A mystery wrapped in an enigma

May 19, 2011

Poets have often described how a beauty looks into your eyes, utters a few words and your heart starts singing. But what poets often fail to narrate is the persona, the individuality of the lady and compensate it with flowery praise in her beauty. But then beauty is not just a female body, it is a personality…a complete packaging. And an element of mystery and enigmatic ways of this lady only adds spice to her aura. I could not have realised it so intense had I not met her.
 

Unlike the poetic parlance, this lady, a poetess herself, looked through my heart and soul, gave an assuring smile and my heart could not help saying, “Here comes a woman of substance”. Can the persona of a woman be so strong that even when she gets too rigid with her thoughts, you feel a special bond, something that can not be defined in words but felt from the core of the heart?
 

But then she is different, wears different caps at different times and it is often not that easy to identify which one is there before you—a thorough professional business woman, a creative artist, a loving friend, a hot headed rigid creature or a child like innocent girl. A chance meeting over social networking site Facebook led to personal interaction, initially more on a professional note than personal and later in the reverse order. This followed by spending time together as friends which led to an informal camaraderie, blossomed into a level of intimacy and started graduating into mutual trust for each other.
 

It often compels me to think whether a feminine charm can be that captivating. Masters and Johnsons in their masterpiece book on relationship, Sex and Human Loving suggest that a real woman is one who grows on you; the more you see her; the more you want to see and the more you meet her; the more you are captive of her charm and charisma.
 

However, what the relationship epic failed to narrate is that whether a woman can grow on you without even meeting frequently, without even knowing what all the other person has gone through in life. More importantly how the life has treated her and has changed her persona over the years? After all, no relationship expert has thus far met this dusky beauty to understand that there can be a true feeling beyond the boundaries of conventional relationships….where there are strong, deep and pure feelings, concerns and joys of companionship, and not the burden of relationship expectations.
 

Perhaps she is an anti-thesis of what is the prevalent norm in marketing, “packaging and not the product matters”.  But then the yardsticks of a human existence can not be measured by the parameters of marketing. Her level-headed yet strong mind always reminds that beauty is deep within, and not cosmetic. Had it not been the case she would not have been an attraction for somebody who is repeatedly finding her a mystery wrapped in an enigma. What makes it all the more important is that there are no selfish expectations either.
 

She is no doubt different and this difference is not always for the right reasons either. A person who is so lost in herself that she often does not only take more than usual time to open up but suspects to the extent of reading too much between the lines. A confused girl who is probably not sure of what she expects out of this life. It may be convenient for the world to see through it as the true characteristic of this lonely woman for whom trust might have been the first casualty as and when she tried to get out of her self-cocooned world. But it is here that one needs the wisdom of Freudian psychology to understand this beauty in her true self and spirit. This is something which clearly suggests that she is no different from other girls in her age group, yet there is a difference.
 

It is not that at the age of 29 life has come a full circle for her and she is not longing for trust, loyalty and love. After all, which woman in this world would like to see her golden years gone waste? But the scars of some old wounds, insecurities, hurt and conservative upbringing are all forcing her to get back to her own shell. Perhaps her belief in the fairy tales often reassures her that there can be a reverse process in life as well. And it is from this innocent belief that she often seems to draw her strengths too when it is an off day. She may not admit it, may portray a different persona altogether, but the innocent girl in her is ever ready to revolt, provided that she gets the comfort level with someone.
 

Not that her dreams of a fairy tale life has not crashed. And it is in this contradiction that she often feels trapped and helpless. At times she just reminds me of the song, “sheeshey ki bani ek ladki patthar key shahar ko aayi, woh dhoondh rahi thi moti aur reit sey ja takrai” from the film Dastak. The issue here is not that whether she wants to; rather she needs to flirt, love and, more importantly, live life on the edge. The sooner she realizes this, the better it is for her. After all, poise, like consciousness comes from within. And my personal interaction with her has often found that she tries to come out of her shell, yet does not have the courage to defy the norms and boundaries imposed more by the self than the society.
 

