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One of the leading newspapers of United States of America The Washington Post adopted Artificial Intelligence technology to report key information from the 2016 Rio Olympics at its live blog and Twitter account. The newspaper used its in-house software Heliograf which automatically generates short multi-sentence updates, including daily schedule of events, results and medal tallies etc. The procedure quickly creates simple but useful reports.

Jeremy Gilbert and Sam Han lead a team of three engineers working full time on developing Heliograf. They are supported by a group of product analysts and news room staffers for shaping the software. Gilbert is a former Northwestern University journalism professor associated with Narrative Science that experimented with machine made news reporting.

“We’re not trying to replace reporters”, Gilbert says “we’re trying to free them up”. He explained,  “In 2014, the sports staff spent countless hours manually publishing event results. Heliograf will free up Post reporters and editors to analysis, color from the scene and real insight to stories in ways only they can”.

The Post plans to use Heliograf to cover United States Presidential Elections next November 2016. Gilbert remarks that during 2012 elections the newspaper’s coverage was up to 16 hours behind and this time the software can change the whole scene.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in journalistic practices was pioneered by among others Chicago-based Narrative Science followed by North Carolina – based Automated Insights in the United States. While companies like Forbes and Delotte hire the services of Narrative Science, Associated Press tied up with Automated Insights. Both of the agencies have developed tools to turn financial data into news stories.

Though so far mostly use of Artificial Intelligence has been confined to processing of data into narratives, the promoters of such companies have predicted that 90 percent of news stories will be produced by use of Artificial Intelligence by 2030. The claim appears to be little unrealistic at this point of time, but if we look back to review the impact of technology in the media, for example role of Internet in transforming journalistic practices during past three decades, one cannot completely ignore the prophesies for shape of future transformation.

In China Beijing Times experimented with producing stories for its news website through its software Dreamwriter during September 2014. It is told that the software could churned out a 1,000 word piece in just one minute.

Besides two in United States more than Ten other companies are engaged in automated content creation which include 5 in Germany (AX Semantics, Text-On, 2txtNLG, Retreco and Textomatic), 2 in France (Syllabus and Labsense) and one each in United Kingdom (Arria), China (Tencent) and Russia (Yandex). The interesting aspect of such companies is none of them neither consider themselves as journalistic organizations, nor their products are specifically geared towards providing journalistic solutions. They develop technology which can be applied to any industry such as manufacturing companies for product descriptions or patient summaries for hospitals.

Worldwide efforts are being put in developing software solutions for generating automated news. Though automated journalism is mostly limited to basic sports reports and business news at the beginning, it is expected to enter other areas of social activity. It has the capacity to generate news stories for repetitive topics for which structured data are available.

Algorithms can generate clean and accurate copies faster in a larger scale. At the same time it can produce stories in multiple languages and different angles, even answering users questions creating a personalized environment. However algorithms rely on data and assumption which may be subjected to errors and bias.

It is expected that the technique will bring whole new areas in building-up news stories which are being neglected by conventional journalism. Kris Hammoud, co-founder and chief scientist of Narrative Science says, “Storytelling is one of the great gifts we have. When you go home, what is the question your wife or husband ask ? ‘How did your day go ?’ That’s not going to stop. But what the machine will be able to do is to communicate with us about a lot of other stuff that goes on in the world and explain how it relates to us.”

In India we may not expect Artificial Intelligence to enter journalism so soon as even in technology enriched countries the practice is in nascent state. But if we review the trends such as use of smart phones, penetration of Internet and success of application – based start-ups in our country, can we completely ignore the possibilities? At the same time when we recollect the experience of hand-drawn dummy sheets for page make-up during the hot-type era in pre-emergency and manual placement of matter during the introduction of cold-type wave in post emergency era, nobody thought about availability of thousands of templates for page layout in the computer screen at a click of mouse which is a simple practice even in the printing plants located at the remotest corner of the country to-day. Now the question is how far the use of Artificial Intelligence in journalism will be different from design templates and speech to text technology is to be measured.

Leading economist Raghuram Rajan has attributed the populist anti-immigration upsurge in United States and Great Britain to loss of middle-class jobs to technology. During second week of June 2016 he remarked, “People at the upper end will do well in an economy that supports innovation. People at the lower end will manage because the jobs of the gardener and security guard will still be around, but not the middle class jobs of clerks and factory workers”.

When we apply the logic to journalism, technology such as introduction of Artificial Intelligence in reporting and editing may wipeout job opportunities for lower-end beat reporters, who gather information and junior copy editors who re-write. As a result two issues will arise out of the situation. On one hand there will be no recruitment of less talented work force in the newspaper establishments and on the other hand there will be non-availability of in-service space for new recruits to learn the tricks of the trade. Newspapers will recruit only highly talented professionals and to be eligible for employment the job seekers should have to make their own arrangement at journalism schools or open-source learning courses and practice the skill in the social media platforms. A whole new eco-system may emerge in media landscape. 

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 13, 2016

Modern mass communication trends took its roots with development and popularization of printing press during later part of Renaissance in Europe. Distribution of large quantities of reproduced text and illustration on the surface of paper among people brought revolutionary changes in administration, trade, health, education and entertainment spheres in the social fabric. It took nearly 200 years for spread of printing technologies involving moveable types worldwide. Printing remained as the dominant medium of mass communication for 300 years till popularity of radio after First World War and television after Second World War.

Importance of editing news, opinion and advertisement was evident from the earlier days of print publications. ‘News Books’ were in circulation before emergence of newspapers in Europe and Britain. During initial period reportage on a single incident was covered which gradually turned to be compilation of several reports under a title that gave rise to production of broadsheet newspapers.

Sensational rumors were given importance in content creation of News Books. Gradually private affairs of the members of royal families slipped into the pages of News Books. Upon a complaint by an European royal family about publication of derogatory remarks, the British Crown enacted ‘Star Chamber’ censorship act. As a result it become mandatory for all manuscripts to get clearance from the royal printing house ‘Stationary Company’ before printing. It is considered as one of the oldest laws of press censorship.

Question arises was there a necessity of enactment of ‘Star Chamber’ act for pre-printing censorship ? Nobody will disagree with the opinion that it is indecent to criticize a royal family of a friendly nation. But enactment of ‘Star Chamber’ proved to be a road block for spread of mass communication and only after revoke of the law the British journalism flourished. It is evident from the example that First, self-restraint is needed for publications of news, opinion and advertisement in news platforms. Secondly, on the event of journalism going astray administrative regulations are proclaimed by the rulers. Thirdly, any sort of restrictions produce negative effects in journalism.

Experienced and professional editors are employed for management of news platforms. It is the duty of the editorial board of any publication to check facts in reports, enhance quality of content and control the social effects. The editorial trend developed in the print media reflected in radio, television and digital news platforms in the later period. Professional organizations take the lead for quality control of the media in the developed nations. Even in India professional organizations of television channels have taken-over the charge of self-regulation and cards are on the table for digital news platforms. Administrative interventions in media matters can be averted only with excellence in self-regulation of media organizations.

In this background, a discussion on controversy precipitated inside and outside the country for expression of opinion presented in a television debate on an English channel about a religious leader by a spokesperson of a Indian political party gathers relevance. The case study attracts the attention of media analysts towards few angles. First, if the television debate is ‘live’, the producer and editors usually do not have prior idea what the participants will literally say or the language part of it in the programme. Second, the facility for the producer to delete any portion of utterance in an online situation is limited. Third, the participants on the television debates are quite sure about their own point of – view and do not easily accept editing.

On the other hand, the person whose comments raised controversy, begged pardon and clarified that there was no intention to hurt the feelings of anybody. The political party suspended the spokesperson. However the turmoil continued for long. Opposition from beyond boundaries of the country threaten negative effects on trade and commerce together with the fate of migrant work force settled in certain foreign nations. It becomes difficult to comprehend such a situation arising out of a television debate.

‘The Editors Guild of India’ expressed its serious concern on the development. In a statement it mentioned that a section of television channels tend to create controversies. The statement signed by president, general secretary and treasurer further mentioned, “some of these channels prompted by the desire to increase viewership and profit were seemingly inspired by the values of Radio Rwanda”

‘Radio Rwanda’ is a glaring example of social unrest fuelled by mass communication. Government owned ‘Radio Rwanda’ and sponsored private ‘RTLM’, two radio stations propagated hatred towards minority communities in African nation during 1993 and 1994. It resulted in genocide killing 8,00,000 civilians. The campaign is marked as a darkest period in the history of mass communication.

Opportunities for correction of news and opinion is wide open in the traditional media platforms. Professionals are available to carry out the task of editing. On the other hand, spread of social media during 21st century eliminated the role of editors as intermeditories, between the source and audience for publication of news, opinion and advertisements. Further use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in distribution of content in social media platforms has promoted polarization of views due to redundant news circulation among the audience. It has turned to be a threat for social harmony. In such a disturbing situation self regulation of mass media platforms appear to be the best solution.

Television is leading among the news platforms in India by 2022. Several precautionary steps may be undertaken to safeguard the negative effects of the medium. First, opinion related television debates should not be aired live. Recorded programmes will create opportunity for rigorous editing which in turn will guard the quality and ethics in broadcasting. Secondly, professional organizations and civil society should invest resources to create mechanism for regular review of mass communication products which will result in quality evaluation. Thirdly, each and every media worker needs in-service training on emerging trends. Efforts for disseminating new knowledge by news platforms, professional organizations and educational institutions can yield results. These are few stray thoughts for development of better news and opinion editing environment in media circles.  

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / June 10, 2022

Relevance of advertising is on constant rise keeping pace with spread of mass media and engagement of consumers in its platforms. Development of modern mass media in the western world during seventeenth century included advertisement of products, services and philosophies, along with news, opinion, information, entertainment and literature in the pages of print publications. Popularity of social media and up to 12 hours presence of consumers in digital media beyond geographical boundaries in the developed nations created a new chapter in the sphere of advertising during the beginning of third decade of twenty first century.

Efforts to sell toffees for children to grief solution and circulating public health information to recruitment of terrorists, the field is wide open for modern advertising manifestation, employing both legal and illegal practices. Control of the ever expending advertisement industry has turned out to be a social necessity. Radical step initiated by the government agency constituted for the purpose to check misleading advertisements, though taken late in India, has been welcomed by majority of stakeholders.

Central Consumer Protection Authority under the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India issued ‘Guidelines on Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements 2022’ on June 10, 2022. The objective of the guidelines focused on to curb misleading advertisements and protect the consumers, who may be exploited or affected by such advertisements.

The guidelines seek to ensure that consumers are not exploited through unsubstantiated claims, exaggerated promises and misinformation. Such advertisements violate rights of the consumers which include right to be informed, right to choose and right to safeguard against potentially unsafe products and services. It is important to note that the guidelines allow the implementing agency to impose penalty for violation of rules. 

Unfair practices in advertising landscape in India included celebrity endorsement and surrogate advertising. The volume of celebrity endorsement swelled during Covid-19 pandemic. As per report published by ‘Adex India’, a division of ‘TAM Media Research’, there was a 44 percent growth in 2021 as opposed to 2020. Celebrity endorsement constituted 27 percent of television advertisements during 2021.

While 80 percent share of such advertising were endorsed by film stars, about 13 percent belonged to sports personalities. It is alleged that as such categories of celebrities are popular faces in the society, the advertisers take undue advantage of propagating unsubstantiated claims, exaggerated promises and misinformation on their shadow. As per the new guidelines the endorsing celebrities will be also held responsible for false claims in advertisement and penalized.

Advertising alcohol and tobacco brands have been prohibited in our country and the practice of surrogate advertisements for soda, bottled water and music labels make unbatted rounds. Similarly surrogate advertisements for pan masala and gutka appear as mouth fresheners or flavored condiments etc.

In the recent past several film stars were trolled in the social media for their appearance in surrogate advertisements of tobacco related products. While Amitav Bachhan and Ranveer Singh featured in one brand, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar appeared in another brand of pan masala. Sanjay Dutt endorsed a particular brand of club soda that is also famous for a whisky.

 A number of acts against publication of advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products exists. ‘The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995’ prohibits direct and indirect promotion and advertising of cigarettes, tobacco products and different varieties of alcohol. The act enables to take action against offending broadcasting from the grass-root level to take action against cable operators in any locality. The apex body of advertising industry ‘Advertising Standards Council of India’ has proclaimed several guidelines against issuing advertisements those are prohibited under laws. But challenges with regard to enforcement remained at unsatisfactory level.

An advertising research establishment ‘Local Circle’ conducted a survey among 33,000 consumers drawn from 312 districts of the country to understand the trends in advertisement reception. It was found that about 70 percent respondents came across misleading advertisements during 24 months amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

There were adequate provisions mentioned for control of both misleading endorsement and surrogate advertisement in the ‘Consumer Protection Act 2019’. The celebrities were made liable for their endorsements as per the act. ‘The Central Consumer Protection Authority’ has been established under Section 10 of the ‘Consumer Protection Act, 2019’. In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 18 of the act, the guidelines have been notified.

The newly constituted authority can impose penalty upto 10 lakh rupees on manufacturer, advertiser and endorser for any misleading advertisement. For   subsequent contraventions penalty can extend upto 50 lakh rupees. Similarly the endorser for making false claim in advertisement, the celebrity can be barred for endorsing a product for upto a year, extending to three years for repeat offences.

Guidelines of 2022 notified by ‘Central Consumer Protection Authority’ will be applicable to all the advertisement barred by existing laws. However, a section claim that as alcohol and tobacco products are sold in the market and government collect tax on sales, it is not logical to bar advertisement of such products since it is an integral part of marketing any product. Another section believe that punishing the celebrities for product endorsement is wrong as they appear in the advertisement on direction of the manufacturer and advertiser.

The guidelines deal with various segments of advertising such as bait, surrogate and free claim advertisement. It also laid down a few preventive provisions on advertisement targeting children.

Ban on advertising of certain products is repeatedly contravened as manufacturing and marketing of such products grow continuously over time. For example, data released by market research agency IMARC, the pan masala market in India reached a value of 42,000 crore rupees in 2021 and expected to grow up to 53,000 crore rupees during 2027. It becomes difficult for such business with huge transactions to keep away from the ambit of advertising. Of course, stipulation of stiff penalties for contravention and establishment of a separate authority to regulate matters raises hopes for effective future check. Advertising Standards Council of India welcomed the move for issue of guidelines to control misleading advertising, “It is important for different stakeholders to work collectively and in a streamlined manner to address the issue of misleading ads, particularly in the dynamic environment of digital advertising.”

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / June 17, 2022

References:

Pinto, Viveat Susan. New guidelines put onus on celebrity endorsers. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). June 11, 2022

Pinto, Vieat Susan. Smoke screen around surrogate advertising clears with govt ban. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). June 13, 2022

Press Information Buru. Press Release. June 10, 2022

A host of factors including rapid digital transformation and gradual deconstruction of advertisement-dependent business model in media platforms together with a long period of economic slowdown beginning 2008 and New Normal norms in post-Covid-19 pandemic world order has pushed journalism to a challenging situation. Spread of the misinformation and changed behavior of the news consumers have added woes to it. A review of passion for work among journalists by 2022 considered to be a barometer to assess the future of journalism.

‘Pew Research Centre’ of United States of America conducts periodical research on various aspects of media. It organized a month long survey among 12,000 journalists countrywide between February 16 and March 17. The data analysis report was published during June 2022. The main objectives of the research was to measure several critical aspects related to the media workers perspectives on freedom of press, spread of misinformation, media’s role in political polarization and impact of social media.

Answering to questions such as are the journalists covering the most important stories of the day, are they reporting the news accurately, justifying their duty as watchdog over elected leaders, giving voice to the under represented and managing or correcting misinformation, about three-fourth of the journalists took part in the survey answered in positive tone.

While 75 percent of the journalists were proud of their profession, 70 percent were satisfied with their work and 77 percent were ready to persue a carrier in journalism. It was learnt that 57 percent are concerned about future restrictions on press freedom and 71 percent expressed their displeasure on spread of misinformation. The survey results revealed that though the journalists express their concern on prevailing trends in journalism, they do not want to quit the profession, but continue as a career.

Most of the journalist claimed that they have acquired the capacity to distinguish between real and misinformation. However 26 percent agreed that sometime they had used misinformation due to their ignorance.

On the issue of reporting false statements made by public figures, while a small portion of about 32 percent tend to decline, a majority of 64 percent do not hesitate. They believe that it is journalist’s duty to communicate all sorts of message to the public.

Traditionally news platforms tend to offer equal coverage to opposing views by sources. However while 44 journalists agree for equal treatment, about 55 percent disagree and extend preferential treatment.

Majority of journalists, about 82 percent believe that reporting should be objective, they should not include own opinions. But in reality only 55 percent stick to the principle and 34 percent find it difficult to practice all the time.

It is evident from the survey that journalists are aware of the fast growing trend of loss of public trust in journalism. Only 14 percent of journalists are confident about complete and 44 percent partially on public trust in the prevailing environment. About 42 percent are worried about the loss of trust among the news consumers. On the other hand, a survey result on public trust in journalism among the general public pointed out that 29 percent had complete belief, 27 percent had partial belief and 44 percent disbelieve news platforms.

The research data revealed that journalists working in the television platforms are least happy with their profession. Though journalists working in the print media accounted 52 percent, online media 54 percent and radio 48 percent, processional satisfaction among journalists working in television was limited to 34 percent. Moreover 58 percent of the television journalists complained about harassment outside their work place.

In rough estimate, seven among ten journalists in the United States agreed to have professional satisfaction. About 27 percent agree to be fully and 43 percent partially satisfied. Only 22 percent recorded dis-satisfication and eight percent had no opinion on the matter.

Professional satisfaction among the journalists ensure secure future for journalism. The statistics collected in the U.S. are more or less applicable to different geographies worldwide. Journalism is a creative faculty. It belongs to same genere, such as literature, music, dance, theateer or sports, practiced by people those have a passion in the particular field. When journalists have a passion for journalism, failure of business models and environmental disruptions does not appear to be a threatening danger for growth of journalism.

Majority of journalists’ concern for disinformation and support to objective reporting in principle pave the way for quality journalism in future. Similarly awareness on loss of public trust supposed to encourage journalists to take correctional initiatives in media platforms. Collection of real time data on journalists’ attribute to their work can contribute to formulate policy decisions on  improvement of various aspects of journalism. 

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / June 24, 2022

References:

Pew Research Centre. U.S. Journalistic turmoil in news industry amid passion for their work

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/06/14/journalists-sense-turmoil-in-their-industry-amid-continued-passion-for-their-work

Growing Trend of Loss of Public Trust in Journalism

http://newswriters.in/growing-trend-of-loss-of-public-trust-in-journalism/ 

While spread of mass media and daily audience engagement time is on the wheels of consistent rise as a result of popularisation of social media, statistics on avoidance of news platforms or particular forms of news has turned to be a cause of concern by beginning of the third decade of twenty–first century. Media research reports figure out the growing trend of rationing or limiting exposure to news. Though era of digital transformation reached a plateau in the developed nations and coronavirus pandemic excelerated the process of digital adoption, emergence of news avoidance by consumers has raised many questions on future of news industry.

A valuable document on status of international news environment ‘Digital News Report 2022’ was published by ‘Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism’ at Oxford University during middle of June 2022. The annual report is being published regularly since 2012. A survey was conducted during January and February 2022 for collection of data for incorporation in the report. About 93,000 news consumers from 46 nations participated in the online survey. In addition, studies on focus groups from United States, United Kingdom and Brazil were conducted. India is being covered in the research since 2021.

‘Digital News Report 2022’ emphasized four core areas that raised challenge on news consumption. It included loss of interest, avoidance of presence on news platforms, political polarization and behaviour of young news consumers. On totality the emerging problems culminate to a phenomenon, that the report named as “selective news avoidance”. It noted, “while the majority of people across countries remain engaged and use the news regularly, we find that many also increasingly choose to limit their exposure to it - or at least to certain types of news.”

As per statistics provided in the report during five years between 2017 and 2022 news avoidance among consumers in Brazil increased 54 percent and 46 percent in United Kingdom. However, the rate is low in United States, the proportion of consumers who avoid news increased from 38 percent to 42 percent. On the other hand, while the country seems to have the highest number of 15 percent disconnected news users, those who do not consume any news product, a similar trend is marked in Japan with 15 percent, United Kingdom 9 percent along with France and Australia those record 8 percent each.

India achieved only 54 percent of internet connectivity among its 140 crore people by 2022 and the prevailing online environment may not attract the media trends of the developed world immediately. But the international news consumption pattern is believed to influence the users of traditional media and be a part of the emerging online ecosystem.

The report indexed six major causes for news avoidance. On one hand, 43 percent of consumers “say there is too much politics and Covid-19”, 29 percent “say the news is untrustworthy or biased” and 16 percent “say there is nothing I can do with the information”. On the other hand, 29 percent “say they are worn out  by amount of news”, 36 percent “say news has negative effect on mood” and 17 percent “say it leads to arguments I would rather avoid”. The reasons for news avoidance found out of a major survey among the digital news consumers need to be taken into consideration for formulating editorial policy for media platforms worldwide.

Research data indicate that political affiliation of news organizations compel them for high coverage of political events, which is not liked by majority of the consumers. Since they find abundant content of their choice online, they prefer to avoid packaged news products. The conventional pattern of covering “political crisis, international conflicts, global pandemic and climate catastrophes seems to be precisely the ones that are turning some people away from news-especially amongst those who are younger or harder to reach”, the report mentioned. Though a number of news outlets have began to lay emphasis to generate content basing upon consumers choice, the report questioned, “there will be a limit to how far journalists can go- or should to – to make the news more palatable.”

Trust in news is fast eroding in almost half of the countries included in the Reuters survey. About 42 percent of the sample confessed about loss of faith in news circulated in the media platforms. Similarly “interest in news fallen sharply across markets, from 63 percent in 2017 to 51 percent in 2022”, the report claimed. Another major finding refer to fragmented pattern of news assess practice by young people which result in missing “key context that has previously carefully packaged into liner narratives by the mainstream media”.

The report also point out, “ a significant proportion of younger and less educated people say they avoid news because it can be harder to follow or understand – suggesting that the news media could do much more to simplify language and better explain or contextualize complex stories.” It also explains about “the emergence of a minority of people who are active online, many of them younger or less well educated, but who have become largely disconnected from the news, perhaps because they do not feel that it is relevant to their lives.”

‘Digital News Report 2022’ covered a representative sample from half of the world population to collect information about digital news consumption. It mentioned that in India 72 percent of online consumers access news through smartphones and 35 percent via computers. The most popular platforms include ‘You Tube’ for 53 percent and ‘WhatsApp’ for 51 percent. The major challenge online media face include misinformation and incessant trolling. The report remarked that worldwide spread of social media has not only created a different ecosystem, but the later versions of social media proved to be different from the earlier versions. It warrants building-up new models for news production, distribution and management of business.  

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 1, 2022

References:

Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism. Digital News Report 2022

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022

Owen, Laura Hazard. As traditional news use declines, online news isn’t making up the gap. Nieman Lab. June 14, 2022.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/06/as-traditional-news-use-declines-online-news-isnt-making-up-the-gap/ 

Gradual collapse of print newspapers in the United States of America resulted in shaping new equations around mass media landscape. Advertisement-dependent business model enriched the industry for over two hundred years since beginning of eighteenth century. Gradual shift of advertisement spending from print to digital platform during the first two decades of twenty-first century is considered as the principal cause for the disruption. Research findings published by the middle of 2022 shed light on possible future of the news industry. Though the crisis developed in U.S. may not be repeated in distant geographies, it is taken for granted that it will influence media trends in different degrees worldwide.

A spokesperson of business research and consultancy firm ‘Price Waterhouse Coopers’ revealed in an interview at Cannes Lions Festival in France during June 2022 that by 2026 advertisement earnings of the digital newspapers will surpass print newspapers in U.S. However, by 2022 advertisement revenue still remained the main source of earning for large newsrooms. It appeared to be a matter of curiosity that within four years the economics will turnaround for digital newspapers.

‘Price Waterhouse Coopers’ prediction that U.S. digital newspaper advertisement revenue will eclipse print newspaper earnings will be the first of its kind in major media market in the world. The report further explained that though the print newspaper will loose advertisement revenue between 2021 and 2026, the digital newspapers will grow only marginally.  Overall, the news industry will loose advertisement revenue. After Sara Fisher discussed the development in her newsletter Axios Media Trends, Harvard University’s Niemanlab published a list on comparative study of circulation of 20 highest circulated print newspapers between 2000 and 2022.

While the highest circulated USA Today faced a decrease of 91 percent of print circulation, The Wall Street Journal recorded 60 percent, The New York Times 69 percent, Less Angles Times 80 percent, The Washington Post 79 percent, The New York Daily 92 percent. Chicago Tribunal 82 percent, Long Island publication Newsday 83 percent, Huston Chronicle 88 percent and The Daily Morning News 87 percent of subscribers.

The Nieman Lab report indentified various reasons for decrease in print circulation. Different newspapers faced different problems which they could not mitigate. For example, USA Today was distributed in hotel rooms of large chain of hotels. During the coronavirus pandemic the hotels remained closed for long period and the slowdown faced by the hospitality industry had an adverse effect on the circulation of the print newspapers. Moreover since tourists move with smartphones in their hands and equipped with instant messaging services, the dependency on print newspapers in the hotel rooms while on travel decreased. 

Leading newspaper groups such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post publish digital version of their media products along with the print editions. Since they have tested the growing success in digitial platforms, it  appears they are not so keen to put extra efforts to increase circulation of print newspapers. Media analysists believe that by the first two dacades of twenty-first century the news media ecosystem in US has been already promoted to the digital platforms.

Another report published during the middle of June 2022 by Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing of North Western University mentioned that the number of newspapers published in US has comedown to 6,377 by end of May 2022 from 8,891 in 2005. During the coronavirus pandemic between end of 2019 and beginning of 2022, a total number of 360 print newspapers closed shutters of their plants. It has been calculated that by 2022 US newspapers continue to die at the rate of 2 every week.

Print newspaper closures result in retrenchment and unemployment of working journalists. Many are forced to leave the profession altogether. With scarcity of newspapers, it becomes difficult to get employments of choice. Though job opportunities in digital platforms and public relations arise, creative journalists fail to adjust themselves in the changed work culture. It is estimated that about 75,000 journalists were employed in newspapers in 2006, which came down to 31,000 in 2022.

Among other notable changes, out of 100 widely circulated newspaper  establishments 40 are seriously investing in their respective digital news platforms. They have started publishing only-digital versions at least once a week by 2022. In another development more and more print newspaper business are consolidated through chain publications. About two-third of weekly print newspapers belong to chains operating in small and mid-sized markets.

One of the other interesting revelation in the report point out that in absence of print newspapers the digital platforms fail to compensate the vacuum. It is said empirical data proves that the regions lacking print newspapers tend to be poorer and less educated. About seven crore American citizens live in such news deserts. The downfall of print newspaper in U.S. may not get fully replicated in media markets else where with immediate effect. But the prevailing situation gives a clarion call for restructuring print newspaper industry worldwide.

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 8, 2022

References:

Benton, Joshua, For print newspapers, one Florida retirement community is a better market than Atlanta, St. Louis or Portland. NiemanLab. June 28, 2022.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/06/for-print-newspapers-one-florida-retirement-community-is-a-better-market-than-atlanta-st-louis-or-portland/

Associated Press. US newspaper continuing to die at rate of 2 every week. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). July 1, 2022.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/us-newspapers-continuing-to-die-at-rate-of-two-every-week-report-122070100084_1.html

Twitter’s confrontation with Government of India on the issue of administrative requests to take down content, account blockage and supply of user information periodically enters news headlines. Enactment of laws and notification of rules compel the social media platforms to comply with government directions. Media analysts believed that Twitter took-up a stand to fight against “some of the provisions of Indian laws that provide the foundations for such orders.”

Twitter moved to file a petition at the Karnataka High Court for a judicial review during first week of July 2022. The contents of the petition was not revealed in the initial stage. However, news reports mentioned the back drop that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India issued notice to the micro-blogging firm to act on multiple content takedown requests by July 4. “Failure to comply with those may lead to immunity as an intermediary under the IT Act, 2000, the ministry said.”

Information Technology Act 2000 designates social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. as ‘intermediaries’. The users who post text, picture or video in such platforms are considered as ‘publishers’. According to Section 69 (A) of the Act the government has the powers to give directions to block public access to any information under specific circumstances. In case of non-compliance of such orders the platforms can be considered as ‘publishers’ of the contents and fixed responsibilities accordingly.

Government of India notified ‘Information Technology Rules’ and ‘Digital Media Ethics Codes’ during the earlier part of 2021. As per the rules online news and information platforms are required to take down particular contents within 36 hours of receiving government orders and assist law enforcement agencies. On one hand, social media platforms are cautioned by the administration for stern action for no-compliance. On the other hand, the social media platforms complain about over broad, arbitrary and disproportionate orders. They claim it to be unjustified to block user’s accounts even without serving notices on so called objectionable contents posted by them.

Twitter challenged social media policies of Government of India on several occasions. There was a tussle during February 2022 on the event of removal of 500 user’s accounts that had posted critical comments about the government. In July 2022 case, Twitter initially obeyed the orders of Information and Technology Ministry before filing the case at Karnataka High Court. It was reported that “Twitter is not trying to invalidate the law under which the order was issued, but instead argues in its suit that the government interpreted those laws too broadly.”

Soon after Twitter reached the court, the Minister and Minister of State incharge of Information and Technology Department briefed the media about the government’s perspectives. On a press conference on the same date, July 5, 2022, without citing Twitter case the Minister emphasized on five points.

The first explained that the growing importance of the social media platforms is attributed to its reach among more and more people. Second, such platforms should be accountable and it has became a valid question globally. Third, social media platforms should be governed by a three tire mechanism of self-regulation, industry regulation followed by government regulation. Fourth, attention should be drawn to the fact that when the social media platforms earn profits showcasing contents prepared by third parties, adequate measures should be made to compensate the creative labour. Fifth, everybody have to abide by the laws of the country.

Minister of State incharge of Information Technology clarified that in India, all including foreign internet intermediaries, platforms have right to go for judicial review. It has been calculated that there were two-crore 40 lakh consumers present in the Twitter platform in India by middle of 2022. Though the size of the traffic is comperatively less with reference to other platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, opinion leaders in politics, business and intelligentsia prefer Twitter for their posts. The trend increases the importance of the platform.

Social media giants including Twitter, Facebook and the others periodically publish reports on compliance of government orders for supply of user information, blocking their posts and accounts. A media report mentioned that the half-year average number of government orders for supply of user information during pre-pandemic period between June and December 2019 was accounted 650. It went upto 4,800 during post-pandemic period between January and June 2021. Similarly the content removal orders during the period jumped from 550 to 2,800 cases.

Media analysts felt that Twitter’s approach to Karnataka High Court could set a precedent on the question of freedom of expression in social media and “may have ramifications far beyond India.” Many countries across the globe, including liberal United Kingdom and European nations are moving towards control on the flow of online information. Media predictions for 2022 cautioned about confrontation between social media firms and governments during beginning of the calendar year. That is set to rise to further heights. 

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 15, 2022

References:

Twitter moves HC against content takedown orders. Business Standard  (Bhubaneswar Edition) July 06, 2022

Som, Vishnu. What Twitter argues in its case vs Centre on blocking content. NDTV.com. July 05, 2022

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/what-twitter-argues-in-its-case-vs-centre-on-blocking-content-3129996

Mampatta, Sachin P. ‘Take it down’. India’s requests to social media firms at record high. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition) July 07, 2022

Twitter takedown fight becomes a test case. The Telegraph (Kolkata Edition) July 08, 2022.

