The Two Million "Book" Mark

Any milestone is a joy. Some come faster than expected. So Thank You, dear readers and supporters of MC. I share this 2 Million views milestone with you. Cheers! Now that we are here I thought I might as well share the milestones we crossed since this started in February 2010. So here’s how it went:

December 2010:     10000

July           2011:      1 Lakh

January    2012:     3 Lakhs

July           2012:     6 Lakhs

October    2012:     1 Million

March       2013:     2 Million

The last million came in under five months while the first took over two and a half years. The purpose of sharing this is for all budding bloggers and writers to be persistent and relentless in their pursuits.

The question I am asked most is whether it has impacted or changed the MSM in anyway. Well, in a very tiny, small way yes. But what’s the real change? We know by now that the news media, as it should have been, is dead. What we have is “political media”. Editors and anchors are part politicians and most are even election campaigners. Almost everybody understands that. If I wanted to quit or cut down smoking, it would be silly to ask cigarette companies to produce less or shut down. Wouldn’t it? We can’t change them. What we can do is change ourselves. That is within our power and control. That is what MC does. It just attempts to change the way we consume news, opinions and sift the data from the garbage. MC is not alone, there are many observes and writers who are doing a wonderful job in this and I applaud all of them. I am also pleased that many readers of MC have started their own blog and are now writing about the media or issues that concern all of us.

At the 2M mark I am also pleased to announce that consequent to many readers urging me to compile all the posts into a book I have decided to come out with one. There’s a difference though. It is not merely a compilation as the content here on MC is free. So I wrote totally new content for the book. It’s titled “Social Media As Watchdog”.

The book tells the story of Social Media arriving as a watchdog over MSM and how there is no monopoly on national discourse anymore. It doesn’t write history but looks at the current state of affairs as it stands. The book has 9 freshly written chapters which uses just over 50 of the most popular and relevant posts from this site (of over 400+ articles). Additionally, I also share a list of books and movies that most influence the content on MediaCrooks. These are like little secrets. There are many blogs and sites I admire but in the book I have listed a dozen such sites which most analyse and offer commentary on the MSM. These 12 are some of the best sites that I would encourage any concerned citizen to follow. I also thought I would share some unique writing secrets for readers and budding writers. No, I am not claiming to be an expert but there are some writing styles and tactics used by MC that I have so far not shared. I thought the 2Mn mark is a good time to add that chapter to the book too, as a token of my gratitude to readers and supporters.

I can also happily share with you that I am honoured that Prof. R. Vaidyanathan of IIM Bangalore has written the foreword for the book. He is a finance & economy expert and a keen observer of media himself. Prof. Vaidya (@RVaidya2000 on Twitter) is a respected scholar and teacher. He also writes for various newspapers and sites and often appears as a TV panellist but is not one of the MSM persons.

The 2Mn mark is just a moment to treasure and move on. MC will continue and will soon add an interactive feature on this page so that readers can directly ask questions and offer suggestions. Will keep you posted on this. In the meantime, Thank You all once again.

 

PS: Should you desire to book a copy of the book please send a mail to kapublish@gmail.com and you will receive purchase information. The book is priced at Rs.325/-  (In another post I will also share the publishing effort started by MC.)