Whenever she gets the courage, whenever in the inherent contradiction between the head and the heart, it is the heart that overpowers mind; she appears to be as cheerful and lovely lady as anybody else. In her subtle, shy and at times overt exchange of feelings, she reassures herself that she too is worth loving, worth adoring and worth being a true woman. Love her or hate her, you can’t ignore her.
 

It is true that woman is the most complex creature that God has ever produced, but she is more than a mere mystery wrapped in an enigma. And that is something which makes her worth in gold. After all, which man would not love his woman to see a bit mysterious. My only wish is that the eternal quest for the right man and right destination may not deprive her of the journey called life. Her dreams may have been crushed more than once, forced her to get into a shell and suspect all around; but then it is always a new beginning.

Oh women! Pity you are being befooled

May 14, 2011

Frankly speaking, I would not have noticed anything beyond anti-incumbency politics in the emergence of Mamta Banerjee and Jayalalitha in the recent assembly elections. But then certain status message over social networking sites like Facebook suggesting this as a symbolic rise of woman power and token of feminism actually made me pity as to how men have carefully crafted theologies to keep women in good humour and continue to drive them the way it suits them the most.
 

“Mamta, Jaya, Maya, Shiela….oh women you have made it,” says an idiotic status message suggesting as if the women in general have really been empowered in India. And it is really a pity that the Indian women are really being befooled by this symbolic representation. This pseudo representation is the same as in the case of a dalit or backward leader’s emergence. Does it actually translate into a substantive change for the given masses? Had it been the case the dalit community of Uttar Pradesh under an overtly vocal leader like Mayawati would have made a fortune by now. But factually speaking, their plight under Mayawati is worse than what they had to suffer under caste conscious Brahmin and other upper caste leaders.
 

What actually compelled me to write this piece has been a bitter experience over social networking where a serious discussion over women empowerment was trivialized. It was not just a difference of opinion that was bone of contention. It was rather a carefully crafted design to trivialise the debate and thus put the real issue on the back burner. I can understand there are certain disgruntled elements who don’t like me for my overt criticism of the caste chauvinism that they carry. But the more dangerous breed are those polished & so-called sophisticated lot who project themselves in a holier-than-thou manner, but are breeding ground of chauvinism.
 

A person who is caste chauvinist about being feudal upper caste can’t be a true supporter of women empowerment. But then their real game plan is not to convince but to confuse women on the issue. And what better way to do it than give them a pseudo belief of symbolic representation, and in the process disturb any healthy discussion over what can be a substantive change in the fortunes of the fair sex.       
 

I don’t need to prove my credentials over the subject to such shallow people. Of course, I feel really pity by the fact that even educated women in general fail to read what is hidden between the lines. I know my overt criticism and strong objection to symbolic representation of women might invite criticism from some section, but then I have always believed that if you can’t take a stand for what you believe in then it means you have no spines to support the cause either.
 

For me Maya, Shiela, Mamta, Jaya….or women like these have nothing to do with women empowerment. I define them only in the given context that they have done well for themselves. They don’t qualify to be role models. Their success is individual success. To qualify into being a role model the success has to be seen in the context of success achieved at what cost and for whose benefit. Unfortunately, the few and far between success stories on women empowerment that men so craftily proclaim and gullible women feel ecstatic about don’t have the intent to uplift women in general. These women are more male chauvinist in their approach than even a feudal man who is never comfortable with women standing on equal terms, forget being marching ahead.
 

Women who think they are educated and understand their rights are, unfortunately, as gullible as uneducated women. In fact, I have the case studies with me where uneducated women are more conscious of bringing substantive change in the lives of other women. I happened to meet a dalit scavenger lady, in due course of my research for a book, who has fought against the odds and is now running a small boutique-cum-beauty parlour. She wants her business to grow not only for her daughters but also for other young girls in one of the most backward districts of India, Alwar of Rajasthan. For me this uneducated woman is the real heroine of women empowerment.
 

Most of the successful educated women, whom gullible women look upto as role models, have no such claim to fame. Can any of these so-called educated and empowered women claim to have helped other women to come up in life? If you see the core team of any of these successful women, whether in politics, media or corporate world, the fact lies that they have never allowed a single woman to grow in their respective teams. Then how come they are symbols of women empowerment? 
 

