Social Media’s Impact on Society..

Can there be more emphatic a statement about the Importance of social media than the fact that Prime Minister of the country has 12million followers on a single SM platform, Union cabinet ministers engage with public regularly on SM.despite this Plenty has been spoken and written about social media in the past few years.

What is social media? Web definitions : Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. There are 13 most popular social networking sites.  My focus is going to be solely on Twitter, this is the platform which has emerged as the one that. Media and it’s venerable personnel are often heard complaining about. Before proceeding further I wish to thank my dear friend as raghunath for providing the historic inputs on conventional media which enables me present the subject matter in proper perspective.

We started 235years ago with print with Hicky’s Benegal gazette published in 1780 ,this first mover advantage has been lost by print media.India heard it’s first radio broadcast in 1930,(85yrsold) then ceylone broadcasting corporation took away bulk of the listners. Now FM channels are trying hard to regain those listners.

Next was TV started in 1959, regular telecast began in 1965, It was the 80’s saw a national channel, 90’s witnessed a proliferation of of satellite tv’s by 2012 823 channel of which 184 were pay channels existed in India. This conventional media still did not satiate the appitite of the public for information.

Net was launched in India in 1995 it’s only 20years old, youngest of the sibling. Low internet penetration in India, yet #2 when it comes to twitter usage globally after USA, ahead of Japan, Germany & UK! Presence in social media is a matter of personal choice, in my case26/11 /2008 was the inflection point, when we watched in impotent rage as India was held hostage for 72hours by half a score terrorists from across the border, started to comment extensively on newspaper sites and tv website, found comments at times were edited or held back on pretext of moderation. This lead to my taking to blogging in a very serious way and then investing a lot of time on twitter to make my views on issue public, challenge the narrative of GOI and main strem Media.

Consumer profile in India is no longer the passive consumer of 60’s,70’s,80’s &90’s. present consumer is very active & discerning, he invests heavily into shifting thru the information & getting to the facts at the earliest. What is Twitter? Normally described as social media platform! The meaning differs from person to person some use it for selling, some for connecting with the world, a few for fun and some for sharing knowledge, views and debate facebook enjoys the number status in terms of registered users in India, followed by Twitter, this is the forum that I personally favour and will speak about it at length.

Twitter is also the altar Ego for many, Twitter is the sounding board, Twitter is for attracting others, personalities from Entertainment Industry announce forthcoming releases, Socialites their pet themes and of course media personalities invite you to view their show on TV and pose questions, more importantly they mock and challenge. Twitter has become a personal pigeonhole for Tweeple who block the journalistic fraternity, pelt them with tweets to which the recipients cannot retort directly, this is a role reversal to the utter dismay of the media, has not yet been able to come to terms with.  It is reported that a show hostess last week on air in the course of show stated that she was a hated figure on Twitter, question is? Did she elaborate on her own contributions for attaining such a cult status

An indisputable fact is that people on this forum have tremendous knowledge on almost all subjects are vocal and quick to correct any misrepresentation by the media folks, this leads to debates and often heated exchanges largely civil in nature often ending in Tweeple being labeled by media folks as Internet Hindus, Right wingers, Khakhi Chaddi Brigade, Trolls etc etc.

There are stray incidents of abusive language being employed by a few, blocking is normal. Irreverent Tweets are also a norm, rumors by media, as also misinformation is tried to be inflicted on us, such Tweets are duly deleted with promptness that the mischief does not return to haunt the perpetrator, by way of retweet or be used as evidence to confront the culprit. Tech savvy Tweeple ensure that such tweets are instantly captured and re-posted to the dismay and discomfort of these individuals who tried to be cute on this forum. There is a recent instance of a journo from Economic Times going overboard and posting hateful tweets, cruelly attempting to later justify them as a joke, we did not detect any humor what so ever in those tweets,.