The emerging trend in Bolywood film industry during first six months of 2022, resuming after closure of production and theatre exhibition of cinema for nearly two years due to coronavirus pandemic, claimed its relevance in the entertainment industry in India. Though the third wave of Covid-19 infection covered first two months January and February 2022, film production and theatre exhibition gradually reopened three months earlier since Dasahara-Dipawali festive season of 2021. That is how it was reasonable to believe that Bollywood film industry regained momentum during January to June 2022.

A total number of 21 Bollywood Hindi films had theater release during the first half of 2022. It is calculated that six films achieved box office success and 15 films faced failure. While five films each were released during March, April and June, two films in February and four films reached the silver screens in May.

Among box office hits, RRR ‘Roar, Rise, Revolt’ directed S.S. Rajamouli and released in March collected 1200 crore rupees from the country and overseas market. It has been told that in the history of Indian film industry the revenue of the film was the third highest score. The Kashimr Files directed by Vivek Agnihotri was made with an expense of 25 crores and collected revenue of 250 crore rupees. Similarly Bhool Bhalaiyaa-2, a film made with mix of horror and comedy produced spending 90 crore could fetch 260 crore. While Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi claimed 200 core, Major  and Jug Jug Jeeyo were also box office hits.

Among box office flops, the March release Bachchhan Paandey, led by Bollywood star Akshay Kumar made with a production budget of 180 crore could regain only 70 crore from exhibition. The June release Samrat Prithiviraj, also starred by Akshay Kumar was also a flop. Other flops include Jhund casting Amitav Bacchan, Rurway 34 casting Ajaya Devgan and Amitav Bacchan, Badhaai Do casting Rajkumar Rao, Dhaakad casting Kangana Ranaut and Jersey casting Shahid Kapoor.

The story line of a few films released during the first-half of 2022 referred to out-of-box subjects. Badhai Do dealt with same-sex, Gangubai Kathiawadi with sex workers. Jhund and Jersey related to sports, Hurdang against the backdrop of the students agitation in 1990 against Mandal Commission, Anek focused on culture of north-east and Jug Jug Jeeya about a big fat Panjabi weeding. It has been told that research was carried out for 18 years to gather information for developing the strory of flop Samrat Prithivraj. The biopic Major depicted the fight by Major Sandeep UnniKrishnan with terrorists who sneaked into Taj Mahal Hotel of Mumbai in 2008.

Bollywood is the major player in Indian film industry. Audience behavior in the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ is expended to change the traditional film making pattern in Boolywood. It is important to note that among the 10 highest revenue earning films in India during the first half of 2022, three films belonged to south-Indian productions, Pushpa, RRR and KGF-2 claimed half of the earnings. Another estimate revealed that 10 movies released during the period which included big stars Akshy Kumar, Rnveer Singh, Ajay Devgn, Varun Dhawan, Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham and Sahid Kapoor produced with a combined budget of 110 crores “could rustle up only around a third of the money at the box office.”

It is natural to mark tussle between theatre exhibition and Over-the-Top ‘OTT’ streaming of Boolywood film in the post-pandemic era. Basic infrastructure for OTT platforms were gradually build-up during the pre-pandemic days extending for three years in India. Closure of theater exhibition for two years during the pandemic offered a favorable opportunity to strengthen the business model for OTT platforms. Since general public psyche jumped into digital transformation in different aspects of life, OTT streaming could achieve an advantageous position.

As per an estimate Bollywood film producers earned 60 to 70 percent revenue from theatre exhibition and 30 to 40 percent from OTT streaming in pre-pandemic period. During the pandemic days income from OTT platforms raised to 50 to 60 percent. It is expected that revenue from OTT streaming may not return to the pre-pandemic days, but hover around 50 percent for a period of time. As a result, the changed ecosystem will motivate the producers to make films giving equal importance for theatre and OTT platform audience.

Audience attendance in theatres was limited to 26 to 27 percent seats during the first-half of 2022 as per revelation to the media by the Chairman of Multiplex Association of India. The PVR multiplex chain claimed that they could achieve 36 to 37 percent attendance during the period. The practice of releasing frontline Bollywood films in OTT platforms after four weeks of theatre release was earmarked as one of the main reasons for poor attendance in theatres. Before the pandemic the gap for theatre and OTT release was eight weeks and from August 2022 the pre-pandemic norm of eight weeks is set to brought back.

The changed business environment of equal revenue from theatre exhibition and OTT streaming will claim equal importance to the audience preference in both the platforms in film making. An entertainment business leader explained, “Clearly, audiences want to see larger than-life movies like KGF2 or RRR on the big screen and the other social and romantic dramas on OTT.” Other noteworthy developments during first-half of 2022 include that the frontline Bollywood films sold at an average of 80 to 90 crore rupees per film for OTT platforms, exhibition rights of about 10 to 30 percent films were purchased by OTT during the beginning of film making and theatre ticket rates were enhanced upto 15 to 20 percent etc. It was reported that income from theatre business could reach pre-pandemic level of 1,500 crore rupees a month.

Rapid change in audience behavior and preference is set to diminish the glamour of Bollywood extravaganza. Case studies of films such as The Kashmir Files made with a modest budget of 25 crores earning 250 crores, somewhat an art film Gangubai Kathawadi based on a subject of sex workers of Mumbai claiming 200 crore business and a horror-comedy Bhool Blulaiyaa 2 with a production budget of 90 crore to reach box-office collection of 260 crore proved a new equation in the traditional formula film making. It was a surprise to note that a film made with a much-hyped actress in the lead role made with 86 crore could recover only four crore in the box office and ticket sale was limited to only four thousand rupees in the eight day of theatre release as per media reports. Beginning of a new chapter is evident from such developments during first-half of 2022 in Bollywood film industry. 

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 22, 2022

References:

Roy, Priyanka, Bollywood. T2. The Telegraph (Kollkata Edition). July 13, 2022

Das Gupta, Surajeet. Bollywood battles the flop show. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). July 16, 2022

Print publications in the categories of weekly, fortnightly and monthly having a circulation under 25,000 copies are classified as small newspapers in India. They out-number all the other types of print news products. The Registrar for Newspapers in India mentioned in its website that a total number of 1,18,239 publications were registered as on March 31, 2018. It included 15,573 newspapers and 1,00,666 periodicals. Among which only 3,717 publications submitted Annual Statements for compilation which is mandatory under the prevailing laws.

Print newspapers in India, mostly small and medium categories, those are published regularly, heavily depend on government advertisement to maintain their income. Such publications which are empanelled to procure government advertisements are required to supply their publication status on regular basis with physical production of copies. But majority of small newspapers, those are not empanelled, either fail to publish editions continuously or submit reports to the designated authorities. However, the role played by such newspapers with irregular publication record in the realm of public-interest local journalism can not be ignored. In certain cases their vibrant journalism proves far reaching impact in the society.

Print newspaper industry, big and small, all are on the state of decline worldwide with emergence of digital media and e-commerce due to shift of advertisement revenue away from their platforms. Adequately documented markets like United  States has lost almost 1,800 newspapers between 2004 and 2021. It included 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies as per ‘U.S. Newsdeserts’ report. “Roughly half of the remaining 7,112 in the country-1,283 dailies and 5,829 weeklies – are located in small and rural communities. The vast majority – around 5,500 – have a circulation of less than 15,000.”

The closure of small newspapers resulted in communities loosing transparency and accountability. Data showed that taxes go up and voter participation goes down. Research carried out at the University of Corolin’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media to document on ‘news deserts’ created as a result of vanishing print newspapers. The situation in U.S. may not reflect everywhere, particularly in developing nations like India, but ripple effect on the media landscape are expected.

Small newspapers in India are often products of independent journalists endeavor. The news rooms are equipped with a single owner, publisher, promoter, editor-cum-reporter or supported by close family members or intimate friends. In most of the cases the group members associated with local journalism depend on another profession for earning a livelihood, while a few stick to informal public relations activities such as serving as middle men between public and politicians or bureaucrats along with earnings from philanthropy. Such business model in most of the cases cause adverse impact on practice of quality journalism. It compel the publications to restrain themselves from high – impact journalism in local level.

The foremost negative feature of small newspapers attribute to low sale price of the product in comparison to production cost. The big newspapers depended upon the subscription value only upto 15 percent or less in the globalization era, roughly extending between 1991 and 2015 which has raised to above 50 percent in post-coronavirus period. Following the footprints of the large publications a typical 8 page tabloid with 2,000 print order and 1,000 sold copies spend about Rs 10,000 per issue and collect Rs 5,000 at the rate of Rs 5 per copy. The independent publisher-editor-reporter spend enough of his working hours in search of funds to meet the 50 percent deficit in production cost, which could have been invested in creation of content for quality journalism.

Influx of digital media environment with spread of internet connectivity, use of smart phones, absence of recurring investment for production and distribution of digital media products together with the ability to circulate on real time basis with video, audio and text format in social media platforms has created a serious threat to small local print newspapers. With a single advantage of permanence of printed word in surface of paper, which has a high impact on administrative sphere of the governments, the print newspapers are destined to struggle for survival till 2030. Experiments to evolve sustainable models for print publications are being carried out at different corners of the world, mostly in the developed nations. Research report of 2022 by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute of Study of Journalism indicated on evidence that online news fail in making-up the gap in the environment of decline of traditional news. It compels media analysists to outline sustainable models for small local print newspapers in ‘new normal’ at different geographies.

In Indian situation, for bulk of limited circulated print newspapers in regional languages, published irregularly throughout the country should consider at least ten important points to engineer renewed effort for their survival. First, to introduce new business model, increase efficiency and revenue, all the publications should have their written policy decision in from of detail project report to establish transparency in their dealings in every department. Such documents could be very small to start with, may be a few pages and open for corrections at any short intervals of time. The promoters of publications should have written work plan which should be reviewed on fortnightly, monthly or quarterly basis to open-up opportunities for corrections in day-to-day work schedules.

Second, most of the small newspapers in the country, those are not empanelled for government advertisement, that constitute the bulk of the publications, traditionally depend on philanthropy and subscription earnings for survival. However, philanthropic funding lacks transparency and subscription rates are not adequate in relation to business terms. Strengthening the philanthropic funding through establishing transparent dealing and disciplined approach can improve financial condition of the publications. Continuous effort need to be initiated for increase of subscribers.

Third, subscription rates of the small print newspapers need to be enhanced which can enrich sustainability of the publication. A tabloid eight page weekly should cost Rs 10 per copy and Rs 500 for annual subscription, a sixteen page fortnightly should cost Rs 20 per copy and Rs 500 for annual subscription and a monthly should cost Rs 50 a copy and Rs 500 for annual subscription. Since annual subscriptions are collected employing push sale method, a good amount can be solicited to support an independent media platform. Reader’s forums should be formed for each of the publications collecting double the amount of usual subscription rates at Rs 1,000 per member to patronage the publication. The publications should offer additional readers services to the members such as invitation to special events and entertain news pitches etc.

Fourth, to adopt a credible philanthropy and subscription dependent model, the newspaper ownership should be transferred to a non-profit entity such as trust. Seeking financial support for private venture will prove to be unconvincing.

Fifth, since commercial advertising never reach small print newspapers and over dependence on government advertisement create hindrances for quality journalism, in absence of advertising revenue publications can adopt advertorial  method for revenue generation. When somebody wants to publicize on an issue, either personal or collective, the publications can sell space for editorial content with clear indication that the content are paid for. It cannot be unethical. Moreover satisfy democratic norms to offer service of publication to every citizen.

Sixth, small print newspapers should focus themselves exclusively to a certain geography such as Gram Panchyat, Block, District or Town or specific field such as commerce, agriculture, sports or entertainment etc. Small newspapers of general interest fail to attract reader’s attention in an over-crowded sphere of big print publications.

Seventh, small print newspapers should carry original content, ideally one or more investigative reports and enough life-style articles which can come to readers use. Non-availability of reading material of readers interest is the major drawback for such publications.

Eighth, to improve quality of editorial content through searching pitch from the public, regular meetings of the readers forum is an ideal solution. The publishers should initiate efforts to share publication responsibilities among brand followers by building trust and confidence.

Ninth, small print newspapers can utilize themselves as effective tools for reporting on public causes through continuous publication of reports and building-up campaigns. Public Interest Journalism on local issues can elevate the small publications standard to compete with the large publications, those are alien to grass root level issues.

Tenth, there is no doubt that the future of journalism is ‘digital’. For small print newspapers ‘digital’ is just a question of format. If they can adopt themselves slowly to digital platforms, they can be future ready. It may not be wrong to consider that those publications who fail to ride into digital bandwagon may never able to reach to 2030 ! 

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 29, 2022

References:

Research on News Deserts

https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/loss-of-local-news/loss-newspapers-readers/

Owen, Laura Hazard. As traditional news use declines, online news isn’t making up the gap. June 14, 2022

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/06/as-traditional-news-use-declines-online-news-isnt-making-up-the-gap/

‘Personal Data Protection Bill 2019’ introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019 was withdrawn by the government on August 3, 2022. After long deliberations, both inside and outside the Parliament for five years its withdrawal proves sensitivity nature of the subject. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Information Technology said, “the government will bring a set of new legislation for a comprehensive legal frame work for the digital economy.” It is believed that there will be public consultation before introducing new legislation in the Parliament.

In the event of wide internet penetration and growth of users base, the need for protection of personal data come into forefront. An expert panel headed by justice B.N. Srikrishna prepared the first draft of a bill on the subject and presented to government in July 2018. Subsequently the Ministry of Information and Technology started working on it from October the same year.

It was presented in Lok Sabha in December 2019 and after discussions a Joint Parliamentary Committee was formed with Meenakshi Lekhi, a BJP Member of Parliament as the chairperson. The committee wanted more time to present its report and extension was granted in September 2020. After Lekhi was inducted as a cabinet minister in central government, P.P. Choudhary, again a BJP Member of Parliament was appointed as the new chairperson. The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee was tabled in Parliament in December 2021 and stirred debate over various provisions in the Bill. It was finally withdrawn during the first week of August 2022.

The reasons behind withdrawal of the Bill included that though it contained 99 sections, the Joint Parliamentary Committee had recommended 81 amendments and 12 recommendations. “The Joint Parliamentary Committee’s report on Personal Data Protection Bill had identified many issues that were relevant, but beyond the scope of a modern digital privacy policy,” Minister of State for Electronics Information technology Twitted.

In course of expansion of online ecosystem in the country citizens face threat in economic, political and social fields due to misuse of personal data by miscreants The prevailing situation warrants protection of personal data, both at software and hardware level in online landscape. There is growing demand in this regard and even the Supreme Court directed the government for enactment of laws to control the situation in its 2017 landmark judgment on the subject. “The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty;” the apex court claimed.

The Joint Committee of Parliament report in its review on draft “Personal Data Protection Bill 2019” advised to consider the social media messenger portals and applications like Facebook and Twitter as publishers of the posts circulated in their platforms. The remark created controversies. Information Technology Act 2000 considers social media platforms as intermediaries. There is provision in the law that in certain cases the government can order the social media platforms to block accounts or delete post in a stipulated time period failing which the status of social media platforms will change from ‘intermediary’ to ‘publisher’. Usually the ‘publisher’ remain responsible for the content ‘published’ in legal terms. While the rationale behind the assumption is being preferred by all, the committee’s advice appeared irrational to many.

The Bill modified by the Joint Committee of Parliament recommended for establishing a Data Protection Authority. The proposal was broadly welcomed by many. Since information technology is in a evolutionary stage and new features are added on daily basis, the bureaucrats and police fail to fully understand the online complicacies. It has been learnt from experience that the general administration, law and order officials often wrongly utilise the provisions provided in the laws and prove unable to control the online frauds. Such a situation warrants a specialized agency to regulate government control on the matter.

However, the provisions mentioned in the report to completely exclude government functionaries from the ambit of data privacy attracted criticism. The Bill modifies by the committee allowed administration to collect, store and utilize both personal and non-personal data of the citizens of the country. Such partiality in policy formulation was not acceptable by different sectors. A number of Members of the Joint Committee of Parliament who reviewed the draft Bill comprising of 20 member of Lok Sabha ad 10 member of Rajya Sabha including Manish Tiwari, Mohua Maitra, Gourav Gopal, Ritesh Pandy, Vivek Tankha, Jayaram Ramesh, Derik O’Brain and Amar Patnaik wrote disagreement notes.

Taken into consideration all such developments, the withdrawal of ‘Personal Data Protection Bill 2019’ seemed to be rational. Rajeev Chandra Sekhar, Minister for State for Electronics and Information Technology, explained, “The Bill, modified by the Joint Committee of Parliament become very complex because of the large number of recommendations made by the panel. It veered away from the core issue of data protection and information privacy, like trusted hardware, certification, non-personal data and data localization. All these issues are basically creeping into the legislation because of gaps in the existing IT Act. So there were two options before the government – create a complex, cumbersome law, which will cause a tremendous amount of compliance challenges for startups or say let’s go back and do a clean state, where we do a framework of laws and policies.”

Justice B.N. Srikrishna, who headed the panel of experts that wrote the first draft of the legislation said, “This time they should consider all the criticism by the Internet activists, foreign companies, and the social activists, that the Bill was not giving enough thought to the data privacy right.”

The Ministry sources revealed that after the withdrawal of the ‘Data Protection Bill 2019’, the government is hopeful to “bring a set of new legislation for a comprehensive legal frame work” by the 2022 Budget sessions of Parliament. The government’s preparedness to continue the consultations with stakeholders is a good news However, data privacy can not be protected only with enactment of laws, notification of rules. The consumers should be adequately educated and become literate to conduct dealings in a digital economy. It emphasizes urgent step towards propagating media literacy. Surprisingly we hear a little about such an effort ! 

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 5, 2022

References:

Govt withdraw data protection bill from LS. The Times of India (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 4, 2022

Lele, Sourabh. Govt withdraws personal Data Protection Bill 2019. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 4, 2022

Chandra Sekhar, Rajeev. ‘We had 2 options : Complex law or start with clean slate.’ Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 05, 2022

Lele, Sourabh. Must factor in criticism, says justice Srikrishna. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 05, 2022

Protecting privacy : New legislation must address all concerns. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 05, 2022

Return to normalcy in trade and commerce at the endemic phase of coronavirus induced pandemic raised the hope of increase in advertising spending. Traditional media, mostly television and print newspapers expected to return to the financial position of pre-covid period. However, the emerging trend of use of new technologies in advertising ecosystem tend to drive advertising spending towards digital media by the first-half of 2022.

Zee Entertainment is considered as a major player in television broadcasting in India. A report published during the second week of August 2022 revealed that there was about 50 percent fall in consolidated net profit during April-May-June 2022 in comparison to profit of the same period a year earlier during 2021. While the broadcaster reported a net profit of about Rs 208 crore during the first quarter of accounting year in 2021, it dropped to Rs 106 crore. Among other reasons, lower advertising spend by brands is considered as a cause of concern.

The financial experience of Zee Entertainment may not be applicable to other platforms in totality, but a time has came to ponder on the reasons for decrease in advertising spending during the ‘new normal’. Use of artificial intelligence in production and publication of advertisements may be considered as an impacting factor for such a shift of advertising from traditional to digital platforms. India is not lagging behind in use of artificial Intelligence tools in advertising with comparison to international trend.

Production and publication of personalised advertisement is one of the foremost advantages of AI-powered advertising. Citing a few examples, the food delivery major Zomato released a hyper-local campaign during July 2022 featuring noted Bolywood film personality Hrithik Roshan. In the advertisement the actor endorsed various dishes from different restaurants belonging to towns and cities spread over the country. His voice for endorsement was manipulated using deep-fake technology. The audience curiosity to listen their favourite dishes form neighbourhood eateries from a celebrity remained high.  Confronting such an environment by television or print newspaper advertising is unviable. The advertisement published in devices taking into consideration their geographical location.

Similarly, a firm named ‘notjustacadburyad.dot.com’ launched a festive session advertisement campaign last Dipavali 2021 targeted at hyper-local retail stores of different towns and cities throughout the country. Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan promoted small business outlets on individual basis. About 1,39,000 hyper-localised advertisements were produced within a short period of 10 days to be used for sales promotion through personalised advertisement of individual retail stores.

Soft drink brand Pepsi Co employed deep-fake technology to construct the appearance of younger years of its brand ambassador Salman Khan in an advertisement released during March 2022, at the beginning of summer market. Similarly an insurance company created a short video of 11 year old cricket champion Sachin Tendulkar to address to the audience to be fearless in life. Use of artificial intelligence 3D modelling and precision shooting help to produce near-true images of endorsers of advertisements utilising old photographs, voice samples and facial expressions. Since such facilities are unthinkable in traditional media platforms, new age advertising seems to prefer the digital media.

Relevance of advertising depend upon who speaks what, in which form, volume and platform measured with consumer behaviour. Traditional platforms like television and print newspaper place advertisements for general audience. Options are limited to reach specific groups of audience. In newspapers, first and last page attract attention of more readers, sports and entertainment pages reach to younger readership or business newspapers carry message to those engaged in trade and commerce. First, advertisements in print newspapers, cannot reach a segmented readership. Secondly, it becomes difficult to measure the acceptance and Third, fail to collect real time data on consumer trend.

However, artificial intelligence powered advertising enables to cross many of such barriers. It attracts advertisers to adopt to new technologies. As per a publication in Forbes about 15 percent of advertising used artificial intelligence in one form or other by 2022 in developed nations.

Quality of advertising enhances with adoptable content, personalization and audience segmentation. Consumer choice, requirements and contemporary trend plays significant role in success of a campaign. Artificial intelligence empowers the advertiser to collect data on consumer behaviour, both during pre and post operation periods. Data-drivan advertising appears to be simple, error-free and dependable for the advertiser. Artificial intelligence powered advertising is all set to write a new chapter in Indian advertising landscape.  

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 19, 2022

References:

Pinto, Vivet Susan. AI opens a whole new world in advertising. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). July 7, 2022

Gonzalez, Wendy. How Machine Learning is shaping the future of advertising. forbes.com. Jan 18, 2022.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/01/18/how-machine-learning-is-shaping-the-future-of-advertising/?sh=25bd1e881361

New Delhi Television enjoyed the status of a front runner in television journalism in India. A takeover bid of the company in August 2022, after 34 years of its launch in 1988, created considerable noise in media circle. The development indicated to unsuccessful business operation of the broadcaster. Journalism is categorized as a creative art, but management of news platforms seems to have been turned out to be big business in the contemporary times.

Being unable to keep equilibrium between investment and expenses, promoters of New Delhi Television (NDTV), Pranoy Roy and Radhika Roy took loan from bank 15 years earlier during 2007. To clear-up the bank loan amount they negotiated with a venture capital firm Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) for Rs 400 crore loan agreement without interest in 2009-10 and issued warrants for transfer of 29 percent of shares held by a promoter entity Radhika Roy Pranay Roy Holdings (RRPRH) invested in NDTV. It is reported in a section of media that VCPL was owned by an affiliate in Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. VCPL was later taken over by Mahendra Nahata of HFCL Group.

Venture Capital firm VCPL did not choose to exercise its option to convert its warrents into equity shares of RRPRH during next 13 years period. VCPL was taken over by Goutam Adani Enterprises on August 23, 2022. Immediately VCPL under new management exercised its option to convert warrants and sent a notice to NDTV on August 24, 2022. While RRPR Holding owned 29.18 percent, Pranoy Roy and Radhika Roy directly hold 15.94 percent and 16.32 percent in NDTV by June 30, 2022. The acquisition aimed at VCPL achieving control of RRPR, by Adani Group.

Pranoy Roy and Radhika Roy, co-founders of NDTV belong to Kolkata. They met each other at Dehradun during 1960s. Pranoy studied at Doon School and Rahdika was a student at Welham Girls School. Both of them went to London for higher studies. After marriage they settled at New Delhi. Pranoy studied for his doctorate in economics and taught at Delhi School of Economics. Radhika worked for media organizations.

In India, Doordarshan started colour satellite broadcasting in 1982 and expanded service throughout the country by setting-up low powered  rely transmitters. Pranoy Roy, along with his friend Vinod Dua introduced themselves as television personalities through poll analysis, an attraction during elections. He launched his own television content production company New Delhi Television with his wife Radhika Roy and successfully produced and presented international news digest The World This Week in Doordarshan between 1988 and 1995.

Pranoy Roy gained popularity among the urban educated audience for his low noise style of anchoring. While Pranoy worked in front of the camera, Radhika engaged herself behind the camera to produce programmes. They were commissioned by Doordarshan for news based programmes such as The News Hour and Good Morning India. In the meantime cable television took its roots through private channels and NDTV signed contract with Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Star Plus’ to produce programmes. Two years later achieved a five-year deal with them to launch and run complete news channel ‘Star News’.

A long experience in content creation for television news from weekly The News This Week to 24 hour news channel ‘Star News’ enabled NDTV to launch ‘NDTV 24 x 7’ in English and ‘NDTV Bharat’ in Hindi during 2004. In a short period of time ‘NDTV 24 x 7’ established itself as an elite English language news channel for editorial excellence. News anchors including Barkha Dutta, Rajdeep Saradesai, Arnab Goswami worked for the channel and became popular voices. However, in the event of launching more new channels NDTV faced financial disturbance in business. NDTV was compelled to take loan, first from a bank and later a venture capital firm which they did not payback. It resulted in a take-over bid 15 years later in 2022.

Analysis of the case study in NDTVs’ corporate dealings raises a few fundamental questions about media landscape in post independence and post-pandemic India. First, the prevailing environment demands to define whether journalism is a creative art or a business ? Journalism is independent or investor dependent ? If journalism is failing to sustain itself independently, is it working for enrichment of democracy or inviting destructive forces to destabilise democracy ?

Second, if a venture capital firm extended 400 crore rupees interest free loan to NDTV for 10 years, in which manner the general public evaluate the dealings ? In the event of disclosure of huge investments in the media platforms, does other television channels and newspaper establishments of the country adopt similar tactics to run their shows ? As peoples’ perspectives are constructed through news and opinion distributed by the media platforms, after witnessing such developments, is it not necessary to demand for more transparency in business dealings of the media houses ?

Third, will the news agencies depend on fiscal investment model for ever, even after availability of digital technologies, which can reduce production and distribution costs ? While a networked ecosystem offers enough opportunities for news industry, is it fair to neglect popularisation of independent journalism ? Civil societies in developed nations, particularly in United States are engineering campaigns against take-over bids by ‘hedge funds’ to safeguard independence of the media. Since the legislative and judiciary in India have ethically kept themselves away from entering into media evaluation, it is the duty of the civil society to train themselves build a few media watchdogs.

Media recorded enormous development during the post-independence period in our country and three decades of economic liberalisation resulted in surge in number of media platforms, expansion of news consumers base and adoption of technological innovations in news gathering, processing and distribution system. However, the core values of journalism such as independence, non-partisan attitude and people centric values eroded. Should we blame the prevailing business model of news industry for such a degradation ?

The relevance of journalism is measured in terms of its influence in transformation of public life. If Mahatma Gandhi’s advertisement-free ‘Harijan’ could take an active part to oppose the mighty British rule and serve as a catalyst for social and economic change, why such a model have been neglected in Indian situation ? May be, after take-over of big media houses by the industrialists and investors, an environment be created for rise of alternative journalism.   

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 26, 2022

References:

Pinto, Viveat Susan. Adani to acquire 29% in NDTV, makes open offer for 26%. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 24, 2022

Pinto, Viveat Susan. Tempest finally rages. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 25, 2022

Pinto, Viveat Susan & Dev Chatterjee, Samie Modak. Need Sebi nod to transfer stakes to Adani, Says NDTV. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition) August 26, 2022 

Roll-out of 5G telecommunication services in India starting from October 2022 and beyond is considered as one of the fastest in global standards. It took three to four years for 4G services to cover the entire nation. But major 5G service providers Jio and Airtel plan to complete the roll-out within 18 months.

Four telcos-Reliance Jio, Bharati Airtel, Vodaphone Idea and Adani Group purchased spectrum from the central government in August 2022. Jio and Airtel are ahead with unveiling their plan to roll-out the services beginning October 2022. Jio has told to start the services in four metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to reach 5,600 town, taluka and tehsil within 18 months by April 2024. Similarly Airtel has also fixed target to arrive at 5,000 locations by March 2024.

By the time of roll-out of 5G services in India, about 70 nations worldwide with 69 crore 80 lakh consumers were using the technology. As per projections by research agency OMDIA about 36 crore 90 lakh consumers will avail 5G services by 2026. India will be positioned in the third place after China and United States.

However, in the consideration of coverage in relation to its population 5G connections will be lower. GSM Association estimates only 30 percent of the population capable of availing 5G services by 2025 in the country, while the figures will reach 63 percent in United States, 52 percent in China and 44 percent in Europe. It signifies, though the number of consumers will be high, the reach will remain low in comparison to developed nations.

Roll-out of 2G, 3G and 4G services took considerable period of time in our country after debut of the technologies in the international arena. But the fact that 5G services is scheduled to reach Indian consumers within a year and half conforms progress in technological front. As a large number of tele-consumers use 2G and 3G technologies  by the time of 5G roll-out, it is expected that some may elevate to 4G and others to 5G services. Indian telcom regulator TRAI’s report for July 2022 claimed 85.11 per cent tele-density in the country.

Different reasons are put forth for expected fast roll-out of 5G services in India in comparison to earlier experiences. By the time 4G services were rolled-out, there was scarcity of 4G capable smartphones. Jio had to negotiate with the manufacturers and vendors for distribution of handsets to consumers to roll-out its 4G services. But about 9.75 percent of smartphones are 5G enabled among the used devices during the time of 5G service roll-out. The share of 5G smartphones in the market is calculated around 30 to 40 percent.

Andhra Pradesh led the states on highest number of 5G smartphone users followed by Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It hammers upon the myth that newer technology is adopted by affluent urban consumers. A section of experts believe that a major portion of 2G feature phone users may directly leap to 5G services. Earlier experience in behavior of consumers during expansion of television broadcasting is an example.

Price of entry level 5G smartphones in India started from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 during 2022. In an interview to the press Rajen Vagadia, president of chip maker Qualcomm expected that the price may come down to Rs 10,000 range within a year. In his estimate by 2023 about 50 percent of smartphones manufactured in the country will be 5G enabled. It is to be noted down that 5G smartphones entered world market in 2019 and during the following year in 2020 become available in India.

It is generally believed that Indian consumers prefer low-end smartphones for price consideration. But Rajan observed, “We are seeing that almost 30 percent of smartphones shopped today are based on 5G and consumers are buying those for many reasons : they are more capable, have become more affordable and more importantly, consumers want to future-proof their handsets.” Using 5G smartphones customers experience over 40 per cent faster download speed in 4G network.

Indian consumers may not have to spend more for subscription of 5G services. A group of experts claim that taking into consideration investment made in auction of spectrum, building infrastructure together with aiming at quicker and larger consumer figures, the subscription of 5G in comparison to 4G services may increase up to 10 to 12 per cent only. The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) was calculated to be Rs 200 per month by 2022 and with roll-out of 5G it may go up to Rs 230. Other group of experts expect that the aggressive rolling-out may repeat the experience of shift over from 3G to 4G in the country where they paid less for the emerging technology. The subscription may not increase at all.

Introduction of 5G technology will bring three important transformation in telecommunication ecosystem. First, increase of speed in mobile broadband will result in speedier connection, download and upload along with increase in capacity of network management. Second, low-latency will make communication ultra-reliable and encourage mission critical applications. For example the user can depend on the network for working from a distance with uninterrupted and robust data exchange. A surgeon settled in an urban centre can venture for advising on a surgery conducted in a remote village operation theater etc.  Third, 5G network would be used to connect to a large number of devices. For eample Internet-of-Things can enable the household digital services from locking the doors to managing robotic equipments to ease the daily life.

