen name.[101]
1.5.2.5.7 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is voice communications using Internet Protocol (IP) networks like the Internet. Using the Internet and a broadband connection, it is possible for a PC or laptop user to dial other computers or even normal analogue telephones. The VoIP concept was initially introduced in the 1990s. Until broadband Internet became available to provide the bandwidth required, VoIP was no substitute for the conventional telephone network already in place. Due to bad sound quality, the first generation applications such as Microsoft’s NetMeeting did not survive beyond 2003. Things changed drastically however by late 2005 when a freeware programme called Skype was launched using VoIP technology on broadband Internet connected computers.[102]
1.5.2.5.6 Distance Education
The distance education[103] is very feasible to people who wish to earn and learn. It acts as immediate information to those in the schools and colleges who are curious enough to learn more than what is taught in the class. This knowledge also compliments to the study done in the class rooms. That is to say, “in this model of notion of face-to-face classroom teaching is replaced by online communication between students and teachers using electronic media forums, websites and individualized tutorial systems.”[104]
The ubiquity of the Internet has led to widespread use of online educational technologies. The Internet has transformed every major social institution in society, from education, business and government to medicine, entertainment and the services industries.[105]
With the availability of PCs in so many households and the extensive installation of communication networks enabling us to reach people on a global basis, distance education systems have been undergoing significant changes. This change in the fundamental infrastructure of society is promoting the development of new forms and techniques of learning and teaching.[106] As these new forms arise, the popularity of distance education programs utilizing digital content delivery systems have been increasing. More colleges and universities are adopting modern distance education systems which in turn have drawn increasing numbers of students to such offerings. Due to this trend, faculty administrators are becoming more open to the potential of educational technology for residential instruction, research and distance teaching.[107]
Access to the Internet and Web enable pupils as well as the teachers and lecturers to consult class readings, lecture notes, additional information and class discussion forums, and to contact teachers through e-mails. For example, “the 1997 landing of the Pathfinder mission to Mars, enabled millions of people worldwide to view images on the Internet relayed from the Sojourn rover to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.”[108] By using webcams the real-time images can be webcasted from any location.
1.5.2.5.8 Online Entertainment
The internet is quite seductive, because once we begin surfing we can easily become and addict.[109] Initially we might begin with the necessity of e-mailing and web-mailing, but the constant use of these necessities will lead us to explore more and more wider range of Internet. It is with very little of curiosity that we begin to work on a computer, but gradually the computer leads us to further interests.
The most attracting entertainment on the Internet is listening to the most popular music and the type of videos and movies one likes to watch. Playing games on the net is now-a-days very common. Even the little ones would ask their parents to put computer on for games.
1.5.2.5.9 Online Social Networking
The origin of the social networking can be traced back to 1988 at the time when the first Internet Relay Chat (IRC) programme was written at the University of Oulu in Finland. The popularity of IRC as a platform for users to chat with each other significantly increased in the US during the Gulf War in 1991. The IRC developed the ability of file sharing between users. The chat-rooms were created so that the persons of common interest could chat with each other and exchange photographs or text documents using file sharing software.[110]
The first social networking website was launched in 1995 called Classmates. com, which was used by people to look for old classmates on the Internet with whom they had lost contact. Later in 2002 the website Friendster. com was launched. Since then many sites have been set up regularly, many in India. These sites are used for finding friends, dating, business networking, for social and business interactions, etc.[111]
One of the most exciting and the fastest growing segment of the internet is social communication, a virtual meeting place in the cyber world where people meet, chat with each other, exchange videos, audio files, photographs or just plain gossip.
1.5.2.5.10 E-Advertising
Advertising is defined as ‘any paid form of personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor.’ When the advertising is done to promote the products then it is called product advertising.[112]
The public relations advertising affect the most in the society today. S. K. Pandey mentions that:
The advertiser has full control over the timing and content of messages which can be communicated widely through the use of any medium… it aims at promoting favourable attitudes among the public for the organization, so as to attract and maintain shareholders, build goodwill within the community to improve employee relations and morale, educate costumers, secure good will of dealers and suppliers.[113]
The print advertising is done with posters, leaflets, illustrated printed materials, booklets, pamphlets, folders, brochure and many other ways. However, Internet has picked up the customers online even without force or compulsion from them. The most prominent and easy at hand is the PC which reaches to the customers at their homes and working places.