I feel if women in general are really concerned with their empowerment, they need to start it at their own level, right from the four walls of the house. They don’t need to look up for symbolic representation, and instead focus on the substantive role around them. For this they need to respect themselves and other women. After all, a woman is the first teacher in any man’s life. The day a mother starts treating her daughters equal to sons; half the problem will be solved. After all, male chauvinism has a deep rooted social conditioning in its genesis.

The idea of Track2Governance

May 8, 2011

These are interesting times for any student of politics and governance in India. While the politics has always been the much talked about subject in this part of the world, governance as a subject of academic discussion is gradually taking the centre stage now. More importantly, governance had never been under so much of public scrutiny and hence there is a need to track the real governance, its agenda, issues and concerns. The collective consciousness is getting vocal on the issues of governance and it is time to shape the public psyche at large.

The Indian media, by and large, has often failed to differentiate between the politics and governance. No wonder, they are often seen to be a party on various issues. Moreover, the public perception and middle class outburst is more based on perception than ground reality. Hence the reactive tone & tenor of India could not be channelized for a positive change in the country.
 

This vacuum demands a governance think-tank platform, something that doesn’t mind going against the collective consciousness if it is not shaped by ground reality. This is where Track2Governance aims to position itself as a news platform with a clear focus on identifying the governance, its policies, plan and agenda. Our focus will be more on channelizing the public perception for constructive politics.
 

Advocacy and activism will be very much part of Track2Governance, and we may be rubbing the government the wrong way on occasion more than one. But then the team of Track2Media that has been behind conceptualizing the news project believes that the real journalism is not about asking the sweet questions, getting the sweet answers and filing the sweet copies. We are coming in the fray with a serious approach and intent to be whistle blowers as well.
 

We will also provide the much needed media support to the deserving movements on governance reforms. But at the same time we will neither be a party to any vested interests nor support any hypocritical media managed show in the name of fighting pro peoples’ causes. We would rather take a stand against attempt to promote extra constitutional mechanism. We are quite conscious of the fact that it will be very often interesting case studies, particularly in the wake of Track2Governance going against the tide.
 

After all, it is easier to sway the collective consciousness with a populist but irrelevant cause. What is challenging to stand up against the hidden agenda and tell the misguided masses that what they think as a legitimate cause is actually lending credence to the vested interests that have a large game plan in the process. Well, the emotionally charged people may not believe us in the short term, but then earning the credibility is always a long term road map and, of course, a challenge in hand.
 

It is not that efforts to launch news projects on governance have not been made earlier. As a matter of fact, there have been very many. A few of such governance news is doing good as well. However, we have made a proper study on competitive market and aim to position Track2Governance on a different level altogether. The existing news projects on governance are too bureaucracy centric in approach with overtly bureaucratic TG in mind.
 

Track2Governance doesn’t want to have bureaucracy as TG for the right reasons. We would be rather happy to note that we are at the wrong end of bureaucrats as our TG. Our real focus would be the impact of governance & policies on the common man. We don’t intent to be a mouthpiece or extended PR machinery of the government, its policies and programmes.
 

The common man’s issues and concerns with the government is what will matter the most to us. That is one of the reasons that we will regularly come out with the survey on various issues that concerns the performance of the government and the people’s expectations with the government and their local elected representatives. 
 

For the first time in the history of independent India the TINA factor is so profound that despite of the series of scams and scandals, the collective consciousness is not ready to trust those who are trying to destabilize the government by means fair and foul. Isn’t time for a fresh approach on governance? Isn’t it time for Track2Governance?