With the passage of time, presence on twitter lead to experimentation into areas which I had not previously traversed,when an atlete faced paucity of funds totake a coach of choice to London Olympics a hjoint effort was launched with others on twitter under the banner of ek Aur Prayaas to raise funds. This was a surprising success, all funds were directly remitted to the athlete’s account.this was followed up with raising funds for Assam riot victims, here againg the funds were directly remitted to those organization which were working on the ground in Assam, was personally targeted by the then UPA govt, which got my handle blocked by local ISPs, however twitter insisted on court order to block my handle from their end.  UPA cud not furnish that. Next when state of Maharastra  faced serious drought again we employed twitter to gather funds & volunteers for on ground work. During the serial bombblast in Mumbai in 2011 again it was the tweeple who organized to have details of blood banks, hospital, names list of the injured & organizing car pools, this was done in a very organized manner,Social Media has empowered the public & is being extensively used for various activities other than commercial or chit chatting. Story of twitter & social media will remain incomplete without going into details of ALAKH2011.  on 13 april I was tweeting pictures of jallianwalan bagh, when shailesh kumar pandey a resident of varanasi got into a conversation with me & expressed his desire to traverse the entire country on his motor cycle & specially visit the sites & homes of those who sacrificed their lives for the country, but were unknown to Indians. He named this mission of his his as  ALAKH2011 THE UNSUNG HEROES.During his entire jouney he was constantly in touch with us on Twitter regardless of the  city/village OR state he was traveling thru or the time of day or night. When his motorcycle stopped working in kerela at about midnight, this was not something which cud not be overcome, tweeple nearest to him were contacted who in turn got hold of a mechanic who reached the sport where shailesh K pandey was, motocycle repaired without much loss of time & stress, he managed to complete his journey successfully & reached home safely, without any mishap any where enroute.

During the natural calamity in uttrakhand it was again social media, tweeple in particular who once again joined hands without any call from any authority, name list were compiled, funds collected, rope bridges built, Mr alok bhatt from dheradoon took the lead in this effort. He also went ahead & collected sufficient funds to provide cattle to villagers & procured refrigerated vehicle to transport milk from those villages, providing employment is as important as rescuing people in case of calamity.

Social media twitter in particular also played a significant role in the gen elxn of 2014, we did conduct several meets in different cities under the banner of ‘EK aur Prayaas’

These were calledc  as transition beyond twitter, since these were offline interaction.

Media in the meantime came up with a theory that Social Media could influence between 165 to 210 seats in forthcoming General Elections. This was not a finding of media’s own but from a Knowledge foundation body and the study was backed by the Internet & Mobile Association body. This study shows that that Social media users may be the new island of new vote bank that conventional political class has to worry about. The report suggested that by the time India went to poll in 2014 the SM users number would remain close to 80Mn. Add to that 25Mn NRIs those who now have voting rights. Even if they are not present physically to press the voting button, they still remain huge influencing block.

Based on the SM users intensity, the study details there are 160-High impacting constituencies, 67 medium constituencies and 60 other low or no impacting constituencies!

Scope of social media being employed for social causes is a big plus. With the ever increasing number of users.social media may very soon play a crucial role in how the govts will run in this country.  In conclusion give me great pleasure to inshare with you Chittaranjan Kar ‏ of Barbil, Orissa

was honored by Barbil MunicipalityOdisha on IndependenceDay 2015 for SwachhBharatAbhiyan signature drive.

Day 2 when sonia effect kept barking dogs silent in their studios.

Social media scored heavily against main stream media. No write up is needed screen shots of the tweet speak more than loudly about the facts not disclosed by media in India.

Go gone went down the tube maddog arnab goswami.

Journalism has never been associated with glamour, it has been a dull drab profession, which requires exhaustive research and excellent command over language, total control on emotions by the reporter when reporting any event. Reporter is not a participant or a protagonist in the unfolding event which she/he is reporting, personal view opinions  have to be avoided at all cost, an observer who bridges the gap between those who are not on the scene has to be dispassionate and objective in reportage. These are the basic parameters on which journalism rests. We have a handful of journalists in India who enjoy tremendous public respect and they widely read, trusted for their work, they have built this reputation over years thru hard and sincere work, they don’t go ballistic use adjectives excessively to describe any event or person. Language is moderate yet carry’s a punch which leaves one gasping for breath for a long time after reading their articles.