One can expect disruptive impact of introduction of 5G technology in media and entertainment industry. In India the traditional media platforms faced a host of problems within 5 to 7 years of penetration of 4G technology. It is reasonable to believe that increase of speed and quality of network will accelerate those problems. On the other hand use of virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence will set to change the preference and behavior of consumers. For example, revenue loss in film industry during pandemic resulted in fastest increase of revenue for digital gaming industry. It is certain that 5G technology will offer the readers, listeners and audience personalized media and entertainment products and immersive experiences. Such attractions signifies new equations in the field.    

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / September 23, 2022

References:

Dasgupta. Surajeet. India’s 5G race in the fast lane. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition) September 13, 2022

Surajeet Dasgupta’s interview with Rajen Vagadia. Get ready for 5G smartphones in Rs 10,000 range next year. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition) August 13, 2022

What is 5G / Qualcomm

https://www.qualcomm.com/5g/what-is-5G

The Department of Telecommunications, Government of India has initiated efforts to replace the 137-year-old Indian Telegraph Act 1885 with appropriate legislation suitable for modern and future-ready legal framework. A draft telecom bill was released for consultation on September 22, 2022. The bill also seeks to replace the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933 and the Telegraphy Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act 1950. The authorities had set the deadline of October 20, 2022 for comments from stakeholders.

Indian telecommunication landscape confronted widespread changes since beginning of twenty-first century. Enormous growth in consumer base after introduction of 4G telecom services in 2016 and widespread use during the corona-virus-induced pandemic compelled for enactment of a new telecommunication law to confront the changed environment. The Ministry of Communication published a consultation paper ‘Need for a new legal framework governing telecommunication in India’ in July 2022 seeking comments from the public. It is being told that basing on consultations and deliberation the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022 was prepared.

After consultation with various stakeholders, industry associations and internet rights activists the final draft planned to be created to put forth through committee processes of Parliament. “I see a timeline of 6 – 10 months, but we are not in a hurry”, Communication Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told. Media outlets had a little discussion reviewing the developments relating to draft bill during the last week of September 2022.

Popular agreement was met on three aspects of the draft bill relating to Know-Your-Customer, the provision to display of the name of the caller across telecom networks and right to appeal before the appellate authority. But the provision of treating Internet calling facilities like WhatsApp, Google and Zoom platforms along with the other over-the-top applications operating in India as telecommunication service attracted criticism.

First, a move to compel all telcom service providers to ensure Know-Your-Customer details will enable everybody to learn true identity of each caller. In case of frauds using telecom services locating the culprits can help to take appropriate action against them. Strict measures are to be taken to gather true identity of the customers. The draft bill includes a provision that lying about one’s identity can attract one year imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine. The telecom operators may get one year time period to update the KYC details of customers for which clear guidelines were awaited.

Second, the draft bill envisages measures for display of caller’s name on receiver devices instead of only the phone numbers. Such facilities are available to users of applications like ‘Truecaller’ which is to be made available to all. It will strengthen protection of user’s interest. When the receiver can know who is calling him or her, he or she will have the option to receive or reject the call.

Third, the provision of introducing the concept of right to appeal is a welcome move. The central government should setup alternative dispute resolution mechanism for telecom service providers and customers. Since the number of litigations are piling-up in the general judiciary; arbitration, mediation or other process of dispute resolution will yield better results.

Use of technological innovations in telecommunication expanded in India during first two decades of twenty-first century. It resulted in adoption of new trends in communication which at times opposed the prevailing practices. For example, introduction of application based free voice and video calls utilizing internet route went against voice call business models of traditional telecom players. They were demanding a level-playing-field with over-the-top applications for services of voice calls and messages etc.

The draft telecom bill 2022 seeks requirement of license for internet calling facilities including WhatsApp, Google Duo, Zoom and the other OTT apps for operating in India and bring into the ambit of proposed legislation, “OTT already comes under regulation by interpretation of what is a telegraph”, the Communication Minister told to the media on September 23, 2022.

However, the Internet Freedom Foundation remarked, “The ‘same service, same rules’ argument used by traditional service providers are untended as there are inherent structural difference between telecom and OTT communication service providers. Moreover, while telecom operators control the underlying broadband access infrastructure, and are the gatekeepers to broadband internet access, OTT services do not have these controls. Thus, a move to introduce such overburdening regulations on the latter based on a narrative of ‘same service, same rules’ may cause anxiety not just to them, but also OTT service users.”

Government efforts to reform the legal framework in telecommunications is praiseworthy. In fact we are lagging behind in comparison to developed societies in enactment of measures for control of emerging telecommunication trends. However, due care should be taken to respect the technological innovations and protect freedom of consumers. It is being told that India ranks fourth largest on account of spam calls. Scammers operating out of Gurugram, Kolkata and Mumbai target not only people inside the country, but outside the country too. The draft telecom bill 2022 appears to be a fruitful exercise to protect the interest of the citizens. But allowing more power to the government to control the system is also a cause of concern.     

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / September 30, 2022

References:

Draft Bill and Explanatory Note

https://dot.gov.in/relatedlinks/indian-telecommunication-bill-2022

Press Information Bureau. Press Release Dt. 22/09/2022

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1861399

What is the draft telecommunication bill ?

https://www.business-standard.com/about/what-is-draft-telecommunications-bill

New telecom draft bill to bring OTT platforms under licensing regime

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2022/india/new-telecom-draft-bill-to-bring-ott-platforms-under-licensing-regime.html

The draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022 retains its colonial roots

https://internetfreedom.in/the-draft-indian-telecommunication-bill/

Launch of a new digital news platform Semafor in the United States on October 18, 2022 amidst of a challenging times for news industry worldwide during the ‘New Normal’ attracted media attention. The prevailing gloomy environment is highlighted with closure of print newspapers, consolidation of news platforms after transfer of ownership through takeovers and wide scale layoffs of journalists. However, an initial investment of 200 crore Indian rupees and employment of 50 odd journalists together with pre-launch exercise of 10 months to push forward a news startup definitely creates interest among media enthusiasts to learn more about the venture.

‘Semafor.com’ is a news website. It is attached with eight email-newsletters and an event business. There will be no pay-walls for at least 12 to 18 months to access the website and subscribe to the newsletters. It may adopt a subscription model in future. Initially it will adopt advertisement-dependent revenue generation and instead of retail, depend on corporate reputation and brand advertising. Large business groups including Pifizer and Verizon have entered into agreement.

Semafor has been promoted by two American journalists Ben Smith and Justin Smith. Ben Smith worked as media reporter for The New York Times and editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed. Justin Smith is an ex-CEO of Bloomberg Media. Both of them have extensive experience in managing digital news products. Though both share common surname, they are not relatives. In January 2022 they left their previous jobs to concentrate upon launch of the new project.

Ben Smith emphasized that loss of trust and polarization are the two top most enduring problems faced by the news platforms. Semafor is set to solve these problems. He has focused upon objectives to reach 20 crore college educated English speaking readers across boarders. He treats each news story as a ‘black box’. ‘Black box’ in an aeroplane records all the information about a particular flight and one can open it to learn about the recordings. Similarly a news story should also carry various aspects of the report and opportunities should be created for the readers to unfold the desired information or opinion.

The original structure of news stories published in Semafor can be divided into five distinct parts (i) the news, (ii) the reporter’s view or analysis, (iii) counter arguments, (iv) global perspectives and (v) useful links. In many cases, when a news story is constructed utilising a single source, apprehension of fragmentation exits. To combat such inadequacy, inclusion of inputs from different sources and perspectives can be considered as an effort to present the complete news.

Many news stories published in Semafor platform carry at least two parts (i) the news and (ii) know more. The length of news stories are short and instead of many, only a limited number of selective stories appear in an edition. Perhaps Semafor journalism is keen to present relevant narrative on contemporary times to the consumers who are otherwise hooked in busy schedules in daily life. Further, such journalism takes efforts to discourage readers to search for alternative sources to know more on the subject. Production design for reader’s convenience may attract serious news consumers to the platform.

Semafor has been promoted as “a global news company at birth.” The news platform proclaims, “We believer that informed citizens of every country need to understand what drives decisions, actions, culture and power beyond their own boarders.” Robust digital transformation in the ‘New Normal’ made world population more inter-connected and their lives are more susceptible to global crisis.

After emphasis on international perspective, Semafor gives importance to the process of distillation. “Our journalism will be paired with distilled news, analysis, and opinion from a global range of sources,” the website stated. “Our biggest stories, and greatest crises, are global : from climate change to pandemics, rising inequality to supply chain disruption, political instability to the influence of social media.”

The common reader is burdened with information overload due to unprecedented growth in news landscape  arising due to spread of digital media. The situation encourages established news platforms to select only a few news stories for their editions and Semafor follows the trend. Experiments in changing news presentation style was carried out by US digital news platforms Vox, Axios,  Politico, Puck during the later part of second decade of twenty-first century and Semafor with it’s original news structure is a new entrant.

The word ‘Semafor’ is derived from French and Greek language. It denotes to arm and flag based messaging system. In absence of wireless communication system in the olden days, sailors positioned in ships sent and received messages using such a sign language. Further, traffic lighting signals are also called ‘Semafor’ in French. Semafor.com is unique in its approach as an international news startup. Success of the venture is expected to spread impact in national and regional news media worldwide. Loss of trust in journalism in the post-pandemic ‘New Normal’ warrants urgent intervention for establishment of trust among the news consumers and Semafor.com seems to be floating in the right direction.  #pmjournalism      

By : Pradeep Mahapatra / October 28, 2022

References:

https://www.semafor.com/about

Bander, David/apnews.com/October 18, 2022

https://apnews.com/article/business-new-york-newspapers-5ee106d0e0f158e711910c71d36097d8

Allsop, Jon.cjr.org. October 19, 2022

Semaform and function – Columbia Journalism Review

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/semafor_launch_review.php

Leading digital platform Google estimates about 70 crore internet connected citizens in India by 2022. It has been told that in the changed scenario, nine out of every ten consumers prefer to use the internet through regional languages. A detail note on Google’s efforts to build an ecosystem in the country to satisfy the aspiration of people to use multiple languages online was presented by Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google and its parent firm Alphabet Inc. at eighth edition of Google for India held in New Delhi during the second half of December 2022.

Google has taken-up a project to make available facilities for online use of 100 languages and dialects spoken over 773 districts of India. Efforts are being undertaken to utilize advance technology of artificial intelligence (AI) for smooth transition of content from one language to another. For the purpose Google has contracted with ‘Project Vani’ undertaken by Bangaluru based Indian Institute of Science. The facility will be integrated to multi-lingual programme ‘Vashini’ promoted by Government of India.

Since few years Google is providing translation service in select Indian regional languages. However, widespread criticism prevailed on the quality of machine translation from one language to another, even to English. It has been told that the renewed efforts using high-end technology can improve the quality of translation. In Indian situation, regional languages are associated with dialects spoken over different patches with in a linguistic state. Experts expect Google translation to integrate the communication channels of the regional languages with dialects also.

Google will invest adequate resources in ‘Project Vani’ through its ‘India Digitalization Fund’. The new software will use machine learning (ML) technology to enhance the translation capabilities. Availability of dependable translation facilities in regional languages and dialects may result in far reaching impact countrywide on journalism and literary platforms. On one hand, the facility will enable quality content produced in a regional language to attract a wide circle of readers, listeners or viewers outside its boundaries. On the other hand, consumers can get chance to access content translated into their familiar languages and dialects from the mainstream languages.

Language divide remained a cause for confrontation among people speaking different regional languages throughout the history in our country. After more than half of the population availing facilities of smartphone with language translation by 2023, it is expected that the language issue may lose its relevance. Similarly availability of better creative content in journalism and literature may result out of such development. In few underdeveloped geographies in absence of quality creative literature, sub-standard content rule the cultural landscape. Introduction of mass translation facility can enable the people in the marginalized societies to reach to quality content created elsewhere. But in the second thought, a doubt arises, whether such facility will bring good content of burden with bad content, only the future can prove.

Popularity of on-line video is on rise. Surveys conducted in developed societies reveal that gradually the consumers in digital platforms prefer listening the news rather than reading. Google controlled video sharing platform ‘YouTube’ claim the largest network of consumers in the international level and second most popular social media space in India. Google announced introduction of auto-video-dubbing feature ‘Aloud’ from 2023 in Google for India 2022 event. On experimental basis the facilities has been offered to health-care providers. The dubbing is carried out with use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, completely automatic and available with no additional cost.

Google also announced introduction of another new feature called ‘Courses’ to promote learning in its YouTube platform. It will allow creators to offer consumers multi-session video-tutorials in topics bundled with supplementary learning tools such as inform of PDF files. Educators can upload courses of short or long duration and offer free-of-cost or priced. Learning experience through YouTube videos is already popular worldwide. The new feature ‘Courses’ will offer the opportunity in more organized manner. The programme to be introduced in India along with United States and South Korea in 2023. It is expected to bring far reaching change, specially in hybrid teaching methods widely popular in formal sector during the post-pandemic environment.

Google officials presented briefings on its new initiatives in agriculture and health-care. Illiterate and neo-literate consumers searching for content through voice commands often face problems due to pronunciation difficulties. Google announced about improved speech recognition facilities. Sundar Pichai said, “It is an important moment in time. India will be big export economy, and it will benefit from an open and connected internet.” He quoted a study report published by London based Oxford Economics which claimed YouTube creator economy contributed Rs 10,000 crore to India’s GDP and supported more than 7,50,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the country during 2021. In totality the revelations at ‘Google for India 2022’ seems to be encouraging for the next year 2023.

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / December 23, 2022

References:

Google for India 2022 : Using AI to make Google more helpful, Secure and private for India’s changing digital needs.

https://blog.google/intl/en-in/company-news/outreach-initiatives/google-for-india-2022-main-blog/

While mass media struggled throughout 2022 to release itself out of disruptions confronted due to Covid-19 pandemic, it is presumed that the year 2023 will be devoted to accommodate in the changed social environment of ‘new normal’ evolving and implementing new strategies. The long lockdowns during the pandemic affected the media and entertainment sector like any other industry and business. However, three separate reasons contributed to the owes to make the situation complicated.

First, unprecedented innovations in the field of technological advancement brought far reaching changes in production and distribution in various fields of mass media and the traditional business models could not accommodate to such developments. The crisis continued for three decades in the markets of developed nations and one to two decades old among the developing nations. The biggest huddle for the shift to digital media was marked by absence of successful revenue generation models. As a result, the urgency demanded by digital-first media policy could not be met.

The prevailing environment compelled the consumers shift to digital platforms. Assessment of preferences and adoption pattern of individual consumers employing artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques for management of digital platforms started a new era in the consumer economics. Ordinary people started avoiding newspapers and television channels in presence of round-the-clock service provided by social media. Discarding opinion of the professional commentators on current issues, started relying on analysis by self or friends circle. An era of feudal attitude ended in media and entertainment industry.

Second, all forms of mass media : print, television and digital were developed with advertisement dependent business model. The model was evolved accidentaly 200 years ago during Penny Press era in United States for management of media economics solely depending upon advertisement revenue, discarding classic cost-for-value model for products sold in the market place.

Rise of popularity in the digital platforms in the developed nations resulted in shift of advertisement spending from print and television into digital. But the problem that caused concern relates to advertisement spending did not reached digital mass media, but about 80 to 85 percent immersed in social media ‘Face Book’, search engine ‘Google’ and e-commerce platform ‘Amazon’.

Third, mass media platforms enjoyed supremacy in the spheres of political, cultural and social organizations for a long time and disregarded the essence of communication to be truthful, objective and non-partial. Media products available in different platforms were built with their own perspectives which is against natural justice and media ethics. Neglect to creativity resulted in negative effects in the long run. The standard of media products met with casualty due to inflow of power-brokers, money-minded and sycophant into media landscape. Major change in consumer behavior towards media products resulted during the pandemic. Many expected that the effects of pandemic will be temporary and pre-pandemic order will return within no time in post-pandemic period. But annual statistics for 2022 proved all such predictions wrong.

Psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified five steps of reaction to grief. It is considered as the elementary definition of grief science. She explained that reaction to grief pass through rejection, anger, bargaining, depression and acknowledgement. First, in a grief situation people tend to disbelieve and reject the development. Second, realizing the reality became angry. Third, they question the reason behind such catastrophe. Fourth, the grief stricken sink into depression and fifth, accept the reality and try to cope-up with the changed situation.

In a broad view, mass media passed through the first and second steps during 2020-21, while third and fourth steps where crossed during 2022. The last phase will be confronted during 2023. The logic clearly indicates that media and entertainment industry will adopt new models during ‘new normal’ of 2023. In the process few of the platforms will sink into oblivion, a few will opt for consolidation and others evolve five, ten or twenty-year long projects employing their resources to overcome the huddles. Thus, 2023 will act as a year of change.

In the contemporary media ecosystem print medium confronted high casualties due to disruption. On one hand, advertisement revenue continue to fall among the newspapers and periodicals while on the other hand, subscription figures registered fast decrease. A researcher quoted newspaper circulation trend in Britain analyzing data gathered by ‘Price Water-house Cooper’ between 2017 and 2022. The total loss of circulation during past five years has accounted 45 percent and the trend may continue for next five years between 2023 and 2027 to reach 65 percent.

In many geographies it is difficult to collect dependable circulation figures of newspapers and the other print products. In such situations, it is taken for granted that the newspaper market figures of Britain may reflect in other markets with a little variation. Data collected through newspaper hawkers in a tire–II city in Odisha showed that the highest circulated language daily decreased circulation from 10,000 copes to 6,500 copies, the second highest circulation reduced from 9,000 to 6,000 copies and the third largest circulation from 8,000 copies sinked to 4,500 copies. In rough estimate newspaper market in Odisha may have reduced to 45 percent during the past five years. If one will expect a further fall of circulation of newspaper to 65 percent during next five years, the situation definitely demands urgent intervention.

In the process of change in print media industry which includes newspapers, periodicals and books needs renewed editorial policy formulation which will drive the journey. Readership will increase only when the publications start presenting content those are more relevant, useful, personally important and interesting to the readers. It will require adoption of not only new editorial models, but also presentation and circulation formats. The new content management system has to ensure speed, flexibility, monetization and empowerment of editorial desk to achieve optimum results. It is time to abandon old habits and assumptions. Editorial policy construction will rely more on reader’s than editor’s perspectives. There is no dearth of patronage for niche content. The new readers will seek content tailored to their needs and desires.

Secondly, monetization angle in editorial, production and circulation management will gain prominence during 2023. Experts predict that overall advertisement spend during 2023 will remain almost in a similar position compared to 2022, but continue to flow into other than mass media channels. It will result in turbulence, instability and uncertainty throughout 2023. It will compel print publications to concentrate upon reader revenue sources, such as subscription, membership, donation and events. Readership engagement will emerge as a new work segment.

Thirdly, the print media will be compelled to seek help of the advanced technological tools in problematic fields which include content generation, content evaluation, subscription sales promotion and print order management. For example, machine learning algorithms can calculate exactly how many copies will sell in news-stands which will protect the publisher from printed copy wastage. Similarly subscription drive, popularity measurement of articles, even content generation and make-up may also gather benefit through use of technology. In the past such type of facilities were inaccessible, but now available online everywhere for a small price on piece-meal-basis. The trend will be a long term initiative, but publishers may start adoption beginning 2023.

All the available publication platforms may not be interested to fight against the disruptions. As a result, a good number of platforms may close business during 2023. Economic slowdown evident in the post-pandemic period is feared to grow further and the situation imposes restrictions on investments in mass media and entertainment industry.

Mass media predictions prepared in a global perspective may change in different geographies according to prevailing conditions. For example, a section of regional press in India confronted advertisement and subscription revenue loss in the post pandemic period are continued to be compensated by generous government advertisement that poured during the covid-19 surge period for supporting government policies. The trend may benefit mainstream newspapers up till 2024 general elections. But blind support to the establishment resulted in growing readers avoidance to news products. The long term impact will certainly impact business and moral strength of print publications. Thus, 2023 may prove to be a year of change in mass media objectives to protect its identity. 

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / December 30, 2022

References:

Kunova, Marcela. Predictions for Journalism in 2023 : Newsroom leadership, product and revenue. journalism.co.uk. December 14, 2022.

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/predictions-for-journalism-in-2023-newsroom-leadership-product-and-revenue/s2/a991317/

Granger, Jacob. Predictions for journalism in 2023 : Audience expectations and user needs. Journalism.co.uk. December 12, 2022

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/predictions-for-journalism-in-2023-audience-expectations-and-user-needs/s2/a990710/

Gautoam, Upasana. Technology that performs at the speed of news. niemanlab.org 

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/12/technology-that-performs-at-the-speed-of-news/

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (IT), Government of India released a draft online gaming policy on January 02, 2023. It is scheduled to be carried out through amendments to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Prior to the move, the central government designated Ministry of IT as the nodal agency for online gaming through a gazette notification on December 26, 2022. The ministry moved swiftly in framing of a policy and placed in public domain for consultation. Efforts were made to finalize the rules by early February 2023.

Keeping pace with the international trend, online gaming industry in India is fast moving. As per market research and consulting firm KPMG data, the number of total consumers of online gaming calculated to 36 crore 50 lakh players by 2020. While revenue stood at 15 thousand crore, it was predicted to be doubled by 2026. The fact that online gaming move towards gambling caused concern for the government. Some states enacted laws to prevent e-game gambling, but lack of clear policy at the federal level raised legal battles on government directions.

It is noteworthy that about 60 percent of e-game players fall below the age group of 25 years and about 40 to 45 percent are women. Active engagement of children, teenagers, youth and women with e-game caused safety concerns for the administration. The proposed draft amendment continue to give importance to the earlier practice of Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) among e-gaming stakeholders. The SROs take the responsibilities of framing minor details on charter of rules and regulations and administer such modalities deemed fit among their member e-game operators. All the e-games have to procure clearance from SRO before publication and the certificates are to be clearly displayed in the beginning profile pages.

A five-member ‘board of directors’ to be constituted comprising representation from online gaming, public policy, IT, psychology and medicine for management of each of the SROs. One of the directors to every SRO will be nominated by the government. The certification for publication will ensure sovereignty, integrity and security of the country, friendly relations with foreign nations and public order etc.

Intermediary play an important role in availing the e-gaming facilities to the consumers. Like e-game publishers, intermediary platforms also need to take membership of SROs and abide provisions laid down by them. Further, intermediaries will collect know-your-customer data. They will make arrangements for instant grievance redressal system, employ grievance officer and a chief compliance officer as per provisions laid down in ‘IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021’. All the intermediary platforms to have a physical office and address in India.

Traditionally, gambling on e-game platforms remained under the preview of state governments. However, after transferring e-gaming to IT ministry and within a time period of a week publication of draft amendment to existing rules to include new provisions for control of e-gaming, conflict between the state and central government appeared inevitable. Few state governments including Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam enacted laws to stop gambling online. On the other hand, state governments of Sikim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Goa, Daman preferred earning revenue from allowing gambling online. E-gaming industry initiated legal battle against banning gambling in digital platform at high courts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In such a situation, draft amendments into IT rules banning gambling poised to create a new chapter.

Under constitutional provisions gambling is a state subject. On the other hand, internet administration comes under the central government. Question arises whether central government can stop online gambling through e-gaming. Similarly, even though state-governments control gambling, can they confine the gambling activities limiting to a particular geography. On the occasion of release of draft online gaming policy, Union Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandra Sekhar said in a press conference, “Any game that allows for or permits wagering on its outcome will not be permitted.” He further added, “The states can do whatever they want vis-à-vis gambling. Our duty is to regulate the internet. We are not stepping into regulatory physical gaming, gambling or betting. We are interested in growing the online gaming ecosystem.”

The draft online gaming policy under proposed amendments to the rules brings under its preview any online game where a user makes a deposit in cash or in-kind to participate in an online game. Casual games such as Candy Crush do not subscribe to the definition. Online gaming stakeholders sponsored SROs will ensure that all the registered e-games under their control do not involve in gambling activities. The ministry will enjoy the power to bring into the fold of the rules any e-game it deems necessary. The government will keep an eye on such e-games which are harmful to children or create disturbance in social life.

The proposed amendments do not mention any change in digital media ethics code of the IT Rules 2021. It denotes that all the rules prescribed to online platforms will be applicable to online gaming industry on ethics front. Previous notifications restricted publication of surrogate advertising of e-games. The draft amendments has not spelled out any monetary fines for contravention of rules for intermediary. However, such act may result in losing the benefits granted under Section 79(2) of IT Act 2000 that proclaims an intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him. In totality, the proposed draft online gaming policy aims to bring online gaming into conformity with Indian laws, stop gambling and strengthen control of the central government in the field. 

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / January 6, 2023

References:

MeitY releases draft amendments to IT Rules 2021

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1888143

Summary : What are India’s proposed rule for online gaming platforms ?

https://www.medianama.com/2023/01/223-summary-it-rules-online-gaming-amendments/

Explained : All you need to know about the IT ministry’s draft rules to regulate online gaming

https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/01/03/explained-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-it-ministrys-draft-rules-to-regulate-online-gaming

Explained : Which Indian states have banned online gaming and why

https://www.thequint.com/explainers/india-law-gambling-online-gaming-betting-state-ban-illegal-legal#read-more

Gupta, Aryaman & Raghav Aggarwal. Govt proposes self-regulatory body for online gaming firms. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). January 03, 2023.

Mass media experts prediction for 2023 on use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various fields including journalism took its roots from the developments such as introduction of platforms like ChatGPT during later part of 2022. ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a ‘Chatbot’. Online question and answer are conducted by ‘Chatbot’ or ‘Chattorbot’ software. Synthesis of data made accessible to the system can be disseminated to the seekers instantly using such softwares. Mediation of humans are not required for its operation. Many can access to required content at a time.. etc…

Within five days of nascent public appearance of startup OpenAI developed ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, the fact that a record number of over 10 lakh netizens appeared in the platform proved its popularity from the very beginning. It is identified as an optimized language model. ChatGPT is powered with a huge amount of data available online up-till 2021 and is set not only to locate relevant documents on a given subject, but also present the information in language form displayed in the seekers device screen. In other words, when a question is asked, ChatGPT answers in conventional written form.

During recent years many research establishments including Google and Microsoft took initiatives to develop mechanism to generate content utilizing AI. But for various reasons, none of the innovations could be popular. Of course, ChatGPT is supported by Microsoft. In previous attempts the language models had capacity to compose a line or two. On the other hand, ChatGPT software can produce longforms including essays or even a book on command. In the preliminary stage ChatGPT is available for free to use. It may seek subscription in future.

Initial attempts for use of AI in journalism, mostly in writing news stories and features started during the earlier part of second decade of twenty-first century. Technicians at Beijing Times of China demonstrated an automized facility which could produce 1,000 words per minute. Experimental use of AI to generate content for media platforms started in Germany, France, Britain, China and Rasia. The Washington Post in the United States used a language software named Heliograf, developed in-house to update schedules, results and medal tally in its blog and Twitter account during Rio Olympics, 2016. There was a considerable success in the effort.

In the following years both digital and traditional news platforms took interest in utilization of AI from content generation to determination of print order to subscriber engagement efforts. A few print newspaper chains in the United States have adopted AI models for preparation of ‘hper-local-news’. It has been told that use of AI will not result in retrenchment of working journalists. It would create an environment where the journalists will be able to spend less time in routine data collection which will be taken over by the machine and get more time for critical analysis of news story. Such explanations flash-back the memories of use of calculator and computer in mathematics during the bygone days.

Experts believe that, use of AI will accelerate ‘fact check’ and ‘data analysis’ functions in journalism. But would move backwards for critical thinking during the primary years. Development of a perspective taking into consideration past history and future speculation may not be possible in a machine learning situation. On the other hand, news consumers may prefer machine generated content in some categories of news taking into consideration it’s error-less and non-partisan qualities.

Digital news platforms will prefer new solutions like ChatGPT for reporting current events. For example, posting results of games and elections may prove more efficient than human intervention. On the other hand, problems may arise to determine who will be responsible for trustworthiness of such reporting.

Adoption of tech innovations among large number of netizens takes no time in the changed ecosystem. It is interesting to note that soon after unveiling of ChatGPT, school children in United States started utilizing the platform for their class work. It become a problem for the teachers and parents to bar the young population from using such manipulative device for education. It lead Yew York City school officials to restrict ChatGPT website on school computers and networks within five weeks of its appearance.

Automated content generation utilizing AI powered tools like ChatGPT are set to change the documentation landscape. ChatGPT developed in English language has potential to influence major regional languages in India. As facilities of translation from English into regional languages are in offering, original content created using such applications in English can be easily translated into regional languages by using another app. Google’s project to improve translation utilizing AI for over hundred regional languages and dialects fuel the hope for better future in the field.

In the event of development of automated content generation facilities and forecast on possible influence upon journalism, experts feel that it is wise for the journalist community to acquaint themselves with the new technology. Journalists can segregate data collection and fact checking tasks to the machine which will allow them to spend more times on creative pursuit to improve the standard of news stories and opinion pieces. Online training facilities for working journalists and inclusion of AI in journalism in curriculum for media students is the need of the hour.  

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / January 13, 2023

References:

ChatGPT optimized language model

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

Obrien, Matt. Explainer : What is ChatGPT and why are schools blocking it ? apnews.com. Jan 06, 2023

https://apnews.com/article/what-is-chat-gpt-ac4967a4fb41fda31c4d27f015e32660?user_email=c0a67481058d11d982d26ee39720801ac2de45955447e7fae5fa60caec1d0426&utm_medium=Afternoon_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=Afternoon%20Wire%20Jan.%206&utm_term=Afternoon%20Wire 

For the first time in the history of Internet, a generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) launched on November 30, 2022 could attract 10 crore unique users within a period of two months, calculated a report published by internet traffic research platform ‘SimilarWeb’. ‘SensorTower’, another research platform explained that other two popular applications ‘Tik-Tok’ took nine months to gather 10 crore users, while ‘Instgram’ toiled two years to reach the mark. United States San Francisco based ‘OpenAI’ has developed AI powered image generator ‘DALL -E2’ along with the language model ‘ChatGPT’.

Taking into consideration unprecedented consumer interest on generative AI, internet forerunner ‘Google’ announced on February 6, 2023 launch of a new product termed as ‘Bard’ which is explained as an ‘experimental observational artificial intelligence’. Sundar Pichai, CEO of ‘Alphabet’, the parent company of Google announced in a blog post that the new product would be tested by a limited number of trusted users before launched for the public. Google has been engaged in development of language models employing AI during the recent past and furnished a software entitled ‘Language Model for Dialogue Application (LaMEDA)’ during 2020.

Sundear Pichai wrote that use of AI in online applications claim priority in the international level. It is noteworthy that the volume of research on AI doubles in every six months by 2023. As a result, more and more usable products are pushed into the market and people avail improved amenities and services worldwide. Google offered AI enriched products like LaMEDA, PaLM, Imagen and MusicLM for popular use.

It is being discussed that though Google has a long history of employing AI in its services, it never offered facilities to the consumers for direct use. But launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI and huge consumer attention to the product in a way compelled Google to offer similar service to the public. On the other hand, OpenAI is supported by Google’s competitor ‘Microsoft’ and soon after the launch of ChatGPT Microsoft announced a huge investment for further development of the platform. Thus, competition among Microsoft and Google is evident centered on chat-bot issue. 

There may be many differences on working among ChatGPT and Bard. Both the platforms are designed as conversational applications. Whenever a question is asked, the application will present the answer in written text. While ChatGPT will rely on resources for which it has been trained, Bard will draw information from the Internet. By beginning of 2023 ChatGPT knowledge base was told to be limited up till 2021. The platform could answer up to that time period only. For example, since Russia-Ukraine war that started during earlier part of 2022, any question relating to the war cannot be answered by ChatGPT.

