A minister in India proposed censoring social media websites like Facebook and Google, which was widely criticized. The document argues that mobile phones should be considered a new form of mass communication media separate from traditional media and desktop internet due to characteristics of mobile internet like its ability to share content in real-time from anywhere via camera, GPS, and social apps. The widespread adoption of mobile internet makes censorship attempts of social media absurd due to the difficulty of regulating content shared across millions of personal mobile devices.

1. Mass Communication Media and Mobile Internet
Very recently a minister in India went public with his ideas on the censorship of social net­
working websites like Face book and Google. Needless to say that his preposterous idea was
rebuked everywhere, even by the members of his own ruling alliance. It was interesting to
note how the media covered the news and published scathing reports about the wild idea of
the minister in question and his non-conforming behaviors of the past.
The question arises – Why did the regular media i.e. print and electronic media houses react
with such concern and against the censorship of social networking websites on Internet? Such
practice of censorship in whatever limited or effective forms does exist in few authoritarian
countries of the world.
History of mankind is full of various ways and means adopted by political leaders through the
times to address the masses to achieve their desired political goals. Control of media espe­
cially the print, recordings, radio, television and cinema by the political masters is very well
known.
Very desire to censor the contents of any form of communication medium is the de-facto re­
cognition of the mass communication reach and powers of the medium.
For simplicity sake let us list down the present mass communication media.
1. Print Media
2. Recordings
3. Cinema
4. Radio
5. Television
6. Internet
& now,
7. Mobile
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2. Some disagree to ¨Mobile¨ being listed as a mass communication medium. Some consider it
as just a tool to access the Internet only. Here we look at why the ¨mobile¨ should be con ­
sidered as a form of mass media in its own right.
Let us examine an example, when radio was very much an established form of mass media,
the introduction of television though being a similar electronic broadcast medium brought in
a new media all together for a simple reason, it carried live pictures of the event being broad­
cast. In simpler terms, television was doing something which radio could not due to the very
character of the medium.
On similar lines, mobile form of Internet access has specific characteristics which set it apart
from regular non-mobile Internet access. Further, the mobile / smart phones have character­
istics which set it apart from regular desktop computers.
A user on a regular desktop computer interacts with Internet using monitor, keyboard and
mouse where keyboard and mouse being the inputs.
A mobile user interacts with the Internet with many more inputs – touch screen, camera, bar ­
code scanner, microphone, motion sensor, keypad, location input (GPS / Network).
Availability of a plethora of input interfaces on the mobile phones defines a character of the
Internet access over mobile phones much different from a desktop computer.
How does it really differ?
1. Mobile phones being mobile are carried around
2. Connectivity to network – Internet is (mostly) always ON.
3. Authenticated payment modes are built-in due to service providers.
4. Users make use of the medium at their will or impulse.
5. Communication is most effective due to very reliable audience information.
6. Location and social context of the user is captured (if sensors are enabled).
7. Serves as maybe the only personal mass communication medium.
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3. A mobile user out on the street and while on move clicks a picture of a live event and uploads
it in real time and mass publishes to viewers and tweets and mass communicates about it
while still moving. While a static desktop computer Internet user’s activity is limited to the
four walls.
Maybe the earlier mentioned minister known for his unrealistic assumptions had assumed
that Internet users exist on a few regular desktop computers alone and can be regulated
through some bureaucratic means. The presence of many many more users of mobile phone
based Internet may not have occurred to him.
The ever growing adoption of Internet enabled smart/mobile phones makes the concept of
personal mass communication medium so strong that intelligent users and the media houses
found the idea of censor of social networking sites on Internet as absurd and idiotic.
Millions of mobile phone Internet users tweeting on tweeter and posting, commenting, shar­
ing and liking on face book is beyond conventional censorship of mass mediums. At best the
complete mobile Internet connectivity has to be blocked / switched off. Such scenarios do ex­
ist in few authoritarian societies alone where even SMS is blocked.
Mobile websites serves this new world wide mass communication media and much differently
than conventional websites for desktop Internet. This requires a completely different thought
on how to build websites for mobile access. The much practiced offerings of optimizing exist­
ing websites to suit the small screens of mobile phones is far removed from the reality of mo­
bile specific and mobile only websites.
Mobile websites is destined to bring about a revolution in the mass communication media.
Ebizindia Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
We leverage the mobile web for generating new leads for your business.
www.webile.co.uk