The Internet has become a popular medium for advertising in every field of life, be it secular, religious, business, education, etc. Through online advertising, or e-advertising, advertisers have attempted to meet one or a combination of their communication objectives. These communication objectives are the basis for advertising online. They include creating awareness of the company, generating interest around the company, broadcasting information across to the user, creating an image for the company, and developing the company’s brand image. These e-business communication objectives are achieved by means of web banners, sponsorships, pop-ups/pop-downs, interstitials, push technology and hyperlinks.[114]
Internet is the cheapest of all media to create awareness of company or a product. Generating a sense of interest on the Internet is the next step in the communication process. The purpose of this objective is to make consumers and users want to learn more about the company and its products. The company’s website must be able to provide in-depth information on these very topics. In business-to-business situations companies are expected to have a professionally designed website that conveys important information about the company and their product.
The brand and brand image facets of advertising are considered to be integral features of the Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy. With the sizeable reach of the www, the Internet has become an important tool to companies that need to create, revamp or publicise their brand or image. However the process of doing this is very difficult and has many pitfalls. Possibly the most common mistakes is when companies concentrate on making their brand well-known in order to create success, without any considerations to brand image or personality.[115]
‘Hyperlink’ is another type of advertising that takes users from one website to another, and is used by advertisers to link potential customers from another web page to their company’s website.[116]
1.5.2.6 Networking of Computer and Cellular Phone
Today, computer and mobile phones are used in mutual connectivity for various purposes like, Internet browsing, e-mail receiving/sending and downloading music, pictures, files and video from the Internet to the computer or from computer to mobiles. The most prominent functions used cable port connectivity and Bluetooth[117].
The computer and Mobile phones do mutual transferring of files, pictures, music and videos. The Bluetooth activity is the most used these days to transfer or download material from the computer to mobile phones and visa-a-visa. The ‘file transfer protocol’ (FTP) is used mainly to transfer files from computer to computer, and in the case of wireless applications it is ‘wireless application protocol’ (WAP)[118] which is used for wireless connections.
1.5.2.6.1 Wireless Technology
Bluetooth is a new technology that utilises radio frequency waves as a way to communicate wirelessly between digital devices. It sets up personal area networks that incorporate all of person’s digital devices into one system for both convergence and convenience.
1.5.2.6.2 Wireless History
Many people put the invention of (wireless) radio down to Guglielmo Marconi, who in 1895 sent the first radio telegraph transmission across the English Channel. Only twelve years later radio began being used in the public sphere. Up until then however, many wireless pioneers conducted trials across lakes where the antenna used to transmit the signal was longer than the distance across the lake.[119] After its introduction the main use of wireless radio was for military communications where its first use was for the Boer War.[120] The invention of broadcast radio ensured the feasibility of wireless technologies.[121] By the 1920s, radio had become a well-recognised mass medium.[122]
[...]
[1] Anonymous: “Life Paradox”, - 11-10-2010. – Standing: 28-10-2010. - URL:- http://synersign.wordpress.com/ - Electronic Publications.
[2] Steven J. Kirsh: Media and Youth – A Developmental Perspective. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2009, p.1.
[3] Jonathan Metcalf (ed.): Illustrated Oxford Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 501.
[4] Pierre Sorlin: Mass Media. New York: Routledge, pp. 2-3.
[5] Jonathan Metcalf (ed.): Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, p. 505:
[6] Arthur Asa Berger: Media and Society - A Critical Perspective. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007, p.16.
[7] Pierre Sorlin: Mass Media. New York: Routledge, pp.2-3.
[8] Desmond A. D’Abreo: The Mass Media and You. Bandra: Better Yourself Books, 1997, p. 16.
[9] Cfr. A. Vincent: “Culture and Youth.” In: Serving Youth Today in India / Thomas Kalathuveettil (ed.). Bangalore: Kristu Jyoti Publications, 1992, pp. 340-341.
[10] George Sebastian: “Seeking God in Media and Popular Culture.” In: Towards a Communication Theology / Joseph Palakeel (ed.). Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2003, p. 162.
[11] Douglas Kellner: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern Media Culture. New York: Routledge, 1995, p. 2.
[12] Douglas Kellner: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern Media Culture. pp. 1-3.
