Most of the Circulation Figures of Print Newspapers in India Illustrate the Strong Hold of Indian Languages

Abstract

With the advent of new media, print newspapers have also made a presence on the web. Through the findings of this study, researcher has been able to understand the future of print newspapers and e-newspapers in India. Since literacy rate is still growing and internet penetration is taking place but is slow, there is still time for e-newspapers to be fully accepted but gradually with increase in use of technology, print newspapers would meet the fate of their western counterparts. According to Robert Logan, new media possesses of features like interactivity, mutual form of communication and performs some metrics. Most of the traditionally existing media has been found to be mass media. New media technology differ from traditional existing media in terms of greater focus on interactivity. New media technology have made people greatly participative and they generate news content and information, through various available options. Information on new media is easily accessible and can stored as well. It is also hyperlinked so that reader can get more details. It is usually available through the search engines also.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

A new media theorist Lev Manovich, asserted that new media are closely linked to computers to disseminate information. It is evident from the service it provides such as news sites, virtual reality augmented reality, use of multimedia, use of special effects in day to purposes. The new media technology definitely makes changes in functioning of systems.

It is through new media that across the globe people are drawn towards new ways to access information and entertainment. The different forms of new media technology depict its involvement in the lives of people. Blogs form an important type of new media as they have been existing for long but display the most recent features of technology and prove to be meaningful. The fact that content in blogs can be accessed easily and is mostly simple to understand, makes it popular. A blog post can be classified in different categories that is very user friendly because in a certain type of search they can easily navigate through the desired content. Similar to other forms of new media where information is shared, like e-newspapers or social media handles. The posted content is often a mix of text, photographs, videos or other graphics.

With some modification, blogs also try to be interactive. To invite more feedback they particularly select, the most preferred category of news coverage that is politics, entertainment and local content. It was found in a Sage journal that in spite of political bloggers, many journalists try to continue the role of gatekeepers on the evolved participatory format.

Virtual reality, which forms another important aspect of new media technology, possess the ability to create an atmosphere using physical and sensory experiences. Mostly, this is done through special gadgets in the form of headsets or screens or multi-dimensional graphics. Apparently the uses of virtual reality can be endless. New media can make efficient use of virtual reality in future.

Media and entertainment industry readily capitalise in virtual reality to gain more consumers. Life like experiences of distant terrains or uses of this technology in education conform a bright future for virtual reality.  Similarly it also has the potential to bring a new phase of journalism and moderate the way news consumers involve with news.

E- newspapers are said to be a form of new media. The ease of access and multiple ways to offer news are the important aspects here. Interactivity provide by e-newspapers is their major asset. To connect with more people e-newspapers are also making use of social media and this is also being adopted by many print newspapers. According to a report by Pew Research Center about fifty six percent of newspaper readership exists among print newspapers in America. However, in the Indian scenario print newspapers are finding rising number of readers along with e-newspapers readers.

Technological advancements have made it possible for the traditional print newspapers to reach much wider reader base through various devices. According to estimates, almost sixty percent of Indians are online these days. It is evident, if more users are available online they will be approached by online advertisements too. There are reports based on the time spent on these operations. According to one such report, on an average an Indian user watches videos online for almost fifty two minutes in the year 2018 although this time was earlier about two minutes in the year 2012.

In the year 2019 this time of watching videos online may go upto sixty minutes each day. Many research studies expect the OTT platforms to expand to a larger audience by the year 2023 owing to reasons like greater internet penetration in rural parts of the country. At present almost seventy percent of the Indian are viewing video on demand. The fact that it can tracked and targeted, makes the online platform more approachable.

In print media tracking is difficult. Adeptness and aiming are making digital media preferable.  Rising numbers of smart phone users also contribute to a shift towards online platforms. The younger age bracket have begun to avoid print newspapers according to chief operating officer at Madison Media. Online platforms offer new ways for print newspapers to grow and also pose some threats. In times where across the world print newspaper circulation is coming down, in India it is witnessing a rise.

