Saturday, January 31, 2009

The power of social media

I support Mr. K. Srinivasan's view that social media should be taught as part of the university curricula in India. It could be part of public relations and media studies programs. Moreover, social media and web writing could also be part of an English studies program, where it could be included as part of a compulsory English course. The US President Barack Obama has shown the great power inherent in social media. You would be amazed to know that his Facebook page has 4.2 million fans, which is much higher than the fans that the David Beckham or the Johnny Depp pages have. So, Mr. Obama has been uniquely and singularly successful in being able to harness the strength inherently present in social and new media. However, as I have been a part of the Indian academia, I am aware that such courses would be seen with disdain among 'purists'.