Category: Social Media

Prajakta Shares Her Style Of Content Creation

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 11 November 2020
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Prajakta Koli: I ensure content that you can watch with family.

YouTube sensation and influencer Prajakta Koli, popularly known for videos she creates for her channel ‘MostlySane’, says that at no point would she want her viewers to put on their headphones or pause her videos if someone older walked into the room. The 27-year-old has become a top YouTuber with over 5.74 million subscribers as on October 1, 2020…writes Siddhi Jain.

In a candid interview with IANSlife, Koli shares more about her process of content creation and lockdown inspiration for her channel. Read excerpts:

Q: What kind of content do you think works best with Indian viewers? Walking the tightrope between dumbing-down content and refining your content with time, how do you find a common denominator?

A: Any piece of content that people can relate and identify to is what works the best. It is not something you will get your pulse on from the moment you start creating content, however through trial and error you will eventually get an understanding of content and how people will react to it. Audience behaviour is extremely dynamic in our country and you will never really know what is going to work for sure. Over time however, you get a fair idea of what direction works best for your target audience.

Q: While we’re at it, please share how you shape your content keeping in mind the region, since everyone from Mumbaikars to the Indian diaspora watches you?

Prajakta Koli: I ensure content that you can watch with family.

A: I keep a diary with me where I add things that I find funny or humorous in everyday life situations and keep building on those ideas. When I usually script my videos I ensure I add instances and situations that happen to every family and not something that is region specific. Also, the language of delivery plays a very important role when making content.

Q: If you had to name the three must-have ingredients in a Prajakta Koli video.

A: One thing I ensure is that I create content that you can watch with your family. At no point would I want my viewers to put on their headphones or pause it if their parents or someone elder walked into the room. Second, I like my videos to be as relatable as possible. And third, is to try and make new ideas come to life every week.

Q: You’re diversifying your mediums, and your audience is loving that. What are your plans ahead?

A: I have been someone who has always made plans and stuck with it, but when my plan A didn’t work out and I took a leap of faith and started creating content I decided to go with the flow and take on each day as it comes. But there definitely will be more acting and writing in the future.

Q: The pandemic brought with it many hardships, but also a lot of content inspiration. Please share about both in your work’s context.

A: When the lockdown started my biggest fear was how will I still keep putting out content as I was so used to working with my team and relied on them heavily. Luckily things worked out and I was able to maintain my weekly release schedule. With the lockdown I got more time to think about new content and implement them which people loved so I am thankful in a way that the lockdown happened and I could churn out more content pieces than I would have otherwise.

Q: How has your audience changed during the lockdown, since most YouTubers registered a manifold increase in views.

A: Well, the audiences haven’t diversified that much since the lockdown; it is just the audience behaviour has changed wherein the viewers have started consuming more content on the internet than compared to pre-lockdown.

Q: Your thoughts on malpractices like buying views on YouTube, which must be a fair platform.

A: Major platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube allow you to boost your posts and videos to reach a wider audience, this is legitimate and doesn’t violate any norms of social media, any other means of getting views should not be encouraged or indulged in.

Also Read-Global Coronavirus Cases Top 51.3 Mn

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US Senators Grill Big Tech Bosses

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 29 October 2020
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With less than a week to go for the US election, Republican lawmakers got an earful from critics for the timing of the “sham” hearing…reports NIKHILA NATARAJAN

US Congress grills Twitter, Facebook, Google CEOs.

Baloney!”, “sham!” and “who the hell are you” scoldings dominated a Senate hearing on Wednesday where the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google took heat in a talking match with US lawmakers over the idea of free speech and alleged anti-conservative bias on the companies’ mighty platforms.

The Congressional grilling quickly shifted into the realm of political circus around the social media content moderation dumpster fire.

With less than a week to go for the US election, Republican lawmakers got an earful from critics for the timing of the “sham” hearing.

At the heart of the heated arguments were 26 words tucked away in a 1996 US law – Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

Section 230 states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”.

Under American law, Internet firms are typically exempt from liability for content that users post on platforms. President Donald Trump has challenged this via executive order which threatens to strip those protections if online platforms wade into “editorial decisions”.