The rise in print newspapers circulation in India is majorly among Hindi and vernacular press. To reach large population the Indian print newspapers make efforts to publish in regional languages in small towns. Keeping in view the in growth in Hindi and vernacular press, leading newspapers have started their regional-language newspapers. The English-language print newspaper market provides services to more comfortable and urban readership who are more aware of the changes coming up to digital media.(KPMG-FICCI, 2016).

While overall circulation in the print market grew an estimated 7.6percent from 2014 to 2015, this is primarily driven by high growth in the expanding Hindi (9.6percent) and other languages (9.9percent) markets rather than the high but stable English-language market.

As soon as the thought of publishing newspapers on the web was perceived, many people started their news sites. By making of use of available information coupled with entertainment, it was possible to publish content with multi-media technology. This use of technology, which had comparatively low investment, attracted attention from publishers of print newspapers, not only in the developed countries but also in developing countries. They became aware of the future prospects of the digital establishments as it connected them to worldwide readers. The Hindu was the first print newspaper in India to launch its news site in 1995. The Times of India, The Indian Express, and The Deccan Herald caught up soon with their news sites early in the year 1996.

As there were plenty of e-newspapers, there were continual efforts to launch e-newspapers in Indian languages. The first Hindi newspaper to be released online was Nai Dunia.

During the beginning days, internet browsers could not support the fonts in regional languages so a few of the language publications (Kumudam and Vikatan) displayed their news in the form of images. This has changed now and the content is published in regional languages, which can also be downloaded. Almost hundred publications in India, generally newspapers and magazines, were published on the web, in the year 1998. Upon citing a search at Yahoo! about news and India, it gave links of particular limited (almost forty newspapers and over twenty magazines according to the search results) as some of the news sites were not appropriately linked or updated on the web or the search engines.

News site, Samachar, (supported by India World group) displays news in different categories like World News, National , Sports, Business etc. under various headlines which were selected from Indian newspaper sites. It provides opportunity to the readers to select their desired category of news content from their preferred sources. Towards the end of the year 1999 several print newspaper organsations had made their presence on the web. Well-established print newspapers like The Indian Express, The Times of India and The Hindustan times were the first few major organisations to make their presence visible for all, on the internet.

A software application that is created and formatted to operate through a mobile or smartphone, tablet or smart watch is known as a mobile application. These devices which comprised of camera with basic functions, exchanging texts/ graphics and coupled with the power of the internet, formed an important equipment for reporting of news stories in shortest possible time.

While most of the mobile applications provide free of cost services in India, some of them are paid for. Others offer a part of their services as free and some advanced features need to be paid for or after a few uses the user must pay for further use. The revenue generated is then shared between the app sharing platform and the creators of the application.

II. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Now eve the newspapers have started Newspapers have started aggregation by providing links

It also discusses about the ‘New’ News Producers, in  order to have a wide reach news producers are also expanding by Online extensions of newspapers or broadcasts Including different sources of information- background links, hypertext, in depths reports with AV and graphics. Hypertexted news story bringing together radio, television and newspaper

Google took this further by introducing ‘Alerts’, which give the users constant updates and keeps them engaged.

In ‘The development and use of online newspapers: What research tells us and what we might want to know’. Boczkowski, P. (2002) The handbook of new media (pp. 270-286). London: Sage., Editied b L. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (Eds.),Boczkowski asserted that  research focusing on how online newspapers have been used has shown that a some years backusedviewedtheselargely to be informed. However, more recently they have pre-dominantly used them for entertainment. This change may reflect a mainstreaming in audience composition and behaviour, which initially had an important presence of early adopters. Based on these findings, current speculation is that usage of online newspapers may be affecting more television viewing than reading of print papers.  According to the above mentioned study, online newspaper has found a relationship between usage and information seeking: ‘media use generally correlated positively with both the electronic preferences and satisfaction variables’. The author concluded by raising many questions related to future of use of multimedia by print newspapers’ digital versions.

