In the age of rapid communication, magic can be a medium to spread social messages, says Indian illusionist Gopinath Muthukad, who won a prestigious international award for predicting 10 headlines of different dailies in different metros in India even before the pages were laid out.

"The response (to my prediction) was overwhelming. It showed that misconceptions of people about illusion and magic were changing," said Muthukad, who will be conferred the magic world's Oscar, the International Merlin Award, here June 23.