Social netwroking is a blind date that needs precaution

Jan 22, 2010

As if a Facebook status update or a Tweet with bad language, half baked perspective and ignorant rant was not enough. One of the recent relationship invites make me wonder whether social media is the new haven for all the disgruntled souls. I can conveniently ignore the overt advertisements inviting blind dates on various networking sites, but am clueless with some weird, strange quirks that let you into places you aren’t supposed to go. How can one fall in love with me just over couple of days of online friendship? It seems organized criminals are using one’s personal information shared on social networking sites in increasingly sophisticated ways to target victims.
Social media even without these gangs can never be a safe zone in a society where conflict resolution is more about compromising than collaborating. I often come across peculiar thought process that seem to shout at your face- “I don’t like your status updates/tweets anymore, not because your or mine literary tastes or social concerns have suddenly changed. My grouse is more with your snub to the common friend in the network who is more close to me.” All this makes me wonder whether we need a primary school of social networking to remind us that we are grown ups now. It is true that social networking is also about community building. But this close knit bonding for the right reasons often turn into wrong reasons when there is an element of subtle lobbying in the process. 
In a free virtual world with no guidelines or regulations, we are getting used to see something online that makes us mad, find something offensive online repetitively nowadays. Bad language, cuss words, half-baked perspective, ignorant rant and much more that often gets to the nerves to react. Somehow I am learning to live with this reality that very much like the real life; problem with opinion online is that everyone has it. Perhaps even Lord Keene could not anticipate that in days to come everybody will be an expert on everything.
For a person like me with firm grounding in conventional means of communication, the conscious decision to switch to new online vehicles—Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook was not based on its decency level any way. The experience of close friends over Orkoot was enough to suggest how a networking site can be a catalyst to behavior pattern shift in a virtual world. But then it was a need to take the clients’ presence to the new age tools. Something that Track2Media Consulting has done quite successfully over the last couple of years.
Over a period of time I started realizing the need of this necessary evil called social media, both at a personal and professional level. I have written extensively over the pros and cons of networking over the medium. I also keep telling the students of mass communication, with whom I interact as guest faculty in some institutes and universities that it is a necessary evil. Precaution is a must if you want to play safe. 
Professionally as a brand communication expert and as an activist at personal level, my caustic, sarcastic and angry response is often not in sync with the opportunity cost of ignoring it. I often allow myself to get offended and outraged, and the activist in me just can’t resist giving it back to the offence. Though, of late, I have started questioning myself whether the person has been worth my reaction. Has my reaction only given him credibility? Still by and large I don’t care for the cost-benefit analysis of my reputation in a world where, as they say, those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter. Social media is big enough for all kinds of characters to stay and engage.
After all, social media is like a blind date. You can only wish that she turns out to be a hot chick. On your part you get your basics right and arrive in style in a blind date. Again you can only hope this date with hot chick doesn’t get goofed up. But if the prayers are not answered, who cares. And who would like to carry the blind date analogy to its logical, ridiculous extreme? If the conversation online is not right, or if the other person carries a placard suggesting he/she is the best, you just communicate for a while and walk your way, without any plans of engaging yourself.