We also have a set of newscasters in tv channels who find it difficult to sit still in their seats, hold their fingers from wagging at others or paper waving to make a point. Some believe body bag count decides newsworthiness of an event, another believes if being critized something right is being done yet another seriously believes decibel levels decide the authenticity of a report facts are unimportant as long as  a paid panel with similar mind set is gathered and chant in unison you are guilty you are guilty. In a nutshell we have these narcissists as newscaster each one is an oracle with exclusive rights to first claims of impact due to their reportage. Courts, constitution, police , army, diplomats, minister don’t count for any thing they are the ultimate panacea for India and it’s issues.

Indians have been thru an excruciating week starting from 14/06/2015 to 21/06/2015. one misguided newscaster took it upon himself to report on an issue without fact checking or being open to corrections. He was so driven by his zeal to nail someone that he ignored all basis of journalism, how would he know? He is not a journalist, only a newsreader who delivers the lines with right kind of voice modulation to keep the viewer titillated to hear him to the end of the show. Oh yes this is the normal variety of newsreader, but arnab goswami does not fall into this category, he is unique one of his own kind, set out to damage bjp and it’s minister for external affairs, ended up hurting congress his channel owner and self.

In this age and time with social media everyone needs to tread with caution. Facts are brought out by users in no time leaving channels,  bombastic newscaster, political paymasters and colleague red faced , exposed beyond repair.

Barking cant be the norm, public will reject and eject such channels. Yes your opulent life styles obiviously point to corruption that you all practice, devils cant be quoting scriptures is also a given.Where is the case in which city ? which court in India has pronounced him as absconding.Will he use similar adjective tofor sonia and rahul Gandhi who have been summoned by a court to appear as accused in national herald case. why different standards? 

Disclaimer I have not watched a single IPL Match do not believe it’s cricket, corruption is part of IPL

day ndtv & timesnow were at the receiving end

Secular Cowards in Indian Media use “Je Suis Charlie” for grand standing!!!!

After the initial reactions of shock, dismay and outrage, soon the discourse of Indian media and the protectors of Secularism started to veer on to the known and well trodden path. Root cause theory, extreme provocation caused by the cartoon, we condemn but….. finally got us the priceless gems condoning the terror strike in Paris from Mr. Mani Shanker Aiyer of Indian National Congress who traced the genesis to the war on terror started by President Bush of USA.

While the world mourned and stood in solidarity, disgustingly Indian media and it’s lousy lot of people were busy finding reason to stand with the terrorists. Some like Praveen Swami who is yet to digest the fact he has been exposed beyond redemption in his appropriated role of security specialist put out an obnoxious cartoon hoping he would be able to provoke Hindus in to violent reaction, to his dismay what he received in return was a cartoon.

Then there is Diva of Secularism yes the unethical person caught on Radia Tape Barkha Dutt claiming to be Secular and Liberal now who is to explain to her “Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. “  Secularism can be the fulcrum of a Nation State which mandate the above but an individual. Prostitution of the word “Secularism” has been on since 1976 and got very shrill ever since BJP has emerged as a political alternative.

Congress and this merry band of Secularist have converted this into an effective tool for discriminating against Hindus in India and justifying all the crimes in the name of Islam including Paris Terror strike.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi yes the same man whom we had seen on CD performing in his chamber. He goes on to compare Paris Terror strike with MPs of BJP Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj. How could Mr Tushar Gandhi not weigh in on this after all he needs to remind the world he is still around.

Then there is the tortured intellectual by the name Sudheendra Kulkarni who wants a role as security advisor not just to France but entire Europe.

Nothing is complete unless we don’t get a daily dose of venom and hate from the most venomous individual to have ever appeared on a TV channel in India. You guessed it right Sagarika Ghose. What does she do attempts to divert attention towards Hindus.

How can Tehelka fame, Tejpal recruit convenient spare wheel which will attach itself to Barkha Dutt one day, next day it’s Sagarika Ghose etc etc. She expresses sympathies for one Police officer who was killed in Paris attack, but not a words on the other victims.

We are still waiting for the media in India to bring to us the complete details of the incident.

Seculars are cowering in fear, lest they be the next target.

Fantastic response to #charliehebdo attack via @DJack_Journo Do watch. http://bit.ly/1BEZOt6