The Hindu : National : Can journalism's core values survive the onslaught of digital, interactive media?

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Saturday, Nov 26, 2005

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Can journalism's core values survive the onslaught of digital, interactive media?

Special Correspondent

``The great hope" is that conventional journalism would win out, says N. Ram The possibility of the new media "outflanking" conventional media exists

MEDIA DEBATE: S.S. Gill, former Secretary to the Government of India (left), V. Ravichandran, financial consultant (centre), and C.P. Chandrasekhar, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, at a workshop on `Development Implications of the Diffusion of Information Technology' in Chennai on Friday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI: Can online journalism claim a legitimately significant place in the Indian media scene? Are journalism and media becoming two different things? Can journalism's core values survive the onslaught of the new media, which is increasingly becoming digital/interactive/multimedia? Is the IT boom sustainable? To what extent can control over content be exercised on online media?

Not easy questions any of these, but they certainly need to be addressed in the context of the proliferation of the new media, said speakers at a workshop on `Development Implications of the Diffusion of Information Technology' organised by The Media Development Foundation (MDF), The Hindu and The Economic Research Foundation here on Friday.

Speaking on the difference made by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to media, N.Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said a huge credibility gap existed in contrasting estimates of the actual number of Internet users in India, who still constituted a statistically insignificant population.

Though globally newspaper circulations were falling, there was space for considerable growth in India with the National Readership Survey 2005 putting the number of neoliterates who did not read newspapers at 314 million. However, the possibility of the new media "outflanking" conventional media existed as there were instances of the online proliferation of news-providing web sites destabilising conventional media in countries like the U.K.

Though there were no successful business models that straddled the online and print media, "the great hope" was that conventional journalism would win out, Mr. Ram added.

Three major technology-mediated differences were taking place in the digitised media — convergence, vertical integration and the shift from analog to digital — Shashi Kumar, Chairman, MDF, said. While digitisation had fragmented media, the latter had also become more democratised.

Rural markets opened up a whole new area of application for ICT as villagers readily adapted to new practices showing demonstrable benefits, S.S.Gill, former Secretary to the Government of India, said. While, in industrialised countries, ICT had primarily strengthened the neo-liberal economy, in India it had taken a people-centric development path.

Horizontal diffusion of IT

There was almost no evidence to show a significant horizontal diffusion of IT into other sectors such as manufacturing, C.P.Chandrasekhar, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said. The sector had grown rapidly due to an expansion in exports. Though IT could make a significant difference to economy-wide growth and welfare, its contribution to employment generation did not match up to its export potential.

India had become a significant importer of both hardware and packaged software which affected domestic markets. Though IT's contribution to the country's balance of payment was substantial, the sustainability of export boom was questionable as it had not had a significant impact on the population, he added.

Addressing the issue of control over online content, N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, said the level to which such censorship could be taken was still undecided, though countries such as China had done so to a certain extent. The question whether jurisdiction/enforcement/controls should be exercised in dealing with such a vast medium remained unresolved, he added.

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