The term ‘media’ is defined by the dictionary as the storage and transmission tools used for delivering data or information. However, nowadays media is often used as a synonym to mass media and news media.Media, along with everything else in this world, has evolved a lot, and when the Internet was introduced, media fitted perfectly in it, giving birth to the online media. It quickly became an alternative to the media sources present - television, radio and newspapers.
What gave online media such popularity was the abundant sources the internet offered - you could read the same news from several places, giving you different points of view. The internet also offered the perfect public tribune for everyone to share their opinion on the current news. Today, online media is one of the top news sources, bringing the news to a huge audience.Internet as a New Information Source: Determining Uses & Gratification PerspectiveIn this new media environment, in which access to the internet is becoming as convenient, or maybe more, as television, it is critical to know why and how people use internet.
Furthermore, as people become more active with just a few clicks, it is important to figure out how they utilize a variety of interactive options while using the internet. The internet has the potential of displacing traditional media on the gratification-opportunities dimensions. It is for the traditional media, especially, print media, to grab the opportunity offered by the internet medium to regain some of the advantages lost out to newer media like radio and television. What is encouraging is that the traditional media are fast catching up with the new one, promoting convergence of technologies.Modern society is information-oriented and is moving from traditional mass exposure media, toward the more interactive collection of communication media and commercial interfaces represented by the modern internet.
The internet is considered to be the communities of people who use and develop the networks, as well as a collection of resources that can be shared at anytime from anywhere.Internet & InteractivityAmong many important features provided by the internet, such as interactivity, irrelevance of distance and time, low setup costs, targeting, global coverage, and ease of entry, interactivity has been considered one of the main advantages of the internet as a unique medium in comparison with other traditional media. Interactivity on the internet allows consumers to actively participate in the persuasion process by controlling the messages, amount of information, and order of presentation at any time, according to their needs and preferences. In addition, the commercial value of interactivity has been considerably increased since the advent of the internet.Interactivity has been defined using various underlying dimensions, but two dimensions appear most frequently in the extant literature: human-message interaction and human-human interaction.
These two dimensions hold promise for the examination of interactivity on the internet because they serve as umbrellas for different definitions and dimensions of previous interactivity studies.Consumers who have high information, convenience and/or social interaction motivations for using the internet tend to stay at a website longer to satisfy their corresponding motivations; consumers who have high information motivations are more likely to engage in human-message interaction on a website; ted to a lowering human-human interaction on a website; consumers who engage more in human-message and human-human interactions evaluate the website more positively, which leads to positive attitude toward the brand and purchase intention.New Media in India: Emerging TrendsIndia was a latecomer to internet. The reasons are low per capita penetration and lack of infrastructure coupled with high internet costs. This scenario changed soon enough, and internet usage grew at an exponential rate.
Cyber cafes played a key role in making the internet accessible which helped a great deal. Web-development outfits sprouted first in Bangalore and Hyderabad, and soon in other parts of India. The downturn in software development too proved to be a spin-off factor, prodding more Indians towards the web stream. Not surprisingly, India is now a potent hub for web-development.India’s web gurus have moved far beyond amateur web designing.
Now developing a great site means much more than adding fancy graphics, killer designs, and sticky content. Any web-guy in India will tell you that these are all necessary factors in site design, but the key to successful web designing is the technology and the idea that it is built on. Web shops are thus picky about the expertise and capabilities of people who work with them. They keep up-to-date about trends in their field and can be often found to be on online lists and forums. India’s web shops are probably the best in the world, and improving constantly.
The market for the growing number of web shops in the country is made up of India’s corporate sector, the huge educational sector and other organisations. Major factors responsible for India’s strengths in the web development industry are as follows:-?Knowledge Professionals – the vast resources of skilled web development professionals in India has ensured that there has been a healthy growth in the number of India’s web professionals over the last decade.? Affordable IT Education – IT education is 8 times more affordable in India than in the US? English Speaking Professionals – Most Indians are fluent in the English language. This has led to a choice of careers in web development and consequentially, supplementary careers in content and technical writing.? Government Incentives – the Indian Government realizes the potential of IT in improving the economy, and has initiated several programs to encourage and improve the industry.
The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is developing infrastructure that supports information technology. The IT Bill passed in 2000 provides a legal framework for the recognition of electronic contracts, electronic filing of documents etc.Influx of Talent from other Educational Streams – India’s educational system lays strong emphasis on Math and Science. A large number of students therefore get into engineering colleges. However they are not assured of jobs, and engineering related jobs are not as remunerative as IT ones.
This justifies the influx of architects and engineers who are strong in design fundamentals into the web-development industry.