In the field of development of generative AI, along with United States based ChatGPT and Bard, Chinese search engine giant ‘Baidu’ announced to launch a similar product ‘Ernie Bot’ in March 2023. Though none of such popular software developed in Germany, Britain, France and Russia were in sight till the first part of February 2023; innovations are expected to come in the near future as the later mentioned nations have a strong hold in research activities around AI applications. Specialists predict that the ‘new wave of computing’ started from Silicon Valley sweep through the globe in record time.

The word ‘Bard’ in English language and literature identifies to a poet-singer. In the Medieval times bards were professional poets, singers and musicians who composed verses in honor of kings and soldiers heroic accomplishments. In India we had also such tradition. In the modern times Google’s Bard is all set to generate text on any specific topic in response to a question asked online, may be in the mobile smartphone screen. Google has stated that it will also implement AI in its search engine. The new feature can answer critical questions instead of reproduction of available literature from the web. For example, a question like after up-gradation of Google Translate by the end of 2023, how many Odia readers will like to read Latin American literature online in Odia, …etc.

Shortly three days after the CEO of Google announced use of AI in its search engine, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella disclosed in its headquarters in Redmond, Washington State in US on February 7, 2023 that a new version of their search engine ‘Bing’ has been incorporated with AI and remarked, “The race starts today”. Though by the beginning of 2023, the share of Bing Search engine estimated to be about ten percent of the total search universe, the new version may attract more users which may translate into earning more advertisement revenue. Microsoft owns Windows operating system. It has also a web browser ‘Edge’. It is being told that Microsoft will roll out an intelligent chatbot  placed alongside Bing which can summarize web pages on command.

Media experts speculate that innovations like ChatGPT, Bard and Ernie Bot can take care of data collection and arrangement for the creators enabling them to spend more time and efforts for critical thinking and qualitative improvement of the content, that paints a bright picture of the future of creativity.   

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / February 10, 2023

References:

Pichai, Sundar. An important next step on our AI journey

https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/

AI becomes the new battleground : Google tests ChatGPT rival Bard. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). February 08, 2023

Milmo, Dan Chat GPT reaches 100 million users two months after launch. The Guardin. Feb 2, 2023 

The growing trend of news avoidance, loss of faith and search for usable news among consumers prompted the importance of local news during post-pandemic ‘New-Normal’ world order. A Sunday editorial published in UK based The Guardian during the first week of March 2023 expressed concern on disappearance of local print newspapers and termed the development as “bad news for democracy”. News platforms, both print and digital, encourage people to exercise democratic rights. “They make people feel part of the society. They allow them to assess what they read in the context of their own experience, and encourage them to see news as a source of practical and helpful information, rather than a matter of theoretical discussion and emotional reaction.”

The editorial mentioned that during the decade between 2009 and 2019, about 320 local print newspapers were closed in UK Advertising revenue fell by 70 percent during the period. “There are probably fewer local newspapers in Britain than at anytime since 18th century,” the editorial added, “This is global problem. Newspapers in the US are closing at the rate of two a week.”

Disappearance of local print newspapers keep away increasing number of talents, both professional and freelancers, from practice of reporting news. In one hand, it results in decease of qualitative journalism. On the other hand, creates a fertile field for spread of mis-information along with information through social media. The media environment poses as a hindrance for fair practice of democracy.

Dissemination of hyper-local-news through traditional print newspapers and social media marks a few fundamental differences. First, print newspapers are produced by professional reporters and editors. The system offers several gate-keepers to check and re-check facts to undergo a process of selection of the content for publication. Journalists purposefully build-up relationship with functionaries of government and non-government organizations to collect facts. But, as the social media posts are generated and circulated by common people, they lack such facilities.

Secondly, print newspapers cover opinion of various parties in the process of reporting a controversy. It creates an opportunity for the readers to examine various factors to develop own perspectives. But, technological tools like use of algorithms to select posts according to the person’s recorded interest and san opposing views in the social media. Such mechanism of filtration and the opportunities to boost publication through exchange of advertising revenue by interested parties turn consumer’s digital screens mere echo-chambers. Political behavior of voters due to influence of social media leading to polarization was clearily marked in elections in USA. UK, France, Germany and Brazil during the recent past.

Thirdly, research findings reveal that absence of local print newspapers slow down the efficiency of civic administration. Impact of the local digital news websites in the field does not match the impact of the local print newspapers. People’s lives solely depend on local conditions. Amenities like water and energy supply, sanitation, roads and security are controlled by local civic administration. Problems arising in such factors directly affect the daily lives in the neighborhood. Coverage of such shortcomings in print local newspapers generate discussion in the communities and attract the attention of the officials responsible for maintenance of such facilities mostly due to relative permance of printed words in the paper in comparison to digital screens. 

However, when the mainstream print newspapers start attaching themselves to the practice of mis-information, partiality and publish the opposite picture of short-comings of the administration for various compulsions, the quality of reportage overcome the nuisance of the coverage in the social media. It is an irony that though the human civilization and technological development reached greater heights during the beginning of the third decade of 21st Century, many nations worldwide confront such situations.

The Guardian editorial accused the prevailing newspaper ownership pattern for reduction in number of local print newspapers. In UK two-third of newspapers are owned by three big publishers. They fail to match the concern for communities exhibited in case of traditional independent newspaper publishing houses. As a result, the quality of local news coverage decreases. Big publishers fix their objectives on profit from the newspaper business and lack concern towards people-centric approach. It ultimately contribute negatively for democratic values.

It is important to note that ownership of the local print newspapers by independent publishers promote participation of people in solving local issues. Similarly, involvement of common citizens on collection and dissemination results in better local news coverage. Following the growth of online news environment, in addition to professional and freelancers, a new group of reporters identified as ‘citizen journalists’ become active in reporting sphere of local journalism. It has became absolute necessity for the print local newspapers to procure service of citizen journalists for coverage of hyper-local news.

Modern citizen journalism developed as a dominant category in emerging news industry. A section of mainstream print newspapers gradually entertained the service of the citizen journalists to gather hyper-local news. However, from the earliest days of journalism, the practice of engaging common people to collect news for print newspapers was prevalent. The use of technological innovations in modern times may be marked as the only difference.

Citizen journalists (i) gather news in a geographic boundary, (ii) such reporting are original, which is opposite of the press-release based journalism and (iii) usually issues and developments which are not covered by the mainstream news platforms are picked-up  by the citizen journalists. They prefer to cover (i) ‘soft news’ instead of ‘hard news’. For example citizen journalists prefer to cover daily lives of common people instead of theft or accidents. (ii) Citizen journalists report news basing upon own enquiry and experience as they do not have access to police or other government officials. (iii) Mostly news stories developed by citizen journalists depend upon a single source unlike coverage of multiple sources practised by professional journalists.

Hyper-local journalism is expected to act as one of the catalyst to change the problem of news avoidance in the post-Covid era. Small and medium print newspapers can improve their quality of product by employing local journalism. It will help them to collect subscribers, achieve faith through dealing with local peple and contribute to social responsibility for promotion of democracy. Further, confront to meet the rise in production cost, competition of coverage by social media and uncertain business future.  

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / March  10, 2023

References:

The Guardian view on local journalism’s decline : Bad news for democracy / Editorial / The Guardian / 5 Mar 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/05/the-guardian-view-onlocal-journalisms-decline-bad-news-for-democracy

Dheer, Evelien and Steve Paulusen. The use of citizen journalism for hyper local news production

https://core.ac.uk

Identity of ‘Citizen Journalism’ rely on a few factors in emerging media landscape. First, the process of collection, processing and publication of news utilising online tools by common people named as citizen journalism. Second, apart from professional journalists, when a few individuals who keep track of newsworthy developments in the society they live-in, regularly publish news stories and opinion posts in social media, blogs and news websites, the task belongs to the category of citizen journalism.

Third, practice of citizen journalism in digital platforms, specially in social media resulted in unprecedented popularity worldwide. The development attracted traditional media outlets to encourage readers of newspapers and viewers of television channels for collection of news for their columns or programmes in the post-Covid 19 pandemic environment. Print publications adopted to quote texts from blogs and websites occasionally. Fourth, publication of hyper-local-news and video clips gathered by users in the social media often integrated in to news stores produced by newspapers and television channels. Thus products of citizen journalism help to enhance the quality of reportage in legacy media platforms. Fifth, for various reasons the mainstream media resorted to heavily depend on press-release based journalism in the post-Covid 19 pandemic scenario. It resulted out in serious problems like news-avoidance among readers and viewers. In the international level promotion of citizen journalism by print newspapers and news websites is a newest experiment for readers engagement to win back faith in journalism.

Mass media commentators attribute the initiative taken by a South Korean website ‘OhMyNews’ launched in 2000 for origin of citizen journalism in modern terms. The people behind the website at first tried to publish a print newspaper, but lack of funding compelled them to settle down for a website. In absence of paid journalists, the website encouraged common people to submit news about their communities which achieved instant success. The trend expanded to different countries. On one hand, with advancement of technology common people started posting video clips of manmade and natural disasters in the social media platforms utilising their camera attached smart phones which could be shared among people. Interesting and newsworthy texts and visuals used to go viral within no time. The quality of the content description did not matter as emphasis is laid upon the incident and immediacy of circulation of the reportage. By the time professional journalists and television crew reach the spot of occurrence, the story turn to be have been reached the pages of history in public memories. As a result traditional journalism have to continue itself for analysis and further investigation only in such cases.

On the other hand, amidst of political turmoil incidents of governments in different nations restricting the media platforms during the first two decades of 21st Century are well documented. Internet shutdown is a major issue worldwide for repression in circulation of information. However, the local media outlets operated by citizen journalists continue to reach their audience using alternative technologies in conflict zones. War and civil war conditions continue for long duration and in absence of mainstream media citizen journalism serves as the only source of news in the troubled geographies.

Spread of digital media during the pre-Covid 19 era resulted in disruptions in print newspaper industry due to loss of advertisement and circulation revenue. The impact was visible in many regions barring Asian markets. But in the post-Covid 19 ‘New Normal’ mainstream media platforms confronted problems such as loss of public faith, news avoidance and reduced profitability for print newspapers all over the world. The ecosystem compelled many to experiment with evolving innovative editorial and business models to make news products attractive for readers, win back trustworthiness and confront competition of digital platforms. Practice of citizen journalism to cover hyper-local-news is considered as one of the tools.

Print newspapers or news websites employ different modalities to include citizen journalism in their fabric. Some print newspapers devote few editions in a cycle or certain pages in an edition for coverage of reports by citizen journalists. Generally news pitches, news stories, photographs and video clips submitted by citizen journalists are verified and edited before publication. To keep-up the flow of hyper-local-news by interested readers and viewers, structured efforts are being undertaken to indentify and establish contact channels alive with the citizen journalists.

Indian language journalism heavily relied upon people in the rural areas who are employed in professions other than journalism to report news for print publications. Newspapers use to accredit a person in a select gram panchyat or block to report news for their outfits. But in an environment enriched with citizen journalism every person in the community enjoys the opportunity to report news with no compulsion to attend the task regularly. It promotes democratization of the media platforms.

The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of expression to every citizen and the professional journalists are not entitled to any additional privilege. Citizen journalism empowers the people to use mainstream news platforms to publish their concerns, comments and perspectives. The opportunity enables to raise voice against corruption in administration, finding out solutions to immediate neighbourhood problems and engage in political discourse.

Origin and growth of regional language newspapers in the country is closely associated with their mission for public good. Publication of print newspapers was considered as a social service rather than a business during the pre-independence period. As a result philanthropic minded individuals and institutions extended financial support for such efforts. During the post-independence period a new model of government support through release of advertisement enriched print newspaper economics. There was also considerable growth in commercial advertisement revenue. The regional language newspaper industry adopted to advertisement enriched business model.

However, a handful of publications in each language categories could benefit from the model. While first three to six widely circulated newspapers turn eligible to receive commercial advertisements and a dozen or so received considerable government advertisements. About 95 percent of print newspapers in regional languages survive only with a hope to receive such advertisements. Thus, a large portion of print newspapers are compelled to adopt pro-government and pro-industrial editorial stand, either to continue or achieve support of their advertisement sources. Such a media ecosystem is a cause of concern for democracy.

Indian language media platforms fail to balance in the business due to limited number consumers. They have to spend more money for their products to compete with the national level players, but get less from the market. Publication of government advertisements and adoption of pro-administration policies result in loss of pubic faith and news avoidance among the consumers which adversely affect their operations in the long run. Such situation prevail among majority of language press except a few in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali etc. where media consumer base is high. The situation compel the newspapers to seek government patronage. To overcome the vicious-circle experimentation with alternative editorial and business models seems to be a viable option.

Replication of successful publication models employed elsewhere in the international field can reap dividends for regional language small and medium print newspapers in India. Adopted models may need little corrections to suit to the local situations. Emerging practice of citizen journalism is one of such techniques to build-up a new news landscape to engage readers, promote consumer confidence and serve the community strengthening democractic values.   

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / March  24, 2023

References:

Albarado, Sonny. Citizen Journalism. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 21 Nov 2018

https://www.britannica.com/topic/citizen-journalism

In a media ecosystem that was severely affected by disruptions due to coronavirus induced pandemic during 2020 and 2021, measurement of hopes and aspirations among the leaders of the industry carries relevance. ‘World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers’ (WAN-IFRA) published a report entitled ‘World Press Trends Outlook 2022-2023’ in March 2023. It carried description on challenges and opportunities faced by the print publications worldwide. The report highlighted a clear distinction on perspectives of news publishers between developed and developing nations. While the publishers in the developed economics expressed a pessimistic view for business in 2023, those from the emerging economics recorded optimism.

War between Russia and Ukraine adversely affected the world economy in 2022 and the print media faced huge losses. Mostly three reasons: high inflation, advertising downturn and raising cost of newsprint resulted in unfavourable environment for newspaper publication business. Since the following year 2023 is marked with downturn in the world economics, the news organisations in the developing nations tend to be more resilient adopting to the changed business models.

WAN-IFRA conducted a survey during middle of 2022 among 167 media leaders belonging to 62 countries to prepare ‘World Press Trends Outlook 2022-2023’. Among them 55.4 percent were pessimistic about the next 12 months, whereas 53.6 percent were optimistic about prospects for next three years. It suggested that as per respondents outlook print news industry will continue to be volatile during 2023-2024 and expected to calm down between 2024 and 2027.

Analysis of data collected through the survey indicated a few major changes in publication trends in the newspaper industry. First, media in the emerging economics is pro-active to change from the traditional business models. Earnings from advertisement and circulation accounted 53.5 percent of the total revenue and the media platforms continued to experiment with alternative sources. Revenue generation through subscription of digital editions, events and grants marked as three new avenues for newspaper earnings. Endeavours were carried out with native business development strategies. At the same time print news platforms from developing countries expected 24 percent more revenue than 2021.

Secondly, strengthening the important areas of product development, reader revenue and other revenue sources along with investment in advertisement gained priority. Recruitment of talented creative personnel contributed towards better products, which inturn reduced audience crunch and increased consumer engagement. Creation of interdisciplinary teams for product thinking and product development yielded better results. Many publications benefitted from grants, both from government and non-government sources.

Thirdly, the report raised concern on growing trend of physical attack on the journalists in the developing countries. Weaker public institutions fail to protect freedom of speech. Governments crackdown upon media platforms for unfavourable reporting. About 80 percent of formally reported attacks against journalists across the world remained unsolved, the report indicated.

On the other hand, cyber attacks also emerged as a grave concern, more particularly in the developed countries. Six in 10, about 60 percent of respondents in the survey indicated that media workers of their organisations reported cyber attacks. Gender based harassment of female journalists continued across all regions.

Report published by WAN-IFRA present a realistic picture of the status of the ‘Press’ or news publication in the post-pandemic worldorder. The industry believed that the disruption caused by revenue loss and increase of expenditure is momentary and news publications can confront the situation in long run.

However, variety of un-conventional strategies were engineered to boost both editorial and revenue generation efforts. For example, newspapers in the developed nations are increasing their presence in the social media to achieve popularity. New products like podcasts, newsletters are being used to attract sponsorship advertisement revenue. As ‘news’ is the most important ingredient in the ‘newspaper’, collective effort among all the departments in the newspaper establishment is focused to improve the quality of ‘news’.

WAN-IFRA strives to protect the interests of journalists and publishers worldwide. More than 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs have registered membership in the organization. Apart, about 18,000 publications affiliated to 60 press organisations spread over 120 nations are associated with its programmes. It was established during the post-second world war in 1948 and continue to “provide its members with expertise and services to innovate and prosper in the emerging media ecosystem.” ‘World Press Trends Outlook 2022-2023’ is expected to guide the news publishers to formulate their future-ready strategies in the post coronavirus induced pandemic media landscape.    

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / April 7, 2023

Reference:

The state of news business-Key findings from the “World Press Trends outlook 2022-2023” report

https://thefix.media/2023/3/28/the-state-of-the-news-business-key-findings-from-the-world-press-trends-outlook-2022-2023-report 

Practice of news reporting during student career can be termed as ‘Student Journalism’. Development of modern journalism is closely associated with spread of printing technology. Earliest versions of newspaper appeared during seventeenth century after about 150 years of invention of printing press in Germany. Britain had to wait for another 100 years for launch of its first English daily newspaper till eighteenth century.

Journalism was considered as a new profession during publication of periodicals long before appearance of daily newspapers. But as more and more news writers joined in publication industry, journalism achieved professional excellence and social recognition during eighteenth and nineteenth century. New entrants to the profession depended upon various forms of non-formal training to learn the techniques of news reporting. Mostly they attended printing shops or newspaper establishments for apprenticeship.

Formal education in journalism was initiated at the University of Missouri in United States for a short period of time during the later part of nineteenth century and full-fledged journalism curriculum became available at Colombia University in the beginning of twentieth century. In the later part journalism education was expanded to nook and corner of the world as an university level course of studies. Journalism education started at Lahore based Punjab University during 1941 in the un-divided India under the British rule. It flourished during post-independence era, mostly in the post-emergency period.

Journalism curriculum in the academic sector lay importance in information collection, news writing and editing. Students participate in the process of news production in imagined environment inside the class rooms as a part of the curriculum. Journalism students also write news stories basing upon developments in the campus to publish in laboratory journals. Similarly they produce audio, video and online reportages. 

A section of universities in United States engage their students admitted to journalism courses in programme for news reporting in the neighbourhood city limits and rural areas. A successful venture by ‘Center for Community News’ adopted by the University of Vermont attracts attention of the media analysts and education administrators. University of Vermont is situated at Burlington town in the boarders of United States and Canada. The place is 150 kilometres distance from Montreal, a populous city in Canada. The university was established in 1791. About 12,000 students get enrolled in the courses offered by the university and above four thousand teaching and non-teaching employees are engaged. 

‘Community News Service’ organises liaison with a few local news platforms for implementation of its programme. The news outlets identify the topics they intend to cover in their forthcoming editions and the students prepare the stories under supervision of a professional editor appointed for the purpose. The news stories are published with by-lines of the student reporters. The service is provided free of cost, It is calculated that about 300 news items in text, audio, video and online format are being provided to the local media every year. The programme has been proved to be beneficial to the students, news platforms and the local communities.

First, the programme opens-up opportunity for the students to practice journalism in location instead of an imagined environment in the class room. They learn to get connected with the public, collect information from composite sources and write news stories on real situation of the society in real time. It helps to increase interest for journalism and showcase their creativity. Secondly, local news platforms in the post-pandemic scenario faced with decreased income and enhanced spending are in trouble. Student Journalism can provide them with verified content that will help to continue publication. Thirdly, the efforts to cover local issues, discussing challenges and prospects can help to mitigate social problems which can benefit the local communities.

Community News Service supplies news reported by student journalists to 14 local news outlets and a majority of them are print weekly newspapers. In the post Covid-19 pandemic media ecosystem news deserts are fast expanding in the United States. Enrichment of local news outlets demand priority and University of Vermont’s initiatives to support ailing local news platforms has a lasting impact to safeguard democracy. Center for Community News compiled a list of 120 projects with similar objectives being implemented throughout the country.

The profession of journalism achieved relevance during the twentieth century. Experts figure out four reasons for the development. It include training for journalism, publication of books and literature on techniques of journalism, rise of journalism professional institutions and growing importance on social responsibility of journalism as a profession. Practice of journalism requires training. Since the students who have enrolled themselves in journalism courses have decided to enter into the profession of journalism, at least in the primary stage, they need qualitative training. Practice of Student Journalism can be considered as an effective step in the right direction.

Formal journalism curriculum started more than a hundred years ago. However Student Journalism encourages students enrolled in other than journalism courses to practice the vocation of journalism. Students enrolled in subjects like Literature, History, Political Science and Economics take part in Student Journalism programmes. Opportunities offered to youngsters to learn the techniques of reporting in the real field seems like a revised edition of age old apprenticeship in printing press or newspaper offices.

Implementation of Student Journalism programme in Indian universities is wide open. On one hand, complain arises that the diploma holders of journalism from education institutions lack practical knowledge on reporting in the field. Mandated apprenticeship for students in journalism courses does not prove to be sufficient. In such an environment. Practice of Student Journalism during four semesters in a post-graduate masters degree course in journalism can pay dividends.

On the other hand, as print daily newspapers faced causalities relating to independence and loss of public faith due to various reasons that led to news-avoidance among the readers in the post-pandemic period, print weekly newspapers are the possible viable alternative to avoid news deserts in regional level. But the weekly press lack investments for adequate content generation. Student Journalism can play a vital role to supply qualitative reporting by students for the local weekly print outlets to balance the newspaper economics.

Inclusion of Student Journalism in the media curriculums offered by Indian universities can be considered as an timely intervention. The National Education Policy proposes to offer journalism as a subject starting from the secondary school syllabus. Student Journalism should get adequate attention as a practical solution for qualitative media education in the entry level.

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / April 21, 2023

References:

Watts, Richard. How student journalists are filling the void to help save local news.

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/how-student-reporters-are-filling-the-void-to-help-save-local-news-news-deserts/

Community News Service : Reporting from UVM

https://www.communitynews.net/

Closure of leading digital news platform United States based BuzzFeed News was announced during the second half of April 2023. Jonah Peretti, Chief Excutive Officer of BuzzFeed explained that there was no option left, but to layoff employees due to business slowdown that will gradually lead to shutdown the internationally acclaimed news site. 

Basing upon unprecedented popularity of social media in the western hemisphere during the later part of the first decade of twenty-first century, BuzzFeed News was developed as a social media dependent news product. However, the decrease in popularity of social media during the later part of second decade adversely reflected upon the news platform. Ultimately the prevailing situation compelled to take a decision for closure of the publication.

First, BuzzFeed News was a digital news platform, secondly its operation spread across the world, thirdly its business model depended upon reaching the consumers via social media, fourthly it stressed importance upon investigative journalism and fifthly hiring renowned journalists were some of the strategies adopted by BuzzFeed News to generate high impact journalism. But failure of the news site to survive raised questions on the efficacy of trending models among digital news ventures.

The way social media accumulated supremacy among all the media in the western countries, many took it for granted to consider certain social media platforms as the future of media. Of course, the role played by popular social media giants managing activities like grocery purchases to entertainment and social movements to elections covering huge population transcending geographies left no stones unturned to doubt their strength.

May be adoption of two-century-old advertisement-depended business model of print publications by social media and digital news platforms met with catastrophe due to loss of advertisement revenue. Economic slowdown followed the Covid 19-induced-pandemic during turn of second into third decade of twenty-first century. Though different indicators claimed rise in advertisement spending, the shift of revenue from the mainstream media to emerging platforms painted an entirely different picture. Such environment led to closure of a number of media entities. The same reason compelled disappearance of print publications in the western nations during the first two decades of twenty-first century and the trend contaminated to the digital news media.

BuzzFeed News was launched in 2012. Ben Smith, a renowned journalist working in Politico was appointed as the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News in December 2011. About 100 journalists were working in the platform including 20 investigative reporters by 2016. BuzzFeed News was awarded Pulitzer Prize for excellence in international reporting in 2021. It’s website claimed in 2018 that five crore ‘unique monthly readers’ visited the platform. However, about 15 percent of employees were laid off during 2019 as a result of failure of adopted editorial and business models. Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith resigned from BuzzFeed News in 2020 to join The NewYork Times as a media writer.

It is well marked from the developments that BuzzFeed News tasted failure much ahead of the pandemic. Both editorial and business models could not yield profitable results. Creativity, time and investment in the platform proved not to be enough to run an international news outfit. Investigative journalism may create sensation in the short run, but may not be regarded as the elementary component of journalism. Reporting demands creativity, which enriches journalism for long lasting influence. Similarly, technology alone cannot support journalism. Invention of technological tools is a continuous process and the consumers of media sailing along the trend arrive at a technology today, only to jump into a new one tomorrow. The journey of media beginning from ‘News Books’ to ‘Short Videos’ is long enough, but does not halted at any point.

The mission statement of BuzzFeed News mentioned, “We cover what you care about, break big stories that hold the major institutions accountable for their actions and expose injustices that change people’s lives”. The editorial policy of the news platform appeared to fall in the category of ‘agenda setting’ attitude. In such an environment whatever the editor thinks fit to be reported will be laid emphasis upon. Failure of such narrow outlook proved that the platform did not belong to the category of quality journalism.

The Chief Execute Officer of BuzzFeed News Jonah Peretti was the co-founder of The Huffington Post launched during 2005. It gathered popularity as a digital news platform in short time. He resigned from the Post in 2011 after the outfit changed ownership and promoted the tech platform BuzzFeed started by him during 2006. The other co-founder of The Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington resigned in 2016 to start a new digital venture Thrive Global devoted to health and lifestyle. Ben Smith who remained Editor-in-Chief of BuzzFeed News between 2011 and 2020 launched an international news platform Semafor in 2022.

Career profile of big names associated with BuzzFeed News explain that in developed economies like United States digital news start-ups could raise enough capital during the second decade of twenty-first century and a few popular journalists could take advantage of the situation to build-up their own news platforms. But during the staff lay off in 2019 Jonah Peretti mentioned that he was compelled to take steps to reduce expenditure rather than gather further investments. It might have ment that by that time it was no longer possible to attract investments. End of BuzzFeed News creates suspicion about the future of big media outfits worldwide. Failure of traditional business models indicate search for innovations that will create a new chapter in media landscape. 

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / April 28, 2023

Reference:

How the social traffic that gave life to BuzzFeed News ultimately led to its demise – Digiday

https://digiday.com/media/how-the-social-traffic-that-gave-life-to-buzzfeed-news-ultimately-led-to-its-demise/

Post-pandemic news media eco-system worldwide confronted with worrisome trends of readers avoidance, loss of public faith and absence of advertisement revenue that questioned the future of the industry. However, in such turbulent times success of the editorial and business model of French digital news platform Mediapart attracted attention of the media analysists. Mediapart does not publish advertisements, keeps away from business and government sponsorship. Its revenue depends only on subscription paid by the readers and its is profitable.

Mediapart is famous for it’s investigative journalism. The digital news platform is available in French, English and Spanish. It is pay-walled from the day of its lunch in 2008, which signifies that nobody can open the website without a subscription. In Indian currency annual subscription of Mediapart is about ten thousand rupees. Students, unemployed and pensioners can avail rebate in subscription rate which amounts to about four thousand five hundred rupees. The paid subscriber base of Mediapart was estimated two lakh twenty thousand in 2021.

French newspapers enjoy reputation in the international market. Generally the news platforms are owned and managed by industrial houses. Le Monde is a prestigious newspaper published from Paris since 1944. Edwy Plenel worked between 1980 and 2004 and positioned as the editor-in-chief during 2000-2004. He led a group of six co-founders to launch an investigative news site being disillusioned with the state of contemporary French media. Mediapart started operation with 25 employees which rose to a staff strength of 131 by 2022, including 72 journalists and 59 employed incharge of marketing, technology and subscriber relations.

Ownership of news platforms determine its independence. Though Mediapart was developed as a company, founders of the establishment transferred their shares to form a non-profit endowment in 2019 with sole aim to prevent any potential takeover. Mediapart offers decent salaries to its employees. It believes that good journalism is a byproduct of better livelihood of the newsworkers.

Mediapart editorial policy opposes the traditional media wisdom. Generally digital news platforms lay emphasis on (i) swift, (ii) short, (iii) cover many stories, (iv) for free circulation, (v) to optimize search engine rankings. But Mediapart (i) covers only select number of stories, (ii) which are people-centric, (iii) written in long-form, (iv) not in a hurry to break the news, (v) publish in pay-walled platform. It entertains a different experience to the news consumers. In India, English daily newspaper The Telegraph published by Kolkata-based Anand Bazar Patrika Group and digital news site The Wire adopt such practice in reporting to an extent.

Qualitative journalism requires experimentation in form, style in both editorial and business models. Most of the news platform publishers avoid innovative approaches. They prefers to rely an models those are succeeded earlier and believe to be safe and consider as means to achieve success. However, in reality, such attitude proves to be faulty in 90 percent of cases everywhere. Continuous struggle for existence impose wrong impact both upon publications and the quality of journalism.

Mediapart struggled in the beginning years. To launch the news platform seven founders gathered 60 percent of the project finance from their personal savings and 40 percent from investers. The initial fund was designed to last for three years. But in absence of funds by second year, the promoters went for bank loan to pay salaries to the employees. By third year of publication only 20,000 paid subscriptions were sold. However, breaking of investigative stories attracted readership and by 2011 the venture reached break-even-point in the business accumulating 60,000 subscribers.

Exposure of an un-disclosed bank account by a budget minister of French government by Mediapart led to nationwide uproar and the accused minister had to resign. Similarly investigation into finance for elections by the Libyan head-of-the-nation to a former French president turned to be an international sensation. The reporters and editorial team work closely with the lawyers while producing stories on investigations to avoid litigation. Around the first decade of publication, out of about 200 legal proceedings, only five judgments went against the publication.

Adoption of un-conventional editorial and business models marks Mediapart apart from the rest. The editorial meetings of the day are regularly held at 10.30 am. It is open for the whole team from editorial, marketing and technical departments. All the major issues about the news platform are discussed and everybody is free to submit his or her opinion, criticism or ideas. They discuss in the open house how to cover issues, raise subscribers base and identify the mistakes for rectification. This exercise results in motivating the newsworkers of the news platform’s operation.

The main part of the news site. Le Journal co-exists with Le Club. While Le Journal is produced by the professional journalists, Le Club carries contribution from readers. The model works as perfect feedback system allowing the readers to publish their opinion, perspective and information on various issues. Digital media has potential to entertain such facilities and the publication endeavors to democratize the news consumption by completing the news dissemination and feedback cycle. On the other hand, the model helps for readers engagement contributing towards retention of readership and improving readers base. Journalists of Mediapart attend a meeting with the subscribers once a month online and answer all questions raised by them on the camera.

Mediapart has not aligned with any political party between 2008 and 2023. To establish transparency on reporting the journalists of the platform describe the methodology adopted for investigation at the end of each investigative story. Since 2018 they also place disclaimers about sponsorship for production of the news stories. Mediapart has set an example which claims that independent qualitative journalism platforms can survive with subscription revenue, can pay decent remuneration to the journalists and endeavour for pubic-good.  

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / May 05, 2023

References:

Global Investigative Journalism Network. Mediapart built its news model around investigative journalism.

https://gijn.org/2022/03/16/france-mediapart-sucessful-model-investiative-journalism/

Willsher, Kim. How pioneering Mediapart has set the French news agenda

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/16/how-pioneering-mediapart-has-set-the-french-news-agenda

‘Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries’ (FICCI) in association with ‘Ernst & Young’, the renowned commerce and industrial research platform publishes annual review of media and entertainment industry in India. It contains statics derived from various market surveys and studies along with strategic advice of experts in the field. The report of the year, ‘Windows of opportunity – India’s media and entertainment sector maximizing across segments’ was inaugurated at FAMES festival held in Mumbai on May 3, 2023.