For 3 hours and 42 minutes, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google were at the receiving end of a firehose version of bipartisan alarm over their phenomenal power to influence behaviour at scale.

The Republicans’ drumbeat centered on Facebook’s and Twitter’s decision earlier this month to slam the brakes on an unverified political story from the conservative-leaning New York Post about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The story cited unverified emails from Biden’s son Hunter.

Trump acolytes jumped on the chance to prove their loyalty. One of them called Twitter’s action on the newspaper “a pattern of censorship and silencing Americans with whom Twitter disagrees”.

For their part, Twitter, Facebook and Google have struggled to frame exactly how they would intervene and in how many scenarios. And what about content that doesn’t fall into their precast rubric or categories of bad stuff? The answers have been less than clear.

Of the three companies, Facebook’s sway over behavioural targeting has raised a string of red flags in the context of the US 2020 election.

Multiple lawmakers pushed back against the idea of “unelected San Francisco elites” deciding if content makes the grade or not.

In opening statements, Dorsey, Zuckerberg and Pichai spoke to the proposals for changes to Section 230. Zuckerberg said Congress “should update the law to make sure it’s working as intended.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that if Google was “acting as a publisher”, he would be okay with the company being liable for content published on its platform.

Wednesday’s hearing comes barely a week after the US Justice Department’s landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google which argues that both advertisers and regular people are harmed by the tech giant’s position as “the unchallenged gateway to the Internet for billions of users worldwide.”

Warnings abound of the coming restrictions and for the “free pass” to end, maybe on the other side of the election results.

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Beware Of Social Media Relations

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 28 October 2020
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WhatsApp. (Photo: IANS)

Social media is robbing everything away from us — time, health, peace, sleep, self-esteem, confidence, sense of security — everything. But its a boon too!

One can use it to influence the masses, help people and thus, we should be extremely grateful for that. So, it’s all about using it the right way either to influence people or to destroy your life. Just like we have good food, we know that too much of it, in excess becomes an obsession. An excess of anything is dangerous for our health.

While many have built successful businesses out of social media, found great connections others have spiralled into depression, loneliness and sadness; they’ve ruined their sleep, messed up their priorities, started questioning their self-worth and even felt inadequate when comparing their lives with others.

This technology-driven feature is accessible to all. Some make sure that they are using it to their advantage and not to their disadvantage. This brings us to the question, is developing a healthier relationship with social media even possible? Absolutely yes.

Here are few things Luke Coutinho, Holistic Lifestyle Coach – Integrative Medicine shares to remember while developing this relationship:

Know that things aren’t always how they look: Everything you see does not have to be real. The lives of most people appear to portray they have done well, but a lot of them are living off their parent’s wealth, living in the homes of or given by their parents, flaunting clothes, jewellery, cars, etc that don’t belong to them.

Is it possible to develop a healthy relationship with Social Media? (Photo: pixabay)

A lot of people own material things on loan, which in a way is not theirs until they pay off the loan. It’s easy to take loans and show the world a life that is not real. Many holidays, material things, etc that you see being flaunted on social media are sponsored or gifts and not really earned, so know that as well.

Then, of course, you have apps that can make you thin, add fake abs, decrease waistlines and increase bust lines etc and you see this in awe, then look at yourself and immediately feel inadequate. Today the medical world has a name for it – “Snapchat Dysmorphia,” . It refers to the psychological phenomena of patients bringing filtered selfies to their plastic surgeons to illustrate the desired surgical changes they want to achieve. Understand that it is all fake and no amount of surgeries will ever fill up low self-worth. If you don’t have solid self-worth, social media and society can negatively affect your life and health.

Haven an intention and set the time you want to spend on social media:Before you start your day with social media sit back and reflect on why you are on it or why you are going to spend time on it. Enter it with a mission. Do you want to post a picture, update a status, learn something, inspire someone, motivate, connect with someone or simply scroll and pass time? When we use social media without an intention and agenda, chances are we may end up spending a lot of time on it and gain nothing in return. Identify what is it that you want to gain out of spending time on social media, set time for it and disconnect when the purpose is met. You can use social media to learn, inspire, share, educate etc, and then you can use it to feel good about yourself or get locked into watching the lives of other people.