I treat my online relationship in a similar way, and any interaction beyond this is always a slow and steady process. Handling a relationship is fragile and nurturing the respect takes its own time and judgment. It hardly matters if my friends’ list changes completely over a period of time, particularly in the event of failure to agree to disagree. As a matter of principle in my now almost two years of social & professional networking online, I have never asked someone for personal information. I have exchanged phone numbers only when regular online interaction has led to some common meeting grounds and the other person feels like connecting with me at a personal or professional level.
I have also never asked a virtual friend of the opposite sex to show me her real picture as to how she looks like. I have also never removed someone from the friends list just because her real face is not visible on the site. I have rather respected the individual choice of the person to be there online the way she wants to be. Her decision to keep anonymous might be guided by her desire to play safe in a world where photographs of even celebrities are morphed with nude pictures nowadays. Who am I to intrude into someone’s safety zones, just because she added me as a friend? For me these personal details matter if we become close enough to think of meeting outside the virtual zones. But such friendships are few and far between.
In general I am nowadays careful with who my friends are; they could turn out to be my worst enemies. There are some wonderful people whom I have met online and with whom I have interacted and built a relationship. However, there are also other people who misrepresent who they are and what their intentions are. In order to be safe, some of my female friends don’t put their real pix and personal details to be known to all. After all, they need to be constantly cognizant about who they trust and what they divulge online. It is important not to trust online connections before building a strong and solid foundation in the relationship.
Being safe in the world of social media is a choice that should not offend genuine people in the friend list at all. We have the example of Steve Boggan who discovered about the past life of his girlfriend of 12 years, Suzanne Halam, just by using the internet. It took just one hour for internet experts to find out almost every private detail of this woman's life. That includes her friends, education, embarrassing pictures, former boyfriends and long-forgotten relatives.
This happened because, in common with millions of people in Britain, Suzanne was using the social networking sites Facebook and Friends Reunited, and had signed up to the business networking site LinkedIn and Flickr, the photo-sharing website. Armed with this information, criminals could have also used her identity to commit fraud or resurrect minute details of her past, her movements and friendships to lure her into scams or even dangerous liaisons. It could have been used to con her into revealing her bank details and credit card numbers.
After all, even the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, a man not known for worrying about internet surfers’ privacy, suggested recently that young people might want to change their identities in the future in order to separate themselves from a past lived too openly on the internet.
The relationship invite that I received was thoroughly investigated by my e-sister (I found this kiddo online). She found objectionable stuff over there and hence asked me to block it. But I realized how these criminal gangs are carefully fishing for victims online. In the past, they would have sent out thousands and thousands of spam emails in a scattergun fashion — and many still do. These are called phishing scams where you are awarded millions of $ for having used the email. Some of them invite fake requests from banks asking people to confirm their account details, passwords and so on. The hope is that, once in a while, someone would be silly enough to reply.
Fortunately, I was not silly, will never be so. A love affair over couple of days of online friendship? Oh! Give me a break. Instinctively I am now addicted with social media and professionally it has benefitted me as well. Therefore, it is no longer a matter of choice to stay connected, but the need as well. However, being less than couple of years old on the social networking sites, I am fast learning the nuances of the medium. I hope the learning curve makes me careful in selection of friends/contacts in future, benefits Track2Media Consulting in its business and goads the mass communication students in the right direction with my shared experiences.

