Media-Modes of Publishing
In one way in which the visage of such public institutions has altered is that the advent and consequent invasion of technology has provided them the opportunity to augment their degree of interaction and connectivity with their respective target audience. With the emergence of the internet a concomitant progress was witnessed in the former role played by public institutions, it transformed from unidirectional to multi-faceted. Content that was earlier limited to the publication of paper now took a digital form and was available to various websites which led to a phenomenal increase in the accessibility of the displayed content. In addition to this the digital revolution has also proved very advantageous in increasing the potential of feedback from its readers and target audience which was not a prime feature in the conventionally used mediums of communications. The increase in this quality and availability of feedback has allowed many publishing institutions to improve their content in terms of quality and reach which proved beneficial for these institutions. Many magazines and books also provided their users the facility and convenience to have online editions and electronic editions of books and magazines, this feature was later also introduced in newspapers which gave its readers the convenience of having online editions through which newspapers could not be accessed through the internet but also provided them the facility of keeping themselves updated with the latest happenings taking place.
It is worth mentioning here that very few magazines and newspapers charge any money for their subscription which has in turn increased the number of people accessing their content and subsequently providing their feedback. The direct and unhindered participation of people in public polls and survey reports can be published directly and transparently on the respective websites of the electronic and print publication and broadcasting institutions which further increases the connectivity of people with the concerned medium of interest. Lets have a look at some of the ways in which the revolution of the digital media has affected the degree of social relationships and the influence it has imposed in the development and subsequent modification of various publication institutions (The Age 2010, p79).
Digital publishing
In the past when such diverse technological facilities were not at everyones disposal book, magazines and other publication material was not available print and other related content and material was only restricted to print form. But with the advent of the internet this convention has undergone substantial change. Today, news and magazine content can be updated as soon as any new news breaks in, the facility was not available over two decades back but today provides an added advantage to users. It is a general belief that news is a timely piece of information and therefore stale news has no significance in any way, but with such facility at hand previous clippings and news published in earlier editions are stored in the form of archives for customer convenience so that they can access to any news or event they want. With so much done and so much in pipeline I think it is useless even thinking that digital network media has not affected the functioning of publication institutions. Some other fields of innovation where the digital media has imposed many encouraging ramifications are discussed below.
Archiving
With the advent of digital archiving users are provided the convenience of accessing data irrespective from the time it had occurred. Previously the limitation in this way as far as this convenience is concerned was that in order to extract the desired information a person had to physically search the archives of the previously published contents of news that were related to any particular issue in various newspapers and magazines if an issue was being investigated. In this aspect internet with its available and accessible facility of digital archives has proved very beneficial for people involved in the field of reporting and journalism (Kaplan 2010, p 53).
The E-Reader
The electronic reader or the e-reader when abbreviated is defined as the electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital books and periodicals and uses e-ink technology for the display and the reading of the available content. As the technological bubble inflated a simultaneous rise in the advent of electronically available editions of books, magazines and newspapers all publication institutions realized that in order to compete and survive the looming technological competition it was mandatory to step into the internet world and provide options that cater greater connectivity and interactivity for their users at all levels. In contemporary times electronic version of newspapers and magazines are very easily available and accessible at their respective websites which has provided greater number of people to view their content through online means. Some of the very famous websites that initiated this ground breaking step of providing electronic version of their online content include Amazon and Apple Ipad. The facility of electronic content and material allows greater convenience to all users to directly access subscribers and also provides publishing institutions the facility to directly access their consumers (Scully 2009, p 236).
In addition to the myriad benefits that the advent of the digital media network has provided at the disposal for publication institutions another aspect that needs to be discussed is the impact that this technological development has imposed on the society and people on the whole and to what extent has it provided different groups of the society various conveniences and facilities of interacting and forming relationships with different members of the society. With the development of digital media another category which began to germinate steadily in the beginning and then experienced rampant and uncontrollable growth was the sector of social media (Stilgherrian 2010, p134).
Social media or in more simple the media of the society, for the society and of the society is the kind of media that allows users the opportunity to interact among themselves insulated from all organizational restrictions and bonds. It allows people of similar age group to share their perspectives, content and opinions through various platforms that are available. Due to the global nature of the internet and the degree of innovation that has taken place in social media users communication is not only limited to local scale but has crossed all boundaries and hurdles in transforming this world into a true global village where there are virtually no physical boundaries. The advent of social media has allowed users all over the world to generate user-generated content through which novel frontiers of communicating with each other have been explored. Some of the ways through which social media has not only revolutionized the available platforms of communication but has also provided a completely novel dimension to it includes
Blogs
A blog or blogs is derived from the word log through which any individual can create his or her own web page explaining his or her specific opinion about any issue, or it can be used for any other dysfunctional purpose also. In a nutshell a blog is a platform where anyone can voice their perceptions and perspectives.
Use and creation of blogs is a very simple task. With the increasing accessibility of social media the number of blogs has increased phenomenally, users irrespective of any editing can easily publish and publicize their content with the help of blogs. Their simple way and method of creation is also another reason due to which the number of blogs has increased in recent times. But care should be taken while reading these blogs, mainly because since most of the material displayed at such blog spots are user generated manifesting the perceptions and perspectives of a single entity which may not be accurate and their credibility is always susceptible to question( Kozik 2007,p523)
Social media and its subsequent expansion are directly correlated with the presence of social networking websites such as Orkut, Facebook and Twitter to name the most prominent ones. With the help of these websites people belonging to diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds are able to communicate with each other. With their rising popularity all these websites especially facebook and twitter began to provide their users greater facilities and multimedia options through which the enticing features of the websites raised to new levels.
The concept of argumentative topics and communities is also a pioneering feature of these websites through which people especially youngsters develop the attitude of tolerance and resistance to the opinion that is different to their own and challenges their rationale. Moreover such websites are also used by a large number of small scale organizations to advertise their products and schemes to attract viewers and users which has also helped in boosting the economic standing of such companies (Foxtel 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that both kinds of media irrespective of the fact that it belongs to digital to social media have played a pivotal in modifying the participation of publication institutions in the life of a lay man who does possess little acquaintance to the usage of electronic devices that are present around him and does influence him in various subtle and manifested ways. The influence and role played by social and digital media does not end here as all these innovations where on one hand has increased the accessibility to people all over the globe to grab information within an eye wink has simultaneously played a vital role in increasing the level of social awareness and intellectual ability of people. They are now exposed to a wide variety of diverse perspectives of proficient expertise which help them in myriad ways to formulate their own opinion in a balance and unprejudiced way hence without any out skeptism the digital network media has had a profound impact on the role of publication institutions in all ways possible.
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