disertation PDF Cpoy

Social Media, the uncensored news source
Part II
By Rajarshi Chatterjee

Part II; MMCC
1
SYNOPSIS

Part II; MMCC
2
INTRODUCTION
With the emergence of online media, there arises a question that, is it the end of the
beginning or the beginning of the end. Online media is the most advanced developed and
modern media. It is the greatest human invention in the field of Journalism and mass
communication till date.
With the advancement of internet and online media, there came social media. With the
change in time, people are becoming busier and busier to an extent that they are
forgetting their social relationships. To cope up with this, social media was made to help
people maintain social relationships with ease. With this invention, people does not need
to meet someone in person to communicate, instead all they need are an internet
connection in computer or mobile phone and sign up to a social networking site like
Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc.
Later on, social media remained not just a communicating media but also the uncensored
source of news. In all other media like Print and Electronic media, news is always
censored, either by the Editor, Owner or the government, but the social media is so vast
that no one has dared to censor it till now.
Presently, social media acts as one of the greatest news source for a journalist. Social
media is the only platform where every human gets the same rank, whether it is the
President of a country or just a college student. It is also the easiest way to reach
someone. If a journalist has got an assignment to report on PM’s visit to Beijing, he/she
does not need to travel to Beijing, instead he/she can just wait for PM’s post on
Facebook, tweet or contact PM directly through social media. Sometimes journalists
can’t really reach an eminent personality personally but their tweet becomes breaking
news. Today, we read much news through social media before we read it in a newspaper,
hear it in radio or watch it in television.
There are many countries where press and media is either owned or censored by the
government, but social media is free from censorship. Citizens can easily blog, tweet or
post on social media websites about their problems and daily challenges. Only a free
press can show the real scenario of a state or country. Thanks to internet and social
media for the arrival of raw citizen journalism. Citizen journalism is nothing but the
actual voice of the citizens.
There was a time when people use to say “Pen is mightier than sword”, now is the time
to say “Social Media is mightier than anything”, because if anybody wants to share
anything they don’t need money, network,sources,educational degrees, they just need an

Part II; MMCC
3
internet connection and an account in social networking site. Within a few hours they
may get millions of feedback. No one knows than can even be a breaking news like one
happened during arresting Laden mission. A man tweeted that he saw too many
helicopters in his neighbourhood and heard firing sounds and posted pictures of that,
while having no knowledge that the American Forces were having their operation to
arrest and kill Osama Bin Laden.
My project is all about internet, online journalism, social media and its effects on mass
and how it acts as an uncensored source of news.

Part II; MMCC
4
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
As a part of the modern and youth generation, the thing that keeps us engaged for the
most of the day is internet, more specifically social media. It plays a major important
role in today’s life. People are either becoming busier or lazier to read newspapers, tune
into radio for news or switch on the television. They want the news to be on their
Facebook or twitter newsfeed. They believe “If news is important – I expect it to find
me”.
Freelancing and citizen journalism are the two new branches of journalism which are
expanding at a massive rate. Social media not only put forwarded a platform for
freelancing and citizen journalism but also a platform for publication of news free from
charges and censorship.
Truth has always been my prime interest. To me, News should be any accident or
incident which effects and affects a large section of the society. News should be free
from biasness. It should be true and uncensored. In today’s world, where money is the
power and everything is a business, free and unbiased press and media doesn’t really
exist. From this point of view, Social media gives us uncensored news, but may be
biased from the point of view of the person who publishes but anyone can tally one
social media post with another to get away with the biasness. In social media, one can
directly criticise or question the writer that too with just a touch or a click.
Social media is my point of internet and the amount of uncensored news published daily
just amaze me.

Part II; MMCC
5
LITERATURE REVIEW
Charlotte Ryan, Kevin M. Carragee & Cassie
Schwerner
Media, movements, and the quest for social justice
Journal of Applied Communication Research
Volume 26, Issue 2, 1998
This essay examines the efforts of the Media Research and Action Project to assist
marginalized groups in employing news as a political resource. The analysis highlights the
news media as critical arenas of struggle for social movements and community groups
seeking political change and social justice. The essay details how the Media Research and
Action Project, influenced by resource mobilization theory and multiple research perspectives
on news, assists community groups and social movements in their ability to: identify and
challenge barriers to news media access; sharpen their preferred frames and strategies for
promoting their definitions of political issues through the news media; and develop media
initiatives integrated into their political strategies. A case involving a media‐centered public
information campaign to influence policy formation and public attitudes concerning
workplace reproductive rights is highlighted.
Manos Tsagkias, Maarten de Rijke, Wouter
Weerkamp
Linking online news and social media
WSDM '11 Proceedings of the fourth ACM international conference on Web search and data
mining
ACM New York, NY, USA
Much of what is discussed in social media is inspired by events in the news and, vice versa,
social media provide us with a handle on the impact of news events. We address the
following linking task: given a news article, find social media utterances that implicitly
reference it. We follow a three-step approach: we derive multiple query models from a given
source news article, which are then used to retrieve utterances from a target social media
index, resulting in multiple ranked lists that we then merge using data fusion techniques.
Query models are created by exploiting the structure of the source article and by using
explicitly linked social media utterances that discuss the source article. To combat query drift

Part II; MMCC
6
resulting from the large volume of text, either in the source news article itself or in social
media utterances explicitly linked to it, we introduce a graph-based method for selecting
discriminative terms.
For our experimental evaluation, we use data from Twitter, Digg, Delicious, the New York
Times Community, Wikipedia, and the blogosphere to generate query models. We show that
different query models, based on different data sources, provide complementary information
and manage to retrieve different social media utterances from our target index. As a
consequence, data fusion methods manage to significantly boost retrieval performance over
individual approaches. Our graph-based term selection method is shown to help improve both
effectiveness and efficiency.

Part II; MMCC
7
LIMITATIONS AND
SCOPE
My research talks about Social Media, News, and News Censorship with some global
reference and case studies. There are many more examples of news censorship all
over the globe and uncensored news stories whose source is social media than I could
provide here.
My basic limitations are like:
 Could not reach experts from nations other than India to interview them or
get their opinions.
 Survey was limited within a region and most of them are students.
 There are more data and case studies than I can put into dissertation paper.
The basic scopes are:
 One of the most interesting topics in present day.
 Lot of data is available.
 Research can be done globally with internationally recognised experts’
opinions.
 Survey can be done from rural to urban population internationally.

Part II; MMCC
8
METHODOLOGY
1. Content Analysis
 Research through internet.
 Studying past research papers and works on this topic.
 Studying Social media.
 Studying laws of censorship.
 Studying similar case studies.
2. Surveying people
 Making at least 10 questions for interview.
 Interviewing at least 50 people from different occupation, profession or
randomly.
3. Taking expert opinion
 Making at least 10 questions for interview.
 Interviewing at least 2 eminent personalities and media experts.

