Here I am....This is me (Communication, Technology and Society)

Today in one of my intrinsic moods, I am somewhat reminded of the three imaginary characters form Ayn Rand's novel 'For The New Intellectuals'. They are: Attila - the mighty and brute, the Witch Doctor - who dreads reality and necessity for practical actions, and escapes into emotions and some illussionary mystical realm, and the Producer - the thinkers and inventors who brought about Renaissance. Ayn Rand imagined these characters to be prevalent in the human civilization viz a viz the society. And so, accordingly, the Producer has always played the key role in bringing about the change.

Media is "the" most powerful thing! Media has been very progressive in the past one century with the advent of technology and innovations. Let's take a look at the journey of media till now, and how this so called 'Producer' could have influenced or contributed towards it....haha.

Yes, it's all about media - the content and the way of its delivery. Media is the mightiest. Media informs, educates, entertains, connects, engages, calls for action. It can transform ways of thinking, behaviour patterns, actions. Right from its inception it has significantly influenced, shaped up the thought patterns and transformed the civilization and societies a great deal. To produce effective content and pour it into the right channel, is extremely important for its effectiveness.

History holds the evidence that a person greater in communication always rules, right from the Roman rulers to Mussolini, Hitler, so on and so forth. Skills and effectiveness of communication has always decided the Ruler and the Ruled.

We are now living in the era of global connectivity where communication is no more an issue, and it completes with the very essential required element i.e. the feedback.

Modern media showed its presence with the arrival of Gutenberg's printing press and newspaper. 1920s saw the advent of radio. Mankind and civilization faced a transition with the two world wars where radio was the most importent source as media for information. TV in the 1940s added a new definition to entertainment and media consumption pattern. As technology progressed, the modes of communication and mass communication also further developed, connecting became easier, outreach increased, channels of communication also grew, but somehow still the complete process, the cycle, of communication seemed to have been missing due to the lack, slow or delayed feedback/response. But now due to Internet, these barriers have been broken. Immediacy, outreach, response, feedback, endorsement is no more a constraint. Transparency and authenticity of media - the content, is also to a great extent assured and not much questionable, as media and information is now to a great extent becoming an open book. Otherwise, the brands or individuals lose their credibility. Not to disagree, manipulations are still taking place and there can be fake news and false trollings as well, which does influence perception and mass opinions.

This march of media and communication now has pretty much flourished into a paradigm where people seem to adopting communicating to the next level, that is of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, where space, time and distance is no more a constraint. It is a new relm altogether. Much thanks to the Internet (IoT) and technology.

Thus content creation, its way of production, management, delivery system and media formats have also evolved, developed and found its new dimensions. User Experience (UX) is the much talked about topic of concern now.

The way people consume content is very different in the present times. The preferences, choices, methods, channels have all modified, rather have changed into a different new order.

Channels of communication have modified and diversified and have paved its new path and ways. Communication, media and technology have integrated and converged. Practically everybody's smitten by it.

We cannot ignore and definitely need to acknowledge the fact with affirmation that Stieve Jobs did brig about a major revolution, with his inventions and technology, in the pattern of media and communication use and consuption pattern, and changed the very definition of style of media and communication.

Information, education, interaction and engagement has become highly entertaining now with these new formats of media and channels of distribution.

Well, no more can a news channel claim now that they are the first ones to break any particular news. The age of citizen journalism has taken over. Information is in abundance. Right to information has now been included as part of human rights.

Social media has been the biggest game changer and has topsy turvied the conventional media channels and communication, marketing and advertising patterns. Considering the political landscape, very evident examples are, Obama's election campaign to Modi and Trumph till date.

Internet, per-say, social media has infiltrated into newsrooms as well. They cannot do without it. The NRCS, the content management system, the content delivery system is all dependent on the Internet, cloud, social media feeds, the various apps, telecom industries providing high speed band widths of internet, and more.

Reporting from the field has become so easy due to the compact light weighted devices and integrating softwares be it for audio/radio or video/television. With its user friendliness, the person reporting, even if a novice, would have no difficulties. An integration with a mobile phone can conveniently deliver the feed to the studio or the station from the remotest place, only thing required would be Internet connection.

Online journalism is the demand of the time, and comes real handy when it comes to news gathering and news generation. An interesting case, an Australian sports channel which is only on the app Snapchat, made it big overnight and is one of Australia's very popular sports channels who run on only Snapchat.

The huge bulky camera have squeezed down to iPhone video and android video for capturing, streaming, providing feed from the field to newsrooms, editing using apps and what not. It's just on the fly.

Most of the popular and prominent newsrooms are using Simulcast and Multicast technology, in terms of software and hardware, for pushing out their content on various platforms simultaneously. Likewise IPTV and VoD is gaining much popularity and people are going in for cord cutting.

Archiving, content management, customization and curating content as per target audience's preferences, have all become very easy due to meta tagging and keywords.

In this fast paced environment multi-collaboration is the key. Reporters, editors, producers, presenters, camera operators and control room crews need to coordinate their efforts in order to create stories. Platforms like Octopus, ENPS, iNews, etc. have made it really simple.

Apps like Slack, Trello, etc. have made collaboration so easy with its multiple integration features. Again a great platform for content production and newsrooms. Many independent organizations are cropping up using these tools and are doing pretty well and have their set of dedicated audience and loyal followers. Much more has opened up to add to the scope.

Another exciting attraction are the fascinating platforms and apps providing great facilities for blogging, micro blogging, Live streaming, drones captured videos, the 360 degree videos, virtual reality experiences and all that great stuff. 

Live-streaming which is the most in-thing, has an immediacy that recorded video can’t match. It is more real and interactive to the audience, and that is what people want, instead of pre-programed stuff. It also earns more ad revenue.

Where storytelling, be it of a brand or personal, has become highly captivating, convincing engaging and interactive, connecting people and communities globally is no more an issue. People are now becoming global citizens. Boundaries and barriers are breaking, stereotypes are breaking. Knowledge is in abundance, free flowing, connecting people, holding hands, collaborating. Google and YouTube have become the greatest teachers.

Living in this fast paced age of communication and extra ordinary information inflow, is highly enticing and engaging, at the same time a challenge, when it comes to content generation and finding a place of its own. Carving a niche for your content, in this high level of information clutter, is the challenge, but not difficult.

Not to be forgotten, music is an important media and a strong channel of communication too. It brought in some major change in the world scenario. The class division in America was torn down by the counter-culture movement and music being a part of it, that started in the 60s, and anti-war movements. Journalists contributed to it much, by spreading their message globally. So was Australia's political system, that saw a complete change due to the influence of the famous band Led Zeppelin after they performed in Sidney.

The latest we see now is, Elon Musk's venture to merge the human brain with AI (artificial intelligence), that is linking human brains with computer and bridging the gap between man and machine, in his project Nuralink.

Who knows this new order of convergence of media, communication and technology might get us out of this puddle of stale syrup and bring in a new world order. No more politicians to govern us, no more barriers to break the stereotype, no more borders to separate us. The earlier we realise the better it is.

I leave a food for thought here -- so who is it going to be after Producer? And after democracy, what is it going to be next?