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Public Opinion
‘Fourth Estate’ was the term coined by Edmund Burke, which is the media of any nation. The media act as a barometer of public opinion, check the power of the rulers and act as a channel between government and people. Media is becoming more powerful with the continuous scientific developments and thus mass communication is becoming an integral part of the society.
Free Media
What is the limit of the powers shall be allowed for media to exercise, when it is widely acknowledged that media is economical, politically and socially powerful institute? Suppression of media in this democratic world is next to impossible, still, legislation of many countries deemed politically or religiously subversive.
Media Types
Media has different types, and it is well known that one type of media is taking over to the pie of another media. One important question, I wish to ask here, “We understand that press and electronic media are powerful, but what is the status of web media in a country like India? It is very easy to start a news portal, without even registering it by laws (like RNI in India) and push the news of your choice. There are no rules and regulations being set for news-based websites. So, how one can trust on such websites? It is no doubt that big news agency websites are being trusted as their paper news or electronic news. It is not exactly there are no rules; there are certain cyber rules which keep a check. But in certain countries, there are no cyber laws, or if present they are not sufficient. If a service provider of one country forbids, the author is able to move and get content published in a server of another country and which is relatively very easy for them.
Media is a reflection of public opinion and thus influences people. Every business, political party, and individuals want to have their online presence, which no-doubt will publish content which will only favor them. In such scenario, the role of 3rd party review and recommender websites becomes very important, until they are unbiased. Businesses try to influence such websites also. Ultimately, opinion, behavior, and attitude are most important and every of the business understands, that they have to listen to people. The 3rd party websites are becoming media landscapes and are getting much importance. They want a large number of audiences for that they want to remain unbiased, trustworthy and loyal to people, in terms of the information they are publishing. Buying decisions of visitors are greatly influenced by the reports produced by such websites. Involvement of the people in terms of rating, reviewing and voting has greatly increased.
Paperless Media
We don’t know a lot about the old era, as very little printed material is available to us of that time. New generations won’t be complaining about this, as if we see, there are billion-billions of books are available all over the world. Not only books, we are moving with technology, where web-pages are created to entertain, persuade and inform readers. These web-pages are becoming the new mass communication medium. Most of the available press is becoming paperless and have started using this technology for giving information and opinion on current affairs, spreading the news and commentary on that news throughout the world. You can find continuous debate and discussions going on these pages in the form of comments and reviews.
Web designers do a lot of hard work on the designs of these web pages, making the user interface simple catchy to visitors.
Internet reach is amplifying day by day, but still, we are able to find people who could hardly read.
How are you going to analyze such problem serious or very funny?
Newspaper or pamphlets were read in choupals (small gathering place of people), in places of social gathering, where the news used to get discussed and analyzed and reach to non-learned persons also. But, now the news world is changing, and these common meeting places are becoming obsolete.
The emergence of Social Media Communities
Newspaper or pamphlets are the tools of such small gatherings, where local news or foremost domestic news is read aloud and discussed, thus reached to people who couldn’t read. The news is discussed and people heed their opinion and a society with enriched ideas keeps on growing. Now the Internet is replacing the traditional societies with social media communities. People still heed the opinion not among real people, but in front of machines.
Machines are becoming our relatives and friends.