Part II; MMCC
9
CONTENT ANALYSIS
Social media started as communication websites. Since 1971, when the first e-mail was
sent, man started slowly involving themselves into the world of social media. Friendster,
MySpace, Facebook and later on Google +, Instagram, LinkedIn and many other social
media websites came into the scenario. In the beginning it’s only responsibility was to
bring people closer, creating a global village. As time moved, its responsibilities
increased. Social media are not just websites to connect people now, it makes one’s
identity, it makes professional relationships, it helps in career making, it helps in making
certain statistics during war or disaster and it makes people aware of the daily happenings
in the world. It doesn’t only spread news, rather let people express their opinion, comment
and discuss or criticise anything openly with anyone around the globe.
Many eminent personalities like Charlotte Ryan, Kevin M. Carragee, Cassie Schwerner,
Manos Tsagkias, Maarten de Rijke and Wouter Weerkamp have researched and talked about
online media and news, social media and the social justice and censorship of news.
In every platform of news, it is somehow censored, whereas social media is the only platform
where it’s contents including news is not censored. More incidents take place in a day than a
newspaper can print or audio-video media cab broadcast, but one can find almost all major
incidents around the world in social media as there is someone or the other to post it.
Life is becoming fast day by day. People want to know everything instantaneously. They
can’t wait for next day morning to get the news from the newspaper. In the same time they
want mobile media and television is not at all mobile. Social media is the solution as it’s both
instantaneous and mobile. To be with social media, all one needs are a computer or a
Smartphone and an internet connection. Smartphones are now even cheaper than a television
set. All the rest is free of cost. Anybody anywhere can post and read social media contents.
There are countries like China where there is no freedom of press; social media is the only
platform to express one’s situation in front of the world. But recently, Chinese Governments
are restricting people to use social media websites, references are given below. India faced
serious issues of news censorship before independence during British rule and after
independence during Indira Gandhi’s emergency era. Even if the government doesn’t censor
news, editor or the owner does in many media houses for many reasons. But no one censors
social media contents. Social media publishes more contents than it can be censored. In social
media, anybody can publish anything. Everybody doesn’t have the formal journalism degree
or education but everybody can practise citizen journalism through social media. So, there is
a question of credibility. If someone follows eminent personalities or journalists, then the
news are believed to have credibility.

Part II; MMCC
10
The popularity of the social networking sites is immense, specially amongst the youth. The
sample chosen had a majority of students from the B-Schools. Analysis of the data tells us
that 98% of the students uses at least one of the networking sites. The majority of the students
spend on an average of about 6 to 9 hours every day surfing these networking sites. Amongst
those about 28% users spend more than 1 hour everyday, ranging between 10 to over 15
hours being spent every week.
The next question that arises is what else these students would be doing if not surfing on
these sites during that time. When we asked that question during the survey, we arrived at a
number of such things.
Activites Percentage
Studying 18
Socialising 48
Constructive
work 11
Reading novels 22
Others 8
Most of the students would use the spare time for Socialising or hanging out with friends if
they were not using these networking sites. 40% were of the opinion that they would be
studying or reading novels and books which means that these networking sites are leaving the
students with less time to study and to read books and novels. 8% said that they would be
doing some other things like social work, sports, pursuing their hobbies etc.
What is it that attracts the students to spend time surfing rather than doing other things
mentioned above. Some said it was because they could make more friends, some said it was
easier for them to stay in touch with their existing friends, for others it was to find old friends,
to share a love relationship with or to find and interact with people with common interests or
to get to know what’s happening around the world..
Getting news is fast and easy now. If someone follows a political personality or celebrity then
they can directly get their newsfeed. The work is much easier for the journalists too. A
journalist now doesn’t need to take the effort to meet and interview eminent people, then ask
questions over social media or just follow them. Social media is global where everyone is in
the closest proximity.
In this situation, it’s time to see how the media industry survives.

Part II; MMCC
11
HISTORY OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
Social media has been evolving since the invention of the Internet. From the first email in
1971 and Usenet in 1979 to GeoCities allowing everyone to set up their own personal
homepage in 1995.
However, Six Degrees is widely considered to be the first social network.
Six Degrees launched in 1997 and grew to around 3,500,000 registered users and was sold to
YouthStream Media Networks in 1999 for $125 million.
To highlight how social media has evolved, let’s take a look at a few of the seminal platforms
that helped the social media phenomenon take off.
Friendster was founded in 2002 and at its peak had more than 100 million users. Sadly, after
many struggles to re-invent itself, Friendster’s doors closed on June 14, 2015.
The site was many people’s intro to online social networking, but like many before and after,
the network failed to become a part of users’ daily routine and ultimately people skipped off
when newer, shinier social networks emerged.
From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world, and in
June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States.
Facebook overtook Myspace in May 2008 and since then the platform has been playing
catch-up and trying to re-invent itself.
As expected, the ubiquitous Facebook now leads the global social networking pack. Founded,
like many social networking sites, by university students who initially peddled their product
to other university students, Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only exercise and
remained a campus-oriented site for two full years before finally opening to the general
public in 2006. Yet, even by that time, Facebook was considered big business. So much so
that, by 2009, Silicon Valley bigwigs such as Paypal co-founder and billionaire Peter Thiel
invested tens of millions of dollars just to see it flourishes.
The secret of Facebook’s success — the site currently boasts more than 1.3 billion active
users — is a subject of much debate. Some point to its ease of use, others to its multitude of

Part II; MMCC
12
easily-accessed features, and still others, to its memorable name. A highly targeted
advertising model certainly doesn’t hurt, either, nor did financial injections such as the $60
million from noted Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing in 2007. Regardless, there’s universal
agreement on one thing: Facebook promotes both honesty and openness. It seems people
really enjoy being themselves, and throwing that openness out there for all to see.
Facebook is king for a reason. It wasn’t just through luck that founder Mark Zuckerberg’s
darling came to reign supreme over the social media kingdom. It was, in fact, a series of
smart moves and innovative features that set the platform apart from the rest of the social
media pack. First and foremost, the 2007 launch of the Facebook Platform was key to site’s
success. The open API made it possible for third-party developers to create applications that
work within Facebook itself. Almost immediately after being released, the platform gained a
massive amount of attention. At one point in time, Facebook had hundreds of thousands of
apps built on the platform, so many that Facebook launched the Facebook App Store to
organize and display them all. Twitter, meanwhile, created its own API and enjoyed similar
success as a result.
The other key to success was Facebook’s ubiquitous ‘Like’ button, which broke free from the
bounds of the site and began appearing all over the Internet. Now you can ‘like’ or “tweet’
just about everything even when you’re not on Facebook or Twitter. Realizing the power of
social networking, Google decided to launch their own social network (Google+) in 2007. It
differed from Facebook and Twitter in that it wasn’t necessarily a full-featured networking
site, but rather a social “layer” of the overall Google experience. Initially, Google generated a
lot of buzz with the service’s Hangouts feature, which allowed users to enter live video chats
with other online friends. At the time of launch, Facebook was scrambling to keep up by
integrating a video chat feature of their own.
Within just four weeks, Google+ had garnered 25 million unique visitors, with as much as
540 million active monthly users as of June 2014. Regardless, the service definitely didn’t
dethrone Zuckerberg’s behemoth, especially considering more than half of Google+ users
have never even visited the service’s official site. It still arguably showed the world that there
was still room for innovation and competition in the realm of social networking, though.
Now it’s all about a matter of touch.

