Part 1: In what ways of Media Audiences changed in the digital era?

Some decades ago, the word digitalization would have included confused looks and puzzled expressions. Nobody would have thought of this era of technology we have reached into, as It is hard to believe now that there once was a world without iPhones, Facebook, Twitter or any social media platform. The mode of communication used to be different. The media industry and its working and audience were different. In one paper, a group from the 'founding fathers' of the Internet stated, "The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before... The Internet is at once a worldwide broadcasting capacity, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location." (Leiner, Cerf et al., n/d).

This statement stands true we have come a long way from the time of the telegraph, television, and radio. Today, it is nearly impossible to live and succeed without understanding and accepting these technologies, social media and gadgets. This digitalisation era has changed how we used to see media and its sectors.

The era before digitalization.

Some three decades ago the only source of news and information was Television, newspaper, and radio. Life has changed so much over these decades, and if you are 25 or more you might have some vague memories of growing up without these technologies. I am from India and my memory of the world and media before this digital era consists of that part of the world where a reading newspapers was a daily affair.  Television was a luxury that only rich people used to have and so was the telephone. If that period of time is to be defined in one word, I would say Silence. About three decades ago there wasn't this rush and urgency to know things as fast as possible, it was ok to not be in touch constantly. The media audiences had fewer options and no control over the news and information unlike now. Although the invention of the Internet proved to be good in many ways Author Clodagh O'Brien in one of her papers on Digital marketing stated that "The mass adoption of the internet into everyday life is the single biggest event that has affected marketing over the last three decades. Although early desktop publishing software in the first PCs caused a surge in print marketing in the 1980s, computers were little more than glorified typewriters. Launched by Tim Berners-Lee and his team in 1991, the World Wide Web project didn’t really take off until the first successful mass-market browser, Netscape, was released in 1994. In the following two years, the number of people using the web soared from 16 million to 70." Brien (n/d). With the number of sources increasing the number of users, mostly with time media stories and content remains the same but the way keeps on changing and updating.