[13] The new media ‘culture’ demands probably also a greater concern and involvement of every human person in particular to concentrate on the professional ethics, and codes of media managers, practitioners, media organizations and institutions. After all there are still some basic human convictions, values and rules which should influence and direct the molding of our modern world by the communication media. Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication. Indore: Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra, 1996, pp. 255-257.
[14] Peter Horsfield: “Teaching Theology in a New Cultural Environment.” In: Religion and the Media: An Introductory Reader / Chris Arthur (ed.). Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1993, pp. 41-42.
[15] E. Eisenstein: The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. 43.
[16] E. Carpenter and M. McLuhan (eds.): Explorations in Communications: An Anthology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1960, p. 45.
[17] The pace of change appears to increase in the modern era. With the first mass medium, the printing press, over time there emerged books, beginning with the Gutenberg Bible in 1456. More than a century later newspapers originated, with a single sheet ‘corantos’ of foreign news in 1621 and the regularity published Oxford Gazette in 1665. In the following century magazines began with The Gentlemen’s Magazine in London in 1731. A century later still, the first cheap mass publications emerged with the ‘penny press’ in 1833. Rather the electronic innovations emerged more quickly, in conjugation with increasing industrialization, urbanization, and mass education. Thus oral, print and electronic cultures each possess distinct characteristics that now combine and interact in complex and elusive ways in the era of super media [I call it as innovative]. Cfr. Michael R. Real: Super Media: A Cultural Studies Approach. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1989, pp. 23-26.
[18] Jacob Srampickal: Communication of Media in India Today. New Delhi: Media House, 1998, p. 13 and also Cfr. Matthew Mamala: “Media Spirituality.” In Spirituality Today: Trends and Perspectives / Antony Kolencherry (ed.), Bangalore: IIS Publications, 2001, p. 72.
[19] Cfr. Keval J. Kumar: Mass Communication in India. 3rd edition. Bombay: Jaico Publishing House, 2009, p. 43-45.
[20] Cfr. Matthew Mamala: “Media Spirituality.” In: Spirituality Today: Trends and Perspectives / Antony Kolencherry (ed.). Bangalore: IIS Publications, 2001, p. 73.
[21] Basic and innovative are the two types. The basic media is the primitive and naturally emerged media where as the innovative media is the later technologically developed media.
[22] John Edappilly: The Emerging Electronic Church. Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2003, p. 8.
[23] S. K. Pandey: Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Communication. Vol. 1, p. 297.
[24] S. K. Pandey: Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Communication. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Commonwealth Publishers, 2001, p. 297.
[25] S. K. Pandey: Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Communication, Vol. 1, p. 298.
[26] Cfr. John Edappilly: The Emerging Electronic Church, p. 15.
[27] Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 52-56.
[28] In printing the original wooden printing presses were substituted by Stankope in 1804 through metal presses. The first accelerated steam engine printing press constructed by the German Friedrich Konig was put into service for the London ‘Times’ on November 29th 1814. Whereas the hand operated press could print much faster. This speed doubles up by 1827. Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 52-56.
[29] Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 56-57.
[30] R. K. Ravindran: Media in Development Arena. Delhi: Indian Publishers Distributors, 2000, pp. 18-19.
[31] «…The first Press Commission (1952-54) inquired into several areas affecting the functions of the press: the working conditions of the journalists, freedom of the press, newsprint supply, censorship and journalistic conduct. It also dwelt on a code of conduct for journalists, reviewed the constraints on the supply of information, and touched on improving the methods of recruitment, education, and training of professionals, as well as on publishing reports on the performance of the press. The second press commission (1977) went deeper into the role of the press in a developing and democratic society, ownership patterns, government press-relations, all aspects of the Official Secrets Act, Contempt of Court, and the economics of newspaper industry. Cfr. K. Viswanath and Kavita Karan: “South Asia: India.” In: Handbook of the Media in Asia / Shelton A. Gunaratne (ed.). New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000, pp. 94-95.
[32] The first newspaper was printed in Germany way back in 1609. By 1621, printing of newspapers was taken up throughout Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Great Britan. These countries played an active role in keeping the Public informed. Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (ed.): Media Education: A Guide Book for School Teachers. Delhi: Cambridge Press, 2005, pp. 39.
[33] Cfr. Biswajeet Guha: Media Development and Management. New Delhi: Kanishka Publishers, Distributors, 2006, p. 72.
