Sea changes in communication have changed the face of media _ all our senses are up for grabs as media vie for a slice of our attention,sometimes overlapping, often colliding, riding roughshod over our sensibilities in the effort to get there faster and cheaper   

In their bid to outdo themselves and each other, news events are often covered with relentless, often merciless zeal, as the saturated coverage of the hijacked IC 814 showed. Treading the same path as they did in the Kargil war, media unabashedly zeroed in on the funerals, the tears and the wailing relatives- probably prodding the government into a hasty end to the crisis. The barrage of images is what shapes our opinion, and media, with newly acquired technological conveniences, ensures that the barrage continues unabated.   

If this continuous exposure to images contributes to shaping adult opinion, surely it has an even deeper, though subtler impact on younger minds, which are yet to form their own perspectives. Are they to be blamed then, for growing up thinking that the weeping willows in `Hum Saath Saath Hain' are perfect samples of the ideal Indian woman?  

At the other end of the spectrum are those, who are manipulating, coercing and shaping the media to their own benefit. Like our own cricket board officials, who comfortably jump in and out of interviews and subsequent denials, and for whom the media is a tool to wield and flaunt their own power. Like the protesters in Seattle, who managed better publicity than the actual WTO event, with their cell phones, laptops, live telecasts and organised media handling.  

Generation Next may grow up more techno smart than we ever were - but will they be able to sift the chaff from the grain in the shower of messages, be able to read between the lines in the newspapers, be able to separate the hype from the matter in the ads, be able to question the values popular media preach? Will they, one day, be able to grow up to recognise the power of the media for what it really is?