Part II; MMCC
13

Part II; MMCC
14
SOCIAL MEDIA AND
NEWS
The modern day people believe in “If news is important, it will find me.”
The new wave of journalism: the world in a tweet
“I saw on Facebook/Twitter/Weibo…” is a term frequently heard in conversations nowadays.
Social media platforms, which were originally developed as tools for social interaction, have
become a vital source of information. Especially when a major event such as an earthquake
happens, the first reports come more often from micro-blogging services or other online
media, rather than traditional mass media. “Journalism, which was once difficult and
expensive to produce, today surrounds us like the air we breathe.” When we log on to
Twitter, we are immediately surrounded by all kinds of news posted or retweeted by twitters
we follow. Undoubtedly, social media has changed how we perceive journalism.
Social media: redefining journalism
As Deuze claimed, “journalism as it is, has come to an end.” The perhaps most important
revolutionary change that social media has brought to journalism, is that it enables all users to
collect, communicate, share and display news and information, and so encourages “citizen

Part II; MMCC
15
journalism” or “participatory journalism”. Thus social media has blurred the line between
audiences and journalists, producers and consumers. “People formerly known as the
audience” are no longer just passive receivers of news and information, but also active
participants in the production and dissemination processes. The term of “prosumer” or
“produsage” is used to describe this phenomenon. Moreover, social media has extended the
affordances of previous modes of linear communication in journalism by combining one-to-
many and many-to-many communication modes that are public, archived and searchable.
These changes have lead to “a new model of journalism, labelled participatory journalism”.
According to a study on news habits in the US conducted by Pew Research in 2010, 37% of
Internet users, or so-called “news participants”, have actively contributed to the creation,
commentary, or dissemination of news. Thus we can see that the trend towards a more
participatory media ecosystem is evident. In a word, social media has redefined journalism
from a one-way asymmetric model of communication to a more participatory and collective
system.
Citizen journalism vs. professional journalism
The shift in the relationship between journalist and audiences also raises the question of who
can be described as a journalist. As the motto of Ohmynews goes, “Every Citizen is a
Reporter”. In social media, everyone can report, comment and share news and be part of the
news process which used to be exclusively performed by professional journalists. However,
this does not necessarily mean that every citizen journalist can “produce journalism within
the establishment of accounts and analysis through narratives, with the aim of providing
accurate and objective portrays of reality”. Although social media platforms, especially the
microblogging services allow instant and up-to-date news and information, they cannot
compete with the traditional press or broadcasting media in terms of objectivity and quality.
How can we find the truth about a certain event, when there are tens of thousands of different
fragmented pieces of news about it and there is no support in the form of selection,
organization or interpretation by professional journalists? This is the challenge citizen
journalism is facing. As Overholser argues, some ingredients of professional journalism such
as accuracy, proportionality and fairness seem to be missing from the social networks.
Social media to traditional news organizations: a curse or blessing?
There used to be a hot debate around the issue of what social media means to traditional news
organizations. For some news organizations, especially newspapers, the outlook seemed
grim. Some even feared that social media would replace journalism. But today, not only
scholars but also news organizations see more of opportunities than challenges in social
media. For instance, Stassen identifies several major advantages of using social media:
audience research, story generation, content promotion, community building, customer
service, and sustaining and broadening attention. I believe the way forward for traditional
news organizations is to take advantage of its professionalism to deliver news that is
informative, accessible and of high-quality, while at the same time to make use of social
media to provide more interactive, customized content to attract consumers.

Part II; MMCC
16

Part II; MMCC
17
There was a time when people when people used to wait for their morning daily to get
updated about news. Today the scenario has changes, waiting is no longer needed. One can
just click on the internet and search for news, that’s it.
Today’s morning somehow looks like this:

Part II; MMCC
18
One has all the choice, it’s upto the reader that they want the news in a paper, computer,
tablet or phones.
News is everywhere. Journalist’s tweet, Politicians’ tweet, celebrities’ tweet and post online.

Part II; MMCC
19

Part II; MMCC
20
Well, the other way one can see that in today’s world anyone can be a journalist even without
any formal degree.

Part II; MMCC
21
No one needs expensive gadgets photography and journalism degrees, all one needs are a
phone and a social network site account, which is for free.

Part II; MMCC
22
Everybody is a journalist today and almost everybody is connected to social Censorship is
the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be
considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as
determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.
With a help of social media, it’s very easy to comment and post people’s views on any issue
and can create a debate.
NEWS AND
CENSORSHIP
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which
may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as
determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.
Media censorship takes many forms in the way you get your news. While news stories are
often edited for length, there are many choices that are made that are designed to keep some
information from becoming public. Sometimes these decisions are made to safeguard a
person's privacy, others to protect media outlets from corporate or political fallout.
Protecting a Person's Privacy
This is probably the least controversial form of media censorship.
When a minor commits a crime, his identity is concealed to protect him from future harm --
so he isn't turned down from getting a college education or a job. That changes if a minor is
charged as an adult, like in the case of violent crime.

Part II; MMCC
23
Most media outlets also conceal the identity of rape victims, so those people don't have to
endure public humiliation.
That was not the case for a brief period at NBC News, when it decided in 1991 to identify the
woman accusing William Kennedy Smith (part of the powerful Kennedy clan) of raping her.
NBC quickly reverted to the common practice of secrecy.
Avoiding Graphic Details and Images
Every day, someone commits a heinous act of violence or sexual depravity. In newsrooms
across the country, editors have to decide whether saying a victim "was assaulted" suffices in
describing what happened.
In most instances, it does not. So a choice has to be made on how to describe the details of a
crime in a way that helps the audience understand its atrocity without offending readers or
viewers, especially children.
In the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, the way he killed more than a dozen people was considered so
sick that the graphic details were part of the story.
That was also true when news editors were faced with the sexual details of Pres. Bill
Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky and the accusations of sexual harassmentAnita
Hill made about then-U.S.
Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas. Words that no editor had ever thought of
printing or a newscaster had ever considered uttering were necessary to explain the story.
Those are the exceptions. In most cases, editors will cross out information of an extremely
violent or sexual nature, not to sanitize the news, but to keep from offending the audience.
Concealing Security Information
The U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic operations function with a certain amount of
secrecy. That confidentiality is regularly challenged by whistleblowers, anti-government
groups or others who want to remove the lid on various aspects of U.S. government.
In 1971, The New York Times published what's commonly called the Pentagon Papers, secret
Defense Department documents detailing the problems of American involvement in
the Vietnam War in ways the media had never reported. The Nixon administration went to
court in a failed attempt to keep the leaked documents from being published.

