New Media

• India is the world’s largest democracy with a thriving mediawhere expression and opinion is encouraged.

• It has a successful information technology sector.

• India has 20 official languages and most Indian blogs are writtenin English.

• Blogger is most popular among Indian bloggers.

Internet

• Internet was launched in India by VSNL(Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) on 15th

August 1995. It added about 10,000Internet users within 6 months.

• In 2004, the government formulated itsbroadband policy which definedbroadband as “an always on Internetconnection with download speed of 256kbit/s or above.”

• In 2005, the growth in broadband sectoraccelerated, but remained below growthestimate of the government.

• In 2010, this issue was resolved whenthe government auctioned the 3Gspectrum followed by 4G spectrumsetting the stage for the wirelessbroadband market.

IAMAI Report 2014

• In a research jointly conducted by Internet & Mobile Associationof India (IAMAI)and IMRB International, the internet usage inIndia has gone up by 32% from October 2013-October 2014.

• As per the report there were 278 million claimed internet userswhich is expected to reach 302 million by December 2014.

• The number of active Internet Users was 213 million as of October 2014,and is expected to reach 232 million by December 2014 and 269 millionby June 2015.

Internet Censorship in India

• Internet censorship in India is practiced selectively by both federal and stategovernments.

• There is no such policy to block access to Internet content.

• However measures for removing objectionable content or anything that harmsnational security have become more common over the years.

Instances of Internet Censorship

• 1999 -After the Kargil War, the website of a Pakistani daily newspaper, Dawn wasblocked access within India.

• Rediff, a media news site claimed that that the ban was instigated by the Govt.

• Later published detailed instructions as to how one could bypass the filter and viewthe site.

• 2003 – In September, Kynhun, a Yahoo group linked to the “HynniewtrepNational Liberation Council”, an illegal minor separatist group in Meghalayawhich discussed the case of the Khasi tribe was banned.

• 2014 – In an order dated 23rd June 2014, the Delhi High Court upon requestmade by Sony Entertainment.

• It ordered 472 file sharing and file hosting sites blocked including the PirateBay, Google Docs, Google videos and Google’s URL shortener (goo.gl).

• Whistle blower Savakku’s site was blocked by Judge CT Selvam on thepetition filed by newsreader Mahalakshmi.

Usage of Internet “Kill Switch”

• In Jammu and Kashmir the govt. shut down the internet on 17-18th March2014 to prevent separatists from addressing a UN Human Rights Councilevent via video link in Geneva.

• In Vadodara, the state govt. shut down the internet from September 27th

2014 for 3 days due to communal clashes between two communities.

Online Presence of Media Outlets

• The online presence is strong with numerous platforms forjournalists.

• LinkedIn is a site that offers a group that targets membersthat are online journalists in India with content, connectionsand job opportunities unique to that segment.

• With emergence of high speed data and mobile data servicessuch as 3G and LTE, videos of some of India’s best TVjournalists have been made.

• NDTV and CNBC, two news reporting power houses in India,have a strong online presence.

• Another favorite platform for journalists is Twitter.

Traditional Media Institutions• After internet was made available in India, by 1998, only 48 daily newspapers

were operated online, which steadily rose to 116 by 2006.

• Initially newspapers in English adopted the online format because it had a globalreadership.

• But as more internet users gained access, other Indian language papers began tocome up.

• Many of the web editions were simply replicas of the print editions and notupdated.

• They were run by minimal staff.

• A lot of the online newspapers do not receive advertising revenue for its webeditions with the exception of major newspapers.

The Times Of India Group

• The Times of India is thelargest media conglomerate inIndia.

• Its flagship paper is Times ofIndia and it is the publisher ofthe largest businesspublication, The EconomicTimes.

• The Times Of India opened itsweb portal in 1999 and in2003 they published an e-version of their newspaper.

M.J.Akbar

• He is a luminary journalistwho is one to haveembraced online mediawhile maintaining a strongpresence in print media.

• He has worked in Times ofIndia since 1971 andcurrently heads the SundayGuardian as the Editorialdirector of India TodayGroup and HeadlinesToday.

Dainik Jagran

• It is India’s most read paperfor 23 years with a dailyreadership of 16 million.

• It’s a flagship production ofJagran Prakashan Limited.

• In 2008, JPL launched MMIonline to handle its digitalofferings.

• Jagran.com, another site hasrecently joined withyahoo.com where one cansee 50 updates in a day.

One India

• Oneindia.in, owned byGreynium InformationTechnologies Pvt. Ltd is aleading Indian internetportal.

• It provides content,community and commerceto Indian consumers,business and the globalIndian community.

• One India launched itsHindi Portal in 2007.

Social Networking

• According to a study byeMarketer there is a recordgrowth of 37% in socialnetworking during 2013.

• With the 2nd largest Facebookuser base outside US, India isexpected to have the largestFacebook population in theworld by 2016.

• A survey by Internet and MobileAssociation of India found that78 billion were active users ofFacebook in early 2013, followedby 33 million users on Twitterand 20 million users on LinkedIn.

Blogging in India

• Largest news and media companies now alsoinclude blogs in their online presence.

• The Times of India has a blog section and sodoes The Economic times.

• Dainik Jagran, also runs a site dedicated toblogs.

Amit Agarwal

• He runs the blog techinspiration atwww.labnol.org.

• He also maintainsindianbloggers.org

• He has also beenfeatured in the WallStreet Journal for hiscontribution to theIndian blogging scene.

Conclusion

• Online journalism is now a growing fieldbeing shared between traditional media anddedicated bloggers.

• Traditional Media Institutions, now have astrong online presence as well.

• However, independent bloggers are alsogiving their own voice.