Communications and Media

         The internet world has become one of the most important media of communication. It has made earth a small place to live. It has made the path of communication easy and reliable. It connects one part of the world to another. Recent advances in the semiconductor industry, the computers and internet are available at an affordable cost. The internet provides huge space in bits and absolutely cost effective. Since industrial revolution and the growth of semiconductor and the telecom industries, the internet world has made great advances. The advent of very large scale integration of semiconductors has made the computing faster and the internet fastest way of communication. The hardware and networking had made advancement and the company such as Cisco had provided many technologies supporting the networking. There are many companies which provide internet connections called as broadband, wireless internet connections etc. However the internet world has made overall advances and is easily accessible to the global man.

As internet as advanced now we have to analyze the uses of it to the common man and his interaction with it and how one uses it and what for. All the main use of internet is sharing information and communicating. The information sharing is nothing but getting and giving news, sharing information on education, related to economic business, general information related to present world etc. Communication is communicating through messages, mailing, audio and video, internet television and internet radio, webcasts, podcasts, internet conference, e-learning etc. One can post information and search information. These are the common uses of internet to a common man. These uses are made even easily accessible to a common man by the advancement of information technology.

          Lets now discuss in depth the use of internet and its effects on our day to day life and the present world. The internet has made world a small place to live. Internet is a store of knowledge where one can obtain all the information related to education, business, general information, politics, economics, social etc. It has changed the way the world communicates. It has become the global media for information sharing. The users can send and receive mail, photos, and files by using their email addresses. The companies such as Yahoo, Gmail, and Google allow users to create their id and communicate using their email address. The Google is one of the biggest search engines which allow users to search all kinds of information on the internet.  It has Gmail where users can send and receive emails, files etc. Google also allows user to blog. The users can create their own blogs free of cost.

       The news is shared globally and is faster than the traditional means such as telegraph, telephone, television etc. Many big organizations use internet for their businesses. They advertize on their products and information about their company. The governments use internet to discuss their social and political issues. Users post their views and spread awareness among people for example when issues such terrorist attacks, H1N1 affected the different parts of the world, all these issues were much discussed on the net and awareness was created among the people. Campaign such as polio for children are advertized on these sites to create awareness among the people. All the news smaller to bigger and all the issues are discussed on the internet.

          Internet news has changed the face of journalism and a common citizen is the journalist. The BBC news has made them available on the internet for news and information sharing. User can log on to BBC news dot com for the world news and can give their news to BBC. They can get news of all the countries of the world. The CNN iReport allows its users to become iReporter and can report and share information with other iReporters. Its one of the greatest advances in the field of journalism and citizens can post and share their views and can reach millions in a short period of time.

        The other means of sharing information is blogging in connectivity blogs such as Blogosphere where users are allowed to post their opinions, share their views and interconnect with people. They sites such as Technorati Blogscope, Blogpulse, Tailrank interconnect blog users. The bloggers share controversial news and happenings and discuss on them.  They can blog, advertize, socialize their businesses. There are many hosting providers and blogging sites such as Google where users can create their own blog free of cost and share their piece of information. The internet news sharing and broadcasting system may create revolutions and can affect the way the governments of the countries operate. Internet polls decide the result of the competition among the issues and internet radio educates people with the happenings around the world. It is great means of media and entertainment to children. They can learn, play, discuss and showcase their talent. They can learn, participate and build their careers, grow into responsible and citizens by getting exposed to the world and live in facts and become less ignorant. Internet will provide plenty of resources for the student and for their academic curriculum and extracurricular activities.

       The video platforms such as YOUTUBE are path for the sharing information via videos. Users are allowed to post and download videos. All types of videos are shared and commented. It provides a means of sharing opinion and interests through videos and it also a means of entertainment. All kinds of movie, music, general videos can be viewed. 

        Internet has replaced the many means of communication. Most of the people in the world have opted for internet as means of communication. Users share information, discuss, spread awareness and build mutual relationship. User can host their sites and publish their contents on the world web server. Other than blogs, users host their sites related to education, business, sports, shopping, healthcare, economic, ecommerce etc. These sites have managed by World Wide Web (www) and the domain names such as .COM, .IN. The hosting companies provide bandwidth, space for the web hosting.

        Social networking or social network sites are increasing and provide path for social interaction. The advantages and disadvantages of the social networking sites is the major concern of this essay and this is discussed further. The social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, LinkedIn, MySpace etc. are few popular social networking sites. These sites provide interconnection between the people from different parts of the world. The user creates profiles such as personal, professional, social links and other additional data about them. One can find one another, make friends, chat, discuss and comment. User can send friend request for instance A sends friend request to B and B accepts and become As friend.

        There are many benefits of social networking sites. Benefits such as send and receive messages, upload videos and photos. The social networking sites are benefit for the budding entrepreneurs because they can promote their business and get some recognition through networking sites. All the current issues and the very interesting news are shared in these networking sites. These sites are used by the Governmental agencies to obtain the poll of the citizens, opinion of the public. They create awareness among the public about natural disasters, epidemics and other national issues. The social networking sites are a very good platform for the companies and business organizations. They can provide text ads and advertize their products and services. This helps them to build their brand image and gain business. Companies sometimes keep promotion campaign to attract the customers and these promotions are publicized through the networking sites. They can sometimes use to publicize their company and attract employees and can make talent hunt. They are used for dating purposes for people who are looking for partner. It is used for educational applications where students and teacher can get in touch with each other. They bring together students, parents and teachers. Apart from all these, social networking sites are used for entertainment and they can find their old friends, classmates etc. and know their whereabouts. It attracts teenagers and all ages of people and they think its their pleasure to join such network and interact with people.

       Besides these advantages, there are disadvantages from these social networking sites. They can contain which may be harmful for young children and teenagers. The children may be abused. Parents do avoid their children from joining these social networking sites thinking that it is not safe. They may get mislead by fraud people and may take wrong decisions. These sites may abuse individual emotionally and cause trauma as not much restriction is imposed on what should be posted. Sometimes the information provided by the users such as address, phone numbers, photos, may be misused and miscreants may use this information for threatening and black mailing. There had been many cases which had led to police investigation. Some limitations have to be imposed on the social networking sites, the way they operate making it safe. It should not steal ones identity and get it misused. They must always revise the healthy and genuine applications and make them join the networking to lessen the illegal activities that the people carry on internet and reduce Cyber crime. Cyber crime has become one of the latest subjects of study which investigates crimes in the internet world.

       There are both pros and cons of social networking sites and used in the safe and avoiding misuse will make it a means of media to interact. However internet has proved itself as one of the fastest media where information is shared and has changed the very way the world interacts. Internet as a Global communication media has made many appreciable and notable advances and has made the world a smaller place to live in.