Part II; MMCC
24
Decades later, WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange are under fire for posting more than
a quarter million secret U.S. documents, many involving national security. When The New
York Times published these U.S. State Department papers, the U.S. Air Force responded
by blocking the newspaper's website from its computers.
These examples show that media owners face a difficult relationship with the government.
When they approve stories containing potentially embarassing information, government
officials often try to censor it.
Advancing Corporate Interests
Media companies are supposed to serve the public interest. Sometimes that's at odds with the
conglomerate owners who control traditional media voices.
Such was the case when The New York Times reported that executives from MSNBC owner
General Electric and Fox News Channel owner News Corporation decided it wasn't in their
corporate interests to allow on-air hosts Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly to trade on-air
attacks. While the jabs seemed mostly personal, there was news that came out of them.
The Times reported that O'Reilly uncovered that General Electric was doing business in Iran.
Although legal, G.E. later said it had stopped. A cease-fire between the hosts probably
wouldn't have produced that information, which is newsworthy despite the apparent
motivation for getting it.
Cable TV giant Comcast faces a unique charge of censorship. Shortly after the Federal
Communications Commission approved its takeover of NBC Universal, it hired FCC
commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker who had voted for the merger.
While some denounced the move as a conflict of interest, a single tweet is what unleashed
Comcast's wrath. A worker at a summer film camp for teenage girls questioned the
hiring through Twitter. Comcast responded by yanking $18,000 in funding for the camp.
The company later apologized and offered to restore its contribution. Camp officials say they
want to be able to speak freely without being hushed by corporations.
Hiding Political Bias
Critics often lambast media for having political bias. While viewpoints on the editorial pages
are clear to see, the link between politics and censorship is harder to spot.
The ABC news program Nightline once devoted its broadcast to reading the names of more
than 700 U.S. servicemen and women killed in Iraq. What appeared to be a solemn tribute to
military sacrifice was interpreted as a politically-motivated, anti-war stunt by Sinclair
Broadcast Group, which didn't allow the program to be seen on the seven ABC stations it
owned.

Part II; MMCC
25
Sinclair is the same company that a media watchdog group says called more than 100
members of Congress "censorship advocates" for raising concerns to the FCC about Sinclair's
plans to air the film Stolen Honor. That production was blasted for being propaganda against
then-presidential candidate John Kerry.
Sinclair responded by saying it wanted to air the documentary networks refused to show it. In
the end, bowing to pressure on several fronts, the company aired a revised version that only
included parts of the film.
Communist countries that once stopped the free flow of information may have largely
disappeared, but even in America censorship issues keep some news from reaching you. With
the explosion of citizen journalism and internet platforms, the truth will now have an easier
way of getting out.

Part II; MMCC
26
CASE STUDIES
In this project we have already read about social media, it’s history, it’s relationship with
news and censorship of news, now it’s time to check how news is censored in different
countries through different news websites and e-newspapers.
Case Study 1
News about Censorship, including commentary and archival articles published in The New
York Times.
CHRONOLOGY OF COVERAGE
1. NOV. 24, 2015
Chinese government cuts mobile services of residents in Xinjiang who use software
enabling them to circumvent Internet filters; move intensifies already aggressive electronic
surveillance strategy.
2. NOV. 3, 2015
Russian authorities place Natalia Sharina, director of Ukrainian-language library in
Moscow, under house arrest for allegedly allowing public access to banned books by
Ukrainian nationalist writer Dmytro Korchynsky.
3. OCT. 20, 2015
Hong Kong bookstores largely stock titles sympathetic to Communist regime, distributed by
companies bankrolled by Chinese government; bury political books banned on mainland,
despite long history of demand; publisher of banned books blames situation on city's people
and media bending to Beijing.
4. OCT. 12, 2015
Apple disables its Apple News app in China; is most recent indication of problematic
situation foreign firms face regarding strict censorship of media and online expression in
country.
5. SEP. 18, 2015
Egyptian court bans media from covering killing of eight Mexican tourists mistaken for
insurgents by security forces, pending investigation; some suspect government cover up for
increasingly common mistake.
6. SEP. 1, 2015
Chinese Ministry of Public Security says nearly 200 people were reprimanded and possibly
detained recently for using Internet to spread rumors about China's volatile economy and
Tianjin explosion; journalist Wang Xiaolu was forced to confess writing an 'irrespnsible'
article on state television.
7. AUG. 19, 2015
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro of Venice, newly elected conservative, had pledged to ban 49
children's books that were added to city's preschool libraries by previous administration;

Part II; MMCC
27
public outcry has caused Brugnaro to cut list to two books, both featuring same-sex
families; move starts vigorous debate over right of educators to choose their teaching tools,
and highlights Italy's ongoing struggle over gay rights.
8. AUG. 18, 2015
Malaysian Communications Minister Salleh Said Keruak says Facebook, Google and
Twitter will be asked to curb content to preserve public safety; request is latest effort to
quash dissent triggered by accusations of graft at state investment fund, which has proved
problematic for Prime Min Najib Razak.
9. AUG. 15, 2015
Number of Western authors like British journalist Luke Harding have discovered that
Russian publishing house Algoritm is publishing censored versions of their books without
permission or consultation.
10. AUG. 14, 2015
Obama administration cites growing concerns about human rights violations in China as it
pledges to make issue prominent component of summit talks between Pres Obama and
Chinese Pres Xi Jinping; point to particular concern about media censorship and reprisals
that keep violence and other issues from being reported to Chinese media or citizens.
11. AUG. 4, 2015
Government of India orders Internet service providers to block 857 pornography sites, while
leaving thousands of others accessible, despite Supreme Court ruling that such sites should
not be blocked; offers no explanation for action; affected sites had been singled out by
lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani, who had previously failed to persuade Supreme Court to block
them.
12. JUL. 20, 2015
Memo from Yangon; Burmese language does not contain many words related to modern
commerce and politics, result of highly-censored, authoritarian era when Myanmar was
largely cut off from rest of world; language blocks have proved liability as country seeks to
open itself to progress.
13. MAY. 29, 2015
Group of Chinese authors and their supporters gather at New York Public Library in
Midtown Manhattan to protest strict government limits on free speech in their home country
in demonstration organized by PEN American Center; protest is sparked by large gathering
of Chinese publishers at BookExpo America, major publishing trade event, only blocks
away.
14. MAY. 25, 2015
Op-Ed article by Profs Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman notes rise of new brand of
dictator, who maintains power not through physical violence but through propaganda,
censorship, material reward and bureaucracy; contends West must both understand how
such regimes work and acknowledge its own role in enabling them.
15. APR. 26, 2015
Li Nanyang has filed lawsuit challenging China's legal standing to confiscate publications
entering country at airports; authorities seized copies of memoir by her father, Li Rui,
retired Communist Party official who penned unvarnished insider's account of country's
leadership; while Li does not expect her property to be restored, she hopes suit will force
government to explain reasoning behind extensive censorship.
16. APR. 22, 2015

