Ravi Ranjan Sinha. Nitish Kumar’s Adhikar Rally in Patna apart from its other features added a new chapter to India’s media history. A website created for the occasion, according to reports, had enabled internet users not only in India but also abroad to view proceedings of the rally live.This probably opens possibilities for a new genre of journalism which may grow parallel with live coverage of events which has so far remained exclusive domain of satellite TV networks.
Growth of TV news channels since the 1990s in India can be attributed among other things to their ability to bring live action to viewers. In fact, this has been their USP. But in the 21st century the mainstream media seems to be facing stiff competition from web journalism as also the social media. Political leaders and celebrities from other fields are making the new internet based media like blogs and twitter to put across their ideas to a large and widely disbursed audience which now include those living in remote areas also. It will not be surprising if other political parties too taking a cue from Nitish Kumar s rally make arrangements for taking their events and even their daily press briefings to the mases directly instead of depending on the mercy of TV channels.