[34] Cfr. Kathleen A. Haseen and Nora Paul: Behind the Message: Information Strategies for Communicators / Molly Taylor (ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004, p. 18
[35] «…’The Bengal Gazette’ was put together by J. A. Hickey. This was followed by Messink and Read who brought out the ‘Indian Gazette’. There were other newspapers which also followed suit, and some were in regional languages. This periodical appeared in Calcutta on 29th January, 1780 was a commercial venture and it illustrated the nexus that often exists between newspapers and politicians. Though this periodical was published in India, this weekly was meant for English-speaking foreigners residing in India, not for Indians. James Augustus Hicky, the publisher and Editor, openly sided with the Governor-general, Warren Hastings, in the in-fighting between two factions in the Governor-General’s Council himself. The opposition to Warren Hastings was led by Philip Francis, whose ambition was to become Governor-General himself… The types of Hicky’s press were seized and his journal was suppressed in 1782 after Philip Francis decided to leave India. Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (ed.): Media Education: A Guide Book for School Teachers, p. 40; also Cfr. N. Bhaskara Rao and G. N. S. Raghavan: Social Effects of Mass Media in India. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 1996, pp. 48-49.
[36] The following news papers: The Dalmia – Jain group brought up the ‘Times of India’; Tatas – ‘the Statesman’; Birlas – ‘The Hindustan Times’; Goenkas – ‘The Indian Express’. Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guide Book for School Teachers, p. 40.
[37] Arvind Singhal and Everett R.: India’s Communication Revolution. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001, p. 54.
[38] Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guide Book for School Teachers, p. 42.
[39] Biswajeet Guha: Media Development and Management. New Delhi: Kanishka Publishers, 2006, p. 72.
[40] Kathleen A. Haseen and Nora Paul: Behind the Message: Information Strategies for Communicators, p. 47.
[41] Cfr. N. Bhaskara Rao and G. N. S. Raghavan: Social Effects of Mass Media in India, pp. 49-50.
[42] Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guide Book for School Teachers, p. 48.
[43] Umberto Eco asserts this especially for the paperbacks, but the world success of his book ‘The name of the Rose’ shows that certain books become a medium of the masses even beyond pocket editions and paperbacks. Unfortunately, this fact seems to have never been sufficiently recognized by the Church: there is no universal document of the church on books of publishing in the 20th century. They are not mentioned in the council documents on communication (Inter Mirifica) nor in a sufficient way in the Pastoral Instruction ‘ Communio et Progressio’ (1971). Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 52-56.
[44] Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 71-72.
[45] Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 74-75.
[46] Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end user (audience) to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which are most often created electronically, but don’t require electronics to be accessed by the end user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are better known as video recordings, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and Online Content. Most new media are in the form of digital media. However, electronic media may be in either analogue or digital format. Although the term is usually associated with content recorded on a storage medium, recordings are not required for live broadcasting and online networking. Any equipment used in the electronic communication process like television, radio, telephone, desktop computer, game console, handheld device) is also considered electronic media.
[47] John Edappilly: The Emerging Electronic Church, p. 21.
[48] Cfr. John Edappilly: The Emerging Electronic Church, pp. 18-19.
[49] Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guide Book for School Teachers, pp. 51-52.
[50] Inaugurating the Indian broadcasting Company, the British Viceroy, Lord Irwin asserted that India offers special opportunities for the development of broadcasting. Cfr. N. Bhaskara Rao and G. N. S. Raghavan: Social Effects of Mass Media in India, pp. 92-93.
[51] IBC lost money and was closed down three years after Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, inaugurated IBCs services.
[52] Arvind Singhal and Everett R.: India’s Communication Revolution. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001, p. 67.
[53] AM is (amplitude modulation) and FM is (frequency modulation), Radio stated with AM. FM was born in the 1960s. At first it was limited to musical hobbyists who liked FM’s technical advantages. FM stations give you a better reception than AM. They are more suited to large cities. Transmissions are less subject to interference from electric motors, storms, bridges and big buildings. Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guidebook for School Teachers, pp. 65-66.
[54] Desmond A. D’Abreo: The Mass Media and You. Bandra: Better Yourself Books, 1997, p. 42.
[55] Cfr. Jochen Schiller: Mobile Communications, p. 9.
[56] Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, pp. 59-60
[57] Gurmeet Singh Maan: The Story of Mass Communication. New Delhi: Harnam Publications, 1987. pp. 72-73.