Part II; MMCC
28
Advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists says strict control over freedom of
expression and thought in Eritrea and North Korea places them at top of list of world's 10
most censored countries.
17. APR. 11, 2015
Report published by The Citizen Lab finds that China used new cyberweapon known as
Great Cannon to redirect large amounts of Internet traffic to GitHub and GreatFire.Org,
causing sites to shut down temporarily; researchers say weapon is similar to ones developed
by United States and United Kingdom, but China seems intent on using device for
censorship, although it has other troubling possible applications.
18. APR. 9, 2015
India's Supreme Court decides to permit staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera Jesus
Christ Superstar in Kottayam district of Kerala state, 25 years after show was outlawed
there to prevent offending religious sensibilities; ban was supposed to be temporary, but
stretched over two decades.
19. APR. 8, 2015
Google manages to avoid wave of Internet bans in Turkey after it removes links to photos
of militant hostage taker pointing gun at head of Selim Kiraz, prosecutor killed after raid at
Istanbul courthouse; government officials have called images terrorist propaganda.
20. APR. 7, 2015
Turkish Prime Min Ahmet Davutoglu says news outlets that published photo of hostage
Mehmet Selim Kiraz held at gunpoint in central courthouse are 'tools of terrorist
propaganda' and bars their reporters from covering funeral of hostage, who was killed in
special forces raid; many websites, including Twitter and YouTube, are blocked for not
removing image.
21. APR. 2, 2015
Many Russian artists are censoring themselves in effort to avoid often vaguely defined and
enforced Russian laws that ban obscenities in public performances and criminalize
offending religious believers; issue has moved into spotlight after Russia's culture minister
fired Siberian theater director over Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater production of
Wagner's Tannhauser, saying it was offensive to Russian Orthodox Church.
22. MAR. 31, 2015
China has of late been attacking websites that attempt to help Internet users in country
dodge censorship, including search firm Baidu; main target of latest attacks is GitHub,
popular site that functions as library of code for programmers.
23. MAR. 26, 2015
Editorial welcomes decision striking down restrictions on Internet speech in India, where
officials have been banning films, intimidating authors and arresting Internet users;
observes while Indian Supreme Court's move is improvement in increasingly restrictive
atmosphere, it still leaves room for government to block websites on the basis of national
security.
24. MAR. 14, 2015
Turkey's censorship policy, which blocks access to websites government finds
objectionable, does not extend to sites that advocate Islamic extremism or even some that
recruit Turks to join Islamic State; some critics say Pres Recep Tayyip Erdogan's selective
crackdown on freedom of speech reflect's government's Islamic values.
25. MAR. 7, 2015

Part II; MMCC
29
Documentary film Under the Dome is deleted from major Chinese websites on orders of
Communist Party's propaganda department; video had caused national stir over country's air
pollution problem and was viewed hundreds of millions of times on Internet in week since
its release.
26. MAR. 7, 2015
Zachary Woolfe Critic's Notebook chastises New York Youth Symphony for cancelling
Carnegie Hall performance of Jonas Tarm composition Marsh u Nebuttya after complaint
about its quotation from Nazi anthem; notes several examples of musical works that have
referenced anthem or expressed political messages; calls on symphony to perform work and
let audiences interpret it for themselves.
27. MAR. 5, 2015
New York Youth Symphony pulls commissioned piece by composer Jonas Tarm from
Carnegie Hall performance after learning that it contains musical quotation from Nazi
anthem; Tarm says piece is about conflict, totalitarianism and nationalism and calls
orchestra's decision censorship.
28. FEB. 10, 2015
Yuan Guiren, China's education minister, ramps up calls for ban on textbooks that promote
Western values, warning that they will corrupt young minds; latest censorship attempts
elicit rare open criticism from Chinese academics and students, who reject idea that they are
intellectually vulnerable and note that Guiren has reversed his prior comments promoting
openness.
29. FEB. 3, 2015
Censoring of Mihir Joshi music video that used word 'Bombay' by India's Central Board of
Film Certification has drawn criticism and mockery, but board's chairman says he stands by
decision; name of city was changed to Mumbai in 1995, and dispute points to ongoing
debate over history and identity in India.
30. JAN. 31, 2015
Editorial contends that series of steps China has taken to tightly control Internet
communication and devices will harm both Chinese economy and its international business
relations; holds that country's proposed regulations, which are aimed at suppressing dissent
and promoting Chinese technology at expense of foreign industry, amount to protectionism
and will discourage trade negotiations with rest of the world.
31. JAN. 30, 2015
Chinese officials are further tightening and restricting Internet access; crackdown is
angering artists, entrepreneurs and professors who say country's economy is being choked at
time of declining growth; multinational companies also worry about rising online
restrictions of virtual private networks, or VPNs.
32. JAN. 27, 2015
Turkish state broadcaster TRT and a Facebook employee confirm that company has blocked
access to pages with content that Turkish authorities have deemed insulting to Prophet
Muhammad; action was taken to comply with Turkish court order which, if defied, may
have resulted in government cutting off access to social media site entirely.
33. JAN. 16, 2015
Editorial contends European leaders are taking misguided actions to reduce hate speech and
prevent terrorism in aftermath of Charlie Hebdo attack; warns suggested censoring of hate
speech and providing means of monitoring conversations by Internet service providers

Part II; MMCC
30
would be potentially ineffectual, invasive and dangerous; holds government should continue
to use targeted intelligence gathering to stem terrorist threats, but not censorship and
surveillance.
34. JAN. 5, 2015
Survey of writers around world by the PEN American Center finds that significant majority
say they are deeply concerned with government surveillance and that it has affected their
willingness to address controversial topics in writing; results show that writers consider
freedom of expression to be under threat around world in both democratic and
nondemocratic countries.
35. JAN. 4, 2015
Op-Ed article by author Nury Vittachi describes hurdles Chinese screenwriters face as they
try to get movies made while withstanding the censor's shears; expresses hope that Chinese
public and investors will eventually demand standards that are similar to the rest of the
world.
Case Study 2
Indian government Says Internet Restrictions Should Be Stricter
than Print, TV: Report
by NDTV Correspondent , 26 February 2015
At a hearing in the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday, government representatives told
the court that the level of restriction on the medium should be higher than that of print or
television. This was said in justifying the retention of the penal provision of Section 66A of
the Information Technology Act.
According to a report, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued before the apex
court that there was need for a mechanism of checks and balances on the Internet, though he
added that it was impossible to regulate it.
"There are institutions which are working in other media whether it is paper, television or
cinema," said Mehta. "There is an institutional approach and there are checks like pre-
censorship for TV and films. But in Internet there is individual approach and there is no
checks and balances or license."
According to him, the Web needs a higher level of restriction because of the speed with
which information spreads, and the scope of its reach.

Part II; MMCC
31
"Considering the reach and impact of medium, leeway be given to legislature to frame rules,"
he said. "On the Internet every individual is a director, producer and broadcaster and a person
can send offensive material to millions of people at a same time in nanosecond just with a
click of button."
"It is not possible to outrage someone's modesty through print and television but it can be
easily done through internet," he said.
However, others have argued this point, and there are many who feel that the law as it exists
is too vague, and hurts online entrepreneurship. The bench of the Supreme Court also said
that reasonable restrictions on free speech as allowed under Article 19(2) of Constitution on
freedom of speech and expression did not recognize any form of medium.
The provision, as it exists, makes posting offensive messages on social network sites an
offence punishable by up to three years in jail. The issue that many have is that the exact
terms are not clearly defined - and people argue - that without a clear definition of offensive
material, anything could be viewed as such.
The court had earlier said that the term offensive was "vague" and highly "subjective" term
and Section 66A is prone to misuse. Speaking for the government, Mehta however said that
the provision cannot be quashed or thrown out just because the provision is vague on defining
the word "grossly offensive".
The court had earlier also raised concerns that the majority of cases that come up lie in a grey
area and that there is a chance of misuse. It reportedly said conservatives would always term
the opinion of reformists as offensive and cited the example of Galileo who was kept under
house arrest till death for his theory that earth revolves around the Sun.
In turn, the government said that posting pictures and comments on social networking sites
which hurt religious sentiments cannot be tolerated and people must be prosecuted under
Section 66A. It had said that hurting religious sentiments comes under the category of
"grossly offensive" under the provision and such acts must be penalized.