Before you start your day with social media sit back and reflect on why you are on it or why you are going to spend time on it. Enter it with a mission, be it to learn, share, inspire, motivate, pass time or is it because it’s going to fill some void in you? Know this and be mindful.

It is a virtual world: All the likes, hearts, comments, appreciation, trolling you receive from social media, know that it is coming from a virtual world. You can have a million followers on your page, but that does not mean you are also the most loved or the happiest. A lot of people search for validation on social media, and that’s the worst place to get validation from. You need to connect with reality and unfortunately, for the most part, the virtual world is nowhere close to the real world. If you need to look to social media for constant advice on how to dress, how to date, whom to date, then you need to work at less social media time and more time just being you and living the real you etc.

Truly experience what it is to “Fast” from social media: A lot of people who once thought they cannot do without social media have taken up fasting only to realise how good it feels to be off it for some time. Time and again, take a detox from social media. Shut down completely for a day and experience what it feels like. Improved sleep, better relationships, a happier mind, increased self-worth, having ample time to complete the tasks you have always procrastinated are some of the short and long-term benefits of a social media detox.

In short, social media is a boon as well as a curse and that depends on how you use it. Use social media if you want to, it can give you a lot in return, but use it in balance and use it well.

Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs to testify before Congress

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 28 October 2020
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey were set to be grilled by a US panel on Tuesday over the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The hearing was scheduled to also cover the topics of privacy and media domination.

The CEOs were to testify on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from liability over the content posted by users on their online services.

Earlier this month, the US Senate Commerce Committee voted to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify before the panel.

The hearing will be Zuckerberg and Pichai’s first appearance before Congress since the two testified along with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos before the House Antitrust Subcommittee in July.

US President Donald Trump’s May 28 executive order sought to blunt Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act which generally protects internet companies from legal liability for user comments.

Republicans have repeatedly turned to Section 230 as a key area for reform in response to their concerns that social media companies censor conservative voices, a charge denied by Facebook, Google and Twitter.

Meanwhile, the US Senate Judiciary Committee has also asked Zuckerberg and Dorsey to testify before it on November 17 over suppressing a media article on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Both Facebook and Twitter faced backlash from the Republicans and US President Donald Trump for their move to block and censor the article that appeared in The New York Post and was critical of Joe Biden.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) announced that Twitter and Facebook CEOs will appear voluntarily before the committee on November 17.

“The hearing will focus on the platforms’ censorship and suppression of New York Post articles and provide a valuable opportunity to review the companies’ handling of the 2020 election,” the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement.

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Facebook allocates £1mn to ‘birthplace of computer’

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 14 October 2020
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Facebook. (File Photo: IANS)

The wartime code-breaking centre in Milton Keynes ,considered as the “birthplace of the computer’ has been hit hard by a drop in visitors and revenue this year due to Covid-induced challenges…Reports Asian Lite News

Facebook has announced a donation of 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) to Bletchley Park, a heritage attraction and museum that served as the British code-breaking hub during World War Two.

Now considered the “birthplace of the computer,” the wartime code-breaking centre in Milton Keynes has been hit hard by a drop in visitors and revenue this year due to Covid-induced challenges, pushing it toward difficult decisions about its future.

The donation by Facebook is aimed towards keeping the centre open to the world.

“By figuring out how to crack the Nazis’ secret communications, the almost 10,000 people who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II – 75 per cent of them women — changed the course of the war and saved millions of lives,” Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer, wrote in a blog post on Monday.

Facebook simply would not exist today if not for Bletchley Park. It’s an honor to be able to provide the support that will help keep it open to the world. https://t.co/aOKypFuDmQ
— Mike Schroepfer (@schrep) October 12, 2020

“They did it by building the world’s first programmable digital computer and laying the foundations of modern computer science,” Schroepfer wrote.

Ideas developed at Bletchley Park remain at the heart of cutting-edge research in fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI), online security and cryptography today, more than 80 years after the first codebreakers set up shop there.

Facebook said that it simply would not exist today if not for Bletchley Park.

“The work of its most brilliant scientist, Alan Turing, still inspires our tens of thousands of engineers and research scientists today, and is foundational to the entire field of computing, which has and will continue to shape the lives of billions of people,” Schroepfer said.

