This article reports that Hindustan Times, a major Indian newspaper is changing it’s look and reporting style to cater to India’s youth population.

Sanjoy Narayan, editor-in-chief, HT, “Relationship and the people’s approach to consumption of news has changed. They get news faster from television, Internet, mobile phones (through SMS alerts), social media networks and newsletters. The reader wakes up in the morning not to know ‘what’ but ‘why’. While we deal with this ‘why’, it has lead to the overall restaging of the product.”

Interesting….is it only HT or other newspapers are taking the similar route???

In the past few days, the online world – blogosphere, twitterverse and mainstream media – has been abuzz with the role of twitter in Iran revolution. The basic question that has emerged is – What is the role of twitter in the ongoing protests in Iran? Should Twitter be seen as a reporting tool or as an activism tool?

What happened during Iran elections?

The re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran has angered the supporters of reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi who are now disputing the election results. The Iran government led by Ahmadinejad has blocked traditional media outlets to restrict the information against his regime. The supporters of Mousavi, therefore, are using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread information, organize and collaborate.

How are the protestors using Twitter in Iran election?

There are several twitter accounts that are being used by protestors in Iran to spread information such as mousavi1388 (as reported in NYT), loftan.org besides others.

Understanding the role of Twitter

I think Twitter is being used both to spread information (as a media platform) and to organize and collaborate (as an activism platform). To think of it as performing only one of these roles would be a mistake. Because when twitter is used as a tool by activists / protestors themselves to spread information or to urge to keep on the fight it becomes a tool for both reporting and activism. People on twitter who changed their location to Tehran would also be seen as supporting the cause of protestors.

What is debatable is how big a role twitter plays in such political protests? Here, I think twitter is a tool like many others (online and offline tools) which the activists may be using during such campaigns. Therefore, to accord Twitter a highly significant status may not be a good idea. Because in developing countries, such as Iran there are many people who still don’t have access to social media and those who have may not be sophisticated users of technology.

However, the crucial role of twitter may not be neglected in such political campaigns, because the key people (organizers) in such protests are sophisticated users of Internet. They also know how important it is to have the support of international community during such protests.

Therefore, I think Twitter should be seen as both media tool as well as activism platform. Even so for reporting and activism during such protests, Twitter should be seen as one tool among many. What is also important is to understand the use of twitter by protestors within Iran to share and collaborate with each other and to reach out to international community outside Iran with information/ and for support during such protests.

Some additional links on Twitter in Iran revolution -

1. Social networks spread defiance online by Brad Stone and Noam Cohen

2. Tweeting Iran: Elex news in 140 characters or less by Rebecca Santana

3. Where is my Vote? : Iranians organize online by Mary Joyce

4. The Irony of Iran’s Twitter revolution? by Gaurav Mishra

5. More on Twitter and Protests in Tehran by Evgeny Morozov

6. Tear down this cyberwall by Nicholas D. Kristof

7. Media Literacy 101: “Allah O Akbar!” has become a cry for freedom by Susan Moeller

8. Media Literacy 101: Cloak- and – dagger news by Susan Moeller

9. America’s Iranian Twitter revolution by Maximillan Forte

10. Is Twitter really a tool for democracy? by Elizabeth Lazar

11. Iran, citizen media and media attention by Ethan Zuckerman

12. Twitter on the Barricades in Iran: Six lessons learned by Noam Cohen

It appears that governments are now taking social web more seriously and a deeper relationship seems to be forming between governments and social web.

For example, if we take the case of India and Iran.

In India during the recent elections, the political parties used the web to market themselves in the hope to reach out to the voters. This shows a participatory approach.

In Iran, the government has blocked Facebook prior to Presidential elections. This one points to a controlling approach.

The questions that emerge from this situation is:

1. What are these relationships between social web and governments?

2. How different are these relationships from those between mainstream media and governments?

3. What are the factors that define the relationship between mainstream media and governments? For example, what is it that made India’s political parties join and participate in the online social world? And what is it that the Iranian government finds threatening about the social web?

The Internews report, The Promise of Ubiquity, written by John West provides interesting information on how mobile phones are growing in the developing countries. The report points out that mobile phone ownership is soon catching up with TV ownership in the developing countries and mobile users outnumber the Internet users. Therefore, it is important for traditional media to consider mobiles as a viable media platform to reach out to a large number of mobile subscribers, otherwise some other players may move in.

The governments in the developing countries have bought the argument that mobile phones can be used for social and economic development and pushing to expand markets in the poor areas. Therefore, the mobile phone manufacturers are now focussed on developing ULCH (ultra low cost handsets) which may cost less than $20. The mobile service providers are providing services at a very low ARPU (average revenue per user). For e.g. the ARPU in India is $6 and probably lower. However, to overcome the costs the industry is pushing the development of VAS (value added services). Due to this the traditional model of measuring revenue in terms of ARPU is shifting to AMPU (Average Margin Per User).

Text-based services are continuing to grow which may be utilized by news organizations to provide news services to mobile subscribers. The Jasmine News Service in Sri Lanka is a good exammple of how this is happening. However, before launching a text-based news service an organization may need to take several factors into account such as cost, literacy, the kind of service they want to lauch etc.

The report also notes that mobile web is going to grow and will soon be available in most parts of developing world.

Overall the report provides a good analysis of what is happening in the developing world in the mobile industry and argues why it may be important for traditional media to move in the space.

Katrin Verclas, the founder of mobileactive.org reviews the report in detail and notes out some important points that John West misses in his assessment of mobile media in the developing world.