Part II; MMCC
32
Case Study 3
The fear of censorship in Indian media
Soutik Biswas Delhi correspondent
George Bernard Shaw once said that "censorships exist to prevent anyone from
challenging current conceptions and existing institutions".
A recent outcry in India shows just how many fear this in Narendra Modi's government after
it accused three TV news networks of violating broadcasting regulations by airing
interviews that criticised last month's execution of Yakub Memon, the man convicted of
financing the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings. It even threatened to cancel the licenses of the
channels for violating broadcasting laws.
Memon's execution was controversial - there were reports that he had been betrayed by
Indian authorities after being coaxed into surrendering. He had also spent two decades in
prison as legal proceedings dragged on. His execution triggered a debate on the death penalty
and "selective justice" in India. His mercy pleas were rejected twice by the president and
appeals to suspend the execution were discarded by the Supreme Court, the last time in
an unusual early morning hearing.
But in what many journalists see as a crude form of censorship, a terse directive was issued
by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which has Orwellian echoes in a country
that prides itself as the world's largest democracy. It argued the broadcast interviews
contained content which "cast aspersions against the integrity of the president and judiciary".
So what offended?
In one of the interviews, a former lawyer of Memon was quoted as saying that one man
charged over the blasts had been pardoned by the courts despite playing a bigger role in the
bombings than Memon himself. "If you show this pardon to any person outside India - UK
authorities or US authorities or the best brains in the world as far as criminal law is concerned
- they will laugh at you," the lawyer said. "They will laugh at you. They'll say, "Is this
justice"?
Another apparently disrespectful interview was with a Mumbai underworld figure who is at
large and described as one of the masterminds of the bombings. Chhotta Shakeel called up
the channel to claim that Memon's execution was "legal murder".
The networks lost no time in taking umbrage at the directive, saying that the government's
reasoning was "questionable" and that they had followed ample self-regulation in covering
terror-related incidents.
India's cable network laws already limit media coverage of anti-terror operations to "periodic
briefings" by government press officers until the operation ends. Top lawyer Indira Jaisingh
says the government "cannot fight surrogate battles" on behalf of the President and the
Supreme Court. "Long years ago, the Supreme Court said the air waves belong to us all, and
that free speech cannot be curtailed by the denial of a licence to broadcast - something the
government is trying to do," she wrote in Indian news website The Wire.

Part II; MMCC
33
'March of the democratators?'
One of the great ironies here is that the broadcasting ministry is run by Arun Jaitley - also the
finance minister - who is seen as a moderate face of the government and who, according to a
senior journalist, "believes in live and let live".
As an opposition student leader in the 1970's Mr Jaitley spent 19 months in prison when
Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties during the infamous Emergency and imposed the
harshest clampdown on media in the history of Independent India. "Media censorship is not
possible today because of technology," Mr Jaitley told a gathering at a launch of a book on
Emergency in June.
So why is Mr Modi's government issuing such fiats?
Part of the problem, say many, may have to do with Mr Modi himself - he prefers the
formality of clipped and controlled social media messaging and radio dialogues to the
informality of open and frank media interviews. In some ways, say his critics, he conforms to
a pattern set by leaders such as Vladimir Putin or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who, according to
Joel Simon, author of The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, use
their massive mandates to govern as dictators or "democratators".
But it is also the case that Mr Modi has long preferred to interact with the public directly,
unmediated by journalists, and it is a strategy that has served him well, winning him the
adulation of many young Indians who identify with such direct contact.
Mr Modi's office is also seen as one of the most centralised in recent history. "That is where
things are going wrong," says journalist Neerja Chowdhury. "You can't run a country like
India if you centralise power."
Image captionArun Jaitley, who heads the information ministry, is a seen as a moderate force
Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta writes that the "first indication that a government is losing
nerve or grip when it starts blaming and targeting the media".
It is absurd, he says, for the government to believe it can control the media today's pell-mell
world of social media. "A war on the news media causes any government terrible, often
terminal damage. It does no real harm to the media," he writes.

Part II; MMCC
34
India, already, needs more press freedom than many of its democratic counterparts. This year,
it ranked a lowly 136 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders World Press
Freedom Index. Its ostensibly thriving media can often be an an illusion.
But the biggest mystery is why a government with one of the most comfortable majorities in
Independent India feels the need to flex its muscles this way. Could it be an early sign of
insecurity?

Part II; MMCC
35
EXPERT INTERVIEWS
Interview 1
Rajdeep Sardesai
Media Personality
Contact: +919811101834
E-mail:rajdeepsardesai52@gmail.com
1) What is social media to you?
Social gives chance to directly communicate with lots of people whom I would
otherwise never be in touch with either face to face or through television shows. It’s a
better way of communication. It gives millions of viewers in real time.
2) How is social media related to your life?
Social media is an important part of my life because it gives me a sense of what’s
going on around in the society, real time information on what’s going on around. In
terms of Facebook, it’s a great place for me to actually relate and integrate with
friends. I use Facebook for chatting with friends and I use twitter largely for talking to
a wider world.
3) What role does news play in your life?
News for me is basically my profession. I’m basically a newsman who tracks news
for 24/7, that’s my job. I am passionate about being an observer of society and politics

Part II; MMCC
36
which changes. So it naturally plays an important part in my life. News is my window
to the world. It’s something that I passionately follow.
4) What is your preferred source of news?
My preferred source of news, frankly, I am still someone who needs half a dozen
newspaper in the morning. For breaking news I turn to either social media or
television.
5) As a journalist, do you think social media is a good source of news?
I think social media is a one source of news. I won’t call it good or bad. Like all other
media it has some strength and weakness too. I find sometimes social media a
noxious chamber of hate and outrage and other time I find it very useful to find out
what’s happening in the world. I wouldn’t say its my sole sole source of news nor
would I say it’s necessary only a good source of news. It has its good points and
weaknesses.
6) Can you remember any news which you got from social media?
Yes, I remember, there was a case in Mumbai. I don’t remember the name of the
individual. It was a case of sexual harassment. I got this story from social media and
then we followed it up.
7) How can you relate censorship with your life?
I am a great opponent of any form of censorship. I believe the only thing that should
be censored is any incitement to violence or any speech that is designed to spread
hatred among communities. And even in that you must be very clear that those kind
which is deliberately provocative. Anything that provokes violence should be avoided
and everything else to my mind should be free speech.
8) Do you think news should be censored?
At the moment you censor news you lose the core of news as it believed to be free and
independent.
9) Do you think social media is the uncensored source of news?
I think that’s a good way to put it. I think that’s an uncensored source of news because
there are no filters and that’s its strength and weakness.
The information that comes into social media from may not be accurate which may as
I said it may spread violence and hatred among the community which is unacceptable

Part II; MMCC
37
to me. Its strength is that it’s all in real time. And it’s not controlled by someone
unlike the thing happens in a newsroom. It can be democratizing.
10) Do you support in censorship of social media?
I believe any media must work on the framework of rules, must be rule-based.
Interview 2
Sayan bhattacharya
Director, Global Shared Services
MSH Group
Contact: sayan.bhattacharya@gmail.com
Social Media is the most prominent mode of engagement today. Be it Facebook to connect
with friends across globe or Twitter to voice an opinion and to view opinion of personalities I
aspire and follow or LinkedIn to network with professionals. Engagement, Networking, News
& Sharing Memories are the keywords which can be tagged to social media for me.
Social media is related in every aspect of my life today. Through Facebook I am in touch
with friends who are based out across globe easily. I can share moments of my life, cherish
our memories, plan events and do things which were not at all possible a decade back. The
world has become a small place today. I use twitter extensively to voice my opinion and also
to view opinions, specifics and updates of leaders, celebrities I follow and also stay update on
current affairs and what is trending. LinkedIn is another social app I use extensively to
network with professionals in my industry to pitch for my company's services or know more
about a prospect or a company. Also LinkedIn is the best way to evaluate opportunities for
career change. Instagram is another app I use to share some special moments with my friends.
YouTube I use extensively when it comes to watching videos, news, sports or any other
media content. Also another social app which I use is TripAdvisor for planning trips, giving
my feedback on hotels, locations and places and also review feedbacks of other travellers.
These are some of the social applications which I use extensively in my daily life.