[58] K. P. Yadav (ed.): Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Social Development. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2000, 59.
[59] Cfr. Ashish Sinha: You might soon have 500 TV channels. 12-12-2008. – Standing: 24-03-2010.- URL: http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/12you-might-soon-have-500-tv-channels.html - Electronic Publications.
[60] DARE: Number of TV Channels.- 04-08-2009.- Standing: 24-03-2010.- URL: http://www.dare.co.in/news/others/number-of-tv-channels.html - Electronic Publications.
[61] Cfr. Gregory Dudek: Digital Television at Home: Satellite, Cable and Over-the-Air. Montreal: Y-one-D Books, 2008, pp. 1-6
[62] Cfr. Gregory Dudek , pp. 5-6.
[63] Arvind Singhal and R. Everett: India’s Communication Revolution. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001, p. 56.
[64] By 2000, more than 40 private television networks were broadcasting in India, including private networks like Zee-TV, STAR-TV, SONY, CNN, BBC, and many others. The programming consisted of either Western entertainment imports or Indian-produced serials, game shows, talk shows, and news and current affairs. These private television programs have greatly multiplied the choices available to Indian audiences. Coupled with the New Economic Policy in the 1990s, and the accompanying invasion of the Indian market by American and other foreign companies, private television has brought about many important social changes. Cfr. Arvind Singhal and Everett R., India’s Communication Revolution, pp. 56-57.
[65] Maurice Bardeche: The History of Motion Pictures. New York: READ BOOKS, 2007, pp. 3-5.
[66] Cfr. Franz - Josef Eilzers: Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, p.60.
[67] Shirley Biagi: Media / Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media. 8th edition. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth Publishing, 2006, pp. xiii- xxii.
[68] Chad Fahs: How to Do Everything with YouTube. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 2007, p. xvi
[69] The telecommunications revolution gathered further momentum during the 1990s, spurred by the sweeping economic reforms of the Narasimha Rao government. While the pace of telecommunications reform has been slow, and the government-run Department of Telecommunications is reluctant to part with its monopoly status, private sector investment in telecommunications is increasing. Cfr. Arvind Singhal and Everett R.: India’s Communication Revolution, pp. 57-58.
[70] Arvind Singhal and Everett R.: India’s Communication Revolution. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001, p. 58.
[71] Cfr. Pvt. Companies: A Bharti Group company offering landline, DSL in metros. - Standing: 24-03-2010.- URL: http://indiafocus.indiainfo.com/industryandbusiness/telecom/pvtcompanies/ - Electronic Publications.
[72] Cfr. Pvt. Companies: A Bharti Group company offering landline, DSL in metros. - Standing: 24-03-2010.- URL: http://indiafocus.indiainfo.com/industryandbusiness/telecom/pvtcompanies/ - Electronic Publications.
[73] «… It was not until the end of the 18th century, when Claude Chappie invented the optical telegraph (1794), that long-distance wireless communication was possible. Almost until the end of the following century optical telegraph lines were built. Wired communication started with the first commercial telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore in 1843, and Alexander Graham Bell’s invention and marketing of the telephone in 1876 (others tried the marketing before but did not succeed, e.g., Philip Reis, 1834-1874, discovered the telephone principle in 1861). In Berlin, a public telephone service was available in 1881, the first regular public voice and video service (multimedia!) was already available in 1936 between Berlin and Leipzig.
All optical transmission systems suffer from the high frequency of the carrier light. As every little obstacle shadows the signal, rain and fog make communication almost impossible. Furthermore, at that time it was not possible to focus light as efficiently as can be done today by means of a laser. Therefore, wireless communication did not really take off until the discovery of electromagnetic waves and the development of equipment to modulate them. It all started with Michael Faraday (and about the same time Joseph Henry) demonstrating electromagnetic induction in 1831 and James C. Maxwell (1831-79) laying the theoretical foundations for electromagnetic fields with his famous equations (1864). Finally, Heinrich Hertz (1857-94) was the first to demonstrate through an experiment the wave character of electrical transmission through space (1886), thus proving Maxwell’s equations. Today the unit Hz reminds us of this discovery. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) soon increased the distance of electromagnetic transmission. In 1915, the first wireless voice transmission was set up between New York and San Francisco. The first commercial radio station started in 1920 (KDKA from Pittsburgh). But still, sender and receiver needed huge antennas and high transmission power.
