Thomas Friedman in his book the Lexus and the Olive tree said “Print Medium made readers out of us, television and radio made listeners and audience out of us, while Internet has made Publishers out of us.”
Media is no longer limited to just print media, articles, direct mail, TV, radio, newspapers, and telemarketing– it has evolved into a multi faceted entity and requires multiple methods of approaching the consumer in order to be effective. If we look at the media in the hands of a student, be it a smartphone, laptop, cameras, they are well equipped to post content on various platforms.
Different Generations have had different opportunities as careers – all mostly pursued as part time. Some pursued it because it was their passion, while many pursued it for Fashion (herd mentality).
Early 70s people were just plain volunteers or interns in anything trying to learn the ropes of a job. Early 80s has people enter the field of door to door sales, while 90s spawned an entire event management industry, and the millennium has its share of internet based careers.
Schools and Colleges provided many opportunities through extra-curricular activities in terms of literary (elocution, debates, quizzes, essay competitions) or non-literary (dance, drama, music, sports and so on). So about 10% of the college was amongst the achievers and had a certificate to flaunt. Opportunities have exploded in the modern world that one has so many avenues to share achievements, most importantly on social media.
It is interesting to note the period of six years – from 2008 to 2014 as important milestones for the popularity of social media. 2008 was the year Obama got elected as the President of USA, and his success made him the poster boy of Social Media, while the story was similar in 2014 for Narendra Modi. In the case of Obama, we became aware of social media platforms, but in the case of Narendra Modi, we started adopting various social media platforms.
It is interesting to note that just the spread of computers followed by smartphones and faster access to internet has made these not just a skill, but a necessity. Though short and long term courses are available for digital and social media, most that emerge are self-taught. The way we accessed media till about 10 years back is interesting. The `You’ has got replaced with smartphones, which have become the primary medium.
Social media seems as simple as literacy – Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic being the 3R’s, while the only skill to survive on social media is “Relevance”. Whatever form the content takes shapes as, the content has a message to convey to a reader or viewer and at least Education, Inform, Entertain, Connect, and/or Create trustworthiness.
Content must be relevant and valuable, and this is highly dependent on your audiences. Like ailments, self-medication is good, but only till a particular level, beyond that you have to go to an expert.