The publication claimed that Indian media and entertainment industry achieved satisfactory progress during 2022. On aggregate the annual growth rate calculated at 20 percent in the year, which is 10 percent higher than recorded annual growth rate during pre-pandemic level in 2019. Media and entertainment sector faced huge loss during the pandemic and a general apprehension prevailed upon the post-pandemic growth rate. However, higher digits of growth figure in 2022 in comparision to 2019 could calm down such uncertainties.  

The report mentioned that the annual growth rate for 2023 has been projected at 11.5 percent and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is expected to be around 10 percent by 2025. Digital media claimed the highest level in 2022 at 27 percent. It was limited at 16 percent in 2019. In 2022 digital platforms achieved annual growth rate of 30 percent in advertisement and 27 percent in subscription revenue. Print newspapers recorded annual growth rate of 10 percent during 2022. About 85 percent of print newspapers could reach the 2019 pre-pandemic level of business, the report explained.

‘Ernst & Young’ partnered with ‘Ananda Bazar Patrika Group’ to conduct a survey among 2,250 smartphone users to understand media and entertainment consumer behavior. About 90 percent of the survey sample consumed news daily. While 30 percent accessed news only once in a day, 61 percent repeated several times. About 43 percent spent 30 minutes, 21 percent spent 20 to 30 minutes, 20 percent spent 10 to 20 minutes and 16 percent 10 minutes a day on news platforms.

News consumers used social media up to 80 percent, television news channels 58 percent, newspapers 54 percent and online platforms 54 percent. While elderly preferred television and newspapers as sources of news, social media remained favorite for both the young and the old. It was found out that copies of newspapers were delivered at 50 percent of the sample households. Newspaper readership accounted 57 percent among the elderly and 43 percent among the young folk.

About 30 minutes per day was the time limit spent by 35 percent of survey sample to view television, 29 percent on social media and 20 percent on newspapers. News was accessed online by 69 percent on YouTube and Google platforms. Similarly 50 percent consumed news in Facebook and 47 percent in WhatsApp.

Volume of advertisements claimed highest of 38 percent by Hindi newspapers which was followed by English at 26 percent. During 2022, regional language Malayalam accounted three percent, Odia two percent and Bangla one percent of the total advertisement pie. However, magazines in English got 45 percent, Malayalam 11 percent, Hindi nine percent, Guajarati eight percent, Tamil seven percent and Bangla six percent of advertisement share.

Circulation figure of newspapers in 2022 calculated to be up to 40 percent less among English newspapers in comparision to circulation figure of pre-pandemic 2019 status. Loss of circulation of Hindi newspapers recorded 20 percent and 21 percent for other regional languages. On the otherhand, about five percent annual growth in circulation of print newspapers during 2022 was evident. Subscription income of newspapers was normalized up to 89 percent and many newspapers increased cover price.

FICCI M & E Report 2023 carried a few advice by media experts on future growth of the industry. The first guideline for print newspapers urged to take efforts to be closer to educated and economically affluent readership as they are the paid subscribers of print publications. In addition, the advertisers target at reaching financially sound consumers in the hyperlocal level. When print newspapers heavily depend upon advertisement revenue, it is their duty to carry the advertiser’s message to its desired destination. Otherwise over time insertion of advertisement will evaporate automatically. Possible use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence will have the capacity to evaluate the reach of the advertisement in real time frame. The report forecast that by reaching the educated and economically well-off readers, print newspapers can achieve four percent annual growth.

Secondly, as about 90 percent of revenue of print newspapers is collected basing upon the physical product, the publishers need to constantly improve the newspaper. Together with use of better paper, printing and getup, excellence in reporting news and presenting diverse opinion are need of the hour. Consumers get the breaking news from social media and television. They come to the print newspaper the next day to get analysis, opinion and investigation upon the developments. Their interests should be fulfilled.

Thirdly, organization of events by print newspaper establishments has turned to be a new initiative to reach the young readers. Consumer engagement strategies can help to retain readership in an era of news avoidance and migration to emerging alternative platforms. FICCI Report seems to uncovered a realistic picture frame of the media and entertainment industry in the country.   

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / May 12, 2023

Reference:

Windows of opportunity : India’s media & entertainment sector – maximizing across segments. April 2023

https://www.ficci-frames.com>reports.html

Studies reveal that there were above 75 crore active internet users in India by 2023. ‘Active’ internet users identify such consumers, who visit online platforms at least once in a month. Active internet users who use regional language platforms crossed 72 crore. It signifies growing dominance of modern Indian languages in the online landscape. One can forecast brighter future for regional languages within next two to seven years, by 2025 to 2030.

Leading internet service provider ‘Google’ organizes ‘Google News Initiative’, a programme to promote digital journalism worldwide. Its Indian chapter sponsored a survey to map the status of digital news eco-system in the country conducted by acclaimed research agency ‘Kantar-India’. The report of the study was published during May 2023.

Google-Kantar survey used ‘iCube’ a sample platform for profiling urban news consumers habits. It is connected with over 60,000 individuals spread across 390 cities and towns countrywide. Focus group discussions and detailed observational depth interviews among digital news consumers living in 43 cities was also conducted for eight regional languages. It included Hindi, Guajarati, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Such a wide sample contributed towards trustworthiness of the survey results placed in the report entitled “Indian Languages – Understanding India’s Digital News Consumer.”

The report reveals that half of the active internet users consume news online. It counts to 38 crore consumers. About 15 crore access news in the regional language platforms, which include 41 percent in urban and 59 percent belonging to rural areas. The statistics denote that about 10 to 12 percent of the total population of the country rely on digital news in regional languages.

The study highlights importance of local news. About 70 percent of digital news consumers prefer hyper-local news. The trend is predominant in Hindi and Guajarati languages. In developed countries like the United States of America the print newspapers covering local news were closed down due to reduced advertisement revenue and rising production cost during the first two decades of 21st century. Digital news platforms took over the charge of distribution of hyperlocal news. It seems the trend is gradually sweeping into Indian media ecosystem.

The local digital news platforms cover hyperlocal developments ignored by the mainstream media. It helps the consumer in preparedness for day to day life. Further hyperlocal news increases community engagement and promotes transparency, accountability at the ground level for civic transactions. The exercise results in evolving a digital-first media environment.

Local news websites and news platforms in the social media strive to fill-in the gap created by negligence of hyperlocal news by mainstream media. The local journalists took the opportunity to build-up alternative news sources as the technological expertise of website and application building are being easily available all over. Popularity of news apps such as Way2News, Local, OneIndia etc. in the national level encouraged media entrepreneurs in the country to enter into hyperlocal digital news landscape. Local WhatsApp groups such as Edakochi people (Kochi) in Kerala in In-Solapur (Solapaur) in Maharashtra engage local reporters for hyperlocal news coverage. Success of such ventures attracted national attention.

Majority of hyperlocal news consumers, about 74 percent access news through video. Only 14 percent prefer to read news as text and 11 percent in audio format. In social media majority of digital news consumers, about 93 percent depend on YouTube and 82 percent through chat apps like WhatsApp. On the other hand, about 45 percent visit news websites and apps.

In online platforms along with hyperlocal news, core news segments such as entertainment, crime and news headlines are popular. It follows non-core segments, which include health, tech and fashion at the top of the list. News consumers migration from traditional print and television platforms into online platforms result in accessibility to more content, more platforms, interactive, sharebility and multimedia customized experience. Digital media thrives in 24 X 7 basis and at the same time affordable, faster, wider, easier and engaging.

Google-Kantar report debunks the popular observation that digital news media lags behind with regard to public trust. The survey statistics describe that among the top reasons for online news consumption depends 48 percent on trust, 48 percent on simple and easy format and 45 percent towards of the popularity among peer circles. Credibility of the source depend heavily upon the branding of the news presenter. Research and evidence backed reporting along with presentation skills adopting visuals, graphics construct digital news attractive.

The revelation that seven out of ten digital news consumers of regional languages in India by 2023 prefer hyperlocal news points a better future for local media. As the mainstream print and television platforms fail to pay required attention to cover hyperlocal reporting, independent local websites and news platforms in social media have an opportunity to build-up alternative platforms. However, all such novel initiatives require continuous publication for at least three to five years to succeed. Investment of time and talent are the foremost requirements for any venture including hyperlocal news in digital platforms.    

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / May 19, 2023

References:

Indian Languages – Understanding India’s Digital News Consumer

A study by Kantar India, supported by Google 2023

Kantar- Google report : 1 in 2 India languages internet news are consumes of news in India.

https://www.storyboard18.com/how-it-works/kantar-google-report-1-in-2-indian-languages-internet-users-are-consumers-of-news-in-india-7760.htm

Indian Languages – understanding India’s Digital News Consumer

https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/indian-languages---understanding-indias-digital-news-consumer/ 

Lebanon, rich with historical background is an Arab nation surrounded by Syria, Israel, Cyprus and Mediterranean Sea in the West Asia. Its population size is limited to 52 lakhs. It is a disturbed region during the recent past. After being liberated from Ottoman empire in the post-first world war and French colonialism in the post-second world war period, the country plunged into civil war between 1975 and 1990. Military invasion was carried out by Syrian army during 1976 to 2005 and Israel army during 1985 to 2000. By the beginning of the third decade of twenty-first century, Lebanon confronted with financial bankruptcy and administrative corruption. Lebanese people faced the pangs of inflation, scarcity of essential commodities, unemployment and poverty.

Despite small geographic location and population, Lebanon is the cultural epicenter of Middle East. Armed with a rich heritage of print, radio and television, it also led in online publication in the Arab world. Three Lebanese print newspapers started digital editions in 1996 and by 2000 over 200 news websites were in operation. Internet consumers in the country crossed 84 percent of the total population during 2022.

The only English print newspaper The Daily Star was closed in 2020 after economic collapse following the explosion of bomb in the Beirut harbor. Private radio and television broadcasting is permitted by the government. In comperision to neighboring Arab nations, freedom of expression index is better in Lebanon. But as ownership of media platforms are controlled by the politicians and political parties, journalism looses its independence. Though platforms like Aljazeera, Al arabiya, CNN, BBC are popular, the general public prefer local media outlets.

Spread of internet and digital technology during the last decade of twentieth century resulted in disruption of business models in the traditional media industry worldwide. The situation compelled many to solicit investments or sponsorships from politicians and industrial houses. In the process legacy print, radio and television channels changed ownerships to politicians in most of the places. It resulted in rise of partisan or polarized media landscapes. In a time when the people become suffocated with politically motivated news environment, a new chapter was unleashed with spread of independent journalism in the digital mode in Beirut.

Production of news in print, radio and television platform is expensive. Similarly the readers, listeners and viewers have to pay the cost of news products for consumption. News publishers choose to neglect investments for better journalism burdened with expenses incurred in routine news production. On the otherhand, advanced technology used in digital platform for news circulation and reception is cheaper where the publisher gets better opportunity to invest money for qualitative journalism. The growing trend of influx of politicians and industrialists into ownership of media platforms gave rise to independent digital news platforms in different geographies.

Penetration of internet in Lebanon during civil war, invasion of foreign army, economic disturbance and social unrest could buid-up an alternative media ecosystem by connecting wide spectrum of news consumers online. The Lebanon example demonstrated that in the event of disruption in the traditional models in the mainstream journalism, digital technology is capable of filling-up the gap. People not only like alternative platforms, but increasingly engage themselves in meaningful ways.

Popularity of Daraj, a digital news website specializing investigative journalism, could attract the attention of media analysts in the international level. Three working journalists of Beirut co-founded Daraj in 2017. In Arabic language ‘daraj’ means ‘steps’. One co-founder explained that citizens in Lebanon are compelled to live in a media dark environment with spread of fake news. Daraj leads the way to light for the news consumers step by step.

Daraj predominantly publishes reporting on corruption alongwith women, human rights and climate change. The subjects, those are not entertained by the mainstream media, the news platform ventures to bring into the attention of the people. Within six years of its launch, the number of journalists working for the website could increase from three to twenty. Everyday a minimum of eight new stories are published. It includes both text and video. Occasionally important content published elsewhere are also republished.

Taking advantage of traditional recognitation of  Lebanon as a mass media centre of the middle-east Daraj gradually emerged as a representative platform for the Arab nations. Availability of English translation of the original Arab content in the website helped to spread influence worldwide. Above 221 journalists stationed at Palestine, Iran, Sudan and Morocco are accredited with the digital platform. About 20 to 25 journalist write in pseudonym. It entertains long form reporting. Government of Egypt blocked Daraj for an objectionable report in November 2022. The author of the news story was imprisoned for two years.

With the objective to protect the independence of journalism Daraj chooses alternative ways to gather finance. Instead of wealthy politicians and industrial houses, it solicits finance from international funding agencies. International Media Support, Open Society, European Endowment for Democracy and Google News initiative fund Daraj. While about 80 percent of the budget is met by external funding, the rest 20 percent is derived from income through execution of media products such as print, video, content creation and training sources. As the economic condition of Lebanon continues to be in a bad shape, subscription revenue generation has not been prioritised.

Daraj has created audience in Iraq, Jordan and United States of America. It claimed that 25 lakh readers-listener-viewers were present in the digital news platform during 2022. Efforts are being initiated to reach common people through social media. Tailored content are created by the platform to reach the younger audience.

Plurality is the core value of journalism. Fake news, rumour, exaggeration, agenda-driven and partisan journalism contribute towards polarization that results in social unrest. In cases, partisan reporting may intend for welfare of the society to fight for a cause, but slips away from journalistic ethics. In tune with practice of democracy, journalism should entertain diverse views. Quality journalism presents different perspectives before the audience. Publication of opinion is essential, but it should be visibly segregated from news and entertain opinion of all parties concerned on an issue. Technological advancement has created opportunity to present comments by all interested readers on a development in digital news platform. Daraj journalism is expected to encourage talents all over the world to practice independent journalism by setting itself as an example.     

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / May 26, 2023

References:

Oliver, Laura. How news site Daraj reports on women’s rights and corruption across the Middle East. Reuters Institute. 23 May 2023.

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-news-site-daraj-reports-womens-rights-and-corruption-across-middle-east 

Wiener Zeitung, one of the worlds oldest newspapers announced during April 2023 to end its daily print run from July 2023. It was continuously published from Vienna, capital of Austria since 1703.  The local government was publishing the German language print newspaper. There was a yearlong political debate on the question to withdraw government funds for management of the newspaper establishment. Enactment of a new law will not only end financial support, but also abolish the practice of statutory requirement for publication of certain categories of government and business notifications in print newspaper. Both the decisions will effect financial health of print publication. It is expected that the newspaper will go online after closure of daily print editions and publish about 10 print editions in a year.

The bi-weekly newspaper was named as Wiennerisches Diarium at the time of launch. Subsequently in 1780 it was renamed as Wiener Zeitung. In German language ‘Winer Zeitung’ means Vienna news. Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph ordered the government to take responsibilities of publication of the newspaper in 1857. Accordingly law was enacted. After government decision for withdrawal from the affairs of the newspaper, it will be published online.

‘World Association of News Publishers’ recognized Wiener Zeitung as the oldest newspaper of the world in 2004. There were 200 workers employed in the 320 year old publication concern. Among them 40 employees belonged to journalist category. It had weekday circulation of 20,000 and weekend edition touched 40,000 copies. After closure of daily print edition there are plans to start journalism training programme and engage with production of media products apart from running the online edition.  

Wiener Zeitung gained prominence for publication of government advertisements. The news stories appeared in the newspaper was considered as the official version of the government. The government in the recent past advocated that the policy directed by European Union to encourage online publication of public announcements to establish transparency. Enactment of laws supporting the vision goes against funding a print publication. Local civil society and opposition parties opposed the government decision to stop state funding to the newspaper.

As per the provisions of the new law, an online entity ‘Electronic Announcement and Information Platform of the Federation’ will be launched and all the public announcements by the government and corporate bodies will be published therein. No one is required to pay any fees for publication in the digital platform. Previously for publication of public announcements as advertisements in the print newspaper Wiener Zeitung charged money.

Scrapping the law for compulsory publication of public announcements on print newspaper and free placement in the digital platform in Austria seems to be a potential emerging dangerous trend for print newspapers worldwide. In an environment, where digitalisation of the administration is in full swing, prevailing laws compelling parties for publication of public announcements in printed newspapers appears to be contradictory. Private parties spend a considerable amount of money towards publication of advertisements in printed newspapers. Digital publication of public announcements contribute towards universal reach, transparency, economical, energy saving and environmental protection. Printed literature on paper has a limited reach in comparision to digital publication. Policy adopted by European Union to encourage online platforms for public announcements and enactment of laws following the guidelines in Austria is sure to be extended to other parts of the world.

Mass media, particularly print newspapers and television industry are undergoing through serous trouble due to economic slowdown in the post-pandemic period. Efforts are being initiated at different levels for damage control. In such a scenario, introduction of generative artificial intelligence powered ‘large language models’ in the public domain may result in complete transformation of media consumption behaviour. The situation warrants a hazy future for print newspapers.

In India, the central government’s spending in print newspapers and television is following a steady decrease for past five years. A report published in online platform The Wire during first part of May 2023 quoted a market analysis website The Morning Contact and The Hindu Business Line mentioning reduced government spending between 2018 and 2022. Statistics indicated that there was 14 percent cut in 2018, 35 percent in 2019, 40 percent cut in 2020 and 23 percent cut in 2021 of advertisement spending in the traditional media. On the other hand advertisement spend in digital platform is on constant rise. The trend was reflected in Utar Pradesh, but did not had impact at the other states.

Another report published in The Wire by the same time mentioned that the ousted Karnataka government spent 27 crore 46 lakhs on print newspapers and 16 crore 96 lakhs on electronic media on advertisements just before the assembly elections between December 1, 2022 and March 29, 2023. The information was supplied by information and Public Relations Department of Karnataka under Right to Information. Noteworthy fact remains the ruling party could win only 66 seats out of 224 assembly seats in the state assembly and defeated to form the government. Such an example rises questions on the efficacy of advertisement in traditional media for political gain.

Closure of oldest print daily, shift to online edition and end of statutory advertisement publication rules in print newspapers indicate major changes in the print news industry.      

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / June 02, 2023

Reference YouTube video:

Austria’s Wiener Zeitung 320 year old newspaper ending daily print run – Zee News English

https://youtu.be/nwlJW05jyqA

References:

Austria’s Wiener Zeitung, one of the world’s oldest newspapers, to end daily print run – The Local, Apr 27, 2023

https://www.thelocal.at/20230427/austrias-wiener-zeitung-one-of-worlds-oldest-newspapers-to-end-daily-print-run

Government Ads Have shifted Away from Newspapers, Broadcasters : Report

https://m.thewire.in/article/media/government-ads-have-shifted-away-from-newspapers-broadcasters-report

BJP’s Bomai Govt spent Rs 44.2 crore of Taxpayer money on Ad Before Poll, Reveals RTI, The Wire. May 29, 2023

https://m.thewire.in/article/government/bjps-bommai-govt-spent-rs-44-2-crore-of-taxpayer-money-on-ads-before-polls-reveals-rti

Increase in internet consumers base using regional languages to 38 crore by beginning of 2023 in India and 52 percent reported to assess news online, signifies an emerging chapter in the country’s media landscape. A report published by Kantar-Google in May 2023 indicated that online news consumers in the rural area is above the urban sector with regard to consumption of news online. While 63 percent access online news in rural area, only 37 percent search for news at urban setting in their own languages.

Popularity of video has been increased in the regional language news circulation in the post-pandemic media ecosystem in India. Survey indicates that 81 percent of Bengali and Tamil language consumers prefer news in video format followed by 79 percent in Telugu, 75 percent in Hindi, 72 percent in Gujrati, 70 percent in Malayalam and 60 percent each in Marathi and Kannada. Online news in textual format ranks highest reaching to about 20 percent among Gujrati and Kannada consumers followed by 18 percent among Marathi consumers.

Online news consumers in regional languages up to 93 percent depend on YouTube, 88 percent on social media, 82 percent on chat apps, 61 percent on search engines and 45 percent on publisher websites and apps. About 73 percent of consumers prefer hyperlocal news. The conducive environment resulted in launch and spread of hyperlocal news apps, both in national and regional markets. Few news apps launched in the pre-pandemic era achieved huge popularity during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic period continue to attract financial investments for further enrichment.

Along with inter-state hyperlocal apps such as ‘Public’ and ‘Way2News’, Moradabad centric ‘LocalPlay’, Agra-Mathura-Virndavan centric ‘Circle’, three districts in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh based ‘Local’, Utar Pradesh based ‘Awaz’, Coimbatore centric ‘SimpleCity’ etc. attract the attention of media analysts towards experimentation in hyperlocal short video news apps in regional languages. In English language apps like ‘DailyHunt’, ‘NewsPoint’, ‘NewDog’, ‘PublicVibe’ and ‘MumbaiLive’ lead the list.

‘Public’ hyperlocal news video app developed by digital short news aggregator ‘InShort’ was launched in 2019. The app is available in Hindi, Bengali, Gujrati, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and other languages. Consumers can download and use it free of cost to access geography specific hyperlocal news. They can integrate their Facebook or Google account at the time of registration for the app to seamlessly access content delivered by the app in their social media profiles.

Mostly events and issues not covered by the traditional news platforms are covered by the regional language hyperlocal news apps. Local level small time theft, delays in public transport system such as bus or train, weather, cultural and religious programme reports are contents for hyperlocal news. Road blockages for various reasons, sports events, environmental problems, construction news and movement of celebrities are reported as hyperlocal news. Sale of goods and service, employment opportunities, accommodation rentals and listing of public programmes also constitute part of the hyperlocal news. Common people can also put forth their opinion, grievances and appeals on social issues in the hyperlocal news platforms.

Hyderabad based ‘Way2News’ was launched in 2015. It gained popularity in eight regional languages during the post pandemic period. The short video news app operates in village, Gram Panchyat and district level. It publishes daily e-magazines with content focused on health, trade and commerce, women, agriculture, tourism, real estate, food, employment and children’s literature. Daily astrology and commentary on sports events are also included. Weekend editions of e-magazines cover exclusive materials.

Mobile apps cover variety of hyperlocal news and the legacy print and television platforms are unable to compete. The emerging trend has created a new chapter in media ecosystem. Short description of news in video format continue to attract audience and gain popularity. Spread of smartphone use during the second decade of twenty-first century throughout the country is the foremost reason for the communication transformation. In the middle of the decade emergence of Jio decreased data charges into one-tenth of the prevailing rate which resulted in ten-fold increase in data use. It created a suitable environment for spread of online news in video format.

Mainstream print newspapers and television channels accredit a large number of stringers and freelancers all over the country to gather news. In most of the cases such personnel remain engaged in a profession other than journalism to earn their livelihood. Reporting is considered as a hobby. Whenever a major incident occurs in their locality, the news organizations seek their assistance. News apps developed a model to motivate such grassroot journalists to regularly report hyperlocal developments ignored by their accrediting news outlets. They gather news in video format using smartphones. It was a success.

For example, an established hyperlocal news app publishs about 20 to 25 video news stories for a district everyday. Experienced editors based at headquarters regularly contact the grassroot journalists to guide them to construct news stories. The freelancers are paid remuneration between Rs 50 to Rs 250 for a video news report. As a result the freelancers get encouraged to gather information and shoot videos for the hyperlocal news apps on priority. In many cases television reporting lay behind the news app coverage. It raises popularity of hyperlocal news apps among the audience.

Estimate by experts reveal that an established hyperlocal news app’s yearly expenditure stretches to about Rs 40 lakh. Content creation and editing needs experienced newsworkers. Employment of text and video editors is expensive. In the time of launch only 13 newsworkers were engaged in ‘Way2News’, which increased to 300 by 2023.

Hyperlocal news apps in India have not started collecting subscription and depend on advertisement revenue. It is being told that in the post-pandemic ‘New Normal’ advertisers are eager to spread advertisement about high value consumer appliances like automobile, bike, refrigerator, air-conditioner, laptop, smartphone along with FMCG goods in the hyperlocal level. They are preferring to use channels to reach their target audience with less expenditure rather than spending on print newspapers and television channel those charge high advertisement rates and reach to a general audience. In India digital advertising revenue records annual growth rate upto 30 percent. But about 80 percent of revenue goes to big tech companies Google and Meta (Publishers of Facebook). In such an environment how much advertisement revenue will be acquired by hyperlocal news apps is questionable. The general elections in 2024 may create a favourable opportunity for growth of such platforms.

One gets surprised to note that a hyperlocal news app ‘Public’ attracts 40,000 to 50,000 video uploads daily. The app allows the users to freely upload short videos in the line of YouTube. Similarly, 7,000 to 8,000 short news videos are uploaded in ‘Way2News’. Users base for ‘Public’ was 80 lakh and ‘Way2News’ was 70 lakh by the middle of 2023. From statistical point of view such hyperlocal news apps definitely have created a new chapter in popular journalism in our country.       

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / June 09, 2023

Reference:

Khandekar, Vanita Kohli. Investors have a punt as online news goes hyperlocal. Business Standard, Bhubaneswar Edition. February 23, 2023

Annual digital news report published by Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism of United Kingdom’s Oxford University generate interest among the media practitioners year after year worldwide. Digital news platforms gained momentum soon after communication activities slowly shifted into online ecosystem during the last decade of twentieth century. ‘Digital News Report’ is being published continuously since 2012. Twelfth edition of the report was launched during middle of June 2023. In preparation of the 160 page report an online survey was conducted during January and February 2023 among 92,000 participants from 46 countries including India.

In practice, publication of ‘Digital News Report’ fuels discussions on emerging future of journalism in the international level. Popularity of the report include many reasons. First, Oxford University is an oldest and famous educational institution. Secondly, Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism is a forerunner in the study of global news landscape. Thirdly, impact of digital media is a subject of close watch among those connected with the mass media. Fourthly, the survey involves a large sample from a number of countries which colours the findings trustworthy. Fifthly, continuous study on the subject for twelve years allow better understanding through comparative analysis.

Basically, ‘Digital News Report’ aggregate data on digital media and its consumers. However, as digital news ecosystem has expanded its influence over common peoples lives and traditional media platforms are active in the process of digital transformation, study on digital news media gathers relevance. On the other words, construction fo news in digital media, consumers habits and social impact etc. are more or less reflected upon traditional print, television platforms. Such reasonings claim to present a clear understanding of the contemporary trends of media through a critical analysis of the ‘Digital News Report 2023’.

Management and relevance of news platforms depend on the contemporary social backdrop. The report identified global cost-of-living crisis, continuing war in Ukraine and climate instability across the world as the three major issues by the beginning of 2023. Such a situation demand accurate, well-funded and independent journalism. The irony is that contemporary journalism is marked with low levels of trust, declining consumer engagement and uncertain business environment. Economic downturn in many countries compel citizens to rethink how much money they can spend for news consumption. Media spend figures out to be a prominent position in the family spending budget-cut exercise everywhere. Survey results claim that 77 percent of participating sample said they have been affected by cost-of-living crises and 20 percent were not largely affected. The report putsforth evidence on how traditional print and television news platforms are preferring to go digital due to revenue loss in business.

In many countries, the number of news consumers in print newspapers and television platforms has been decreased during the recent times. The gap created could not be filled-in by the digital news outlets. In comparison to earlier yearly figures consumers of digital news platforms shows that during 2017 about 63 percent of online news consumers were very or extremely interested in news, which has comedown to 48 percent in 2023. Generally it is believed that economic and political crisis tend to create increased interest among the news consumers, but an opposite picture is seen. The survey data indicates 36 percent selective-news-avoiders, the people who choose not to acquire news. The nations where political polarization, that means geographies with people deeply believe in one or two political ideologies, boosts more number of willful-news-avoiders.

In the report example of avoidance of news in digital platforms on Ukraine war in the neighboring region has been analyzed. The phenomenon cannot be termed as consumers of online news lacked interest, but considered themselves to be well-enough informed through coverage in social media and other channels. The reason might have prompted a majority to keep away from negative news in the mainstream publications covering horrors of the war. The report indicated that 39 percent avoided news on the war in Ukraine, 38 percent on national politics, 31 percent on issues in social justice, 30 percent on crime stories and 28 percent about celebrity news. Irony is traditionally editors continue to believe that coverage on such news stories attract readers, listeners or viewers attention.

It was found out that consumers of news in emerging digital networks like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat   pay more attention to celebrities, influencers and social media personalities than journalists. However, journalists still control conversation in platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But while popularity of Facebook and Twitter continue to diminish, popularity of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat is on rise. Similarly news consumers are preferring selection of news by algorithms depending their post reading or viewing history than editors selecting news stories for general consumption.  

Previously it was believed that development of digital platforms will encourage citizens to take part in conversations which can strengthen democratic process. But the report indicates that while only 22 percent of news consumers are active participators, about a half 47 percent are not participating in news at all. In countries like United Kingdom and United States of America participation on news has decreased to about 10 percent since 2016. Active participants in digital news platforms are identified to be male, better educated and more partisan in their political view. Active participants in digital news platforms in India is calculated to be around 34 percent.

Media analysists feel that ‘Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism’s ‘Digital News Report 2023’ “mostly substantates and further illustrates trends that emerged n the recent years – from falling trust in news to the rise of TikTok and decline of Facebook as platform for news consumption. Still, the report is an important barometer of the state of news media.” Nobel Peace Prize co-winner for 2021 Maria Resa of Philippines, founder of the independent news site Rappler criticized the methodology to measure audience trust by Reuters Institute to be faulty. The report stated about declining trust on Rappler. Maria told to The Guardian that the government in Philippines will weapoinze ‘Digital News Report 2023’ to attack journalists.

The report mentioned, “politicians and activists are seen as main source of media criticism in the Philippines (46%), where journalists critical of government are routinely branded communists or terrorists.” The example of Philippines is marked to be reflected in different nations worldwide. A question arise, whether news consumers are not accepting criticism any more across platforms ? Survey data indicated that news-avoiders are less interested in the big stories of the day, rather interested in positive or solution based journalism. It is a big realisation. 

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / June 23, 2023

Watch “Digital News Report 2023 at Reuters, London” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/HkpIF6eGjoY

Reference:

Overview and key finds of the 2023 Digital News report. Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism.

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/dnr-executive-summary

Though political campaign entered social media platforms during general elections in 2014 and 2019, the target audience remained in a low scale in India. But a Google-Kantar report indicate that internet consumer base in the country by 2023 reached above 75 crore active users, those who practice their online presence atleast once in a month. Increase in the number of internet connected voters will naturally drive election campaign into online environment during general elections in 2024. Notification issued by Government of Rajasthan for empanelment of social-media influencers for issuing advertisements to spread the message about its welfare schemes, a first of its kind, picturised the possible future in the field.

A survey conducted by ‘Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’ of Oxford University in India during January – February 2023 revealed that 53 percent of internet consumers accessed news on YouTube, 51 percent on WhatsApp, 39 percent on Instagram and 20 percent each on Twitter and Telegram in India. It is evident that heavy presence of voters on social-media platforms has turned the same to be a favourable ground for election campaign for forthcoming elections.

Assembly elections in Rajasthan is scheduled to be held during the first week of December 2023. It is expected that model code of conduct is likely to be enforced during November, three weeks ahead of the elections. Taking into consideration of the time table, the ruling government has taken up the steps to announce its advertisement policy for social media to reach the general public about the state government achievements. After implementation of model code of conduct by the Election Commission publication of advertisements through government spending will be debarred.

