Big Idea 1 with Nitan Desai, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Nitin Desai, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations speaking during the session “Big Idea 1 | Media and the Connected Society, Part 1.” Photo by Paul Hackett – Reuters.
Live from BBC Television Center, at the We Media Global Forum
Intro with Nick Gowing:
Nick talks about how the focus is on the developing world. Is media top down or bottom up?
Nitan Desai begins:
Nitan comments on the prior panel. He senses something missing in the prior discussion. They spoke about accuracy, but relevance wasn’t mentioned. He prefers watching the local Indian news channels even though he can watch anything. He feels their coverage is far more relevant to his interests than other news media such as CNN.
Nitan feels that if media is to be trusted, relevance is of importance. In the developing world, many people don’t have access to the internet, but they do have access to mobile phones. When you speak of media in a developing country, the roles that mobile phones make is of primary importance, many of these households don’t have internet, television, etc.
He also stresses that we should not loose sight of the fact that there are many countries where basic media freedoms are still not available.
Nitan proposes things that will shape the media business:
Politics – a shift in the balance of the world economy – the immergence of China and India which could give rise to media giants coming from those countries.
Growing vigor of people exercising democratic rights – a free media is part of the fight for democracy. The media has grown from street protests – protests are theatre, the gestures are as important as the words, street protests can lead to regime changes, ideological changes. It’s safer for media to cover street protests as opposed to armed conflict.
Nitan discusses how we have seen an incredible number of grassroots-based organizations participating in UN Conferences. (Women’s rights, children’s rights, civil rights groups, environmentalists, etc.) This has led to action on behalf of the UN (anti-land mine initiatives, etc)
The media scrutiny in various emergencies has led to the UN and other governing bodies to take action, because people see what is happening in some community and want things to change.
Nik Gowing of the BBC introduces Nitin Desai, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations during the session “Big Idea 1 | Media and the Connected Society, Part 1.” Photo by Paul Hackett – Reuters.
He feels that the media society hasn’t been changed by networking society very much yet. We still have central bodies in charge from which information disseminates. New tchnologies are changing how the media is being distributed. The biggest changes will come from users and particpants being engaged in the media conversation.
Nitan describes how Web 2.0 and other new technologies will offer new changes. These new tools are most cost effective, and lower costs mean that information is more accessible to more people.
He feels that the challenge we face is to find a business model which includes conventional media with community building and distribution channels. The We Media Global Forum is a good example of how these things can come together. Remember that the models we are looking for are relevant to all areas and peoples. We must change or we become irrelevant.
End of talk
Points brought out in Q and A:
Governments are slow to adjust to the idea of people power, they underestimate it. Media hasn’t underestimated people power but they don’t understand it fully. People power is coming.
Each special interest community thinks its issue is Number One. But there is no one community that is of primary importance.
Nitan gives examples of issues which were brought to the forefront via people power and not through media. Land mines, Poland solidarity, etc.
Stability is always an argument for preserving power. If you want change, you must deal with instability.
TAG: wemedia
I like the discussion of grassroots organizations and “people power”. I do think that the mainstream media focus on large events and governmental actions, without much acknowledgement that the people of the world are changing societies in a big way from behind the scenes. Blogging is one such example.