New Media & Mass Communication
BY: Dr.Y.Bala Murali Krishna
(unibalu@gmail.com)
The New Media, which is also known as the Internet journalism, is part of the Mass Media/Communication. It is, at the same time, a highly interactive medium under the umbrella of the Electronic Media.
The other types of the Mass Communication are the Traditional Media and the Print media. The New Media is a part of the electronic media, apart from the Cinema, the Television and the Radio besides the mobile communication media like the cell phones.
TRADITIONAL MEDIA:
The traditional media comprise of folk songs, dramas, harikathas, burrakathas, street plays, bharata natyam and kuchipudi dance, among others. They convey a message to the viewers and the audience at one go.
The traditional media tools they continue to woo the masses as they strongly influence the public, particularly the traditional and orthodox in the society. Even the modern dances including the jazz and rock-in-roll form part of the traditional media category.
The traditional media holds sway on the public even in the modern days. People strongly believe in what a Muslim mullah/Hindu head priest/ or a Christian cleric/clergy preaches, the typical example being the Catholics in Goa and Muslims in Iran and Iraq
The belief in religious heads was so strong in Iran that even the modern society the people had chosen their religious head Ayatollah Khomeini as their President by dethroning the highly powerful Shah of Iran backed by the US
Kuchipudi dance form, originated from the Kuchipudi village in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, was primarily meant for opening the eyes of the then Reddy Kingdom on the woes of the general public during the regime through dances performed by the men.
The message conveyed through the dance performances before the King had resulted in realizing the mistakes in their administration and governance. This had in turn forced the respective authorities to rectify their mistakes to the satisfaction of the subjects.
Even the modern media like the TV was forced to adopt the traditional media forms in their broadcasts to increase their TRP ratings by attracting the audience. So are the corporate bodies who adopt various forms of traditional media during their product promotional campaigns particularly in villages.
PRINT MEDIA:
There are more than 60,000 publications in India
Anything that is written to convey a message constitute print medium. Even the writings on the notice board with a chalk piece in all town halls of Chennai city in Tamilnadu form part of the Print Media.
The Online Media:
With its unique multimedia function facilitating convergence of data at one go, the web media offers a variety of interactive features to the netizens – audio, video, text, and the info-graphics in the form of internet radio and the internet TV(IPTV).
This is not possible in other media like the print, TV and the radio. This apart, it offers other features like the e-mail, e-zines, user/discussion groups and even social groups like the Twitter and the Face Book besides formation of blogs.
It promotes e-governance, e-commerce, e-banking and the like including video-conferencing and teleconferencing and net chatting, making the world a global community at the click of the mouse.
Types of Communication:
Communication is basically divided into three types.
1. Intra-personal(communicating from within like a Sadhu meditating)
2. Inter-personal(communication between two people). This has a great significance in that it has the potential to change opinion among the public. This is one of the most researched topics in the media particularly by the campaigners engaged in bringing about a radical change in the attitude of the public mired in superstitions and sentiments like the HIV-affected in South Africa and others in India.
3. Inter and intra-group communication: Communication within a group and between two groups of people.
4. Mass Communication: It is the process of communication which addresses a large section of the public at a time like the different tools such as the newspapers, cinema, TV, radio and now internet and mobile phones.
Initially the process of communication evolved from a pair of doves through cycle to satellite as illustrated in the graphics given to the students.
Communication with sign language and signals and later with written and spoken language and even signals using Morse code constitute the process of communication. You are aware there were cinemas without any spoken word, called Pantomimes that carry a message to the masses in the early days of primitive technology, which had now been replaced with modern multiplex cinema complexes with high density cinema shows beamed through satellites to avoid piracy.
