[To Mark International Media Ethics Day]
Media is facing hard times. It’s not only receiving blows from advertisers but also from the Internet. The Internet has emerged as a tough competitor, and without money-generating model, media are forced only to spend on online media to remain competitive.
And, through social media, individuals are expressing their dissatisfaction over media –from questioning priority to lamenting coverage to ridiculing news. Continue reading…
“When I see ordinary people speaking on the program, I feel motivated and confident that I also could speak in front of the public.”
This was what a 46-year-old woman from the rural area of Surkhet district told a researcher studying the impact of the radio/television show — Sajha Sawal, literally, Common Questions.
My questions! A woman speaks during Sajha Sawal’s shoot! Photo Courtesy: SajhaSawal
Today, social media is a buzzword. It’s everywhere – and everyone feels isolated in an unmanned island, somehow away from the contemporary world, if not using a few of the services free on internet. But what is it?
The best way to understand the current situation surrounding social media is probably a tweet from Google’s Avinash Kaushik, also an author:
OH: Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise its not better.
— Avinash Kaushik (@avinash) March 2, 2009
Everyone wants to jump in. It was like internet browsing in 90s or blogging in early 2000s. This probably explains why there are so many users signing up for services like blog, Twitter or Facebook and seldom using them. Because after a few days until you get properly involved into it understanding a few basic ideas, the social media services are as boring as it could be. Continue reading…
Last month, two separate survey reports were published on ‘Nepali journalists’ use of social media’.
The first Journalist & Social Media: 2011 National Survey of Nepali Journalists was released by Center for Media Research – Nepal (CMR-Nepal). This is a survey that assesses the journalists’ use of social media, the purposes of their usages and their perceptions about social media as an aid for their professional activities.
The other, FNJ Social Media Survey Report 2012, was released by Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ). The study was conducted by FNJ in association with InterNews Nepal. Continue reading…
On March 24, Tweet for Cause Nepal (@tfcNepal) celebrated its first anniversary. tfcNepal is a small social media initiative for social change that aims to bring smiles on the faces of the underprivileged by providing them little support. In a year, the initiative succeeded in running five projects (a project = a support worth around Rs. 30,000), including one outside Kathmandu. The initiative is based on the donation provided by its self-declared members.
I am one of around 1,400 proud members of the initiative who provide occasional donation (any amount of my choice). And, it’s relatively successful in crowd-funding its projects and keeping things tied together.
Popular microblogging platform Twitter has become popular among the editors in Nepal.
Although the level of impact by the editors’ tweets is yet to be analyzed, they are expressing their opinions and debating on national issues on Twitter.
I follow as many tweeting editors as I could find with my Twitter account (@UjjwalAcharya) and it all went interesting last week when the editors exchanged views on system of governance (especially on directly-elected president). Continue reading…
American Ambassador to Nepal, Scott H DeLisi, is in the limelight – thanks to his Facebook page. His opinions expressed there are being quoted by Nepali mainstream media frequently.
While we have been reading his opinions on current political, and social, aspects of Nepal, his opinion against the strike called by Nepali Congress on Sunday created a controversy because the leaders of the old party discussed it in length during their Central Working Committee meeting and later expressed publicly that what he wrote was undiplomatic; and that he should not be giving public lectures of Nepali politicians. Continue reading…
Internet has been the most revolutionary convergence of communication tools. The greatest beneficial aspect of the internet as a communication tool has been the possibility for each and every person with internet access to communicate globally. Communicating to the world has never been as easy as it is now. Loads of services, also collectively known as social media, such as blogs, microblogs, photo/video sharing and social networking allow users to publish information and/or comments on available information so easily that time and again users tend to forget the bigger impact that those information or comments may have. Continue reading…
Distribution channel will change in future and we have no control over what people will use. They may use something we don’t know today. At the publishing house, we have to specialize on producing good stories.
When I was in Hamburg, Germany to attend the first of three phases of the Journalism in Digital World at the International Academy of Journalism – Intajour, one of the big question amongst the fellows there was ‘how the upcoming technology going to change journalism.’
The advent of the Internet followed by the development of mobile devices- such as smartphones, e-readers and tablets – which people increasingly use to read the news has to change journalism someway, many of us believed. For a media house, and journalists the possible further development of new platforms poses a big opportunity (to become early adopter of profitable venture among upcoming developments) and a threat (how to remodel journalism to perfectly harness the capability of the platform). Continue reading…
(This post is a result of my participation in the South Asia Meeting on the Freedom of Expression and the Internet in Kathmandu, 2-4 November. This is my personal opinion but I owe to participants of the meeting whose comments may have helped me to shape this.)
By Internet intermediaries, I mean those companies or people who has a role in providing internet services to the people including, but not limited to, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), webhosts, web service providers, website owners, and also cyber cafes and telecommunication companies. Continue reading…
