Different Challenges and Approaches Confront Media Space: Manish Tewari

MSME Sector should View Digitization as an Opportunity for Growth - Manish Tewari

Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Manish Tewari has said that the digitization process had provided an opportunity to the MSME Sector to grow and leverage its strengths. The Ministry of MSME and Industry must put in place policies and incentive structure to enable Indian manufacturers take advantage of this unique business opportunity. The process ought to have been utilised by Indian manufacturers to script the process as the “India Digitization Story”, rather than as a policy initiative supplemented by technological support from other countries. While 30 million Set Top Boxes had been installed in Phase-I & II, 80 million remained to be installed during Phase-III & IV providing the industry the opportunity to build a vibrant model for the future leading to better subscriber revenues, lower carriage fees and sustainable revenue models for the Broadcasting Sector. As a result, the emerging stable business environment would also enable the sector to grow seamlessly. Shri Tewari stated this while speaking at the Symposium on New Media Education in India, here today.

Elaborating further, the Minister said that challenges confronting the different media streams i.e. Print, Electronic and New Media were unique and distinct requiring specific treatment and approach for addressing the issues concerned. There was an urgent need to look at the structural faults which had not been addressed during the media proliferation of the past decade.

The Minister added that the print media needed to introspect and rationalize its tariff structure and subscription rates in view of the global trends which had stressed the revenue models and decline in numbers. All these trends could lead to decline in quality and standards within the print industry in the country. For the Broadcasting Industry, Shri Tewari expressed concern over the fragmented market conditions, flawed revenue models and measurement methods prevalent and the rush for sensationalism and TRPs. This also led to serious issues of “Manufactured Anger”, “Media Trials” and “Infringement of Privacy guaranteed under Article 21” emerging in the Broadcasting space. Regarding the New Media, the minister said that while there had been an exponential growth, issues of anonymity, absence of global rules of engagement and serious issues of last mile neutrality remained to be addressed.

On the issue of media classification, the Minister observed that there was a fundamental ambiguity with regard to classification of media. The moot point remained whether it was a business under Article 19 (1) (g) or an activity having protection under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. In the current scenario, the understanding of this classification was extremely important in view of certain events that had taken place, reiterating that media was increasingly becoming a business which in a liberalized economy is the way things are. In the same context, it was important to address the concerns regarding problem of standards when both Article 19 (1) (a) and 19 (1) (g) were read in the same vein and the restrictions contemplated under Article 19 (6) in the interest of general public are viewed with the varying degrees of skepticism and cynicism.

Regarding the issue of standards within media education, Shri Tewari said that in view of the contemporary trends, IIMC had been advised to initiate a course on the Business of Media, preferably a Masters Degree in the Business of the Media. This programme could prepare young professionals to address the business imperatives in the media sectors more cohesively. In view of the changing contemporary media landscape, this could act as a value addition to the institute in the long run. The Minister emphasized that there was an urgent need to standardize quality of media education being imparted in the country and reiterated that ‘fly by night’ operators are the bane of media education paradigm as they are in similar circumstances in other sectors also.

CP/ ST