Bøger af Francis Arackal Thummy

Academic Paper from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Mass Media, , course: Media/Journalism, language: English, abstract: The omnipotence of mass media was already felt in the beginning of the twentieth century even though the main media present were only newspapers, magazines and radio. Of course, media attained the status of a religion only with the arrival of television ¿ family altars were replaced with the ¿idiot box¿; television,¿the big medium¿, by the end of the twentieth century became the surrogate parent, teacher and god. And then the omnipresence of the media was felt with the launching ofthe internet enabling instant social networking. It should be noted here that in the age of media convergence information technology has to be considered integral to media operations. FB, Twitter, Whatsapp, Pintrest, Instagram ¿ would be rendered ineffective without the internet. FB has captured the imagination of more than 1.5 billion people, one hundred million and growing in India alone. Twitter and Whatsapp are catching up. In the early 21 century the world moved beyond the ¿global village¿ ending up as a ¿global living room¿. No wonder Alexander Bard, the prophet who calls for triumph of the ¿netocracy¿ in his latest book ¿Syntheism ¿ Creating God in the Internet Age¿, speaks of the internet as the new Holy Spirit. Indeed with the New Media a new culture, religion, sanctuary idols and priesthood are emerging.

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, , language: English, abstract: This paper analyses three examples of alternative media in India. These are "The Citizen", "The Wire" and "News Laundry". The main task is to show the advantages and limitations of alternative media compared with mainstream media.Historically and conceptually the roots of media go back to the prophetic times and prophetic mission respectively. The prophetic times were a difficult period in the history of Israel. At that time the prophets were charged with a message to communicate. The prophetic role had a social dimension; it wasn¿t purely a personal religious experience. On the one hand the prophets belonged as a religious model in the king¿s entourage but on the other they did not refrain from castigating the ruler for their misdeeds often by pointed parables. They also performed their role as critics of the Israelite society. Prophetic castigation and criticism was to empower the ruler and the society and not to pull the ruler down and leave the society in tatters. Thus it was a very positive role. Historically and conceptually has the role of media been any different? Should the role of media today be any different? But the concern the world over regarding mainstream media today is its big fall from genuine and even limited expectations. The concern of failure of not living up to the expectations of mediäs role was there even in the age of the old media. Therefore the need for an alternative media was very much felt. This need was partly taken care of by Non-Governmental Organizations, their affiliates, and other cultural, religious, and social organizations. But there were limitations imposed by various factors such as scarcity of resources, state and government interferences and regulations. The post-truth nature of our world has influenced today¿s mainstream media very badly. Thankfully, the age of the internet has facilitated to some extent to overcome the drawbacks of the mainstream media and provide an alternative forum. The present contribution is focused on how the online has synergized an alternative media that might empower the people in terms of information gathering and information dissemination. For, today information is power.

Academic Paper from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, , language: English, abstract: The work examines the concept of beauty and unrealistic body image and beauty standards propagated by the media.The Body has been traditionally understood as a gift. Generally a gift is given and accepted and not demanded. The dissatisfaction about the body-gift is partly caused by the images that are being bombarded through various media. As a result ideals of body shapes are formed both in men and women, nowadays from a very early age. Children in many countries (more so in developed ones) consume media for three to four hours daily on average. The perfect body image standards set by the media are almost impossible to live up to. This can cause low self-esteem and can lead to psychological disorders such as depression. Contemporary mediäs presentation of the body, especially in advertisements, almost amounts to "organs without body". However, some individuals and organizations have come forward to counter the unrealistic body image and beauty standards propagated by the media. Ultimately, one must develop a positive body image.

Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Communications - Media History, grade: NA, , language: English, abstract: A journalist is basically a chronicler of events as they unfold. In the process he/she makes the first draft of history, which history may come to the use of a professional historian to record the events objectively and bequeath to the future generations. New technologies have made journalist¿s task easy but the rise of media empires and the subsequent formation of culture industries have made his/her job complex at the same time. Since media empires or cultural industries are primarily driven by profit motive and a desire to set the agenda ¿ economic, political, social, cultural, etc., - journalists come under increasing pressures to compromise objectivity and truth. Accordingly at times the mediated history that is produced in the newsroom is a distorted version of reality out there. This is especially so in times of conflict and war. Some media critics goes on to the extent of saying that media is also a maker of war. Media assumes the self-appointed role of actors or agents in the events and processes which they purport only to be reporting. To that extent the media themselves have had an impact on the course of historical events, and been a significant ingredient in their development. This becomes evident when one considers carefully the major historical events of the twentieth and early twenty-first century.

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Communications - Journalism, Journalism Professions, , language: English, abstract: One of the most authoritative definitions of Investigative Reporting (IR) comes from the association of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE): It is the reporting, through one¿s own work, product and initiative, matters of importance which some persons or organizations wish to keep secret. According to this definition the three basic elements of IR are: that the investigation be the work of the reporter, not a report of an investigation made by someone else; that the subject of the story involves something of reasonable importance to the reader or viewer; and that others are attempting to hide these matters from the public. At the same time it should be added that views on IR is somewhat polarized.The answer to why IR is needed is manifold. Some of the tools that could be used for IR are archives, whistle-blowers, anonymous sources, and undercover operations (Sting). IR is a public service and it is a powerful catalyst for change and so it should be based on ethical principles. Some of the ethical principles on which an investigative reporter might base his/her work are: Aristotle¿s Golden Mean; Kant¿s Categorical Imperative; Mill¿s Principle of Utility; and Judeo-Christian Principle. For, he/she would have to face ethical dilemmas connected to sources, sting (hidden camera and bribery), fake stings, objectivity, privacy, and trial by media.