Telephones at home went wireless with the standard CT1 (cordless telephone) in 1984, that followed its predecessor CTO from 1980. Several more new features, such as voice encryption and authentication are built-in.
Nineteen ninety-eight finally marked the beginning of mobile communication using satellites with the Iridium system. While up to this time satellites basically worked as a broadcast distribution medium or could only be used with big and heavy equipment, Indium marks the beginning of small and truly portable mobile satellite telephones including data service. Iridium consists of 66 satellites in low earth orbit and uses the 1.6 GHz band for communication with the mobile phone. Secondly, in 1998 the Europeans agreed on the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) as the European proposal for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) IMT-2000 (International mobile telecommunications). UMTS combined GSM technology with the more bandwidth-efficient CDMA solutions.
The current growth rates in wireless communication show the huge market potential of these technologies. More and more people use mobile phones, wireless technology is built into many cars, wireless data services are available in many regions, and wireless local area networks are used in many places.
Today, life without cell phones is difficult and inconvenient. Everyone likes to be connected either by chatting, talking, messaging, e-mailing, e-business or e-games. Cfr. Jochen Schiller: Mobile Communications, pp. 7-12.
[74] Cfr. Jochen Schiller: Mobile Communications, p. 7.
[75] Cfr. Jochen Schiller: Mobile Communications, p. 83.
[76] Cfr. Devidutta Tripathy: India Adds Record 15.6 million mobile users in March / John Mair (ed.).- 22-04-2009.- Standing: 23-03-2010.- URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE53L0T320090422 - Electronic Publications.
[77] It is a device with a string of beads sliding on thin wires was the first calculating machine invented by man called the Abacus. It is still in use in some parts of the world such as China. Cfr. J. L. Neogy (ed.): Rapidex Computer Course: Windows 98 - Special Addendum on Windows XP. Bangalore: Pustak Mahal, 2007, pp. 19-20.
[78] The story of modern computing is a North American – and particularly a Californian – story. However it shows that the first programmable computer, which was called Colossus, technically a large electronic value programmable logic calculator was actually British. This machine, and ten others life it were constructed by a team led by Dr. Tommy Flowers in North London to help on the deciphering of the German Enigma code in 1943. The first American machines were also essentially electronic calculators designed to solve complex mathematical problems. In 1945, the mathematician John Von Neuman wrote a series of papers which established what eventually became known as the ‘Von Neuman Architecture’ that formed the basis for the practical development of machines such as the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) by the engineers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly in 1951. Computing started to become big business in the United States when IBM (International Business Machines) began to introduce computers to replace the electronic mechanized punch card systems that many businesses relied upon for their record keeping.
The computers produced weekly or monthly printouts that were then disseminated to the relevant departments in a business or government organizations. Thus the picture began to change in the late 1950s that the machines called minicomputers began to appear, designed as cheaper systems for lower level computing. One of the leading companies in the creation of the minicomputer was the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which was founded in 1957 in Massachusetts. This is how the progression took place. With further more inventions the personal computers appeared (PC) in the hands of the people which costed $400 (which was a big amount for people in 1975) was developed by H. Edward Roberts and called the Altair. Combining this system and those like it with BASIC and what became BIOS produced a computer that one could program. With the arrival of the Apple II in 1077 and its spreadsheet Visicale, the PC began to appear in the office. However the true turning point was in 1981 with the release of the IBM PC, a system IBM based around components from other companies over which it did not have control. The new companies emerged with new processes which replaced the old model of a big, remote, inflexible mainframe. However this revolution has reached the present stage from big machines to small, handy, portable with easy access and networking. Cfr. David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2004, pp. 21-26.
[79] Cfr. David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2004, p. 21.
[80] [These words of Donald have come true today]. There’s a workstation in your future; you’ll receive information from some source, do something with that information, and then forward it to some other person or station. In short you’ll spend the rest of your life in a society in which most people are engaged in manipulating and transmitting information. Cfr. Donald H. Sanders: Computers Today. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988, p. 3.
However there was a growth in computer software and its makeup. The prediction is very much true today because the computers have developed the technology in very field and thus it is the main media of Information.
[81] Uttara Manohar: 16-10-2008.- Standing: 03-03-2010.- URL: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mass-media-effects.html - Elecronic Publications.
