A month and a half ago, I landed in India. This country is very interesting communication-wise! While countries like the UK, the US and Canada embrace the Internet and journalists seem to have accepted the importance of social media in their daily work, Indians have their mind elsewhere. They are highly invested in the telecom industry. Although Internet is less integrated in the life of the people here, that doesn’t mean that social media is not a concern for some people.

Two interesting stories have been discussed publicly since I moved here. First:

Weeks after government imposed a limited period ban on bulk SMSes and MMSes and blocked certain “inflammatory” web pages, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday cautioned that efforts to curb the misuse of new means of communication and social media networks should not be at the cost of freedom of expression … On how to regulate social media, the PM said: “Any measure to control the use of such media must be carefully weighed against the need for the freedom to express and communicate” … Though the government had imposed a limited ban for two weeks on bulk SMSes and MMSes and blocked certain web pages and threatened to launch a crackdown on social media like Facebook and Twitter, the response of authorities was criticized for both heavy-handedness and impracticality of enforcing the regulation. (Source: Economic Times)

This case raises important questions on freedom of speech and media independence and transparency.

Second, the Indian governement has proposed a ‘cellphone in everyhand’ plan. The government is considering to give millions of mobile phones to its poorest citizens living below the poverty line. The project would be funded by the Indian Telecommunications Ministry’s Universal Service Obligation (USO). It raises many questions: many citizen do not have identity cards, how can this project be implanted properly? who in the household will own the cellphone? should the governement give a phone prior to providing electricity or food? So far, the PM said: 

Personally, I think the scheme has not yet been fully articulated. It is not sure whether they are going to implement it in phases, in one go; target some segments of the population or start it as a pilot scheme. The full plan has not been spelt out as yet.

Right now, a lot of interesting things are happening in India. It’s a country to watch if you’re interested in communication! 

“User-generated content and verification are no longer a side operation,” said BBC Social Media Editor Chris Hamilton. “They have become part of the journalistic toolbox, alongside agency pictures, field reporters, background interviews. It’s critical for any big newsroom that wants credibility in storytelling.”

Check out how, concretely (and empirically!), forensic verification processes have become a strategy to bolster journalism in a sea of information:

• David Turner at Neiman Report on BBC UGC Hub
• Alex Murray at BBC Academy - College of Journalism blog on verification tactics
• Advices from journalism.co.uk (and here) more on Columbia Journalism Review here!

Check out this interesting panel on overcoming censorship with social media at the BBC. 

Susana Herrera and José Luis Requejo published a useful and an interesting article on 10 good practices for news organizations using Twitter - in the 2012 March issue of the new Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies.

Are you thinking about any other good ones? 

Here are the 10 best practices they identified:

1. Have a human voice
2. Retweets and credit others
3. Link to external content and enrich self contribution
4. Listen and respond to others. Talk with them
5. Provide information. Add value
6. Conduct surveys among users
7. Promote the most attractive and useful content for audiences
8. Use hashtags in your Twitter updates!
9. Add multimedia value with tweets
10. Link to other social media networks