Also read:ICC videos most viewed on Facebook

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‘Kaleen bhaiya Made Me Popular’

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 13 October 2020
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Pankaj Tripathi.

Acclaimed actor Pankaj Tripathi has garnered a major fan following with his work in the Hindi film industry over the years. The actor, however, says his character Kaleen bhaiya in the web series Mirzapur is close to him because it made him popular.

Talking about which of his roles is the closest to his heart, Pankaj told IANS: “All the characters are very good. People really loved them but the popularity Kaleen bhaiya gave me an actor — People know me as Kaleen bhaiya. That is what the character has done. It has made me really popular.”

Asked if he was giving a safe answer, Pankaj denied. “This is not a safe answer. This happened for the first time that my own hoardings were put up in India during season 1 (of ‘Mirzapur’). Before that no cinema put up my hoardings, and I am a good actor. People liked me but cinema never gave me space in the posters,” he said.

Pankaj Tripathi.

He believes that it was “Mirzapur” that helped him get the success he has now. “The character of Kaleen Bhaiyya and ‘Mirzapur’ gave me that space. So, this is a true answer,” he said.

Season one ended with the death of two important characters — Bablu Pandit (Vikrant Massey) and Sweety Gupta (Shriya Pilgaonkar) — and the upcoming season is all about revenge. Guddu Pandit (Ali Fazal) and Golu (Shweta Tripathi) will lock horns with Kaleen Bhaiya and his son Munna Tripathi( Divyendu Sharma).

Set in Uttar Pradesh, the second season also features Rasika Duggal, Vijay Verma, Rajesh Tailang, Sheeba Chadha, Priyanshu Painyuli and Isha Talwar.

“Mirzapur 2” will stream on Amazon Prime Video from October 23.

Also Read-‘Shernaz Notes This As The Tough Time For Theatre’

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Newspapers Still The Authentic Source Of Info

Post author By Newsdesk
Post date 13 October 2020
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Newspaper. (File Photo: IANS)

Amid the present crisis of pandemic, several studies found that the industry of newspaper is on the verge of collapse. But the fact is, people still rely on newspapers to get authentic information.

More than two thirds or 66.5 per cent of respondents said that the newspaper is still the most important source of information, according to the IANS C Voter Media Tracker. 29.2 per cent respondents disagreed with the construct at an all India level while 66.5 per cent agreed.

To emphasise the importance in Covid times, 63.1 per cent said reading newspapers has become more important to the readers after Corona while 31.2 per cent disagreed.

75.5 per cent said they prefer newspapers for a holistic coverage of all news and current affairs while only 12.5 disagreed with the notion.

In comparison with TV news channel debates, as many as 72.9 per cent respondents said that a newspaper report gives more information than a shouting TV channel debate while 21.5 per cent disagreed.

The survey found that news is shared actively over the phone as 68.1 per cent said that, “When I read something important, I forward to others on phone”.

Newspaper and TV news on mobile.

However, given the reach of TV, 40 per cent identified TV news channels as the most trustworthy source of information, 29.2 per cent said it was newspapers, 14.9 per cent said it was social media, 4.5 per cent said radio and FM and 2.5 per cent said it was websites.

On advertising trends, 76.5 per cent disagreed that “I buy things just because of advertisement in TV channels” while 19.3 per cent agreed.

74.5 per cent said that advertisements in TV channels are more for entertainment value while 18.5 per cent disagreed.

67.5 per cent said there are way too many ad breaks during IPL matches while 12.7 disagreed and 65.2 per cent said given a chance they would like to watch cricket matches without ad breaks.

52.2 per cent respondents said even after watching a match live they like to read about it in the newspaper while 30.2 per cent disagreed. 65 per cent said advertisements in newspapers are more useful while 24.6 per cent disagreed.

74% Indians don’t bank on news channels for ‘real news’.

The survey had a sample size of of 5,000 plus respondents across India covering all districts in all the states, representing the demographic profile according to latest census figures.

The interviews were conducted in last week of September and first week of October 2020.

The margin of error is +/- 3% at National level and +/- 5% at regional levels. Data is weighted to the known Demographic profile.

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