Future belongs to Digital Media, says Jaitley (Lead)

New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) The future of communication belongs to digital media due to its reach, variety and accessibility and officials dealing with information dissemination must package data and facts in line with contemporary trends and media requirements, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said Monday.

Inaugurating a workshop here on 'Streamlining government communication', he said the present environment offered a tremendous opportunity to stakeholders within the government to disseminate credible, factual, relevant and reader-friendly information.

"As technology influences change in the communication landscape, the future belonged to digital media due to its reach, scale, variety and accessibility," Jaitley said.

The day-long workshop, aimed at improving media outreach of the Narenda Modi government, was attended by senior Press Information Bureau (PIB) officials along with private secretaries to ministers.

Jaitley said that technology was also impacting the nature and character of information dissemination in view of changes taking place globally across platforms, and this had undergone change due to the challenges thrown by 24x7 television.

"The camera today has become the prime mover for defining content and setting the agenda, impacting the flow of news," he said.

Jaitley also referred to the need of using social media tools such as Twitter, Blog, and Facebook to enhance the reach of government communication.

Noting there was a large constituency which required authentic and credible information from the government, he called upon the participants "to package data, facts and information keeping in mind contemporary tools and trends, media requirements and content for opinion makers and analysts in the media space".

Jaitley said that websites were an important medium to address concerns of stakeholders and asked various departments to optimally utilise their websites to place accurate and credible information.

"The content of the website needed to be in a language which was easy to read and understand," he said, adding government departments needed to reach out to a wider assembly of people including civil society.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (retd.) said communication perspective now was driven by speed, accuracy, brevity and clarity of thought and new tools of communication should be used for enhancing outreach to a wide range of stakeholders.

Rathore said that perception management had also become a critical tool in the communication paradigm and needed to be addressed in totality.

Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka outlined key initiatives to address new challenges and stressed on integrated media planning and social media space.

He suggested that cabinet proposals should be made in a way to reflect IEC (information, education and communications).

PIB Director General Frank Noronha mentioned the challenges in addressing the communication needs of the government, and called for synergy among various departments for better outreach of governmment policies and programmes.