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: NA, , language: English, abstract: Since the US elections in 2008 the close connection between Social Media and political communication has been brought to the fore. The effective role that Social Media has been made to play once again in the 2012 US elections and its conscious or unconscious replication in the 2014 Indian elections reaffirmed its significance in contemporary political communication. Scholars have confirmed that political candidates are increasingly turning to Social Network Sites (SNS) to persuade voters and that these sites have become prominent sources of political information. Political Communication as a field of study has been about the role of communication in the political process. This paper would like to focus entirely on Social Media as a tool in the political process. Political communication has its beginnings during and between the World Wars. There are various types of political communication and political media. Among the political media the Social Media seems to be the most widely used in contemporary political process. The three main elements of political communication are: ideology, propaganda and persuasion. The deployment of Social Media in putting forth one¿s or party¿s ideology, propagating one¿s or party¿s agenda, and persuading the voter is widespread as never before. Many scholars including Walter Lippmann doubted the efficacy of media in public enlightenment that democracy requires. For, they thought that media cannot tell the truth objectively. Harold Lasswell too took note of the tendency of media propaganda to dupe and degrade the voters. His work expressed the fear of propaganda. This view was partly based on the direct effects theories of media. Similar fear about the Social Media is lurking in the minds of many today. To camouflage such fear political spin doctors might employ political Public Relations. Political spin doctors are press agents or publicists employed to promote favourable interpretations to journalists. They also weave reports of factual events into palatable stories. The case for political public relations is that it enables paternalism, pluralism, and pragmatism. But there is also a case against it in that it leads to news management and spin, corporatism in politics, and ¿enlightened self-interest¿. The increasing availability of internet even in remote parts of the world has made Social Media a virtual public sphere enabling e-democracy.

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Communications - Mass Media, grade: NA, , course: Media, Journalism, Mass Communication, language: English, abstract: The essay will first of all attempt to answer the question: "What is audience?" Next, it will probe in to the origin of the word "audience" and the gradually evolved uses of it and will go on to describe the various conceptions of audience. The essay also looks at mediäs conception of audience. Measurement of audience is another important point that will be considered and then the question is posed: "Is audience research important?" It is also important to discuss the power of the audiences and the future of the audience concept.Contemporary media scene is one of convergence mainly technological and corporate. Audience studies have always faced certain fluidity due to the dynamic nature of audience itself. This is more pronounced in the age of media convergence. All the same the paper will make an attempt to understand the phenomenon of audience ¿ meaning, origin, and nature. Conceptions of audience are multiple. Contemporary audience phenomenon is characterized by massification. Massification has led to commodification conveniencing media houses and advertising firms to measure it, which in turn helps to rate various programmes, especially on broadcast media. Of course, the power of the mass audience cannot be underestimated especially with the emergence of New Media, through social networking sites. Surely, audience fragmentation and polarization is an unavoidable fact arising from the contemporary mushrooming of media outlets. This poses numerous difficulties in the area of audience research ¿ researching for audience and for commercial interests. The commercial research and audience measurement turns audience in to a market.

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: NA, , language: English, abstract: In this short paper an attempt will be made to present the old and new scenarios of marketing. This paper focuses on the old versus new rules of marketing.The separator of old and new rules of marketing is the web. Prior to the arrival of the web, marketing organizations had only two significant options for attracting attention of clients: Buy expensive advertising or get endorsement, mainly through advertorials, from the media. But the web has changed the rules. Organizations that understand the new rules of marketing develop relationships directly with consumers. In this scenario advertising today is a money pit of wasted resources. The web has opened a tremendous opportunity to reach niche buyers directly with targeted information that costs a fraction of what big-budget advertising costs. With old rules of marketing it simply meant advertising and branding; advertising needed to appeal to the masses; advertising relied on interrupting (for instance a TV show) to gain people¿s attention to a product; it was one way, company to consumer; creativity was deemed the most important component of advertising; it was more important for the ad agency to win advertising awards than for the client to win new customers. None of this is true anymore; the web has transformed the rules; this paper would like to argue that a company must transform its marketing to make the most of the web-enabled marketplace of ideas.Old style Advertising and Public Relations firms¿ role may have diminished drastically but their role is not extinguished. In the cyber age these have gone online. The wise thing for companies to do is to combine both the old and new ways of marketing, the emphasis perhaps being on the new. Online has provided companies the best opportunity ever to expand into global markets. Marketing has become borderless.This is a paper presented at an international conference.

Academic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject German Studies - Linguistics, grade: NA, , course: Semiotic Analysis, Film Appreciation, Media, language: English, abstract: The science of symbols, called semiotics or semiology, helps us understand our world that is full of signs and symbols. One of the areas where semiotics proves to be useful is in the field of the media. It enables us to see how media content is produced by the sender and consumed and interpreted by the audience. This paper takes a special look at the semiotic understanding of media and explains how semiotics is used in making media content, especially advertising and films.The content of an advertisement gives rise to many meanings and interpretations. Some writers use the term media ¿text¿ instead of media ¿content¿. A text can be understood in a variety of ways. Thus media content or text in principle is polysemic, having multiple potential meanings for its audience.Further, media content can be differentiated according to its degree of openness. Semiotic method as applied to media content sheds light on the hidden or underlying meanings. Considered in this way, the primary objective of media semiotics is to study how the mass media create or recycle signs for their own ends.