As communication gets more complicated and cluttered, confusing and converged into one, I wonder how it is impacting the cultural fabric of our country. Is it impacting in the desired manner? Are we reaching out to the desired target audiences? Are we confusing mass culture with niche metro culture? Are we getting too carried away by the homogenized look of the masses and forgetting that we are a multi cultural, highly heterogeneous, hugely diverse and an enthusiastic populace that is devouring messages by the minute?

How informed are we as sources of communications about our own cultural intricacies ?

Too many questions actually… and they don’t necessarily bother me, but keep me asking for more, wondering how we could customize communication for every bit of that audience.

When you talk of digital communications, it is more or less assumed, (correct me if I am wrong) that it is a homogenized mass of audience. So you could be sitting anywhere in the world, of any religion, region, caste or community, the moment you are on Digital platform, the way you react to messages and information is pretty much predictable. But that is not so in the case of traditional media. There was a time when it was compulsory to understand folk cultures and integrate that in communication plans to reach out to target audiences. I am not sure about how many today are even aware of the various forms of communication, which trust me even tooday are not redundant and are very dynamic and effective forms of communication.

Traditionally we are still very rudimentary in the way we absorb information. We are driven culturally in how we absorb information; there is lot of semiotics at play and communication is multi layered as you tread deeper into the country. The sensitivities are different, issues and priorities are different, geographies are disputed and history is questioned. And yet in all of this resides the consumer we are targeting and the stakeholder of our Clients’ companies. How do we reach out to them?

I don’t know how many of us in the PR or rather communication’s business understands the intricacies of our own cultures? Of how diverse we are, what we read, what we like, what we watch and what we need to know… Knowing the regional media list is one thing…tapping audiences on social networking sites is another thing, but reaching out to the diaspora in their own setting and convincing them of our Client’s profiles and needs is a different ball game altogether.

I would like to leave this discussion open ended. I am not an expert to conclude it in any way. For many of you digital media could be bridging the gap between the heterogeneous mass of audiences… for many of you, traditional media and folk media may still be doing the trick of reaching out to the last man standing…the choice is ours, the call is ours to take…but I would be sad to know that we are homogenizing India to believe that we all have access to internet, we all can read and write and all those who don’t have either of the above i.e. have an internet connection and are literate are not the ones using the goods we sell and services we offer.

Customizing our messages is just the first step…finding alternate forms of media (am not talking of new age media) could just be step two.