IT in media

1. Introduction : Some dates and statistics.
Computer:
1971 = First Computer
1981 = First Personal Computer
1989 = First E-mail
1993 = First commercial E-mail service
1994 = Internet Access (through 64 Kbps to Singapore)
Current No. of ISPs = 13
Total Bandwidth = 15 Mbps
Media
1898 = First newspaper
1951 = Radio Nepal established
1984 = Nepal Television
1997 = First Public Radio, Radio Sagarmatha
Total number or broad sheet dailies = 5 Nepali, 2 English
Number of radio stations = 11,

General Statistics
Literacy = 40% - 47%
Tele density = 1 / 100 persons
Total number of computers = 100,000
Number of users = 1,000,000
Internet / Email accounts = 30,000
E-mail Users = 500,000
Internet Users = 150,000







2. Use of IT in media
• The e-newsletter, Nepal Digest, was the first e-zine from Nepalis for the Nepalis. It also marked the creation of the first electronic media related to Nepal. The archives and the web site is still available at Computers are primarily used for typesetting and layout.
• None of the publications have any digital archives.
• The majority of the media community is satisfied with using e-mail as an alternative form of communication.

2.1 IT - Media Workshop
• Of the 25 odd participants, only 5 had adequate knowledge about computer technology.
• The younger the reporters, the more interested they were in making use of the Internet.
• Of the five participants who had adequate knowledge, all had been abroad for training or study.
• Four of these people belonged to organized media publications, or big organizations.
But the public radio was using Internet as the source of inexpensive international news.
2.2 Media Houses
• Only Himalmedia was using domain for e-mails at the end of 2000. They had 24 X 7 Internet Access, and an in-house web department
• Kantipur publications, the largest publications house, had online news portal, but didn't have any corporate e-mail identity. Now they have domain e-mail, but restricted.
• Others have e-mail access and web presence through third parties.

Big Questions
- Big media houses will catch up, but what about smaller ones ?
The answer ?
“The revolution in new media, which most persons assume is only about computers and the Internet, is not really about computers as such: it is about a re-organization of all knowledge” ..... Marshall McLuhan
3. Information technology coverage in the local media
- January has the largest influx of IT supplements, but resource persons are the same.
- In 2000, fewer than 10 IT issues / reportings.
- No innovative reporting
- Yet, international coverage good, due to wire services.
- In 1996, Cyberpost started by an engineer.
- Since 1999, Nepali articles by me.
- Others IT publications, like PC World mainly copy the original content.
- From the workshop, reporters cited problems of access and language as the main reason for low coverage.

3.1 The Radio Experiment
• Started in March 1999, as a 15 minute program, now 30 minutes.
• Includes technology breifing, talks with experts, live Internet browsing
• Run in Nepali Language, and in the process of being sent to rural radio stations.

. What Next ?
“A fundamental shortcoming of most digital reference and digital libraries projects to date is that they still approach electronic media using the assumptions and limitations of print media. Hence they are concerned with providing digital facsimiles of printed reference materials and books. As a result they offer us digital forms of the static knowledge imposed by print, rather than offering the potentials of dynamic knowledge inherent in electronic media. By way of illustration some examples will be useful.”1
Kim H. Veltman
- Media houses invest on training people
- Hire younger and technology students in as reporters or editors of specific sections.
- Question of easier access for journalist thought about by CAN and others.
- Use Radio ..


5. Conclusion
“The very existence of a myraid of new information channels, operating in real time and across all frontiers, will be a powerful influence on civilised behavious. What I am saying, in fact, is that the debate about the free flow of information which has been going on for so many years, will be soon settled - by engineers, not politicians. (Just as physicists, not generals, have now determined the nature of the war)”5
Arthur Clarke
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Communication, IT and Media
Communication skills and know-how in dealing with new information technologies and media are key requirements for success in today’s professional world. Danube University Krems offers a series of university courses that cover the entire communications cycle, from the origin of meaning and the use of information to the dissemination of information through the mass media, with special attention devoted to intelligent IT solutions.
IT and Management
As new information technologies are implemented, their technical aspects recede increasingly into the background. New technologies give rise to behavioral changes, and these changes often provoke resistance. The successful implementation of technological developments in a business environment requires social skills, communication skills and leadership.
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