New media turns personal like never before

From Obama-mania to the controversies surrounding the beautiful governor of Alaska and the Republican V-P nominee, there have been so many twists and turns in the run up to the US election, more on the virtual platform than in reality, thanks to Youtube, Facebook and the likes.

Now, don’t be surprised if you yourself appear to be a ‘candidate’ in the US election!!

A New Media platform a la Paltalk, which claims to be the world’s largest video chat community having over four million users on worldwide, has almost set the stage on fire by promising the most personal experience for the US-election enthusiasts.

"How is it going? A friend just sent me a link to this website , and you are all over it, is this really you?", reads the one-liner mail with a link www.News3Online.com  that this writer received from one of his friends based in the US.

The video itself explains the myth of the recipient being a presidential candidate with his name displayed on the billboards, on the cover of the news magazines and also on woman’s body in the form of a tattoo. Further, the host on the video narrates the impact of the "colorful internet fluke that has blossomed into a full-fledged political movement" and an analyst joins in to give a final touch to it. 

Explains Sachidanand Satpathy, a scholar at the Bangalore-based Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC): "This is a perfect meeting point of technology and new media with the objective of a larger social interaction. Both the site Channel3 News and the video chat community Paltalk have successfully  utilized their forum to strike a chord with their intended audience amid all the high drama surrounding the US election," he says, adding that the same could be a case study for the Indian media in their bid to recapture the ground in the changing scenario.

Once you complete watching the video, appears the buttomline: "Sorry to burst your bubble, but you are not actually going to be the next president." In one word, this could be nothing but a prank, a handiwork of some smart tech-savvy individual!! However, the phenomenon seems to have a bigger challenge for the traditional media by offering real-time thrill with fully personalized experience.

"Whatever tactics the print and the electronic media may apply to get readers’/viewers’ attention or to highlight a particular issue, this is a unique endeavour to strike a chord with the audience in any alien environment so far as that particular issue (read the US election here) is concerned," opines Vinay Rane, a Mumbai-based financial analyst and a former media professional who keeps a close watch on the development.

The link to Channel3 News along with Paltalk finds some merit in this school of thought considering more and more print and electronic media units are trying to utilize their web platform to reach out to the young readers/viewers by upgrading themselves with various features such as uploading the video on the website to play the role of a Citizen Journalist on CNN-IBN or a somewhat similar concept like Mobile Journalist in Reuters, or even giving a link to the individual blog to cater to the new-age readers/viewers.

According to an AFP report (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCXMWn-wAosNgyxUi-beg2uWboXw ) on Sept. 26 debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, social networking portal MySpace provided the debate online, a first of its kind on internet, along with software tools letting people see which candidate matches their views.  "The exchange between the candidates will be broadcast at a MyDebates.org website….online viewers will get on-demand replays of debates as well as automated tracking portions concerning issues important to them," reported The Hindu (Delhi edition) on Sept 24 with headline "New Media and the message".

The (video) link, which is under discussion, also offers to forward the video to others to play the real prank with additional customization. Besides, it offers even uploading the same onto personal website, blog…etc. However, the viewer has to fill in the form (http://www.news3online.com/spread.php ) on watching the video (http://www.news3online.com/index.php?code=3aK2J21F632JX87E0lcv ).

Rajendra Dichpally, a NewYork-based technology professional, has this to offer through an email: "The mail with the video link is being circulated and discussed among the technical people here in the US. It is surprising how this video was created as the same can mislead people who are not having much knowledge and exposure to technology. It just goes on to show how much technology is evolving and also how the future of the media will be determined on the parameters of technology." 

As the source of the original video is not traceable, it is believed that the same could be a Paltalk creation if one goes by the information displayed upon seeing the video. While some are taken aback on seeing the video, quite a lot are playing a prank by forwarding the same through email.

Subhasish Sahoo, a Sociology scholar at IIT-Kanpur, offers a different perspective to the entire phenomenon. "This could be a political strategy by some forces to add some fuel to the poll fire so that more number of young voters turn up to cast their votes on Nov. 4." He further adds that the objective could be a political one but the medium of the entire phenomenon offers us to think how the same could be packaged to the delight of the audience thus having commercial as well as societal implications in the long run.

It is to be noted here that documentary film maker Michael Moore has decided a sequel to Farenheit 9/11 coinciding the US election, with a twin objective of celebrating his twenty years of film making as well as encouraging millions of fresh voters to join the party on Nov 4. Moore has also offered a free download of the movie "Slacker Uprising". Even there is already a link to sign up for the download of the movie in his blog http://www.michaelmoore.com/ much before its Sept 23 release.

The proponents of print media could well be vocal about the physical existence of a story printed on the newspaper  vis-à-vis display a news clipping on TV, but the evolution of new media embedded by latest technology has completely redefined the scenario. The news/message/video posted on the website/blogs/social-networking portals with so many ad-on features becomes really personal and appealing to the masses like never before and thus poses the real big challenge for the traditional media.

Footnote: The video link this writer received  (http://www.news3online.com/index.php?code=3aK2J21F632JX87E0lcv )

(The writer can be contacted at nayak.ashutosh@gmail.com)