My profile in Prabhat Khabar

Jan 12, 2011                                                                                                                                                 

Prabhat Khabar did my profile recently. Since my facebook post earlier was not readable, here's a readable version on public demand. Please click on the image above to enlarge and read.

Click on the image above to enlarge

Bihar resurgence more by design than default

Dec 29, 2010

Critics dismissed the claim, Bihari Diaspora looked up with nostalgic pride and a large section of Bihar population kept wondering; but the conventional school of economics had just got a new case study. And the eminent economist Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar was only stating the obvious. The state of Bihar, known for poor perception, projection and performance had managed to achieve a growth rate of 11 per cent at a time when the national GDP had nosedived to 6 per cent and many developed countries hovering around 2.5 per cent.
Everybody had their own reasons to react-the critics who were always apprehensive with the competitive edge of the talent pool were just comfortable with the denial theory. The Bihari Diaspora who has by and large seen the worst side of reverse racism in metro cities and has preferred silence in exchange of a decent living had suddenly found that their time had come. The large part of the Bihar, however, kept wondering that if Bihar has actually made history then where have the fruits of development gone? 
The turnaround of the fortune of Bihar will be discussed and debated at various level- economic, social and political. However, the fact stands that this turnaround has been made possible without any economic package by the centre, without any big-ticket investment, and despite coping with the legacy of state being at the rock bottom of governance, all human development indicators and nature’s fury with flood. All this is a clear indicator of the resilience of the state.
No wonder, in a fragmented polity where anti-incumbency is the only indicator to judge the governance; the voters of Bihar gave the unquestioned mandate to its turnaround man in recently held Assembly elections. The real challenge for the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar starts now with the burden of expectations on governance and much more. The moot point now is that what is the road map ahead and whether Bihar can sustain its resurgence as the state with highest GDP.
The fact of the matter, however, is that much water has flown in the Ganges in the last five years and there is visible change in the perception and projection about the state. Already the economists have started discussing whether the new economic wave in India will be heralded through Green Revolution in Eastern India in general and Bihar in particular. After all, the migration rate of Bihar at this moment is the lowest in the last three decades and that is clear reflection of Bihar emerging as the food basket of the country.
Waiting for a young prosperous landlord at his place in Gurgaon of Haryana, I was pleasantly surprised to see him coming straight from his farm land in swanky car but hands all soiled. He was cutting a sorry figure for working himself in the harvesting since the third generation landlord was all clueless as to where have all the labours gone? After all, he had seen Bihari migrant labours since childhood, and never even dreamt of working himself in the field.
But it not just the migration check that makes me optimistic with the resurgence of Bihar. I recently met a well settled business man of Nepal, who was sulking as to how the improved law & order in Bihar has fled all the criminal elements into the Himalayan state. Unable to cope up with the emerging extortion demands over there, he is looking to shift base to Delhi. These are the case studies that suggest what is paving the way for investment in Bihar. What Bihar needs now is one big ticket investment and that will set the ball rolling. It will not just add to the employment opportunity in the state, but also be a trend setter for more investments, big and small.
Already there seems to be intent by the Bihari Diaspora to get back to its roots. When a well settled friend from Saudi called me up to inform that he has immediate plans to wrap up the flourishing business in the Gulf, I felt as if it is a routine story of the Indian Diaspora. After all, behind all the swanky living of the Indians across the world is a stark reality of accepting second class citizenship in exchange. But what surprised me is the fact that his future plans are to settle business in the home state of Bihar.
Already there are very many professionals who have, of late, opted for working at the grass roots in the state, instead of a cushioned job in the metro cities. There is no doubt a sea change in the perception, projection and performance of the state. Critics and pessimists among us may argue that Bihar’s resurgence and astonishing growth rate has been by default, but by all indicators its continuance and the roads ahead are going to be a case study for the academic and governance purposes. The Bihar’s reach to the pinnacle of glory will definitely be by design than default.