[82] Internet is a set of computers talking over fibre optics, phone lines, satellite links, and other media. All those who upload the material and use the Internet have the ownership on it. It does not have any one person as a owner of the Internet. Cfr. C. M. Paul: “Internet, Church and Social Communications.” In: Catechetics India 19, No. 1 (2002), p. 20.
[83] Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guidebook for School Teachers, pp. 99-100.
[84] «… The basic applications and guidelines that make the internet possible has existed for almost a decade before the Internet was opened to the public in the 1990s. On August 6, 1991, CERN, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland, went public with the new World Wide Web project (www). The Web was invented by English Scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. Therefore for a decade, the internet grew at roughly 100% per year mainly by absorbing many of the already existing public computer networks in the United States and Europe. For a brief period between 1996 and 1997, the growth was even faster. This rapid growth is mainly due to lack of constricting central administration since no one person or country really owns the internet Networks operating in different countries could connect and talk to each other because open protocols were used much like the international networks for telephones. Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail. New Delhi: Unicorn Books Pvt. Ltd., 2008, p. 10.
The www is increasingly becoming a portal to the other forms of CMC (computer-mediated Communication). People begin their Internet venture to pick up mail from their e-mail accounts, check out the latest newsgroup messages, or meet some friends in a chat room through the Web. This experience begins when they launch their browser, a program that downloads instructions taken from the Internet and displays them on their desktop computer as text, images, animation, and sounds. Cfr. Andrew F. Wood and Matthew J. Smith: Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity, and Culture. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005, p. 15.
[85] Arvind Singhal and Everett R.: India’s Communication Revolution: From Bullock Carts to Cyber Marts. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001, pp. 58-59.
[86] Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 10-11.
[87] Internet acts as an accessory for all the other media. All the another media can be views through Internet. It is a wider and more accessible one because even the regional channels of the TV, Radio can be traced on the Internet. The newspapers, books Journals can be accessed at that very moment without any delay.
[88] Virtually all the internet content is a HTML (or its successor XLM) format. To read the text and graphics on a HTML page, the computer uses specifies software called a Web browser. Most of us have used probably the Web browser included in your windows operating system. It is the familiar Internet Explorer (IE). Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 42.
[89] Internet is the single largest storehouse of information available to mankind. But since the Web is not indexed in any standard manner, finding information can appear quite intimidating even to an expert. Search engines are popular tools for locating Web pages, but they will usually display thousands of results. Search engines “crawl” through the Web and log the words from over one billion documents, results can be overwhelming. Without a clear search strategy, using a search engine is like wandering aimlessly in the stacks of a library trying to find a particular book. There are also subject directories on the Internet.
Successfully searching involves two key steps. First you begin by identifying the important key words in your topic. Secondly, you should have some idea about how to use the various search tools available on the Internet. Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 51-53.
[90] The beginnings of IM can be traced back to 1996 when a handful of companies started producing client software that allowed chatting in real-time with other people who had the same software. The pioneer of IM was Mirabilis in the US with its ICQ (I Seek You) client. Soon major internet players such as AOL, MSN (Microsoft), and Yahoo! followed suit with their own client software. Today, AOL is regarded as the leader in IM. As the world’s largest ISP, it provides AOL’s Instant Messenger (AIM) to its subscribers. Other vendors like MSN and Yahoo! have sought to catch up with AOL but have so far been able to do so. Though not as big as AOL, yet, the faster growing IM network is Microsoft’s MSN Messenger which is banded with Windows XP and therefore, available to most personal computer users. Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 78-80.
[91] It is possible to save a conversation for later reference. Instant messages are recorded in local history files, thus providing permanent records for future reference much like e-mails. IM allows quick exchange of information like URLs or brief excerpts from documents that is difficult to communicate via telephone. Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 78-79.
[92] Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 79.
[93] E-mail stands for electronic mail – which unlike regular mail – is almost instantaneous way to contact people on the internet, and it also enables users to send computer files of almost any kind – documents, graphics, video clips and so on. Cfr. Joshva Raja and Jerry Kurian (eds.): Media Education: A Guidebook for School Teachers, pp. 119-120.
Ray Tomlinson invented Internet based e-mail in late 1971. The first e-mail message was ‘QWERTYUIOP’. Cfr. Jayant Neogy, How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 61; Cfr. also David Bell, et al. Cyberculture: The Key concepts. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2004, p. 81.
