Public Relations Council of India (PRCI), Hyderabad Chapter organized its first webinar today on the topic: “Dea(r)th of Depth? The Changing Media Consumption in a Distracted Digital World!” as part of the National Talent Hunt Series launched by the Governing Council of PRCI. Ms. Anindita Sinha, Chairperson, PRCI Hyderabad Chapter presented the session before the jury and audience. The webinar was addressed by Mr. Niranjan Pagadala, PRCI Member, Hyderabad Chapter and a Social Media Expert and Ms. Fronia Priscilla, YCC Member, Hyderabad Chapter and a freelance media professional. Mr. Ravindran Kesavan, National Vice President, PRCI laid down the rules and regulations for the webinar.
Mr. MB Jayaram, Chief Mentor & Chairman Emeritus, PRCI; Mr. T. Vinay Kumar, National President, PRCI; members of jury; Directors and members of the PRCI Governing Council along with members from the Young Communicators Club (YCC), Hyderabad Chapter; other National & Zonal Council members and other Chapter members across the country and abroad including Canada and Nepal participated in this interesting webinar. Over 100 participants logged in for this webinar, which was moderated by Mr. Prashant Kumar, PRCI Member, Hyderabad Chapter. Mr. Jacob Ross, PRO, provided overall communications support to this webinar. 8Views agency provided branding and digital support for this event.
In her opening speech, Ms. Anindita Sinha, Chairperson, PRCI Hyderabad Chapter, said, during this fast-changing world, production and consumption of news must be backed by lot of responsibilities and the fast track digitally distracted world gives all communications professionals an opportunity to keep the stands of news and information backed by the robust ethical sense of journalism.
Mr Niranjan Pragadala took up the issue of attention deficit among today’s world. He elaborated upon how today, people’s average attention span has come down to eight seconds. He referred to a survey analysis, which showed that there was a sharp decline in newspaper readership among the younger generations. The survey also captured how the short content that we see in social platforms viz. Instagram or In Shorts have received increasing demand. He emphasized upon the fact that in this scenario, the information that we get is losing their depth. However, to fight that out, as a solution, news media houses like The Hindu has come up with online subscriptions that gives access to more in depth information. YouTube offers short, as well as long content, while the latter helps generate more attention and revenue.
Speaking on this topic, Ms. Fronia Priscilla highlighted on the fact that while the attention span might have reduced and consumption of news becoming as fast paced as instant noodle, but much depends on our requirements and our need to consume any news. She consolidated her speech into 4 main points: Too much information, credibility, people’s superficial virtual presence and the topic of sensationalism. She focused on points related to lack of credibility, false virtual presentation and sensationalism. She also mentioned that these days people don’t even know for what they keep on scrolling through the social media platforms. She also made a point that sometimes we need short ways to fix things when we lack time. Answering to a question on social media’s future, she said, social media is here to stay and more than entertainment it is also offering a great way to explore open journalism with the concept of citizen journalism being re-invented.
Both Mr. Niranjan and Ms. Priscilla cited various examples and data to support their opinions opening up whole new vista to the way media world has exploded during this hyper connected digital world. The webinar was dotted with flurry of questions, which were well handled by the young speakers. The participants felt engaged and had their own takeaways at end of the seminar.
At the end of the webinar, Ms. Anindita Sinha imparted the vote of thanks and concluded the session.
