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.)
