mediaharsha

By Harsha Man Maharjan  The debate regarding singer Durgesh Thapa’s new song, “Bicha Bichama -4 (Khyassa Putali)”, released  o n  Youtube  on 23 July 2021 on the occasion of Teej show that a group of people are not happy with the use of the words, “Khyassa Putali”. Just a day earlier,  the National Folk and Duet Song Academy Nepa l had requested the singer to change these two “objectionable” words and after the singer did not follow their request, it has been reported that this organization is planning to boycott the singer and the song. This situation has created the debate regarding the shrinking of digital spaces in Nepal. Let us see the other two cases in brief. Shrinking Digital Spaces This first case is related to “national security”. A video was made public on the Youtube channel with the title  “Deshdrohi”  on August 18, 2020. The lyrics of the  video criticizes Brahmins and Chhetris and it contains visuals of burning the national flag ...

By Harsha Man Maharjan    Digital technologies have become pervasive and ubiquitous. Traditional news media organisations have moved to websites and apps, with people accessing news contents in digital forms. Social media platforms have become important to express thoughts and exhibit identities. IT companies and even news media organisations are collecting, storing and analysing users’ data. These organisations are using these digital footprints to innovate. Due to the pandemic, the use of digital platforms like Zoom has increased for interaction and education. The pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of societies. Scholars are discussing the issues related to domination, identity, representation and differences in the digital sphere.   The disciplines under social science and humanities should be helpful to make sense of this digitalisation. These disciplines need to make students aware of these socio-technological changes. They have to encourage students to...

By Harsha Man Maharjan  The evidence shows YouTube could be a menace, when it is left unchecked — audience being uncritical, YouTuber being avarice — and there are concerns that some mechanisms to govern YouTubers are needed. YouTube has become a platform not only to help those in need, but also to spread malice, hatred, rumours, and earn revenue easily. While discussing the governing mechanisms, we should focus on the role of different actors — state, YouTubers and audiences — and create a balance between rights and responsibilities. Role of state The mechanism the state uses is legal provisions to govern YouTubers, but these provisions have come under criticism as often freedom of expression is curtailed when these laws are used. Let us see two cases, in which the charges were made under the  Electronic Transaction Act, 2008. One, in March 2019, police arrested a model, the owner of YouTube channel,  Masti Talk Time  produced by Fulchoki Media  and its host in...

Harsha Man Maharjan Popularity of personal gadgets and portable devices like smart phones, camera and laptops have increased casual Internet use in Kathmandu. It is therefore common to find WiFi Internet in business venues such as restaurants, cafes, bookshops and shopping malls. These services are for the paying customers. On the other hand, local governments have invited Internet service providers (ISPs) to install WiFi networks in public places such as hospitals, colleges, temples and government offices. These services are for the public at large. These activities from the private and public sector raises many questions: (i) should cities provide free public WiFi to its citizens, (ii) who pays for free Wifi when the number of regular users are not limited to tens or hundreds but many thousands, (iii) who are its users, and (iv) is WiFi hotspot a distinct category like anytime-anywhere (3G) and fixed-Internet (home broadband) in meeting users’ information needs or just a supple...

Harsha Man Maharjan Given the ever-increasing volume of digital Nepali news materials, it is important that they are archived and retained. Two institutions are important for the news archive: Internet Archive and Press Council Nepal. Wayback Machine is a service provided by the Internet Archive to archive worldwide website content since 1996. Press Council Nepal focuses mainly on news media and it collects and archives Nepali news materials. There are major gaps in the collection and the technologies have limitations in what they can access and archive. Internet is an important artefact for scholars but the archival efforts have been piecemeal. Wayback Machine is an initiative started to automatically visit the webpages and scan them. It was started in November 2000 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat. In an interview with journalist Kara Swisher in 2017, Kahle mentioned that a webpage remains for 100 days and then it changes or is deleted so he wanted to archive it. In case o...

Harsha Man Maharjan Both planners and proponents agree, like other concepts such as computer city, information city and knowledge city, that the idea of smart cities in Nepal does not have a bottom-up outlook at the realisation, conception and planning stages. One day it just appeared in national policy and planning narratives. At present, we have imaginations, aspirations and assumptions. There is very little or no evidence about the prerequisites, estimations of proposed infrastructure such as energy demand and discussions on how an ordinary citizen gets real-world benefits which would not be possible otherwise. Narratives Literature show this idea came from two urban thinking. First is new urbanism, which focuses on people-cantred designing and making cities eco-friendly and inclusive. Second is the “intelligent cities” that promote the use of information technology to deal with urban issues. An intelligent city converts data into knowledge and has an active role for governm...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Gorkhapatra Corporation , which publishes Nepal’s oldest newspaper,  Gorkhapatra , could be the best organisation to know how technological transformation took place in news media in the country. This is a transformation from handwriting to computerised writing and to online newspaper. And, this transformation was perilous. This is one way to know the relationship between news media organisation, technology and society. Domination of Handwriting If we compare the use of typewriters and computers before newspapers in Nepal started to make available their content on the Internet, we see the domination of handwriting. Even in 2017, a few journalists preferred handwriting and could not use computers inside the Gorkhapatra Corporation. It was natural for journalists to prefer handwriting, as they felt easy to do so. This was so also because they mastered writing alphabets and words after practicing them for long time. Usually journalists wrote on t...

By Harsha Man Maharjan The  Media Council Bill  tabled by the government has stirred up opposition from Nepali media fraternity. The voices keep coming to scrap the bill altogether. Provisions related to the structure of the organisation and penalties for violation of code of ethics are a couple of thorny issues for others demanding amendments. Chairperson of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) has strongly challenged the government’s proposals. Media organisations have maintained the possibility of establishing their own councils. Scholars have been debating whether Nepali media sector is ready for such a transition. Collision The opposing proposals are headed for a collision course. But this does not have to be the case. Official media councils and professional media councils can co-exist. Official media councils will be headed by representatives from legislative or judicial or executive, or the state will cover all the expenses. Unofficial media councils are ...