Part II; MMCC
38
News is a commodity for me and I try to stay updated as much as possible in all aspects and
fields. My primary areas of interest are politics, business, sports, global politics, travel and
finance (update on stock markets and economy)
I start my day with Times of India. Follow up with news through social media (Facebook,
twitter, LinkedIn) over the day and economic times and end the day with media channels
such as Times Now, BBC, ET & Bloomberg. I also would like to specify
about yourstory.com which i follow to get update on start up news
5) Do you think social media is a good source of news?
I believe social media is a very good source but the challenge is to control the inflow as at
times there is a overflow of news coming through it. Big boys like FB and LinkedIn are
trying their best with big data to make news very specific based on end user interest but
perhaps still half a decade away. I usually check news daily through LinkedIn Pulse, Twitter
trends, Facebook.
6) What are the news that you remember you got from social media?
Dell buying EMC, Maggi back into Action, Recent Paris Terrorist Attack & Russian flight
down by Turkey
I do see censorship causing problem to celebrities and big shots. But personally I have not
experienced any impact on censorship in my life.
I am strongly against censorship of news. News should be reported as actual which
unfortunately is not the case in our politicised world
Yes to a large extent. But it does get biased based on who is reporting and what alignment the
individual is having towards
No I don't support for censorship unless it pose a threat to national security

Part II; MMCC
39
Interview 3
Sanjay Bhadra
Chief Reporter, Kolkata TV
Contact: +9196741751333
On news, news source, media, social media, censorship.
Social media, initially it was a fun platform, where you can connect people you know like
friends, long term friends, childhood friends. Now social media is fast turning out to be a
place where you get to know about events, news which is happening around you but to which
you don’t have an access to. So, apart from being connected, be in touch with friends and all,
you can be in touch with the news which is happening around. It’s place where you actually
have the real time input.
It’s very much related to my life. To me, it touches a particular chord of my life which is dear
to me, near to me, some fond memories, some sad memories and those are facts. In social
media, specifically in Twitter and Facebook, I’m in touch with lot of friends who in the
media fraternity in some other pool, but then somehow related to news or maybe they have an
interest for news, nose for news. So this is a place where I am always being updated about
news from them and it is also the place where I can update them with news which I know or
have access to. This is off course one such place which I particularly use as a medium as
there are lot of news which I can’t show or I’m not allowed to show in my television channel.
There are news which goes against the policies, off the source new, but I’m quite aware of
those facts and they are interesting. This is one such place where I can share these to all
people under the sun and make them understand that I have this much of capability and
access though I can’t show them in my channel. This is a place where I can build my image
as a reporter which is confined only to my channel or national dailies, where I used to work
before joining Kolkata TV where I have grown up with an image as a reporter. But certainly,
this has enhanced my image as a reporter, because there are many people I know that we
regularly follow your feeds regarding any news, happenings, and big events.
I was concerned about my number of friends in Facebook. One day I was checking and found
that my number of followers has increased to 1800 persons. I believe when they are following
me, like my status, they must actually like some aspect of my profile. I have no other virtues
in my life that can be followed. So the only thing someone can like in me is that my
reporting.
It somehow enhances my image. I met a family in Dooars, Jalpaiguri, while I was in a
holiday where the man came to me and said “You must be Sanjay Bhadra. I am in touch with
you through facebook. I follow your feeds. I was very interesting to get updates from you
regarding Chota Rajan”. He is one who talked to me like that and I’m quite sure there and
other people like him too. So actually my intention to share or spread these information

Part II; MMCC
40
which I can’t do through my channel actually works through social media. It acts as a
platform to exchange news. I am in touch with many other journalists like Saikat Dutta of
Hindusthan Times, editing National security and Matin Haffiz, special correspondent of The
Times Of India, Mumbai. One thing is like Sheena Bora case happening and the way Matin
updated news on that on social media I was quite sure that I was having access to all the
news, development in real time. Matin is in national daily, so he can’t break news like
television channel reporters but he has access and capability to do so, and he does it through
social media. Actually I got the news from his social media account; called him up for more
updates and sitting in Calcutta I broke the news for my TV channel. In many such I broke
news nationally, but my source was nothing else but a journal based on Mumbai. Credit
obviously goes to Matin, but his Twitter and Facebook account is to blamed as if I didn’t
break that news, some other channel would have done that in the course of the day.
Role of news in my life? It will sound like very bookish. For any news-person, news should
be like his Bible, Quran or Gita or anything like that. News for me is something to live with. I
am not talking about dreaming news or something like that but something to deal all the time.
As you are talking to me regarding your dissertation paper on social media, it is news for me.
If someone talks to me about this or related topic I will mention this discussion between us.
News is everything. Every information that you have is news. Any information can be
transformed into news, platform may differ, but every information has a news value. If
someone says or spreads rumour that this diwali, there will be given 15 days of bonus, that’s
a big news for me.
Offcourse the direct sources, human resources are the best news sources. These days any
good reporters will say that they have two main source of news, human resource and
technological resource. I call it Humid-Human intelligence and Technic-Technological
intelligence. We, the reporters are like intelligence agencies, we work for like intelligence
officers. We have to dig news. As Mamta Banerjee travelled to Delhi and met Prime
Minister, its not like that she will come out and tell us the entire discussion. She will say what
she needs to say, she knows his publicity techniques. She will say like that she demanded 21
thousand crore rupees and all. I am not interested in breaking that news; I know that apart
from that there were certain other talks in which I am more interested in that. Many
intelligence agencies are also nowadays keeping track of News channels like CNN. They are
interested in that content of the discussion. I am in Calcutta that doesn’t mean I will have sit
idle, I am in touch with a guy for two hours who is with Mamta Banerjee, so I am quite sure
what Mamta is going to say. But that guy will feed me with certain interesting things.
Third party feed is not that reliable. But if you don’t have acces to first and second person,
you will have to reach the third, but you have to be sure to crosscheck and filter those
information.
It is a very good source of news but you have to be sure about certain things. News can be
misleading in social media. You must always crosscheck social media news from other
sources. You need to know who reliable people are. If Poranjoy Guhathakur da updates
certain things I will definitely go by it as I know how sincere he is. If Matin, Haffiz or Rajib
Kanwala writes I know he is saying something true.

