Impact of Media on Marketing and Content Strategies

"India is one of the world's most important media markets." On the other hand, the concentration of media ownership suggests that only a few people own and control Indian media. Our research looks into media plurality and ownership structures. "This is a crucial endeavor to promote media ownership transparency, which is fundamental to media's reputation and relationship with audiences," said Syed Nazakat, the founder and CEO of DataLEADS. The author claims that "this endeavor will provide a useful data and resource foundation for future media research in the country."

India's media landscape is also shaped by the country's size. The Registrar of Newspapers had over 118,239 publications registered as of March 31, 2018, including over 36,000 weekly magazines, according to the latest recent data. The country has over 550 FM radio stations and over 880 satellite TV channels, according to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, with over 380 claiming to deliver "news and current events." The sheer number of news websites available in India is staggering. The country's cultural and ethnic diversity, as well as its large number of media channels, do not, however, automatically translate into a diverse supply. On the other side, the Media Ownership Monitor reveals a clear trend toward content concentration and, ultimately, control.

The media industry is vital to informing and entertaining the general public. While the media industry offers numerous national options to the public, local media outlets are more likely than national sources to present local programming that meets the needs of residents in the market. 

While many firms are scrambling to capitalize on new direct-to-consumer channels, few have altered their brand narratives or content development strategies as they migrate from paying others to broadcast their content to use it for direct consumer engagement. Despite the opportunities, few companies — and even fewer of their agencies — appear to have the content, process, and procedures in place to fully profit from direct audience delivery. While the current brand-agency paradigm has been successful in exploiting search and social algorithms to distribute "brand" materials more efficiently, the efforts that have arisen from this approach have failed to deliver on three crucial elements: engagement, efficiency, and scale.

While many firms are scrambling to capitalize on new direct-to-consumer channels, few have altered their brand narratives or content development strategies as they migrate from paying others to broadcast their content to use it for direct consumer engagement. Despite the opportunities, few companies — and even fewer of their agencies — appear to have the content, process, and procedures in place to fully profit from direct audience delivery. While the current brand-agency paradigm has been successful in exploiting search and social algorithms to distribute "brand" materials more efficiently, the efforts that have arisen from this approach have failed to deliver on three crucial elements: engagement, efficiency, and scale.

Covid-19's Impact on Stakeholders

COVID-19 has been lethal in its spread, and the federal government, as well as state governments, are working to confront this public health calamity. In times of crisis, however, it demonstrates that democratic administrations can take a hazardous totalitarian turn. In this perspective, journalism has been envisioned as a venue for objective information and critical-rational discourse, and it serves an important role in a democracy. The health of a country's journalism can thus be judged in times of crisis.

Few economic sectors appear to have done well during the Covid19 crisis. The media sector is one of them. The need for knowledge has never been higher, but the amount of time accessible has never been lower. According to Muck Rack Trends, more than 2.6 million articles about coronavirus have been written since the beginning of the year (this figure doubled over the past week). We gave a webinar at Identity earlier this week about all aspects of COVID-19 internal and external communication. We received a resoundingly positive response as well as a plethora of relevant feedback from participants all throughout the country. During that speech, the current state of the media was a key topic of discussion.

However, most media outlets' corporate dominance suggests that they have become a weapon of the state's ideological architecture. There are some factors surrounding the COVID-19 disaster, including under-resourced public health systems, pandemic policies, and a lack of preparedness and assistance for the most vulnerable. These are critical issues that must be addressed, but the mainstream media, with a few bold exceptions, appears to be abdicating its democratic responsibilities. A crucial signal is the demonization of migrant workers and minorities while failing to criticize the lack of efforts taken to help these groups deal with the situation.

With history being written right in front of our eyes, organizations must soothe their concerns about being a part of the COVID-19 story. Almost every news story for the foreseeable future will be interpreted through the lens of this life-changing event. We've never seen such a hunger for other viewpoints on this subject. Consumer, business, and trade media outlets have all inquired about how the outbreak is affecting the people and industries they cover. The immediate impact of the pandemic has transformed not only the focus of journalism but also the way newsrooms operate.

Customer behavior and, as a result, advertising are influenced by COVID-19. Budgets for advertising have shifted in response to shifts in customer behavior. Advertisers should avoid wasting money on ineffective material. When global confinement measures were imposed, out-of-home and cinema advertising, as well as print advertising, shrank dramatically. 

Meanwhile, media use at home has soared. Although television viewership has increased, digital consumption has increased even more: the usage of social media platforms and streaming services has climbed almost everywhere, and gaming has exploded. Advertisers have reacted by following their customers, indicating that digital advertising has become a primary focus. The online environment is ripe for "direct response" marketing, which pushes customers to make quick decisions. This is a tempting offer for businesses on a tight budget looking to boost sales.

Is the Media Going Increasingly Corrupt?

As we all must know by now, no media in the world operates without an agenda. the product or rather expression that is famously known as the 'fourth estate' is slowly dissolving and losing its credibility as an independent medium that voices the issues in the world. 

In India's history, the media has been seen as important, patriotic, and trustworthy in the country's socioeconomic and political milieu. However, with the rise of TRP and the bought news environment in recent years, public faith in the media has plummeted, and the Indian democracy has become the biggest casualty. The media's embrace of crony capitalism is eroding journalism's profession and ethics. The heinous practice of accepting money or favors from corporations, governments, political parties, or large organizations in exchange for reporting good news about them is becoming increasingly frequent in journalism. As a result, the truth is not revealed, causing people to suffer and, ultimately, democracy to fail. In exchange for ad space and favorable coverage disguised as "news," the media has been obtaining secret treaties involving share transfers between media corporations and non-media companies. The 'paid news syndrome' is a term used to describe this situation.

The situation is not that different in other parts of the world as well. Let's take the United States of America, for example. In a vicious spiral of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and self-interest, the news media and the government in the US are interwoven. Crises are necessary for journalists to dramatize news, and government leaders must appear to be responding to crises. Too often, crises are cooperative fabrications rather than genuine crises. The news media and the government have become so entangled in a symbiotic web of lies that neither can tell the people what is true, and neither can govern efficiently. The government and the news media have concocted a charade that suits their own interests while deceiving the people. Officials feed the media's desire for drama by inventing crises and staging their answers, so strengthening their own prestige and influence. Journalists are obligated to report on these lies. Both parties are aware that the articles are self-serving ruses that fail to inform the public about the more complicated but dull topics of government policy and activities.

As far as citizens are concerned, media is supposed to be independent. It is supposed to be a platform or medium that conveys only the truth and nothing but the truth to the public. Unfortunately, that is not what we get to experience now. Government and business houses that are financially influential have now taken media under their wing, helping them to influence and control the information the media puts out.