Social-media advertisement notification inviting applications for ‘expression of interest’ categorized influencers into four groups. Influencers active in social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc. with above 10 lakh subscribers or followers will be considered as Category A, five lakh as Category B, one lakh as Category C and upto 10,000 subscribers or followers will be identified as Category D.

The Government of Rajasthan will issue advertisements to such empanelled influencers who choose to propagate government schemes and programmes. Influencers of Category A will be released advertisements worth five lakh a month, Category B upto two lakh, Category C upto Rs 50,000 and Category D upto Rs 10,000. To avail the assignment the social-media influencers need to apply in prescribed format to the Information and Public Relations Directorate. To establish their competence, the applicants should have posted 100 videos on 150 posts for Category A, 60 videos or 100 posts for Category B, 30 videos or 50 posts for category C and 15 videos or 30 posts by Category D during  past six months. However, the selection committee appointed by the government will have power to grant relaxations to otherwise suitable applicants in this regard.

Review of social-media advertisement policy of Government of Rajasthan in the pre-Assembly elections 2023 season highlight a few assumptions. First, during the past decade mushroom growth of print and television platforms, decrease in income in comparision to spending and ownership issues resulted in loss of public-faith among traditional media outlets.. Such an environment gave rise to hyper-local social media influencers as alternative news and views sources. In the social-media ecosystem merely one or two per cent of influencers make enough money, while 98 to 99 percent rely on personal preference, philanthropy or sponsorship. Offer by the government to exhibit advertisements alongwith their content for money may appear lucrative.

Secondly, the exercise of placement of government advertisement along with their work may turn to be a cause to diminish the originality of content created by the social-media influencers. Public-faith built investing hardwork for a prolonged period may face casualties. For obvious reasons, a major portion of print and television platforms lost public-faith supporting government perspectives during Covid and Post-Covid pandemic era. While they are not able to relieve themselves out of the vicious circle of government advertisement revenue and partisan reporting, the present effort by government appears as a cage set to trap social media influencers to face a similar situation.

Thirdly, the government may offer advertisements to the social-media influencers for a period of three months. Thus one time earnings will be meagre but the collateral damage to reputation will be enormous. The policy authored by the Government of Rajasthan may influence other state governments facing elections during 2024 to replicate the model of releasing advertisements to social-media influencers in addition to print and television platforms. A question arises, who will be benefitted out of the development, government or social-media influencers ?

Generally, the social-media influencers build-up communities of followers in their social-media handles. The relationship between the source and the audience is cordial and the audience give importance to the information provided by the source. Government intends to utilize the trustful environment to propagate its messages. Several months before the attempt by the Government of Rajasthan, ‘YouGov’ an initiative by Electronics and information Technology ministry of Government of India attempted a similar effort for empanelment of influencer marketing agencies during March 2023.

As a part of the ‘Digital India’ initiative, central government is continuing efforts to publicize the public welfare programmes through ‘YouGov’ since 2014. Its activities extended to 21 states countrywide. To rope-in social-media influencer marketing agencies, they divided into four categories to take part in ‘request for empanelment’ exercise. Influencers who have attained above 10 lakh subscribers or followers were identified as Category A, one lakh to 10 lakh as Category B, 10,000 to one lakh as Category C and one thousand to 10 thousand as Category D. The empanelment ment to be effective for next three years.

Impact of social-media in campaigning for democratic elections in India was evident from 2014. But more than half of the votors will be present in the social-media platforms and stay online for a lengthy time period on daily basis during 2024. Moreover, they choose their trusted influencers for supply of content. Additionally online consumers increasingly accessing content published in news-papers and television through links in the social-media platforms. All such developments highlight the relevance of social-media and influencer–led alternative media. Entry of government agencies and political parties into social-media through influencers may result in major disruptions.  

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 07, 2023

Watch “Digital News Report 2023 at Reuters, London” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/HkpIF6eGjoY

Reference:

Mohan, Archis. ‘Influencers’ hog limelight in poll season. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). June 30, 2023

Request for Empanelment (RFE) for selection of Influencer Marketing Agencies for Empanelment with MyGov

https://eprocure.gov.in

Multi-national social media platform Twitter filed an appeal before the Karnataka High Court against the directions issued by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for removal of posts by users and blocking accounts in July 2022. After a year long hearing the court dismissed the appeal in June 2023. It is a notable chapter in the social media landscape in India.

Information Technology Act 2000 identifies the users as ‘publishers’ for their posts in platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. They remain legally responsible for the published content. The social media service providers are accepted as the ‘intermediaries’ for such publications. The government can direct them to block objectionable posts under Section 69(A). In case of failure to carryout such directions, they will loose the legal status of ‘intermediaries’ and will be considered as the ‘publishers’ of the disputed contents. Thus they will be responsible to face legal challenge in such cases.

Government of India notified ‘Information Technology Rules’ and ‘Digital Media Ethics Code’ in 2021. It emphasised that the social media platforms need to immediately carryout direction for removal of contents. Twitter protested against directions issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology during February 2022 for blocking 500 user accounts. Dispute also arose on activists tweets during the farmers protest against central government in 2021. The ministry set a deadline to Twitter to carryout all of its directions before July 4, 2022. Twitter challenged the ministry directions through an appeal at the Karnataka High Court after compiling all the pending directions.

Twitter mainly submitted before the court that before removal of the content or blocking the account, it is reasonable to issue notice to the concerned users and consider their replies. Unilateral action by Twitter as per government directions will be arbitrary and curtail freedom of users. However, dismissing the appeal by Twitter, Karnataka High Court ruled that it is mandatory for social media platforms to honour government directions. Section 69(A)  of the Information Technology Act 2000 mentions that the government can direct for removal of online content in the interest of sovereignty, integrity and defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order.

It seems the decission of Karnataka High Court put an end to the triangular dispute between user’s post, responsibilities of the intermediaries and powers of the government rolled on for a long time. It may add clearity to the forthcoming new information technology act under active consideration of the government. Spread of social media among consumers in our country is a result of penetration of smartphone use and decrease in data rates after a decade of its introduction in the international level. Though the government adopts careful moves for implementation of regulations in the field, sheer huge number of users pose trouble now and then. 

Prevailing laws of the land are strong enough to control the emerging trends in information technology. Regulatory mechanism provided in the Constitution of India relating to Article 19(2), Press and Registration of Books Act 1867, Defamation, Official Secrets Act, Contempt of Court lay down basic principles for regulation of flow of communication in various platforms. The laws enacted during the British rule are strong enough and people of the country are accustomed to such regulatory mechanism that ensures rule of law in the country.

Five years after public introduction of internet, Information Technology Act 2000 come into force and no new major laws followed it except periodic notification of amended rules. The government brought Information Technology Rules 2021 which made it mandatory for the intermediaries to remove social media posts within 36 hours of issue of government directions. Karnataka High Court’s rulings will further strengthen the time frame recommended for blocking the social media contents.

In the contemporary times potential social media contents get ‘viral’, which means circulation from one users device to many users devices within a short period of time. Research findings denote that a short video gathers strength to be viral for a period of 12 days only. Thus objectionable posts in the social media need to be taken-out immediately to prevent wider waves of circulation. Karnataka High Court has fined Rs 50 lakh to Twitter for unreasonable delay to carryout government directions to block objectionable twits.

Diverse opinions put arguments that Twitter is a United State-based company. It may not be entitled to same freedom of speech and other fundamental rights enjoyed by Indian citizens. The government must frame separate provisions for the foreign entities. Emerging regulatory framework in India emphasize on three-tier system to protect the interest of social media users. In the first layer, as per the Information Technology Rules 2021, social media platforms with more than 50 lakh registered users will be considered as ‘significant social media intermediaries’ and appoint a resident grievance officer to look after content-related complaints. In the second layer, ‘self-regulatory organisations’ will entertain appeals against the decission of the grievance officers of member platforms. In the third layer, ‘grievance appellate committees’ formed with government representation will take-up cases for final adjudication.

During trial period of Twitter’s appeal at Karnataka High Court the ownership of international tech company changed. The new owner has said that Twitter should obey rules and regulations of host countries. In light of such developments the tussle between Twitter and government has come to an end.   

#pmjournalism      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 21, 2023

Watch “Digital News Report 2023 at Reuters, London” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/HkpIF6eGjoY

References:

Lele, Sourabh. Karnataka HC verdict on Twitter to turn the tables for online platforms: Experts. Business Standard. (Bhubaneswar Edition). June 03, 2023.

Lele, Sourabh. MeitY may go for govt-backed GAC on social media content. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 11, 2022.

Large scale closure of local news platforms in the western-hemisphere during pre and post Covid–19 pandemic media environment calls for enrichment of survival strategies for trouble-ridden local journalism in the eastern-hemisphere. During past two decades, between 2004 and 2023, a total number of 2,100 local newspapers were closed and 1,800 communities lost their local news outlets in the United States of America. About 60 percent of news-room jobs disappeared between 2008 and 2023. Technological advancements, mostly rise of digital ecosystem considered to be the prime reason for the disruptions in the news industry.

Traditional business models of news publication depended on advertisement revenue for 200 years. With advent of e-commerce and search engines advertisers preferred to propagate their message at the point-of-purchase among consumers. Though advertising spend is on consistent rise worldwide, the shift in placement adversely affected the news business. Emergence of social media as a vehicle of news dissemination is yet another factor in the row. Social media has been proved to be the most efficient mode of circulation of hyper-local news. The mainstream news media neglected hyper-local news and appearance of citizen journalists resulted in abundant publication of hyper-local news that affects common people’s lives.

For example, any ordinary event in a family, a locality or a community is of importance for the people associated with it. Social media is capable of providing infrastructural facilities for circulation of such news. On the other hand, traditional news platforms practice the model to produce editions aimed at a bigger section of readers, listeners or viewers. The alternative opportunity is available with the social media platforms for small groups. News consumers increasingly prefer to access news as per their choice and utility value. They shift their news consumption habit form mainstream media to social media platforms that serve their purpose. The trend is evident both in developed and developing societies worldwide.

Traditional news outlets neglected hyper-local coverage for various reasons. In providing news editions for a large cross-section of consumers they proved to be incapable to satisfy the news needs of smaller groups. They preferred not to invest money and talent in the sector. In such an environment social media offered facilities to publish hyper-local news and circulate without much expenditure. Introduction of cloud computing resulted in abundant availability of space for content storage surpassing all the facilities of pre and post printing era.

However, irony is news media has been dragged into a vicious circle of toxic environment even with availability of high-end technologies in the post-Covid-19 pandemic ‘new normal’. Managers of social media platforms give preference to advertisement and sponsored content. They control how such content will be displayed in the consumer walls and neglect independent not-paid-for content. As a result circulation of hyper-local news in social media platforms are pushed into back benches. Social media influencers advertise on every thing from household consumer durables to political and religious ideologies that cover a major space in users walls. The proportion of local news appears to be shrinking day by day.

Apprehensions on possible effects of generative artificial intelligence on journalism was evident from the time of appearance of products like ChatGPT in the later part of 2022. While a section of media analysts suspected that automation in journalism industry may make human labour in creative field redundant, another section speculated possibilities to overcome long standing problems faced in journalism with use of technology. In a notable move, after eight months of universal availability of generative artificial intelligence products, ‘Google’ could convince large media houses and ‘Open AI’ small media outlets to experiment with use of AI technology to enrich journalism practices in the United States.

Washington-based non-profit organization ‘American Journalism Project’ established in 2019 is a venture philanthropy working to  address the market failure in local news. It is being mentioned that “encouraging and adoption of new technology, to enhance journalism in public interest, has been a core component of AJP’s venture support.” Open AI, innovator of ChatGPT, pledged equivalent of 37 crore 50 lakh Indian rupees to establish partnership with 41 local news platforms through AJP “to explore ways the development of artificial intelligence can support a thriving, innovative local news field, and ensure local news organizations shape the future of this emerging technology” during July 2023.

It is further noted that “there are significant opportunities for journalism organizations to use AI : it can facilitate deeper analysis of public data and information, strengthen and personalize user experience, and develop new formats for delivering information.” “AJP aims to build the support structure for community-driven local news organizations to expand their capabilities through AI.” The grant finance will be invested for creating technology for AI studios and making pilot investments in numerous AI applications to develop tools for local journalism.

It has been agreed that the participating local news platforms will establish direct contact with ‘Open AI’ specialists to develop tools that could assist in day-to-day operation of local journalism. Results of the experiment may serve as examples in the local news field. Traditionally journalism depended upon big enterprises, and huge investments. Small local news outlets failed to compete with the big media and an opportunity has come to look forward to overcome the difficulties through technological innovations of AI. Rise of personality based independent journalism in the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ has much to expect from such automated technologies.

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / July 28, 2023

Video : Watch ‘American Journalism Project, Explained in You Tube’

https://youtu.be/e4uQiBPDPsw    

#pmjournalism   

References:

American Journalism Project

https://www.theajp.org/

Waldman, Steven. Strengthening local news could combat polarization

https://www.rebuildlocalnews.org/strengthening-local-news-could-combat-polarization/

Censorship of cinema in India follows ‘The Cinematograph Act of 1952’. Growth of film industry during pre and post-independence period felt the need of a comprehensive mechanism in the national level. Since exhibition of cinema was confined to theatres during the period, emphasis was laid upon review of content and maintenance of exhibition formalities.

However, cinema graduated to television and video formats after three decades. Within next three decades cinema reached internet platforms. Technological developments warranted amendments to the act. Circulation of pirated copies of cinema and unauthorized exhibition called for strict vigilance through regulatory forums.

The first exhibition of cinema in the international level was conducted in 1895 and within a year reached India in 1896. Initially films made in foreign countries were exhibited and the first native feature film was ready for screening in 1912. The British rulers enacted ‘The India Cinematograph Act 1920’. Film censorship facilities were established in three cities Mumbai, Kolkata and Rangoon. The local police chiefs presided over the committees empowered to censor films. A committee was formed to study the status of Indian cinema in 1928, which recommended for film censorship facility in the national level.

‘The Cinematograph Board of Film Censors’ was formed in the post-independent period. It was re-named as ‘Central Board of Film Certification’ in 1983. In accordance to the existing laws, before exhibition of films in the public domain, all films need to be censored by the board. The major areas emphasised during the censorship include national unity and sovereignty, security, friendly relations with foreign nations, public order, morality, defamation and contempt of court issues as depicted in the content.

In accordance with the law, committees consisting a group of experts judge the content of films to issue censor certificates. In cases the board members can order for delete of certain scenes or audio portions and also advice for changes. In cases, when the producers disagree with the decision of the board, they had an option for appeal at ‘The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal’. The facility has been withdrawn from 2021. The aggrieved parties need to knock the doors of the high courts.

After 32 years of enactment of ‘The Cinematograph Act 1952’, considering the technological changes a few amendments were carried out during 1984. Again, after 40 years ‘The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2023’ was passed in Rajya Sabha on July 27, 2023 and Lok Sabha on July 31, 2023. Broadly the amendments will guard the interests of film producers and contribute to social enrichment.

First, piracy has risen as a major obstacle for growth of Indian film industry in an era of online media consumption. It is being told that the producers in the country face a loss of 20,000 crore rupees annually. Amendment of the act will result in punishment of three months to three years jail and three lakh fine for piracy to the offenders. In certain cases the fine amount can be enhanced to five percent of audited production cost of a film.

Secondly, according to the act of 1952 censor certificates were issued for a period of 10 years and the producers had to apply afresh for reissue of certification after 10 years. The amendment allowed certification for life. Thirdly, the provision of issue of certificates under U/A category has been divided into three sections U/A – 7 years, U/A – 13 years and U/A – 16 years and above to attend a public exhibition of film by teen-agers under parental guidance.

In addition, films issued ‘A’ for adults and ‘S’ for specific professionals have to apply for fresh certification to broadcast in television medium. Government of India’s prerogative to call back of certified films for review been revoked through the amendment.

In the history of mass media cinematography appeared 400 years after invention of printing technology. While print took 300 years to spread its wings in India, cinema reached the sub-continent within a year after its first exhibition in Paris. Film industry in India is considered fore-runner in the International level with annual production of 3,000 films in 40 languages.

Theatre exhibition of cinema has been largely transferred to smartphones during the post-Covid-19-pandemic environment. People spend long hours on mobilephone screens instead of silver screens of theatre enjoying cinema. In our country Over-the-Top ‘OTT’ platforms could built-up their infrastructure before the pandemic. Popularity of OTT grew in the pandemic lock-downs and continue the speed during the ‘new normal’. Question arises, should the cinematograph act meant for theatre exhibition and television broadcasting be applicable for OTT ? During the discussion of the amendment bill in the Parliament the subject came into purview.

Media specialists mention that Indian cinema is gathering popularity in the international field. Technological support for exhibition online worldwide by OTT plays an important role in the process. In such a situation, regulatory policy decision by the government may adversely affect its progress. There is little chance for piracy in OTT platforms. Transparent and digital information on the entire business, even every consumers transactions are readily available for review. OTT platforms emerged after 100 years of cinematography and have an agenda to take cinema to the nooks and corners of the world. It appears faulty to impose Indian ethos among the international cinema audience through regulatory mechanism.

In the contemporary society OTT is being developed as an alternative trend to cinema. Indian laws such as Information Technology Act 2000, Cable Television Network Rules 1994, Code of Ethics attached to IT Act and Copyright Act 1957 offer sufficient scope to be vigilant on OTT platforms. Self-regulation of OTT platforms is being encouraged. The ecosystem does not favour dragging OTT into the ambit of cinema in India. It should have its separate identity. 

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 4, 2023

Video:

The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2023 taken up for consideration and passing in Lok Sabha

https://youtu.be/TbSbZIZh1Jk

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Reference:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1944435

The total global entertainment and media revenue is expected to face stagnation with annual growth rate of around 5 per cent between 2022 and 2027. Leading trade and commerce consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)’s annual ‘Global Entertainment and Media Outlook (2023-27)’ published in July 2023 painted a gloomy future for media industry. A section of experts expected growth stories in media landscape during the post Covid19-pandemic ‘new normal’. But the performance of the industry in 2022 presented an opposite picture. Total revenue year-on-year basis decreased from 10.6 percent in 2021 to 5.4 percent in 2022. It has been predicted that by 2027 revenue will grow just 2.8 percent from 2026. There may be differences in growth rate at different geographies, but it is certain that the media industry will face one of its most turbulent times in the near future.

However, annual growth rate in Indian entrainment and media industry recorded 15.9 percent in 2022. It is expected to continue with a growth rate of 9.7 percent during the next five years. Recent experience in East Asian countries indicate far-reaching structural changes in the media ecosystem. Introduction of broadband in rural Indonesia resulted in growth of OTT platforms. Consumers preferred local and sports programmes. In India hinterland wide coverage of internet and use of smartphone is expected by 2027. It may result in changed media access habits of local people.

A different picture emerged in China. Online users are increasingly switching over to short video platforms like Duyin, Kuaishu from popular longform streaming platforms such as iQYI, Tencent Video and Youla. Duyin is owned by TikTok promoter ByteDance. Question arises, whether surge in online consumers using smartphones in India will spend some time at OTT or leapfrog into short video segment ? As short video formats in Facebook and YouTube has achieved considerable popularity in the country by 2023, apprehensions on consumers behavioural change claim priority.

PWC report indicated the prime cause of slowdown in the global entertainment and media industry is sluggish consumer spending. It has been noted that as the industry is moving from analogue to digital, cost of production and distribution are declining. Similarly though consumers are spending more time in digital entertainment and media environments, that does not cost more money. “As a result, consumer spending per capita on E&M will decrease as a share of overall spending falling from 0.53% of average personal income in 2023 to 0.45% in 2027.”  It will impact overall revenue generation in the industry.

Entrepreneurs need to change their approach to business on account of fall in income. In a survey among industry CEOs 40 per cent told to PWC that, “their current business model would not be viable in ten years.” Such development “pushing companies to reset expectations, refocus inward and harnessing emerging technology – in particular, by exploring the power of generative AI as an engine of productivity for creative process.”

The report noted that between 2022 and 2027, global advertising revenue will rise 4.5% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR). But it is certain that the advertising spend will be diverted to e-commerce, video games and streaming platforms. As the consumers are spending more time in e-commerce platforms browsing products, “companies around the world will be spending significantly more in an effort to reach consumers at the point of purchase and at the point of decision.” The experience in social media platforms like Meta and Alphabet support the hypothesis. A significant downturn in collection of advertising revenue has been recorded for five years including 2022 for Meta.

In the entertainment industry theaterical exhibition of cinema through box office revenue is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels by 2025. In an emerging trend, movies enriched on gaming intellectual property, such as storyline and characterisation is gaining popularity. It may gather strength during next five years. At North America such movies had good box office collection in 2022. In the entertainment and media field with use of algorithms personalized content is on rise and will accelerate in the near future.

Internet is fast spreading worldwide and the use of new technology is getting momentum. Experts predict that global 5G penetration will surpass 4G in 2025. The problem of internet connectivity experienced in developing and under-developed countries may get a relief with wide availability of new technology. Growth of resultant digital media will translate into better income for media industry through rise in advertising. In India online advertising is expected to grow 12.3 per cent on yearly basis between 2022 and 2027.

The PWC report concludes, “entertainment and media industry has always been at root, a creative endeavour. But now, that creativity must be extended into multiple dimensions, and must be harnessed to a purpose. In the coming years, armed with powerful technology, leaders will have to be more creative about how they create, distribute and monetise products and services.”  

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 11, 2023

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References:

Perspectives from the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2023-2027/ June 21, 2023

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/tmt/media/outlook/insights-and-perspectives.html

Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita. Future of media not very entertaining. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). July 25, 2023

Online gaming and bets grew parallel with spread of internet connectivity in India. However, it achieved official status as a part of mainstream entertainment only with decision to charge 28 percent ‘Goods and Services Tax’ on bets in e-gaming by GST Council in its 51st Session on August 2, 2023. Along with casino and horse-racing, tax will be charged on full value of monetary transactions in e-gaming bets. A ‘Group of Ministers’ was constituted to study the matter which submitted its first report in June 2023, but asked to review the recommendations. The second report was adopted in the 50th session of GST Council to include betting in e-gaming into tax net.

Differences prevail between e-gaming and e-sports. Anybody playing a video game in any platform is called e-gaming. In e-sports two teams of e-gaming players appear in competitive tournaments. An individual player may win or loose in e-gaming. In e-sports instead of a player, a team of players win over the other team. E-gaming is tax-free, but when bets enter into e-gaming, it attracts GST. On the otherhand e-sports is tax free.

Number of e-gaming players was calculated 270 crore worldwide during 2020. Generally it is believed that e-gaming is popular among the young people. But evidence-based statistics reveal that average age of e-gaming player to be 35 years. It means, e-gaming is popular among all age groups, from children, teenagers to elderly. Half of them are women. E-gamers use smartphones in large scale for playing.

Electronic sports or e-sports in form of competitive tournaments took its roots with early appearance of video games way back during 1970s. But was recognised as major sporting event only with the turn of the century. Generally video game manufacturers sponsor e-sports. Enthusiasts of e-gaming like cricket, football or tennis fans, either stay at home and access the events through OTT, dial-up internet or attend the venue in person to enjoy the sporting events. There are over 24 crore e-sports fans worldwide.

Technological advancement, mostly spread of 5G telecom connectivity appears to enhance attraction of e-sports to enjoy at remote corners. In India, number of e-sports players is rising continuously from six lakhs in 2021 to ten lakhs in 2022 which is expected to reach 25 lakhs during 2023 as per estimation published in ‘Windows of Opportunity’, a report brought out by ‘Ernst & Young – Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries’. Participating teams in e-sports calculated to be one lakh 10 thousand during 2022 and expected to rise to one lakh 25 thousand during 2023.

Players need not pay any money to the organisers of e-sports. Thus it is tax free. Winners in e-sports tournaments are awarded with prizes. For example, ‘Sky-E-Sports-Masters’ awards winner team about two crore rupees in league matches. Organisers of e-sports events collect money through brand promotion and sale of media rights. Teams pay salary to their players ranging from 50,000 to eight lakhs per month. In India, e-gaming has achieved a professional career status.

Players practice over eight to 12 hours per day to participate in e-sports. Coaching facilities are available to train players on advanced techniques. Players spend over two lakhs rupees to set-up gaming dens in their private living places. The International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Council of Asia and the Commonwealth Games have recognised e-sports as a sport category. In Asian Games 2023 e-sports will be considered as a ‘medal sport’.

Online gaming has been recognised as fourth-largest segment in Indian media and entertainment industry by FICCI report of 2023. With annual growth rate of 35 percent transactions in online gaming reached 13500 crore rupees during 2022, which is expected to grow to 23100 crore by 2025. There are above 42 crore online gamers in the country and about 10 crore players spend considerable time in gaming on daily basis. About 25 percent of players pay subscriptions for playing. E-Gaming has turned to be an alternative entertainment platform in our country.

In India, while bets in e-gaming grew 39 percent in 2022 on year-to-year basis, the growth rate without bets was limited to 20 percent. As growth rate of bets in e-gaming is in a accelerated mood, imposition of 28 percent GST on transactions will result in channeling enough money to government funds. Interest among the online players and e-sports organisers may not suffer from any negative impact by the development. On the otherhand, imposition of GST in bets in e-gaming will contribute towards ease-of-doing business without regulatory apprehensions through achieving gambling a legal status.

Total Gaming, TechnoGamerz, CarryisLive, Live Insaan are the leaders in e-gaming in our country. Popular figures from sports and films like M.S.Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan serve as brand ambassadors for different e-gaming manufacturing companies. In experts opinion, about 60 percent of consumers access internet through Indian languages. E-gaming companies are making their products available through Hindi, Guajarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bangla. They are expected to expand to other regional languages in near future, which may help to widen impact of online gaming.   

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / August 18, 2023

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References:

Esports vs Gaming - Key differences between e-sports and gaming

https://www.esports.net/wiki/esports-vs-gaming/

Online gaming becomes fourth-largest segment in Indian M&E Sector, reaches INR 135 billion Mark – FICCI – EY Report 2023

https://www.animationxpress.com/latest-news/online-gaming-becomes-fourth-largest-segment-in-indian-me-sector-reaching-inr-135b-mark-ficci-ey-report-2023/?amp=1

Sanyal, Debarghya. For the love of the game, and more. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 12, 2023. 

India claimed the second position in internet shutdowns during the first half of 2023 in the international level as per a survey report published by ‘SurfShark’, a global online connectivity research organization. While 42 internet shutdowns were recorded during the period, India experienced nine shutdowns. Iran had 14 shutdowns between January 1 and June 30, 2023 and elevated into the first position. The third position belonged to Pakistan with three shutdowns in the six months.

A three year status survey was conducted jointly by ‘Internet Freedom Foundation’ and ‘Human Rights Watch’ to locate shutdowns between January 2020 and December 2022 among various states in India. Kept a part Jammu and Kashmir, the study revealed that there was at least a single shutdown recorded in 18 states. Internet shutdowns during public protests peaked the list with 57 incidents followed by preventive measures during conduct of written tests for recruitment to government employment with 37 incidents, communal violence prompted 18 incidents and due to law and order issues ban clamped in 18 incidents.

The highest internet shutdown was recorded in Rajasthan. Among 85 incidents during the three years, 44 incidents referred to public protests. Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam state governments ordered internet shutdowns to prevent malpractice during conduct of recruitment examinations. In many instances internet service for mobile phones faced shutdown in the troubled regions. It is noteworthy that above 90 percent of Indians use smartphones to access internet.

In India, internet shutdowns are either complete or partial. In the former case, internet services are completely barred in the troubled regions, while in the later case broadband services are allowed and mobile services are closed down. In some cases specific use of certain applications are prohibited. Legally internet connectivity is considered as a part of freedom of expression guaranteed as a fundamental right under Article 19 of Constitution of India. Internet services can be interrupted for a limited duration under government orders, but not for indefinite period. Internet shutdown comes under judicial enquiry.

In our country internet shutdowns were ordered by police and district magistrates imposing section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure till 2017. With increase in number of internet shutdowns central government issued ‘Temporary Suspension of Telcom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017’. Internet shutdowns are managed under section 5(2) of ‘Indian Telegraph Act 1855’. Secretary of Home Department in the central government and Principal Secretaries of Home Departments of various state governments are empowered to issue orders for internet shutdowns. Internet shutdowns are not permitted under any other laws.

In a mechanism to review orders of internet shutdowns, committees are formed both at the central and individual state level. In the central level Cabinet Secretary, Secretaries of Law and Telcom and in the state level Chief Secretary, Secretaries of Law and Home affairs constitute the review committees. Each internet shutdown needs to be reviewed with five days of the occurrence. One of the earliest cases was filed in the Gujarat High Court during the ‘Patidar Movement’ on governments power for such bans. Several arguments were carried out on internet shutdowns at different high courts and the Supreme Court.

In the changed scenario as common citizens are increasingly dependent on internet for communication, financial transactions, trade-commerce, health care, education, administration and entertainment, internet shutdowns result in huge financial loss in the society. A report published by ‘Top10VPN’, a global tracker of internet data, indicated that during the first half of 2023 internet shutdowns across the nation have cost India about 2000 crore rupees. The loss is more than the loss amount of whole year during 2022.

While Ethiopia, a country relived from two year war incurred the highest losses globally, Myanmar under military rule since 2021 after a coup places itself in the second position. India faced internet shutdowns for 2,353 hours between January 1 and June 30, 2023. It is noteworthy that neither central government nor state governments publish enough comprehensive data on internet shutdowns. As a result one has to depend upon non-government sources, mainly foreign tracking agencies to gather data on the subject.

On critical examination on internet shutdowns in India it appears to be used as a convenient tool by government to manage law and order situations. It remains a fact that accessibility to internet in a developing society among more than half of the citizens, with poor media literacy, become a breeding ground for fake-news. Taking advantage of a minor social disturbance miscreants promote civic unrest and violence to achieve self-interests. As large sections of people are easily get influenced and motivated by viral videos circulated through social media, the administration use internet shutdowns as an effective weapon to control misinformation. But on the other hand, with non-availability of online discourses half-truths, rumours and exaggerated reports spread among people through mouth to mouth interpersonal communication. Media literacy can play an effective role to control such situations.

Instances of internet shutdowns to disrupt peoples protest movements indicate intolerance of the ruling political parties in charge of the government. Supreme Court has cautioned that internet shutdowns should not be treated as a routine administrative tool and established guidelines must be followed. It is the responsibility of the civil societies to advocate for free flow of internet connectivity for collective good of the people.    

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / September 1, 2023

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References:

Most Internet Shutdowns in last 3 years to curb protests: Report. Hindustan Times. Jan 15, 2023

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/18-indian-states-shut-down-internet-at-least-once-in-3-years-iff-and-hrw-report-on-internet-shutdownss-in-india-101686769925670.html

Sawhney, Anoushka. Cost of Net bans till June this year more than in entire 2022. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). June 10, 2023.

Earlier to invention of printing technology ‘town criers’ pronounced information in high pitch of voice at crowded places and ‘news writers’ circulated news in form of newsletters dispatched to destinations. A large number of people joined the profession of news collection and circulation with increase in popularity of print newspapers and named as ‘journalists’. In the later times people working for radio, television and news web portals were also known as ‘journalists’. During middle of the first decade of twenty-first century rise of social media created opportunities for the news consumers both to receive and circulate information. In such an environment it was marked that content created by certain persons attracted huge number of online consumers. However, they were not identified as ‘journalists’, but called as ‘social media influencers’.

Influencers followed the path laid by traditional media platforms to deal with news and opinion alongwith advertising. Influencers were rated as per number or quality of their followers who consume their content. Influencer circles are enriched with less number of experienced mainstream journalists and more of digital native news writers. Creative talents well-versed with digital platforms endeavoured into the new medium of mass communication. In the process of change social media enriched with spread, increase in consumer base and a better democratic environment promoted the influencers in the fields of news and advertisement as leaders. The future of the trend appears to be promising.

