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October, 2003 |
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Sectoral |
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"Remediation"
for Nepali Electronic Media by Sunit Tamang "Remediation". It is a great sounding word, but why do the new Nepali television companies need to remediate? Meet, Hari Timilsina and his family. Hari a 40 plus father of two lives in a Kathmandu suburb, works for a commercial corporate company selling textiles. Hari's affair with the television started in 1987 on a Black and White Television set. Now, Hari has a Daewoo 21 incher with 99 channels and most crucially, a remote control. After a day of hard work, Hari comes back in the evening to go Zip, Zap, Zoom with his Television remote control.
There is an extensive range of channels available to Hari and his family. Therefore, how do you make Hari your loyal viewer without alienating his wife and admonishing their pre teenage children? Can the new TV stations satisfy the widest demographic and psychographic segments with the current plethora of software? Do they need to further transform it? Won't the accomplished improvement in technology and presentation style draw in the audience and therefore, largest share of the advertising pie? Dr. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, in their book "Remediation - Understanding New Media" have offered a theory that, for the media to survive in today's post modern era, it has to remediate itself. They have defined "remediation" as, "the formal logic by which new media refashion prior media forms." They have argued that motion pictures "remediated" from photography giving the viewers a new way to appreciate the images, in a moving form. Photography itself is a remediation of painting and virtual reality - a remediation of computer graphics. They argue that remediation approach is a never-ending series. Digital video and computer graphics constantly remediate motion pictures, photography, paintings and human vision. Similarly, film "remediated" stage production and photography, and television "remediated" film and radio. They further say that this need for "remediation, is brought about by the dynamic change in desires the individuals and societies crave for. We will soon see a different CNN website, a new Google interface or a new layout of the Time magazine and without much thinking embrace it as a new media. This will keep on continuing, it simply is a never-ending progression Differentiate or Die For the new Nepali television companies, whether this theory is correct or not is less of importance but what is important is development of a perspective based on this principle and adapting it to differentiate their brand amongst the viewers. When we look at the advancement of media during the past few years, we can be certain that the media we are looking at right now is not going to be the same in the near future. When the "world wide web" first came into notice, the websites had information about an organisation, for example, but it was more of a text based form - no pictures, no graphics. It was not even comparable to a book. A book at least had pictures to illustrate the text. Within a few years, websites started to add pictures and graphics to their features. It is a classic case of remediation where the new form of media - the web, refashioned itself from the older media - the book, and presented itself as a unique new medium without any attachment to the book. The web has "remediated" itself from a simple text bearing entity, to a more advanced one with the addition of graphics, photographs, audio, and video. Chat sites and personal messaging system started to materialise where one can communicate with someone, in another part of the world. The "msn messenger" is supposedly the most popular personal messenger today and is just one of the many different versions of the internet. When the first "msn messenger" was created, all it provided for the user (audience) was its ability to send and receive typed text. As it grew popular, it "remediated" itself by bringing in other features like the use of "emoticons" where the sender can suggest to the receiver his / her present mood. One could now send files, make telephone calls, talk and listen via the messenger without even making a phone call, and watch the other person with whom he/she is communicating via the web camera. Within the internet as a medium, there is a constant process of "remediating" with the sole objective of luring the surfers back to the same site again and again. The Critical Need for Remediation Competitiveness is a basic condition for a functioning market and market players have to compete against each other so as to become the best amongst the competitive set. Take CNN and BBC as example. They both are the top news producing stations. The main reason for them to remediate was to attract the audience and give viewers the best possible experience than their respective competitors. Had CNN not remediated, the BBC would still be the world's most popular news channel. Similarly, had the private satellite channels not "remediated" in India, Doordarshan would still rake in highest advertising revenues. To out do each other, channels constantly "remediate", bringing in the concept of remediation for brand differentiation. The media market today functions to get on top of the television programming rating systems and obtain the largest share of the advertising market and if there were no commercial issues, there would be not much importance on remediation. "Remediated Media" is the main strategy for the market thrust in a demand led market for television stations these days and strongly proven by the concept programming ranging from talk shows, interactive game shows, soap operas, live shows and the reality shows being the latest wave on Television programming. "Remediation" process also "repositions" and "refashions" the competitive set rapidly; therefore, it is critical for the new TV companies to adopt the theory of remediation as the core of their market entry strategy. With the expanding basket of channels, if it is the same goo goo gaa VJ shows, the insipid talk show followed by the news, the non-business like business programmes and the soap operas with wooden acting and rigid "lingo franca" then some of the channels can start filing for the bankruptcy process. Independent television program rating service that will soon hit market will hasten this process. Remember Jain TV, EL TV, Asia Music Network and don't we still surf- through almost 80% of the channel choice that is available today in the bouquet? Therefore, the battle is not really limited to the segmentation Hari's family provides; it is far bigger and wider. (Sunit Tamang is a media student at University of Luton, UK and currently completing his Masters Degree on Media, Culture and Technology) Liquor Industry Sales of Bhadra 2060 (mid-Aug to mid-Sept 2003) (Figures in cases)
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