Golden Words From Shekhar Kapoor At Blogadda Win14

Image courtesy – Blogadda

The first ever award ceremony for national bloggers organized by Blogaddda brought about much-needed enthusiasm among the bloggers. I was one of few lucky bloggers to be invited to this event and I didn’t mind traveling to Mumbai from Bangalore for this event. I should say I am not at all disappointed for my air travel to Mumbai only for this event.

Once it comes to the biggest takeaway from the event, I would definitely mention the awe-inspiring golden words from Shekhar Kapoor at the conference. His words were so relevant to the present day world that I feel it is important for me to take them to the society.

He started his speech with a discussion about mainstream media and stated why he doesn’t go to mainstream media anymore. He explained that the mainstream media is not independent anymore. We understand the importance of this statement as we see how mainstream media paints a predefined picture of the society to us. We appreciate his views that even the mainstream media needs money to survive and hence they are not independent anymore. Recently released IRS survey that talks about the drastic reduction in viewership of all leading national newspaper brands in India clarify it all.

His mention of his recent tweet on Democracy, anarchy and ’84 riots that have gone viral and created history in a few hours has made many mainstream media channels approach him. This tells us the reality of how Indians are increasingly routed to the alternative media such as Twitter.

He commented that “political debate on social media is much more realistic than what happens in parliament”. To give a recent example, those who follow parliament proceeding know how the Hindu Marriage Law Amendment, 2010 (#MarriageLaw, #IrBM) was passed in the parliament without any constructive debate on different provisions in the bill. We have also seen that our parliament has passed 17% of the bills (20 to be precise) in less than 5 minutes (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-02-07/india/47125139_1_anti-graft-bills-legislations-lok-sabha). His thought clearly depicts the public anger that most of us have today.

As he went on explaining why people are taking to social media more, he said – “Social media is like a tsunami”. That is why we understand why newspapers have reduced readership or Indian news channels have abysmally low viewership.

He went on saying that he believed in the power of people and supported activism and not AAP. And hence his tweet about activism on street and anarchy becomes so much relevant in today’s context.

He continued his powerful speech as he went on elaborating why mainstream media has become biased today. He mentioned that it is the people like us who have created this taste. Media today presents what the people of India want to read or see. And hence his opinion is that we can’t blame media too. So he says – ‘we need to create our own taste’. Because as he explains that larger corporations have created a make-believe world and want us to believe in the same. They don’t want to change the system as that would threaten their own existence. So he stressed that we need to change it.

So it becomes evident why we need to create alternate media of our own. This media will not be biased, not be paid up but the media that will revolutionize the way we disseminate information. His mention that – “I am not tweeting, I am creating content” summarises a million words. We create content in so many different ways, the content that people can rely on in future. Twitter is only a medium for creating content for future.

He went on to describe mass – hysteria vs revolution with examples from Egypt and Gandhiji’s movement. He raised the question that if what happened in Egypt was mass-hysteria then what was the movement that Gandhiji spearheaded? His analogy of imagining Gandhi with a smartphone could have got India independence much earlier is simply superb and thought-provoking. He shows that – “Social media is accelerating the pace of change” and we just can’t ignore it.

Today, all of us want to see ourselves as influencers. But he rightly mentions that we need to be a lasting influencer. The enormous power that social media brings in today needs to be used to create powerful self – Branding. The content may be in any form but needs to create a lasting impression on us.

This brings another important message for all the bloggers. Create meaningful content so that you have lasting influence rather than creating a short-term gimmick.

His speech was the best takeaway from the event for any blogger. He has not only made us aware of the future media but also showed us how important is the content created by us to the world. He mesmerized the audience for more than half an hour and received a standing ovation at the end of his memorable speech.

I thank Blogadda for organizing such an event and inviting me to be a part of the program. My journey from Bangalore to Mumbai has become successful because of this inspiring speech by Shekhar Kapoor.