‘Dentehu India’ in collaboration with the ‘Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi’ released a report entitle ‘Impact of Influencer Marketing in India’ during June 2023. Understanding the emerging trend, firstly, influencers are active mostly in Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin and X (Twitter) platforms in India. Secondly, business houses dealing with beauty, fashion, lifestyle, consumer goods, food and travel are spending money in influencer advertising since 2018.

Thirdly, the followers of social media influencers are categorized into four groups taking into account of their age. Generally people aged 18 years to 23 years are identified as ‘Generation- Z’, between 24 years and 37 years as ‘Millennials’ between 38 years and 56 years as ‘Generation - X’ and between 57 years and 64 years as ‘Boomers’,

‘Generation - Z’ and ‘Millennials’ are greatly affected by social media influencer marketing. While brand advertising reach 28 percent among ‘Generation - Z’, influencer advertising access 33 percent. Similarly brand advertising reach 24 percent among ‘Millennials’, influencer advertising access 36 percent. On the other hand, brand advertising reaches ‘Generation - X’ 37 percent and influencer advertising accessed by only 12 percent. The category of ‘Boomers’ are affected by 63 percent through brand advertising and 38 percent through influencer advertising.

Fourthly, successful influencers earn hefty amounts from advertisers of products and services. For example; influencers charge between Rs 10,000 to Rs 7,50,000 per post for financial advertising of banks, insurance, mutual funds, stocks etc. Influencer advertising agencies those engage and supervise social media advertising get upto Rs 20 lakhs for an advertising campaign.

Fifthly, spread of internet connectivity and rapid growth of users of smartphones in the post-pandemic era in our country resulted in importance of social media influencer marketing. Followers of popular influencers range from 1,50,000 to 2,50,000. Trend of social media influencer advertising is gradually shifting from urban locations to rural settings. Alongwith English and Hindi, advertisers are engaging influencers in regional languages.

‘Advertising Standards Council of India’ lays emphasis on three aspects of expertise among social media influencers. How much followers an influencer reaches, to what affect motivate audiences purchasing decision and what is his or her position, authority, knowledge, relationship with the audience to evaluate an influencer. The leading social media influencer advertisers in our country include Hindustan Uniliver, Marico and Bikanervala etc.

For example, Marico could reach 38 crore audience for its hair-care product ‘Livon’ through influencer advertising. About 1000 videos were posted by the followers in course of the campaign. Marico also engaged 40 influencers below the age of 40 years to publicize its Parachute brand coconut hair oil.

Influencer advertising is popular mostly among ‘Generation - Z’ and ‘Millennials’ spread over the age group of 18 years and 37 years in India. In absence of data, it appears that the same age group access to news through social media and follow influencers for news, current affairs and opinion.

‘Forbes Advisors’ data reveal that by the beginning of 2023 about 67.5 percent of internet consumers were present in social media. They spent 141.6 minutes daily on various social media platforms. It is being told that if the trend continues and the longevity of ‘Generation - Z’ is calculated at 73 years, each person will spend above 5 years 7 months in social media. Such statistics signifies the importance of social media influencers in the recent future.     

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / September 8, 2023

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References:

Mishra, Anuradha. Dawn of a New ‘I’ Age. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition) August 31, 2023

Basu, Debashis. Steps against Influencers: Will they work ? Business Standard  (Bhubaneswar Edition). August 28, 2023

Top Social Media Statistics and Trends of 2023 – Forbes Advisors INDIA

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/in/business/social-media-statistics/

News avoidance by majority of people worldwide is an unsolved problem in the post-pandemic ecosystem. Studies undertaken in developed countries reveal that non-news sites expose people to more political content than news sites. A paper published in the journal Political Communication in August 2023 indicated that among every 10 political news accessed by the public 3.4 belong to news platforms and 6.6 from the non-news platform sources. The estimate is the result of a survey conducted among over 7000 citizen in the United States of America, The Netherlands and Poland.

The sample of the survey included mainly online news consumers. The researchers stated that as people spend little time in news platforms, but spend enough time online to attend various engagement throughout the day, they proportionately come across circulated news in the non-news sites. However, news either from news sites or non-news sites does not influence much for building-up political perspectives.

Nic Newmen of ‘Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism’, Oxford University comparing status of media platforms within ten years in UK at a seminar on ‘Future of Journalism’ during August 2023 pointed out that viewers and readers are fast vanishing from television and print media. While viewership of television recorded 79 percent in 2013, it reduced to 52 percent in 2023. Similarly readers of print publications went down from 59 percent into mere 14 percent. On the otherhand, consumers of social media raised from 20 percent in 2013 to 38 percent in 2023.

In social media popularity of video platforms has been increased. YouTube user base in UK surged from 16 percent in 2014 to 20 percent in 2023. While consumers of WhatsApp raised from seven percent to 16 percent, consumers of Facebook went down from 36 percent to 28 percent within a decade.

News avoidance in the developed nations is evident from the various studies. Research data explains that UK registers the highest position with 27 percent of people avoiding news followed by France with 23 percent, Germany with 22 percent and USA with 18 percent among select few countries. In the international level UK and France are credited for their excellence in journalism, but the recent trend of news avoidance in those top two countries is worrysome.

Analysts focus upon certain points as the major reasons for news avoidance. First, circulation of abundance of information is the main reason for news avoidance at the news platforms. During the post-pandemic New Normal people came across large flow of information which diminished public interest in news. Spread of smartphones resulted in people receiving information from various sources on continuous basis. Often they come across summary of major happenings of the hour in mobile devices and go to news platforms to seek details on select items as per their preference and necessity at streaming services or search engines. They reach the newspaper pages or television screens for explainers, opinion or debate.

Secondly, research has also shown that growing number of people avoid news as they experience anger, anxiety, helplessness and depression while coming across negative news. For example, people worldwide did not show much interest on coverage of economic meltdown and Ukraine war during New Normal. As per media theories, people seek more news during economic disturbances and wars, but the theory had little impact. Many parts of the world experience lack of justice, atrocity and suppression, but common people are unable to oppose the trend. It appears that in frustration they prefer to keep themselves aloof from such negative reporting of current events.

Thirdly, closure of local news outlets is yet another reason for diminishing interest in news among general public. In the developed countries local news platforms starting from weekly newspapers to digital portals are amidst of disruption due to failure of business models. As a result qualitative journalism faced causalities and news in general lost its glory. People did not like to read news which do not come to their use in life.

Fourthly, news consumers in the developed countries are almost acquainted with online news environment, but hesitate to pay for news. For example only nine perent online news consumers in UK pay subscription to news websites. They consider the news value for enrolling as subscribers to a particular news outlet. On the otherhand, business news platforms enriched with paid and sponsored content entertain readers at their websites free of charge which attract more people. However, in the process a majority of news consumers come across fake news, which in turn make the news landscape toxic.

Fifth, use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence is expected to make the news environment attractive again. News consumers are increasingly prefer news of their choice. Artificial Intelligence can prepare special editions of news products, either text, voice or video for each individual customer. Such advanced offerings may turn to be a reason to compel news consumers return to dedicated news platforms.

Trends of news avoidance in the developed countries will be reflected in developing societies like India sooner or later. Such advance warning may be treated as a wake-up call for Indian news platforms to reinnovate their editorial and business models to face the challenges ahead. News avoidance is a serious problem and remains unsolved. Indian news platforms need to engineer individual strategic plans to confront the problem. Negligence in this regard may prove dangerous.      

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / September 15, 2023

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References:

Farhi, Paul. Do you avoid the news ? You are in a growing company. Washington Post. August 1, 2023

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/08/01/news-avoid-depressing/

Coddington, Mark and Lewis Seth. Non-News sites expose people to more political content than news sites, why ? NemanLab. September 5, 2023

https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/09/non-news-sites-expose-people-to-more-political-content-than-news-sites-why

News trends for publishers: Ten key issues they need to tackle

https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/media_metrics/news-trends-2023/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Journalism, moreover news industry confronted disruptions in its traditional advertisement-dependent business model during post-carona-virus-induced-pandemic New Normal. As a result, subscription for news consumption identified as the alternative mode of revenue. On the otherhand, loss of pubic-faith in journalism resulted in growth of tendency for news-avoidance worldwide. The environment could not prove conducive to ensure financial stability for the news industry.

In the New Normal advertisement spend for goods and services continue to be relocated into search engine, e-commerce and social media platforms. Two hundred year old tradition of news accompanying advertisements has been disappeared or fast disappearing at different geographies. The trend is active in print, radio, television and news website landscapes in an uniform pattern. The changed scenario compels the news industry to present news as a monetization commodity on the market place just like any other goods and services.

The primary strategy for any news platform is to overcome huddles is to build trust and wipeout news-avoidance amongst the public. While these two problems are worrisome, there are many examples of news platforms fighting against, both in the developed and developing nations. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford started a research initiative ‘Trust in News Project’ to study the problem.

‘Trust in news Project’ published its third and final report on survey results and recommendations during September 2023. Two reports appeared earlier in 2021 and 2022. To understand the problem of loss of trust in journalism and efforts by the news organizations to overcome the issue a survey was conducted among about 2000 persons in each of the four countries, United States of America, United Kingdom, India and Brazil during May and June 2023. In India 2,500 persons took part on a face-to-face survey. People speaking Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Odia, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Guajrati took part in the survey.

In the course of working for three years, ‘Trust in News Project’ conducted a number of focused group discussions and evidence-based evaluations on models adopted by news publishers to promote trustworthiness of news among their consumers. The results identified four major areas addressed by the news platforms. Firstly, as the news consumers are increasingly avoiding negative news, publishers and editors should lay emphasis for supply of positive news. However, positive news does not mean highlighting success stories. But to report a problem with possible solutions. In the contemporary journalism ecosystem the trend is named as ‘solutions journalism’.

Secondly, trust in news increases with transparency in reporting. For example, while reporting a news story sufficient background information can be provided ranging from which source the news was procured, what is the credibility of the source and a description about related developments associated with the incident or issue etc. Thirdly, the staff of news platform and its editorial management contribute towards establishing trust among the news consumers. Acceptability is an important factor. For example, just publication of byline of the journalist can convince the news consumers about the competence, rationality and perceptive of the particular journalist through identification .Such a revelation can contribute towards enhancing trustworthiness of the news story.

Fourthly, consumer engagement results in building-up trust in journalism. Various techniques like promoting letter-to-the-editor, open-page, reader’s forums and journalism festivals in print media are popular engagement tools. In the online environment instant comment builds-up an atmosphere of conversation among the journalist and readers. The flagship survey contemplated to measure respondents reactions to these four areas in relation to building trust in journalism.

‘Trust in News Project’ report stated that news consumers worldwide give importance to news coverage to be accurate, impartial and fair. However the nature of accuracy, impartiality and fairness may differ from region to region depending upon social, cultural and political considerations. News consumers expect more transparency and reduction on bias. They preferred news coverage on concerns that impact everyday life. People’s attitude towards building trust in journalism varied not only across nations but within diverse and pluralistic societies. There was no simple solution in sight to build-up trust in journalism.

The report claimed, “while levels of trust in news overall have declined in all four countries, it is often lowest among the subset of the public who use news the least frequently.” It further explained, “editorial strategies for building trust appear to resonate most in the UK and the USA, and somewhat less in Brazil and India.” Decline in trust in news is attributed to factors like spread of digital platforms, politics and growing indifference towards news. The researchers hoped solutions to build trust in news from the research findings may benefit newsrooms across countries.       

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / September 29, 2023

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Reference:

Benerjee, Sayan et.al Strategies for building trust in news : What the public say they want across four countries.

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/strategies-building-trust-news-what-public-say-they-want-across-four-countries

Amidst various trends in alternative journalism, practice of Solutions Journalism in the United States of America claimed a place during the second decade of twenty-first century. Solutions Journalism aims to contribute towards mitigating social problems. Deep analysis of a social problems from various angles and reporting on initiatives undertaken by different stakeholders to solve such problems constitute the main fabric in Solutions Journalism. It may suggest methodologies and showcase examples of success stories in solving similar issues elsewhere is also a part of Solutions Journalism.

Newswriters deal with success or failure of a development with praise or criticism. Solutions Journalism report significant factors in both the areas. In the course of criticism on failure of an initiative different negative approaches employed to solve the issue are highlighted. At the same time a detailed description of possible solution initiatives for success may also be presented. It has been proved that such reporting has positive impact upon people.

Journalism in the contemporary times choose to report on shortcomings in the society. The practice of digging deep into negativity through Investigative Journalism spread in different geographies between the period of Second World War and Globalization. The trend continued throughout the first two decades of twenty-first century. However, certain studies conducted during the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods stated that popularity of Investigative Journalism is fast diminishing.

In general consumers are interested to follow news that affect their daily lives rather than ‘big news’ concerning national and international issues. They express that consumption of negative news results in depressive psychology and promotes arguments among friends in general conversation. To avoid such unwanted situations, they prefer to avoid news altogether.

Solutions Journalism do not confine itself with just pointing out the shortcomings of an issue, but try to gather facts on the reasons behind the ongoing problem and the possible ways to sortout. Fundamental characteristics of Solutions Journalism include firstly to report the details on the steps taken to mitigate the problem, secondly locate out the reasons responsible to fuel the issue, thirdly present successful examples in solving such issues elsewhere and fourthly collection of data on success or failure of different initiatives employed.

While traditionally journalism highlights social problems and failures to address such shortcomings, Solutions Journalism lay importance on the reasons behind the failures and suggest replicable models to fix the issues. Tina Rosenbeng and David Bornstern wrote a weekly column in The Newyork Times entitled ‘Fixes’ which delt with reportage on solving social problems. It could achieve popularity among the readers. Tina and David co-founded ‘Solutions Journalism Network’ to make their experience in reporting shared among the journalists community. The New York based network was established in 2013.

‘Solution Journalism Network’ emphasises upon research and training to enhance quality of journalism. During the first decade of operation it could train 30,000 journalists worldwide. ‘Solutions Story Tracker’, a database in its website contains about 15,000 solutions stories from more than 190 countries. The resources encourage interested journalists to practice Solutions Journalism worldwide.

Tina Rosenberg mentioned in an interview to ‘Voice of America’ during 2022, “It is not new; a lot of people have been doing solutions journalism without putting a name on it for a long time. What we have done is create a system for doing it and marshalled research around it in case studies and learning tools and help to spread it.” Traditional outlook in journalism usually do not entertain experimentation. But disruptions due to emergence of digital platforms during first two decades of twenty-first century in the developed nations and spread of the trend of news-avoidance worldwide in the post-pandemic New Normal news platforms are compelled to search for news models in form and content. The situation offered a conducive environment for spread of Solutions Journalism.

David Bornstein in an interview with ‘Nieman Lab’ in 2015 explained that news consumers find trouble with fake news spread through proliferation of digital platforms. The changed social structure promote institutional protest initiatives towards social ills in various spheres. Moreover, a section of journalists are committed to review social problems and discover solutions. In addition to the function of ‘watchdog’ journalism is proceeding to play a catalyst for ‘solutions’.

Media tend to support ruling political parties in order to win government support to sustain its business operations in different geographies. The approach opposes the fundamental objectives of journalism to reveal the shortcomings in governance. On the otherhand, it appears difficult enough to bring a change on such practices. If reporting positive news under compultions is to prevail, news outlets can try Solutions Journalism by not criticising issues, but finding out ways to overcome problems. It will appear to be a positive reporting, but at the same time work for social benefits.

Solutions Journalism defines it as the opposite of negative news, but is not about positive stories highlighting praises ! It is response to problems. Development Journalism manifests in controlled project environment, but solutions journalism chooses the vast canvas of the entire society as its field of operation.        

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / October 6, 2023

#pmjournalism   

References:

What is Solutions Journalism ? Medium. May 7, 2017

https://medium.com/@soljourno/what-is-solutions-journalism-c050147bb1eb

What is Solutions Journalism and why should you care ? International Journalists Network. June 14, 2022

https://ijnet.org/en/story/what-solutions-journalism-and-why-should-you-care 

Solutions Journalism : Instead of Focusing on Problems. Focus on Fixes. VOA. March 24, 2023

https://www.voanews.com/a/solutions-journalism-instead-of-focusing-on-problems-focus-on-fixes-/7019393.html

Dyer, John. Is Solutions Journalism the Solution ? Nieman Reports. June 11, 2015

https://niemanreports.org/articles/is-solutions-journalism-the-solution/

In the era of digital transformation of print media, during the middle of 2023, a new magazine entitled Country Highway was launched in the United States of America with print-only edition. A highest number of print newspapers and magazines were closed with emergence of digital media in the US in comparison to other country. Associated Press report mentioned that by 2022 two print newspapers continued to cease publication in the US per week. Price Waterhouse Coopers report claimed that 40 among 100 largest circulated print newspapers spent significant investments in their digital editions during the period. In such an ecosystem, steps initiated for publication of a print-only magazine attracted attention of media analysts.

Country Highway is a magazine in the format of a traditional broadsheet print newspaper. It is published bi-monthly, six issues in a year. Price of the magazine is fixed about Rs 700 a copy. Annual subscribers have to pay Rs 4,000 per six issues and 3 year subscription for 18 issues will be charged Rs 11,000 to receive copies delivered at their address. The layout of the publication follows print newspapers of US during nineteenth century.  Famous writers including Charles Dickens published serialised novels in such periodicals. Editions of the magazine will carry 20 broadsheet pages each.

The editorial policy of Country Highway focus on in-depth stories. On onehand, preparation of such writings takes time and on the otherhand, the readers have to spend more time for attentive reading of serious writings. The publication “reports on the political and spiritual crises” prevalent in US. It has “regular columns about agriculture, civil liberties, animals, herbal medicine, and living off the grid mentally and physically, essays about literature and art, an entire section devoted to music, ” mentioned its landing website.

The publication believes on “commissioning the best writers to write anything about which they feel passionate”. Such editorial policy was adopted by weekly NewYorker and monthly The Atlantic long ago. It appears that the editorial stand, format and circulation style of the newly launch swims against the popular trend in contemporary publication world. No content published in the magazine will be available online. A reader has to subscribe the publication to access the writings. The magazine is available for retail sale at a select books and records shops in USA and Canada.

Donald Rosenfeld is the publisher of Country Highway. He was the president of the American film making company Merchant-Ivory Production for 12 long years between 1986 and 1998. Merchant-Ivory made about 50 films and received six Oscar awards. Films including Householder, Shakespearewalla, Bombay Talkies, Heat and Dust and In-Custody’s storyline were based on India. Rosenfeld carries experiences in art and culture in the international level. His long relationship with writers, intellectuals and academicians serves as resource for publication of the magazine.

In a media ecosystem marked with US consumers spending time up to 10 hours online daily, launch of a magazine in nineteenth century newspaper format surprised many. David Samuels, editor of Century Highway said, “People read differently on the printed page then they do on screen. The printed page is an immersive experience without constant distractions.” There remain a section of consumers who prefer printed newspapers, magazines and books even in the changed media order.

The inaugural issue of Country Highway came out in August 2023. The publication sources revealed that 25,000 copies were sold out. Second issue was published in October 2023. It is being told that the magazine could achieve the target for subscription sales fixed for year three in the first three weeks of rolling out of the first issue. The publishers did not arrange any publicity campaign for the launch, relied upon word of month.

Launch of Country Highway and success of the business model in the primary stage puts forth a few realisations. Firstly, excellence in creativity is the key to success of any media platform. It can attract public attention. Secondly, the traditional publication periodicity of print products may reduce from daily, weekly and fortnightly into monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly during the ‘new normal’. Thirdly, consumers are ready to pay for quality media products. A 20 page broadsheet newspaper-magazine pieced at Rs 700 a copy is an example.

Fourthly, consumers are searching for quality media products. Their numbers may be small and the business involved may not be big. But, a slot for print media exists. Fifthly, technological advancement and financial investment can not guarantee making a media product popular. Excellence in creativity can only serve as key to achieve popularity. Success stories of alternative media in US may not adequately reflect in markets elsewhere. However, definitely open-up possibilities for experimentation in creativity.         

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / October 13, 2023

#pmjournalism   

References:

https://www.countyhighway.com/

Alberge, Dalya. America’s new print-only newspaper reinvents the art of reading slowly. www.theguardian.com. October 1, 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/01/americas-new-print-only-newspaper-county-highway-reinvents-the-art-of-reading-slowly

Infiltration of Hamas into the territories of Israel and waging terror followed by attack by Israel army at Gaza between October 7 and 17, 2023, the first ten days of conflict, witnessed loss of lives of 15 journalists. A report published by New York based ‘Committee to Protect Journalists’ on October 17 revealed that among the dead 15 journalists, 11 belonged to Palestine, three to Israel and one Lebanon citizen. The organisation enquired into reports on eight wounded and three missing or detained journalists during the period.

On the very first day of the conflict, on October 7, six journalists were killed. It included three through attack by Hamas in Israel and three through attack by Israel army at Gaza. In the long history of conflict between Israel and Palestine at Gaza Strip, journalists reporting atrocities by military forces complained to be targeted by Israel army. The practice of ‘administrative detention’ to jail journalists for long periods without trail is widespread.

Data published by ‘Reporters Without Boarders’ indicated that before the war broke-out, during the previous three years, between 2020 and 2023, at least 30 journalists lost their lives in Palestine. It included one from Italy and one from Britain. ‘Palestinian Centre for Development and Media’ in its Annual Report for 2021 described 368 incidents of atrocities by Israel soldiers against Palestinian journalists. The report further revealed that 248 Palestinian journalists were imprisoned during the previous ten years.

Mass media played a pivotal role in reporting the long conflict between Israel and Hamas. However, the public attention was driven to social media platforms to access information during the October 2023 war on real time. People preferred social media posts on the go rather than sitting before television sets. But the emerging scenario also resulted in circulation of misinformation through text and videos. In cases, scenes from previous wars were posted and techniques of artificial intelligence were utilised to cook-up imaginary stories.

For example, a post in ‘X’ by a BBC journalist attached to ‘BBC Verify’ stated that on the seventh day of the war a video went viral depicting scene of bombardment in an area surrounded by buildings. It was mentioned that Israel bombed in a residential area in Palestine. The Video was viewed by 4 lakh 25 thousand people by the time of retrievel. It was misinformation. The BBC journalist clarified that the video depicts a scene from Yabroud city in Syria during war in 2013. 

Efforts were undertaken by BBC along with a few other agencies to fact-check authenticity of information circulated in social media platforms in the earlier days of the war. Though it was not possible to review all the posts, few posts, those went viral, which means shared many times among consumers, were selected for verification.

To fact-check the suspicious videos the fact-checkers use technologies such as reverse-image search. Google has created ‘Google Search by Image’ platform since 2011. On uploading any photograph or video, a series of identical photographs and videos available in the internet are exhibited in the screen automatically. As a result, whether the selected photograph or video is original or copied can be easily identified.

According to the fact-checkers, during the first ten days of Israel-Hamas conflict a number of photographs and videos circulated in the social media were images of the previous wars scenes of the region or elsewhere.

In some other cases, the original scenes from the contemporary conflict were circulated with wrong captions. For example, on October 11, a scene of people entering homes for shelter in response to a siren in Haifa region went viral with a caption that Hezbollah terrorists have entered the northern-Israel. The information was false.

Examples were also evident of circulation of misinformation, fake photographs and videos in the social media platforms under unauthorised use of reputed news brands like BBC and Bellingcat during the initial days of Israel-Hamas war.

It is difficult to confront misinformation in the real time. On one hand, a sensational text or scene gets viral as soon as it is posted to reach a wide section of people. On the otherhand, fact checking misinformation is time consuming and it is difficult to identify misinformation amongst a huge stock of communication. However, technological interference by the social media platform operators yield results. How content relating to a sensitive issue should be circulated among the consumers can be controlled by the technology firms.

Within a week of starting the Israel-Hamas conflict major social media tech companies including Meta of Facebook and Instagram, TikTok and YouTube declared about steps undertaken for moderation of flow of misinformation on their platforms. Meta and Google owner of YouTube had since long time identified Hamas as a terrorist organization. Two platforms X and Telegram appeared to be widely used during the initial days of the war. Since Telegram protects encryption of the message and identity of users to a greater extent, communication in the conflict zones through the platform became popular. TikTok employed Arabic and Hebrew speaking fact-checkers to control misinformation in its platform and took down many videos depicting violence.

‘Cyabra’ is an acclaimed Israel based fact-checking establishment, famous in the international level, which worked for US presidential elections in the past. It revealed that a huge number of fake accounts controlled by robots in absence of humans became active during the first week of the conflict to circulate misinformation. In an example, on scrutiny of 20 lakh posts indentified 1,62,000 profiles in which about 25 percent found to be false. The statistics is alarming. An environment charged with a quarter of social media profiles working with mischievous intention in popular social media is a cause of concern for social coherence. The experience gathered in the Israel-Hamas conflict can be reflected in any other field and else where demands caution.          

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / October 20, 2023

#pmjournalism   

References:

Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Committee to Protect Journalists. October 17, 2023

https://cpj.org/2023/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/

Mukherjee, Mitali. Israel-Gaza conflict : When social media fakes are rampant, news verification is vital. The Conversation. October 13, 2023

https://theconversation.com/israel-gaza-conflict-when-social-media-fakes-are-rampant-news-verification-is-vital-215496

Suarez, Eduardo. BBC expert on debunking Israel-Hamas war visuals : The volume of misinformation on Twitter was beyond anything I’ve ever seen”. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. October 13, 2023

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-expert-debunking-israel-hamas-war-visuals-volume-misinformation-twitter-was-beyond

Sakek, Dina and Layala Mashkoor. In Israel-Hamas conflict, social media becomes tools of propaganda and disinformation. Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab). October 12, 2023

https://dfrlab.org/2023/10/12/in-israel-hamas-conflict-social-media-become-tools-of-propaganda-and-disinformation/?mkt_tok=NjU5LVdaWC0wNzUAAAGOxRgnTttcU-fFE_4Wwo-cRFu3BCyGym-GrC6NiBY7YoxgThvIcvkp1ofbqbpl46jGOOZwqtuh-GHh-EjWWlj5oYEKSpeDjZeCP6_ipZypUxTK

Fischer, Sara. Social media firms scramble to curb wartime misinformation. Axios Media Trends. October 17, 2023

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/17/social-media-israel-hamas?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top 

A year after launch of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the public domain in November 2022, wide range of transformation is evident in different sectors of society by November 2023. Journalism, television and cinema could not escape from the change induced by the new technology. On onehand, efforts have been initiated to invest heavily to improve creativity utilising AI and on the otherhand opposition roar on prediction of job losses in the process.

Reports pour about experiments on utilization of Generative AI from screenplay writing to artist selection, creation of digital characters, scene recreation, visual effects, editing, sound effects and various post-production tasks in television and cinema in Hollywood studios.

At the same time ‘Writers Guild of America’ with 11,500 members went on strike for five months between May 2, 2023 and September 27, 2023 opposing use of AI in screenplay writing. Though employment conditions and remuneration figured in the charter of demands, resistance to AI was pushed to forefront. Mutual agreement to end the strike included to restrict use of AI in screenplay writing. It was decided to use AI only to enhance the quality of screenplay.

In an environment of experimentation on Generative AI worldwide, India is an active participant. Our country is marked with a positive attitude towards the new technology. While the labour force does not oppose the introduction, mid-career workers in India are interested to enhance their skill to achieve further productivity. Government of India and a number of state governments have announced schemes to encourage AI and start-up initiatives for the private sector.

A few examples on introduction of AI in television and cinema production surfaced during the last part of 2023. Audio-visual content production witnessed a huge transformation after release of AI enriched technology for content creators free-of-cost by Google owned YouTube. Screenplay writing, editing and video translation facilities enriched the video production experience.

Decrease in time consumption for making videos and instant translation into various languages result in production of more number of videos and reaching wider audience. The development help in increase of advertisement revenue for producers. It is being told that translation facilities for Indian languages in YouTube platform will reach 90 percent accuracy by December 2023.

Zee Entertainment Enterprisers achieved remarkable success in utilization of Generative AI in television content production during 2023. Bengaluru based Zee Technology Innovation Centre worked on integration of ChatGPT in various aspects of television and cinema production. About eight months of work resulted in preparation of software to review storyline, screenplay and dramatic effects for Hindi television serials.

Experts aware of the development mention that a technology named as ‘ScriptGPT’ has been trained with about 13 lakh data-points from 42,000 television serial episodes. It is enriched to review the content and predict acceptability by audiences on enquiry. It can also advise improvements and prepare original screenplays. The remarkable feature of the technology include absolutely no time taken to answer a command which usually consumed days, weeks and months of creative talent time.

Traditionally screenplay writing needed several drafts. A good script needed review by competent talents. The new technology of ‘ScriptGPT’ is all set to enable to enhance the quality of the content accessing audience reactions with experimentation with variables positioned from different angles. Since the technology is based on empirical data, there will be less dependence on qualitative hypothesis.

Upgrade of ‘ScriptGPT’ is underway by Zee Entertainment. They aim to increase training of the software up to one lakh episodes by 2024. Use of Generative AI warrants careful use of intellectual property rights. The technology need to be trained by a large amount of finished creative products to make it capable to generate or review new contents. Example of ‘ScriptGPT’ follows efforts by ‘Eros Now’ in association with Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai to prepare another AI tool for similar task solutions.

In the matter of use of Generative AI in screenplay writing for television and cinema in India a few aspects attract the attention of analysists. First, in Indian media landscape there are no opposition to use of the emerging technology. Secondly, instead of diminishing the role of script writers, the new technology helps to enhance the quality of their creativity. In the traditional setup there was little chance to review or evaluate a screenplay. Thirdly, better screenplays will produce better television programmes and cinema. It will attract more viewers that will ultimately translate into more revenue. All these aspects refer to the positive impact of Generative AI in television and cinema production.           

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / November 3, 2023

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita. Binary steals The Show. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). October 30, 2023 

Deepfake technology relates to manipulation of visual and audio content of an original video to prepare a fake copy with desired alternations. Deepfake videos are created engaging machine learning and artificial intelligence tools. Such powerful softwares became available since 2018 as desktop and smartphone applications in public sphere. Launch of generative artificial intelligence in November 2022 leveraged the technology to further heights. Within five years, by the end of 2023, deepfake videos attracted attention of world leaders as a potential threat to fair election campaigning in democracies.

With advent of photography and cinematography the practice of morphing duplicates to original pictures came into practice. Introduction of analogue and digital video expanded the field. Easy availability of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies in the twenty-first century prompted researchers engaged at higher educational institutions to experiment with creation of fake images that look natural. A user in social media ‘Reddit’ named ‘Deepfakes’ created a community during the end of 2017. Members of the online community shared deepfake videos they have created on experimental basis. It is told that such works involved celebrity faces snapped into bodies of actress in pornographic videos. As such deepfakes were created to satisfy academic interest, neither the videos were widely circulated nor questioned about.

While the first stage in experimentation of deepfake videos cornered around porno video content, the second stage involved use of audio to clone. Viewers could not instantly recognise the negative approach in presence of video and audio in scenes. But the third stage entered into use of the deepfake video technology for exploitation, intimidation and personal sabotage. It was used to spread misinformation in a make-believe format. In the fourth stage deepfake video technology expanded into election campaigning for opinion shaping that is considered a threat to democratic values.

There was widespread accusation about use of deepfake videos during the USA presidential election campaigning in 2020. In the following elections at United Kingdom, Argentina, Slovakia, South Korea etc. the menace of deepfake videos were evident. In India video clips of Bollywood star Amitav Bacchan accusing the ruling BJP chief minister and portraying contesting Indian Congress Party chief ministerial candidate in positive light was a glaring example of threat of deepfake videos in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Two video clips from the sets of popular television show ‘Kaun Banega Cororpati’ created political controversy during November 2023. BJP filed complaints with the Election Commission and the police.

