Monday, February 15, 2010

The Time Of Multiple Media

Henry Jenkins, Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California says something very interesting.He says that both the old and the new media are there to stay.In his words "students clearly need both and more importantly, they need to understand the relationship between the two. They need to understand the different structures through which traditional encyclopedias and Wikipedia produce and evaluate information, for example. They need to be able to read charts, maps, and graphs, but also to be able to produce and interpret information through simulations. They need to be able to express themselves orally, with pens and paper, and with video cameras and digital editing equipment."

So this debate whether new media will kill the old media takes a different dimension.It is true media evolves and new mediums are formed but the older media doesn't die. For e.g. newspapers change the way they are packaged to suit the new trends in emerging new media but may not be dying.

For public relations students this is a learning that the number of media through which they communicate is increasing and they will have to manage yet another set of emerging media.

I m currently researching whether this dependence on the old media decrease with the rising new media? Will the rate at which media relations is conducted in India take a backseat considering the fact we are now having alternative medium such as the the internet? Of course all this keeping in mind infrastructural development in our country.

what do you think?

5 comments:

  1. I think PR students & practitioners have to understand proper use of each type of Media.We see that though new products of Electronic media are coming with a tremendous speed; Print Media is also changing with differences as well as there is increase in number of new newspapers in all languages. Each Media has it's own place, which will remain at least for many more years

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  2. Every Media has its own advantages and disadvatanges. The media to be used will also depend on the client you are doing PR for and audiences viewing the media. As a PR student and practitioner its important to every media as it is the tool and how every media is evolving as per the trend.
    Also as it is rightly said old is god , I dont think the old media will take a backseat. Rural areas donot have acess to technology.
    Thus it is important to know both old and new media and how well to target it.

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  3. ok.I guess we need to ask the consumers too if they too feel the same way.

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  4. Yes in that way we may get a clear picture of what they need

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  5. Deinitely, this may become part of Statistical Research

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