[94] Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 60-61.
[95] “ARPANET.” In: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopaedia.- Standing: 15.03.2010.- URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail - Electronic Publications.
[96] For instance, an inter-office message distributed over an intranet, or an internal computer network, may have a single scheme such as the person’s name as the address. For e-mails meant to reach further destination over the Internet, the recipient’s name is followed by the symbol @, followed by the domain name and then the organization’s name.
[97] Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 61.
[98] Cfr. David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key concepts, pp. 193-194.
[99] E-mail services that provide a Web mail interface include Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! The main drawback of Web mail is that you can read or reply to e-mails only while you are online. In contrast, if you are using software such as Outlook Express, you can download all your mail online, then read and reply offline. You will, of course, have to go back online to send your replies. Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 64.
[100] “IRC has been in use since 1988 when it was invented by an individual called Jarkko Oikarinen, and in the years since has provided a means for users to meet people of a like-minded nature to communicate in much the same way as the users of a Citizen’s Band or Ham radio.” Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 83.
[101] Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 84.
[102] Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 84.
[103] The term ‘distance education’ refers to the use of advanced electronic networks, such as the expanding range of wireless media and high speed Internet and Web applications to deliver educational services to the household, workplace or other locations remote from the instructor. Distance Education has a long history associated with the provision of education in ‘off-site’ locations, away from schools and university campuses. Cfr. David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key concepts, p. 66.
[104] David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key concepts, p. 66.
[105] D. Olcotts: “Chapter 20: Accreditation in the digital era: preparing for the new distance education landscape?” In: Planning and Management in Distance Education / S. Panda (ed.). London and Sterling: Kogan Page Limited, 2003, p. 242.
[106] O. Peters: Learning and Teaching in Distance Education: Pedagogical Analyses and Interpretations in an International Perspective. London: Kogan Page, 2001, p. 130.
[107] O. Peters: Learning and Teaching in Distance Education: Pedagogical Analyses and Interpretations in an International Perspective, p. 131.
[108] David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key concepts, p. 67.
[109] Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 101.
[110] Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, p. 109.
[111] Cfr. Jayant Neogy: How Best to Use the Internet and E-mail, pp. 109-111.
[112] S. K. Pandey: Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Communication. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Commonwealth Publishers, 2001, pp. 281-282.
[113] S. K. Pandey: Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Communication. Vol. 1, p. 282.
[114] G. Belch and A. Belch: Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. USA: McGraw Hill, 2004, pp. 492-498.
[115] G. Belch and A. Belch: Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, pp. 492-494.
[116] G. Belch and A. Belch: Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, pp. 496-498.
[117] Bluetooth is a short- range radio device that replaces cables with low power radio waves to connect electronic devices, whether they are portable or fixed. The Bluetooth device also uses frequency hopping to ensure a secure, quality link, and it uses ad hoc networks, meaning that it connects peer-to-peer. It can be operated worldwide and without a network because it uses the unlicensed Industrial- Scientific Medical (ISM) band for transmission that varies with a change in location. Cfr. T. Swaminatha and C. Elden: Wireless Security and Privacy: Best Practices and Design Techniques. Massachussetts: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003, p. 49; and also cfr. M. Ganguli: Getting Started with Bluetooth. Ohio: Premier Press, 2002, pp. 25-26, 96.
[118] At the time of writing, WAP looks as if it may become something of a dead-end development. Third generation (G3) mobile telephones, tablet PCs and handheld computers offer rapid access to the web the same way as a browser on a desktop machine. Most of the mobile phones on sale at the time of writing have WAP capacity. Whether extensive low-bandwidth WAP services optimized for the small screens of most mobile phones will be developed remains to be seen. (The low bandwidth WAP services are already optimized for the small screens of most mobile phones). Cfr. David Bell, et al. (eds.): Cyberculture: The Key concepts, p. 68, 192.
[119] I. Brodsky: Wireless: The Revolution in Personal Telecommunications. Massachussetts: Artech House Inc, 1995, p. 3.
[120] P. Flichy: Dynamics of Modern Communication. London: Sage Publications, 1995, p. 103.
[121] R. Morrow: Bluetooth Operation and Use. New York: The McGraw - Hill Companies, 2002, p. 2.
[122] P. Flichy: Dynamics of Modern Communication, p. 111.