By the same time, release of deepfake videos into the social media on Bollywood film stars Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif and Kajol created sensation in the national level. Experts cautioned that the menace of deepfake videos will speedily rise in the country. Information Technology ministry and the Prime Minister expressed grave concern on the development. The politicians in the country are skeptical on the subject as state assembly and general elections are scheduled during 2023-2024. While contemplating upon role of deepfake videos in the election campaigning, a few aspects come to the forefront:

Firstly, government calculation reveal that internet connections in India reached 85 crore by March 2023. Kantar-Google report claimed that half of the internet consumers in the country consume news from online sources. When people depend upon social media for information, naturally it will contribute significantly to opinion shaping. Use of artificial intelligence products such as deepfake videos will have a major impact on upcoming elections.

Secondly, previously preparation of deepfake videos required a huge quantity of data. But with improved technology, one to two minutes of video clip is sufficient to clone deepfake video and audio content of a particular character or a scene. Moreover software for the purpose is freely available. Anybody with practice can master the art using a simple smartphone. All such developments will contribute for production of increased number of deepfake videos in India.

Thirdly, while internet penetration in the country is in a steady pace, data rates remain one of the lowest in the international level. The environment is conducive for the people to access more video content, download and share. As a result more number of deepfake videos go viral.

Fourthly, while considering political role of deepfake videos a complete changed scenario surfaces. Previously production of deepfake videos was expensive. Only big political parties having more money could benefit from the technology. But by 2023 software in form of mobile apps are freely available and politicians in the Gram Panchyat level are capable of using the facility. Thus, use of deepfake videos may play a significant role in election campaigning during 2024.

Fifthly, it appears to be a difficult task to curb circulation of deepfake videos in the social media and encrypted messenger platforms. About 80 percent of internet consumers in the country are present in social media platforms. Social media has power to make any video viral in a short time. Though the laws and rules governing online content is robust in India, before identification of a deepfake video either by public or government to ask the social media platform to block or remove, the video in question could have already reached a substantial number of audience. Technological competence to auto-delete a depfake video seems to be a distant dream.

The history of deepfake videos by 2023 extending to past five years reveal that progress of the technology involved for production doubled every year. The number of makers of deepfake videos also grew in a competitive manner. Such a complicated situation compels governments in different countries to control the situation through regulatory mechanism. European Union and Untied States of America have taken-up preliminary steps for enactment of laws. In India, Information Technology Rules 2022 prescribes 36 hours for the social media platforms to remove an objectionable content after receipt of a complaint by the public or direction of the administration. But in the evolving online scenario 36 hours seems to be a lengthy period. Most of the objectionable content will be identified only after reaching a considerable audience.

Social media consumers play a vital role in promotion of deepfake videos. Research findings reveal that lack of online etiquette and mischievous attitude are the two main causes which lead to sharing of offensive videos. Media experts have pointed out that spread of ‘media literacy’ among the public can promote responsible online behaviour. They explain that the number of people who become aware on negative impact of deepfake videos in democracy will contribute to the number of people who keep themselves away from consumption and circulation of such harmful content.

Soon after the Madhya Pradesh incident of deepfake videos during November 2023, Prime Minister put forth his views for awareness building which technically refers to ‘media literacy’. Immediate steps in this direction is essential. Journalism Schools can play a definitive role in propagating ‘media literacy’ in their neighbourhood communities in the regional level. University Grants Commission can formulate a model with a budget for implementation of a programme which can be further extended to student volunteers of National Service Scheme. Such a campaign can enlighten a section of the society before the general election 2024.            

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / November 24, 2023

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Interview with Hany Farid by Ketaki Desai. Deepfakes are eroding trust. How as we even know if a real video is real ? Sunday Times of India (Bhubaneswar Edition). November 19, 2023

Mishra, Bhavini. Quick redress key weapon in battle against deepfakes. Business Standard. (Bhubaneswar Edition). November 18, 2023  

Journalism trends are partly dependent upon pattern of platform selection by news consumers. Audience preferences are regularly monitored in the developed societies. But there is little effort in the emerging economies. As a result, in absence of evidence based data, publishers and editors in media dark regions build editorial policies basing on presumptions. Reliable data helps for reviews and corrections in publication strategies. But assumptions instead of research data help a little for efficient business management. In cases, such practices contribute towards decline of the business models.

United States based ‘Pew Research Center’ conducts surveys on regular basis to gather data on social trends. It started a longitudinal study ‘The American Trends Panel’ from 2014. The results of 135th wave of survey carried out between September 25 and October 1, 2023 was published during the middle of November 2023. About 8,842 American citizen took part in the survey. The report of the survey revealed data about what platforms of American citizen prefer for gathering information.

It was found out that majority of the people access news in digital media rather than television, radio and print. About 56 percent accessed news often using smartphone, computer or tablet and 86 percent accessed news some times during 2023. A year back in 2022, about 49 percent accessed news often and 51 percent sometimes in the digital platforms. Previously television was considered as the main source for accessing news which declined to 32 percent in 2023 and 31 percent in 2022. Only six percent of news consumers used radio and five percent print publication to access news.

In 2023 about 25 percent of American citizen used news websites and apps in digital platforms. It is followed by 12 percent each in search engines and social media, only six percent used podcasts for news. During past four years popularity of news websites and apps steadily increased. Preference for podcast also grew from three percent in 2020 to four percent during 2021 and 2022.

Statistics on habit of American citizen on accessing news platforms may not be applicable in different corners of the world. But the status of media performance in USA may help to review of news media in other places for three different reasons. Firstly, studies are regularly conducted on news consumer habit in the USA and the results are available in the public domain. Secondly, longitudinal research on media performance offer opportunities for comparative analysis of public taste over a period of time. Thirdly, since such surveys are conducted adopting scientific methodologies and the participating citizen as samples are aware-of and used to survey process, the results present true picture of media landscape.

Developing nations face paucity of funds to conduct media research. It results in difficulties for selection of proper samples and gathering data. Local people either refuse to share experience or provide wrong data due to lack of survey participation etiquette. As a result, the true picture of media consumption by public does not get reflected in the survey results. In absence of longitudinal  research, the available data hardly provide opportunity for comparative studies. On the otherhand, data gathered in USA are not applicable in other places. However media analysts consider data on public consumption of US media as a reference mark to access media practices elsewhere.

Longitudinal survey in USA revealed that the trend of gradual decline of interest in news is evident for past seven years by 2023. While in 2016 about 51 percent followed news, 2017 recorded 40 percent, 2018 recorded 52 percent, 2019 recorded 46 percent, 2020 recorded 45 percent, 2021 recorded 37 percent and 2022 recorded 38 percent. There may not be any available evidence of similar trend penetrating into India, but the popularity of smartphone as the singular device for accessing information might have resulted in a sharp decline of news followers.

The important reasons behind news avoidance in India include lack of emphasis on reporting news of social relevance, coverage of excessive political news and partisan press. Loss of public faith in both traditional and digital platforms in one hand and rise in internet penetration and smartphone adoption on the otherhand, open up an environment to replicate media trends of developed nations.

‘Pew Research’ survey documented loss of interest in news in all the age groups in USA. Generally news avoidance was evident among the young people and the older generation patronised news products during the past. But the situation has changed. About 75 percent of older people above the age of 65 followed news in 2016 which has been decreased to 64 percent in 2022. Similarly 27 percent in the age group between 18 and 29 years followed news in 2016 which came down to 19 percent in 2022. The development noted in USA is a clear reminder for mainstream news publishers in India to renew editorial policy to focus on readership interest of above 50 year consumers. About 46 percent of people in the age group between 50 and 64 years and 27 percent in the age group of 30 and 49 years followed news in 2022.

Though journalism need something novel every day, traditionally it appears to be difficult to change editorial policy of a news platforms. Editors and reporters hardly prefer to leave the content development approach which they have masteredover due to lack of academic interest, training and encouragement. Change in editorial policy need talent and financial investment, which many publishers cannot afford. However, each and every news organisation should find out a way to mitigate such problems utilising available resources. Negligence to change may be fatal for media platforms in the long run.             

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / December 01, 2023

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Pew Research Center. News Platform Fact Sheet / November 15, 2023

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/?utm

Pew Research Center. American are following the news less closely than they used to / October 24, 2023

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/24/americans-are-following-the-news-less-closely-than-they-used-to/ 

Collins Dictionary identified ‘Artificial Intelligence’ as the ‘Word of the Year for 2023’. It signifies that the word was most prominently used in day-to-day conversatation among the people during the period. The emerging technology casted its spell over various aspects of journalism. In the developed nations AI infrastructure were built throughout the year in the media ecosystem. Public launch of generative artificial intelligence product “ChatGPT”   on the last date of November 2022 considered to be the beginning of a new era in computing worldwide.

In the international field the front runner media platforms were acquainted with AI much before its appearance in the public domain and used as per need. ‘London School of Economics’ conducted a survey among 71 news platforms spread over 32 nations during 2019 to ascertain AI use. It was found out that about half the news platforms used AI for news gathering, two-thirds took help for news product production and half for circulation management. In general the technology was used to collect content from the social media posts, investigative reporting and analysis of data collected from multiple sources.

Wide use of ‘ChatGPT’  by the end of 2023 estimated that about 90 percent of leading news organisations opted for use of AI tools. In the developed nations use of AI in media from 66 percent to 90 percent during a period of five years appears to be a significant achievement. As developing nations follow the media trends popular in the developed nations, the emerging technology may enter the mainstream journalism in the countries like India within two-to-three years, latest by 2025. A Germany company ‘express.de’ released an AI tool to the market ‘Klara Indernach’ during 2023. “Klara is a sophisticated tool that structure texts, conduct extensive content research and summarise vast amounts of information quickly and efficiently. These capabilities greatly ensure the speed and scope of content creation.”

Questions arise whether technologies like ‘Klara’ can be used in India and various regional language newsrooms ? Use of AI tools in journalism can easily overcome the barriers of language. Government of India sponsored Bhasini and Google have assured that during 2024 translation from English into regional languages of the country and vice-versa will reach upto 90 percent accuracy. Such facilities will ensure easy use of AI tools to generate and distribute content in various regional languages. Small and medium newspapers and social media video channels may greatly benefit from such innovations to manage their small newsrooms effectively apart from the big players.

News platforms both print and video, faced tough times to create images, illustrations and infographics. It needed time, expertise and finance. AI tools can help in the design process. Similarly AI powered audio transcription can help for speech-to-text task to prepare a text copy of an interview instantly during gathering of news for reporting. Voice generators like ‘VG’s Jojo’ helps for editing, publishing and sharing audio content across different platforms.

Social media posts have turned to be the main source for gathering of hyper-local news. But it demand thorough fact-check before publication in news platforms. AI algorithms can rapidly cross-check data. It can also validate information from different sources. AI investigative and data analysis tools help in reducing the amount of time and efforts in the research process. At times such tools help to uncover patterns and hidden connections across documents.

Experts estimated that by the end of 2023 about 70 AI tools were available for various uses in newsrooms. Apart from content production, lead generation tools “provide advance notice of trends, developing stories, or with leads on breaking news. These tools can help journalists identify trending topics and potential sources on the scene.” Audience engagement tools “focus on collecting data and moderating audience interactions and comments.” Distribution tools “allow a single piece of content to be shared in multiple languages or formats. Distribution tools can turn written content into audio, video or images and vice versa or automate their distribution across many social media platforms.”

AI tools for journalism are marked as evolving technology. Traditional technologies relied upon systems where output were same every time. On the otherhand, “unlike the traditional software, we do not always have insight into how AI systems arrive at their conclusion or factors involved.” Thus use of AI tools in journalism demands caution. For example, direct streaming of speeches from a meeting is possible, but at the same time errors may also occur in translation. “AI tools may produce harmful outputs either unintentionally or through targeted attacks. While traditional software can suffer for similar vulnerabilities, the risk is amplified for AI tools.” Such elements “justify the need for additional attention and governance when newsrooms adopt AI tools.”

However, a MIT study published in acclaimed journal Science in its December 2023 edition informed that in an experiment conducted among 453 college educated professionals it was found out that writers who chose to use ‘ChatGPT’ took 40 percent less time to complete a task and scored 18 percent higher quality than that of the participants who did not use it. Such research findings uncover great expectations on use of AI tools for journalism.            

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / December 22, 2023

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

AI adoption for newsrooms: A 10 step guide

https://partnershiponai.org/ai-for-newsrooms/

10 ways journalists use AI tools in the newsroom. TWIPE. October 5, 2023

https://www.twipemobile.com/10-ways-journalists-use-ai-tools-in-the-newsroom/ 

Soon after the public launch of Artificial Intelligence powered Large Language Model product ChatGPt during November 30, 2022 controversy surfaced on unauthorised use of a large amount of content available online to train the software. The tussle prolonged throughout the following year 2023. Few authors and a photo agency approached court-of-law complaining infringement of copyright of their works. However, the lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan by The New York Times in December 27, 2023 against Open AI, makers of ChatGPT and Microsoft, makers of Bing Chat over unauthorised use of published work to train LLMs opened a new front in the legal battle.

Each LLM is a separate computer programme that understands and generates human-like text based on input it receives. LLMs are trained on vast amount of data to predict and create coherent sentences, making them capable of tasks like answering questions, writing and understanding language patterns. ChatGPT has been trained on a diverse dataset that includes text from multiple languages, not just English. This multilingual exposure allows the LLM to understand and generate text in various languages to some extent.

NYT is the first major American media establishment to sue makers of LLMs. It contends that millions of articles published in the newspaper appears to have been used to train the LLM software. ChatGPT and Bing Chat can produce content nearly identical to the newspapers published articles. NYT has massive investment in its journalism. It complained in its law suit that LLMs build substitutive products without permission or payment based upon its intellectual properties.

NYT has complained that general public increasingly approach the chatbots with prompts to learn about the current affairs. The LLMs generate answers that rely on past journalism by the newspaper used as training material for the software. As a result, traffic of readers to the website of the newspaper is in decline, because consumers are satisfied with the answers offered by Chatbots. In the process there are greater chances of decrease in visitors to the website which translate into restricted flow of advertisement and subscription revenue. In onehand, the newspaper looses copyright and on the otherhand confronts business loss.  

In the law suit petition NYT has not mentioned any monetary compensation for copyright infringement from OpenAI or Microsoft. However claimed that the defendants should be held responsible for a huge amount in statutory and actual damage to the newspaper. It prayed the court to order for destroy LLM models which used copyright protected newspaper content for training. NYT approached OpenAI and Microsoft in last April 2023 to putforth its concerns about the use of its intellectual property and explore negotiations. But the effort reached no amicable resolution.

It is difficult to predict the future of the dispute as the litigation is in the early stage. The US legal experts comment that litigation on copyright may take long time. The ruling of the Federal District Court may be appealed and the appellate decisions may be challenged in the US Supreme court. Roughly it may take a time period of a decade. Generally disputes in copyright matters are solved with settlements. OpenAI has already reached data licensing agreement with the Associated Press and Axel Springer, Publishers of Politico and Business Insider.

Question arises, in case the copyright litigation by NYT against Open AI and Microsoft will prolong for 10 years, the suit may loose its relevance as advancements in the field of AI doubles within six months as per calculations made during 2023. AI technologies have expanded to nook and corners across geographical barriers and became an important part in day-to-day life of people. The concept of ‘copyright’ was developed as a business treaty during the expansion of printing technology and the very first resolution was adopted in 1710 in the Britain. However, the human civilization had undergone through earlier models of communication including gesture, language and literature thousands of years without copyright protection. So, is it appropriate to restrict the training of LLMs on online content and restrict the humankind from the wonderful benefits of generative AI ?

Generally one learns language by imitating others. LLMs get themselves trained with the available online content to learn human like language. Business deals and political equations are temporary manifestations. ChatGPT is a modern technological innovation. Since it is dedicated for public use, should the public cause be applicable for legal protection of the software ?

“A Large Language Model is a computer programme that understands and generates human-like text based on the input it receives. It does not have personal experiences, opinions, or intentions. The responsibility for its use lies with the users. If someone uses ChatGPT to generate content that is illegal, unethical, or infringes on someone else’s right, the responsibility would typically fall on the user rather than the model itself. ChatGPT as a tool or software developed by Open AI, and it does not have legal personality. Any actions or consequences resulting from the use of ChatGPT would typically be attributed to the individuals or entities using it, rather than the tool itself,” the LLM explains on prompts.

On the otherhand NYT has claimed in its petition before the court that in cases ChatGPT generates text almost similar to previously published copyright protected articles of the newspaper. To illustrate the charge attached a hundred examples. Experts in the field remark that empirical studies confirm that at times LLMs copy from the trained content. Question arises how can the consumers could know the extent of plagiarism in the content generated by LLMs ? Shall they be not entangled in legal consequences ? NYT law suit against Open AI and Microsoft on the matter copyright expected to open-up a new chapter in the AI landscape.             

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / January 12, 2024

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Grynbanm, Michel M. & Ryan Mac. NYT sues Microsoft, Open AI over AI’s use of copyright work. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). December 20, 2023

Moreno, J. Edward. Boom in AI prompts a test of copyright law. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). January 1, 2024

Marcus, Gary & Raid Southon. Generative AI has a visual plagiarism problem. IEEE Spectrum. Jan 6, 2024.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/midjourney-copyright

In the Indian mainstream media ecosystem over-the-top (OTT) platform YouTube was considered as the most influential by the beginning of 2024.  Senior media analysist Sevanti Ninan described the trend as ‘post-television era’ in her column published in the English daily newspaper The Telegraph during last week of December 2023. In the post-independence period television claimed prominence after the print supremacy and during the post-pandemic New Normal YouTube acquired the position as a video-sharing platform practically allowing everybody to view or post content free of charges. Sevanti has mentioned, “It does seem like India lives and breathes on YouTube ”. She further explained that “both news-makers and news producers” prefer the platform and “it offers more public broadcasting in real sense of the term than the public broadcaster does.”

Quoting statistics from the English daily newspaper The Hindu, she has pointed out that active YouTube consumers in India extends to 45 crore. It is 32.8 percent of our population. Generally it is believed that YouTube could promote a democratic setup in the field of mass communication. However, the exhibition pattern of the videos posted by public is decided by the algorithms. Previously there were no specific laws to govern the content of OTT except the general provisions. But the central government have mooted the concept of regulators in the proposed ‘Broadcasting Bill 2023’. Both the exhibitor employed algorithms and government induced restrictions go against the democratisation efforts of the OTT platform.

Placement and exhibition of user generated videos along with monetary payments to video producers are the remarkable features of YouTube. A study conducted by ‘Oxford Economics’ revealed that YouTube provided monetisation capability to seven lakh creators and partners in India by the end of 2023. Ishan John Chatterjee, Director (India) of YouTube in an interview published in English business daily newspaper Business Standard in its edition dated January 1, 2024 mentioned, “two in three creators in India who earn money from YouTube agree that YouTube is their primary source of revenue”. It reveals that a good number of people have accepted production of videos for YouTube in professional capacity.

Sevanti in her column presented a case study on popularity of YouTube creators in the rural setting. A village of 10,000 population in the Raipur district of Chhattishgarh province boosts 40 YouTube video creators. The District Collector sanctioned Rs 25 lakh for setting-up a studio in the village recognising video production as a new avenue in job creation for the rural youth. One creator said that using the studio facilities, a music video produced with expenditure of Rs 10,000 could yield Rs 1,00,000 from the market. On onehand, video production for YouTube may have opened-up employment opportunity for some, on the otherhand a section of experts criticise the payment method adopted by YouTube claiming that it lacks transparency.

YouTube was developed as an OTT platform in 2005 and spread in India during 2008. By 2023 there were an estimated 20 lakh YouTube creators or YouTubers. Monetising facilities for YouTube shorts was introduced in India during February 2023. YouTube offered advanced Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools free of cost for the creators. John Chatterjee has said, “the barriers to creation have gone down. Earlier one would need a laptop or some kind of big editing software to get it up. Now, every thing is done on the phone and anyone can jump on and became a creator.”

Apart from ‘Create’ app meant for editing video and audio, ‘Aloud’ allows the users to dub the original language into many different languages. It will allow the video to spread across language barriers among enlarged audience and monetise. ‘Dream Screen’ being tested in the beta stage can further enable the creators for better creative expressions. “GenAI” will revolutionise video content in the years to come.”

YouTube officials in India are hopeful of further expansion of the consumer base. John Chatterjee has said that the popularity of ‘short’ videos grew by 120 percent in 2023 in comparison to 2022. Families are increasingly interested to enjoy YouTube and the other OTT platforms in their television screens in the living rooms. Falling price of smart TVs and rising penetration of fixed-line broadband will complement to the trend. Growth of content in regional languages and genres may be identified as yet another factor for growth of YouTube consumer base.

Justification in calling the trend of rise in OTT consumption as ‘post-television era’ denotes to three important developments. Firstly, popularity of mobile phone use for viewing television programmes drifted the audience away from living room television sets. Secondly, common people preferred content circulated through social media and messenger apps by known persons instead of television broadcast. Thirdly, consumption of OTT content in smart television sets, democratisation of broadcasting through platforms like YouTube and free service opened-up new opportunities both for content creators and viewers.

YouTube has been regarded as the largest OTT player in the Asia-Pacific (APac) region. A report entitled ‘Asia Pacific Video and Broadband 2024’ published by Singapore-based Media Partners Asia (IMPA) released during the first week of January 2024 noted that YouTube earns the largest share of OTT revenue flowed by TikTok and Netflix. In Asia-Pacific region 51 percent of income of OTT platforms comes from the advertisement revenue. It is expected to reach 54 percent by 2028. In India, income by OTT platforms from advertisement is expected to reach 65 percent by 2028. The report forecast a better future for OTT platforms including YouTube in India with growth rate of 26 percent on year-on-year basis. However, the subscription rate of Netflix and Amazon Prime may not cross the limit of nine per cent. On the otherhand advertisement share of the Indian television industry is expected to decline from 70 per cent in 2023 to 55 per cent in 2028. Such equations in the media landscape justifies the coinage of the term ‘Post-Television Era.’              

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / January 19, 2024

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Ninan, Sevanti. Brave new world. The Telegraph (Kolkata Edition). December 25, 2023

Shinde, Shivani. ‘Connected TV fastest growing surface for You Tube in last 5 years.’ Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). January 1, 2024

Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita. Advertising to charge out major revenue, drive growth of online video. Business Standard (Bhubaneswar Edition). January 5, 2024.

After one year completion of the public launch of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), the earlier days of 2024 witnessed enough speculation of possible impact of the new technology on everyday life of the people worldwide. Following footsteps of ChatGPT, Large Language Models (LLM) like Google Bard, BingChat, ClaudeLLM are available free of charge, while Jasper solicits subscription for use.

In addition, applications like Adobe Firefly, Bedrock, BloombergGPT, Dall-E2, Eighthfold.ai, Grammarly Go, HR Signal, Microsoft-365-Copilot, Midjourney, Retrain.ai, Salesforce-Einstein-GPT, Soundbite.ai, SlackGPT, Tome etc. are available for professional use. Experts in the field claim that dominance of GenAI in various professions will result in fundamental changes in their operations. Journalism is one of the forerunners in the transformation scenario.

LLMs such as ChatGPT can assist journalists in tasks of content research for writing news stories, generating ideas, drafting and summarizing. Further, it can help for interview preparation by providing background information on various topics. Generally journalists spend more time to attend to these routine tasks which can be completed in a moment by utilising the technology. It can enhance productivity streamlining the writing process.

Since GenAI is undergoing an ‘evolution process’, it is difficult to predict the possible total transformational picture. A section of experts confessed during 2023 that 85 percent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet. Progress of in the field of the new technology doubles in six months which makes long term estimation not feasible.

In the post-pandemic ecosystem journalism faced failures in holding the ground with business, trust and supremacy in the society. New developments made life of professional journalists miserable. In such an atmosphere, adoption of a new technology poses as yet another problem. Journalism has confronted several technological innovations during past seven decades after the Second World War. Journalists are aware that those who can not adopt to the changes will turn mis-match to the evolving system. However, many are not aware how they can prepare themselves for using LLMs.

ChatGPT, Bard, Bing and Claude applications are available free of cost to everybody for downloads in Android computing instruments such as smartphones and laptops. For the first time in the technological history people worldwide could access to an emerging skill in the real time. It created a democratic digital order. During earlier days for adoption of older technologies, the user had to undergo extensive training. But LLMs do not need any such formal training. LLMs are simple chatbots and whenever somebody asks a question or directs a task, the bot attends to it with immediate result. Thus, the users have to learn how to ask questions or give directions ‘Prompt’ to the bot with personal endeavours.

The three features of LLMs distinguish themselves to be different from the learning process of earlier technologies. To learn steps to be taken by professional journalists, a question was asked to the ChatGPT. As per the answer presented by the bot, “Journalists can learn to leverage ChatGPT effectively by familiarizing themselves with its capabilities through hands-on practice. Exploring the model’s responses, understanding how it interprets queries, and experimenting with different prompts can enhance their understanding. Additionally, staying updated on new features or improvements in language models and considering ethical considerations in AI use are essential aspects of learning to use ChatGPT in journalistic context.”

Many practioners post their experiences on use of LLMs in different platforms. A few specialised websites like JournalismAI publish case studies which helps to understand the practical aspect of the technology. Resources on the subject are also available in open.ai blog and random posts in medium.com etc.

In ChatGPTs understanding, “The effectiveness of using ChatGPT often relies on the prompts given to the model”. In a 10 point scale, importance of prompting demands 9 points. “A well-crafted and contextually relevant prompt significantly influences the quality and relevance of the model’s responses. Experimenting with different prompts and understanding how to guide the model’s output through effective inputs is crucial for maximizing the utility of ChatGPT in various tasks.”

“The answering mechanism of ChatGPT involves a combination of pre-training and fine-tuning. Initially, the model is pre-trained on a large dataset containing parts of the internet. It learns grammar, facts, reasoning abilities, and context from diverse sources. This phase helps the model understand language patterns and relationship. After pre-training the model is fine-tuned on a narrower dataset with the help of human reviewers. When a user inputs a prompt or question, the model generates a response based on its learned knowledge and patterns. The generated response is influenced by the input prompt and the context it provides.”

On behalf of ‘World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers’ (WAN-INFRA), a report on status of the contemporary news industry entitled “World Press Trends Report 2024” was published during second part of January 2024. The report contained inputs received from 175 senior newsroom executives spread over 60 nations. It claimed that 87 percent of news platforms are prepared to utilize AI in their organisation. But 72 percent had not ready for implementation till the end of 2023. Thus, though AI may not be used in news rooms by 2024, it may spread during the following years. It is being pointed out that lack of capacity to use, ignorance about the technology and speeder technological change pose hindrance for early use of AI in journalism. In an environment clad with problems, capacity building on AI on individual level seems to be good option for professional journalists.               

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / February 9, 2024

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Dollins, Mark & Elizabeth Ballow. Artificial Intelligence & the communication. www.northstar.comms.com 2023

World Press Trends Report 2024 : Twipe’s top 5 insights

https://www.twipemobile.com/world-press-trends-report-2024-twipes-top-5-insights/?utm_source=Twipe+Insights&utm_campaign=e7e68bc600-TwipeInsights-DMU-20231102_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_83758c9228-e7e68bc600-105565928

The death of Alexei Navalny, prominent opposition leader against the ruling party in Russia, during middle of February 2024 raised concern among intellectuals worldwide. He was hailed as a non-conformist leader both inside and outside Russia within a career of 23 years in politics. In an ecosystem of discouragement of opposition in the Communist rule in mainstream media, Navalny succeeded to reach huge followers through social media. The developments appeared to be a challenge to administration and the legacy media in Russia.

To counter autocratic rule in the global level media has a pivotal role to play for re-establishment of democracy. However, the legacy media in the second decade of twenty-first century failed in its ethical duties due to various reasons. In such an environment Navalny’s use of social media for political campaigning not only proved to be an alternative, but also powerful than the mainstream media for agenda-driven persuasion. Navalny started his professional career as a lawyer after completion of formal education. But he was drawn to political activism due to his strong personal resentment to prevailing corruption in the society, mostly corruption by oligarchs or rich businessmen with political patronage. He continued crusade against eradication of corruption and establishment of democracy during rest of his life.

Alexi Navalny died in the age of 47. His forefathers had Ukraine roots. He was brought-up in a small town 100 kms away from Moscow. His family was involved in basket weaving business. Navalny acquired degrees in Law and stock investment and also attended Yale University in United States for a non-degree programme. He started his carrier as a lawyer in 1998 which was abruptly ended with cancellation of his licence in 2013 due to involvement in a litigation. Navalny joined a political party in 2001 and participated in anti-government demonstrations from the very beginning.

Navalny tried to gather information on inappropriate financial transactions by oligarchs adopting an innovative procedure. He used to purchase little amount of shares in big companies to become accessible to look into their financial balance-sheets. As there was little chance to expose wrong doings of big traders and corporations in the mainstream media, he started a blog navalny.livejournal.com to post result of his investigations together with commentaries. Later he launched a YouTube channel to address to the public directly on regular basis.

Navalny’s evidence-based writings gained instant popularity. His presentation style in YouTube videos mesmerized the public. As a result even in a hostile media environment in Russia, he could reach millions of people through alternative media platforms. On the date of announcement of Navalny’s untimely death on February 16, 2024 the total subscribers of his YouTube channel counted 62 lakh 10 thousand.

Navalny was not a journalist. But he was engaged in two important objectives of journalism – investigation to unearth truth and publicise the revelations throughout his life. In the pages of history it is evident that Gandhi, Lenin and Mao-Zedong used print medium to reach to their followers throughout the world. Similarly Navalny took the route of social-media to propagate his campaigns. Sometime before taking leadership of famous street protests Navalny started a website ‘RosPil’ to expose corruption and tracked suspicious government tender allotments. It attracted attention of many.

Navalny in an interview to Esquire Russia told in 2012 that as the mainstream media ignored to cover his exposure of government corruption, he started a blog to putforth his point-of-view before the public. He explained that wide internet communication helped to enrich his public demonstrations. He estimated, “I think about 40 percent of the people come to protests mainly because of internet.”

He felt that different social media platforms could be utilised for different purpose to manage his anti-corruption campaign. “Social networks gave us some very much needed infrastructure, and different services are useful in very different ways. LiveJournal is good for informational, more detailed posts. Facebook has more multimedia features – likes, links, posters, videos, events – where you can see if your friends are going to this and that rally or not.” At the same time he clarified, “But the people didn’t go out on the streets because of Facebook or LiveJournal – its because they were angry.”

Navalny managed his public relation activities through formation of a trust ‘Anti-Corruption Foundation.’ It collected donations from various sources to produce professional quality media products, such as YouTube investigative documentaries with illustrations. It not only attracted attention of viewers, but also helped to understand the subject and motivate for advocacy. It was alleged that news about Navalny;s death was not given adequate coverage in the Russian media. But ‘Anti-Corruption Foundation’, banned and termed as a terrorist organisation inside Russia in 2021 and being operated in foreign land could publicise minute details about Navalny’s death worldwide. Navalny’s successful experimentation utilising social media as an alternative to mainstream media will remain as a glaring example.                

  By : Pradeep Mahapatra / February 23, 2024

#pmjournalism   

Reference:

Allsop, Jon. The Journalism of Alexi Navalny. Columbia Journalism Review. February 19, 2024.

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/alexei_navalny_death_journalism_putin_russia.php

Russian Blogger – Interview with Alexei Navalny. esquire.com. March 21, 2012

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a13126/russian-blogger-0412/