Broadcast Media is OUT, Narrowcast Media is IN

Dec 22, 2010

With our core business & expertise in media consulting, at every year-end people keep asking as to which way the media is heading to in the year ahead. At the end of the year 2010, the very same curiosity has got even more relevance with the kind of media expose that the country has seen, both internally with Radia tapes and globally with WikiLeaks. Will it change the shape of things in media? And with TRACK2MEDIA Consulting launching its first news project in the form of e newspaper on real estate sector, Track2Realty, it is all the more necessary for us to release a fact-sheet on the media roadmap that we find shaping up in the year 2011.
Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the entry of more players will just add up to the number of jobs; or the increasing competition will have some impact on the pay packets as well. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media. But most importantly the new players who are eager to explore in the media business want to understand as to what makes a media project viable.
Well, TRACK2MEDIA Consulting as a communication management group has lost a couple of upcoming media projects in the year 2010 because we have been upfront in telling the clients that their approach to replicate the model, both in content & revenue, of existing biggies is fraught with dangers. Every wannabe in the media business, unfortunately, tries to replicate the existing news project, and in the process turns out to be the poor Xerox version of the existing players. When the global management consulting company McKinsey forecasted a few years back that India will soon see around 500 TV channels uplinked, it had probably no idea as to how the business of news & entertainment will see a horizontal growth than vertical one.
Some of the regional channels competing in a cluttered market are a testimony of the fact that it is not just niche market that is a key to success. Most of them have failed to evolve a serious game plan and hence unable to create a community around them. This failure has also brought a sea change compromise in the standards and ethics of journalism. Jobs are offered nowadays not just on the journalistic merit, but the ability to raise revenue from the region that is on offer. Still, most of the thinktanks of these media group are clueless as to where have the audience and revenue gone.
Nine out of 10 new media projects in the year 2010 have either failed flat or are struggling to make a break even. Indian media market has already seen dot com bubble burst, the TV channels closing down and even some big ticket print media projects failing to make a mark. Some of these projects have failed to get noticed despite of deep pockets of the promoters. On the contrary, there are other media projects, though few and far between, which are doing well despite of working in a low-cost model. This raises a question mark over the business model, brand differentiator and TG loyalty of the project.
All the successful media ventures may be devising their old success stories, but there seem to be a common pattern of almost all the failed ventures. That is their attempt to replicate the model of the existing successful ventures.  After closely examining the evolving media market in the country, we always advise the clients to write their success stories, instead of replicating anybody. This goes true for our own venture Track2Realty as well, which has been conceptualized as a market differentiator in the real estate segment.
It is not that there is any dearth of media ventures in a lucrative sector like the real estate. But where Track2Realty stands out as a market differentiator is the fact that we are neither competing with the marketing supplements of the mainline newspapers, nor are we providing a B2B platform to the industry. For us real estate is newsworthy subject that has been a virgin territory. And we are here to track the real concerns of all the stake holders-realty companies, investors, consultants and the end-users.
The question that many people ask is that whether niche segment is the new potential zone to emerge. With a certain amount of conviction I keep telling the media wannabes that the days of broadcast format is over. Unless one has a few hundred crores with a long time span to get into competitive zone with the large media houses, there is no point to even think of a venture with broadcast format. Providing every bit of news for everybody is something that has been monopolized by the large media institutions. As a consultant I keep telling everybody that even if you have deep pockets, it is always better to channelize that resource on a road that has been less travelled by.
It is our firm belief that while the broadcast format may not work for the new players, narrowcast format brings in more synergy, room for creativity & experiment and connects instantly with the focused target group. The next wave in media is slated to be with the narrowcast format, where one may not be offering everything to everybody, but an exclusive offer for a niche audience connects much better with the desired target group. One may not target million of audience who will surf your news platform once in a while, but an exclusive offer to even thousands of audience will do if your offer is worth visiting twice or thrice a day.
News and for that matter any form of media is also about creating a community around your media vehicle. Perhaps Facebook is the best example, and also an answer as to why people in general spend more time on Facebook than a professional networking platform like the LinkedIn. Both Facebook and LinkedIn are available on the Internet, accessible to everybody worldwide. But while LinkedIn is conceptualized on a broadcast format where you can network globally with anybody on a professional level, you may not end up working together on a given project even if you need services in that given geographical location. This is because this professional networking platform may not bring in like minded professionals on the table.
On the contrary, with Facebook one may not be bothered about millions of users, but in a narrowcast mode one is closely networked, most often with same likes and preferences, with the friends’ list. The medium offers even more focused narrowcasting within the narrowcast in the form of creating a group. Our study on the business model, audience psychograph and emerging pattern clearly suggests that the future belong to such narrowcast format in media.      
Among the three popular modes of media-Print, TV and Internet, the power of the word of mouse is tremendous; but has not been tapped fully because there is a credibility factor that is missing on the net in the absence of any regulation. It is a free for all medium. Columbia law professor in his recent book “The Master Switch” argues that Internet is as powerful as any other communications medium.  He expects to see consolidation and government control over the web. That may be a blessing in disguise as most other media-Print, TV, Radio & Movies, have gone through phases of wild growth and experimentation, eventually settling into a pattern of consolidation, control and credibility.
If Print Media today is seen as the most creditable piece of journalism, it is largely due to the edit control mechanism of the medium. In contrast, Television may attract more eyeballs but edit control is relatively less in a Soundbyte driven medium. Internet media entrepreneurs need to adapt to this reality and reinvent their project into a digiprint format. It is not just the US President Barack Obama who contested the elections on the social networking sites, but across the world even the most conservative governments have started realizing the power of the medium.
China has launched a new search engine of its own to make foray into its 420 million strong net users’ market. Known as Goso.cn, China’s search engine has been aimed at countering the negative reports of the country on rival Google. It has been launched by the country’s largest newspaper the People’s Daily of the ruling Communist party of China. This shows how several countries view development of the internet as part of their national strategy.
Internet is a medium which enables one with a daily budget of even Rs. 10 to practice journalism and other forms of media activity. Internet has cultivated a public vested in its freedom. But then activism and radical openness of the web has to eventually set an organized pattern for the medium. With a bit of regulation, more serious players opting for the medium and the medium itself not just penetrating deep into the demography but also in the psychograph….the future is definitely calling to the digital media.