Part II; MMCC
41
Even in traditional media we have to crosscheck our sources and know how credible our
sources are. Same is with the social media platform. You will have to know whose feed you
are taking. You need to have a crosscheck mechanism in your brain. If you are sensible I
don’t think someone can mislead you. Try to find that if your source has any intension of his
own interest. Don’t let your source mislead you or use you.
There is much news which I’ve got from social media. I was already giving you some
references like Sheena Bora Case, Chota Rajan found in Bangkok airport.
There should be reasonable restrictions or censorship. There should be certain amount of
restriction but that should be reasonable like we have something in section 19 A B or
something like that. We have liberty but there are certain restrictions in every aspect of life
especially in case of media. Media has huge power and if there is no restriction it can be
misused. It just takes one hour to run a story to convince people around a state against a
person, I can build up an opinion. Say after one hour, I withdraw my story, but people will be
already convinced with whatever I have said an hour before. Who knows if I am corrupted?
There should be restriction to every power.
Democracy doesn’t allow us to poke nose into every matter. It’s a democratic country that
doesn’t mean that my neighbor kisses his wife or not. May be I like his wife, or charmed by
her looks, that doesn’t mean that it’s a democratic country so I will go to his house and kiss
his wife. It is a tendency that in everywhere in media, police, bureaucracies, when I have
some power, I will try to manipulate this power to bring something in my favor. So if there is
no bar things might go in wrong way. Democracy even cannot be enjoyed to the fullest. Bit
of manipulation is okay but total manipulation is not done. I cannot allow censorship like
1975, but in today’s perspective, my news is being censored in my own house, can I be
against it? Did my parents allow me to enjoy 100% liberty in his house? So there’s
censorship everywhere and we can adjust to bit of censorship, but there should be limitations
to it.
Media which is also called the pillar of democracy, but it actually doesn’t play a watch-dog
role as it is discussed in books, classrooms or seminars. That kind of definition is given
keeping in my mind that everything beside is good, but in manipulative society, corrupt
society you can’t expect everything will be bad and media will play its good role. Media has
to sustain itself. It doesn’t get subsidy from the government. We play a conscious role in a
sense but not 100%. It is the structure now; you can’t blame media for this. It is the society
that corrupts. So there should be censorship to some reasonable extent.
No, there should be no censorship in social media. It is the platform where people can express
their views. There are certain wrong things but still in small quantity, so its not a huge

Part II; MMCC
42
problem. If someone doesn’t like Narendra Modi, he or she may write that in their social
media page. If someone makes a cartoon of Mamta Banerjee, police will go and arrest him,
that’s not fair to me. So there should be some freedom.
Interview 4
Asish Patra
Director Online, ESSEL
Contact: +919674166590
Social media is a media where each and everyone can connect with each other. As
technology has upgraded, social media has upgraded alongwith it. The way we use
social media today, maybe it was not made for this purpose. I think a technologically
sound person can use social media better. I too think there are many social media
users who don’t even know what social media is. To me, social media is a platform
where we can know and learn many things. It is also something where connecting
people are much fast and easy.
It connects me with a lot of people.
Each and every second of my life is news. As a newsman, each and every news,
whether it be national, regional or international, it’s very important to me. Every real
event is basically news. I think it inspires or influence not only me but everyone to
build up an opinion.
Obviously social media, websites, fields, it depends.
5) Do you think social media is a good source of news?

Part II; MMCC
43
Social media is a very good source of news.
6) What are the news that you remember you got from social media?
Almost everything like even today I got the news of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi
Herald Case, I got it from Social media.
Censorship is not at all needed. I am totally against censorship. Everyone has the
freedom to choose what they want to see, hear or read. There shouldn’t be any
restriction to it.
News should never be censored. If it is seen that the news may be effect a section of
the society then it should be interpreted or published or broadcasted in a different
way, but it shouldn’t be censored. There can be some after effects sometimes. But that
doesn’t mean news should be censored. News should be served in an uncensored way.
Anything that is censored cannot be news. News is always uncensored.
If news is censored, then there is some biasness, it is somehow not justified.
Practically it is not always possible; it is sometimes broadcasted in a censored way.
Ideally, news should be uncensored.
Not only news, any other mediums like film, documentary, book, television program
or music should also be uncensored as its viewers or listeners are watching or hearing
that with their own concern and self freedom.
It is partially uncensored.
Everything should be uncensored. I think at least 80% of the total social media users
are literate. If somebody wants to see or read something, they can, if somebody
doesn’t want to see or read, no one forces them. There is absolutely no need of
censorship.

Part II; MMCC
44
SURVEY ANALYSIS
Yes
91%
No
0%
Sometimes
9%
Active Social Media User
Yes No Sometimes
Yes
80%
No
5%
Someti
mes
15%
Active Follower
of News
Yes No Sometimes
Yes
57%
No
16%
Someti
mes
27%
Uses
Traditional
Media to get
News
Yes No Sometimes

Part II; MMCC
45
Yes
76%
No
6%
Someti
mes
18%
Reads e-
newspaper
Yes No Sometimes
Yes
58%
No
20%
Someti
mes
22%
Read Blogs
Yes
No
Sometimes
Yes
91%
No
0%
Someti
mes
9%
Thinks Social
Media is a
source of news
Yes
No
Sometimes Yes
36%
No
24%
Maybe
40%
Thinks Social
Media is a
better source of
News than
Traditional
Media
Yes
No
Maybe

Part II; MMCC
46
Yes
25%
No
51%
Somet
imes
24%
Supports
Censorship of
news
Yes No Sometimes
Yes
34%
No
13%
Maybe
53%
Thinks
Traditional
Media provides
censored news
Yes
No
Maybe

Part II; MMCC
47
Yes
38%
No
36%
Maybe
26%
Thinks Social Media is the
Uncensored News Source
Yes
No
Maybe

Part II; MMCC
48
CONCLUSION
After researching a lot we have found various examples of news censorship, we come to
know about the rise of citizen journalism, how the world and media changed with internet
and smartphones and how social media has turned into a good source of news.
At the simplest, news is anything that occurs. The news is anything which effects and affects
a larger section of the society is the general definition of news for the media houses. Now we
see a lot of people carrying smartphones, clicking pictures, capturing videos and instantly
uploading in social media. This is how citizen journalism works. Their stories, pictures,
videos, posts or tweets sometimes get transformed into a big and breaking news story. This is
how the world came to know about US’s secret operation to assassinate Osama Bin Laden.
Our case studies talked about how news is censored in different countries across the world
including India. Our experts include India’s one of the greatest journalists like Rajdeep
Sardesai, Sanjay Bhadra and Ashish Patra. In experts opinion one can find expert comments
from corporate and IT official. Experts talked about News, Social Media, News censorship
and News Sources. We have also collected opinion from other professionals like School
principal, Engineer and Short-Film maker.
After studying expert opinions and random survey results, we can come to the following
conclusion:
 Majority is active social media user.
 Majority is active follower of news.
 Majority uses traditional media to get news.
 Majority reads e-newspaper and blogs.
 Majority, 91% thinks social media is a source of news and only 36% thinks social
media is a better source of news than traditional media.
 Majority 21% is against censorship of news and 34% thinks traditional media
provides censored news whereas majority 53% thinks traditional media sometimes
provide censored news.
 Majority thinks Social Media provides uncensored news.
The well known news man Rajdeep Sardesai thinks that social media is an uncensored source
of news because there are no filters and that’s its strength and weakness.

disertation PDF Cpoy

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

En vedette

En vedette (20)

disertation PDF Cpoy