In, ‘Remaking the News’, Edited by Pablo J. Boczkowski C. W. Anderson, MIT Press, 2017 the use of digital technology has transformed the way news is produced, distributed, and received. Just as media organizations and journalists have realized that technology is a central and indispensable part of their enterprise, scholars of journalism have shifted their focus to the role of technology. In this book leading scholars discuss the future of studies on technology and journalism in the digital age. It gives an overview of how journalism has evolved in the past 25 years and predicts the future trends with use of digital technology. It lays emphasis on research related to the development of news content using online audience metrics and highlight the value of gatekeeping. It also asserts that journalist must consider feedback on their stories from their readers.

As, ‘Future of Newspapers’, Edited by Bob Franklin, Routledge 2009, focusses on new media and changing newspaper environments. It also discusses about local, regional and community newspapers; and newspapers’ changing design and content. Globally, newspapers facedifferentopportunitiesillustrating their presence in various market segments, countries and journalism cultures. But despite this diversity, they face similar challenges in responding to the increased competition from expansive radio and 24 hour television news channels; the emergence

III. DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS

The e-newspapers on the web had lower presence but not far from the foresight of media experts. Not as many as great expectations were placed on them compared to other new media derived from technological innovations, online newspapers not only survived, but also expanded exponentially. E-newspaper is a phenomenon, which is growing along with the growth of Internet.

Thee-newspapers’rise of datesfrom the year 1992, when American newspapersfor the first time were released on the web. Newspapers’ content was text based and was distributed through the world wide web based services like Prodigy and America Online.

Netscape, on September 12, 1994, came up with its navigator’s beta variant, as a graphic enabled web browser. Newspapers were quick to follow this and made their appearance on the internet. There were almost sixty North American newspapers which had developed news sites on the web towards the end of the year 1994. The leaders among these e-newspapers were Raleigh News and Observer, San Francisco Observer/ Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News.

In 1996, about five hundred American newspapers created news sites on the web, but only about fifty percent of them, two hundred forty eight daily newspapers were published on the web towards September 1996. By September 1997, 745 U.S newspapers, about half of the U.S dailies were published on the Internet as witnessed by Meyer (cited by Li 2006) (Gul, n.d.).

The internet presence newspapers picked up in the year 1997. There were almost one thousand twelve hundred American newspapers online by the month of March in the year 1998. The number reached 2,059 (as of September 27, 1998), a growth of 60percent in six months and 176percent in one year (Peng et al 1999:52-63). Almost over three thousand Americannewspapers were published online by June 2001. Most of the American newspapers were published on the web in 2001 as witnessed by Poynter (cited by Li 2006: 2).

The unprecedented magnitude of e-newspapers is expanding gradually. Many factors are responsible for their popularity. On many occasions, audiences rely more on newspapers on Internet for information because of ease in access, updated more often, and richer in content than print newspapers (Chyi and Lasorsa 1999: 2). Publishers can use the web like a marketing tool to reach more likely prospective readers who do not read print newspapers.

Conclusion

Exchanging information, content, and sharing ideas is the primary focus on social media platforms through internet networks and online communities. Social media is largely dependent on audience participation and interaction for making a reputation. There are many reports that suggest an increase in the time that an average online user spends each day on social media platforms. The future of social media is closely linked with the different types of new media. Like there is usually integration of virtual reality, graphics, videos or pictures on social media platforms. Internet is seen as very opportunistic medium not only by government offices or MNCs or academic institutions but also by media and entertainment industry. Services available online, like sending e-mails or search engines are used by journalists to receive or share news and information.

References

[1] Anthonly F. McGann, Thomas Russell J: Advertising Media IRWIN, Homewood Illinois 60430, Second Edition. [2] Arnold Barban, Stephan M. Cristol and Frank J. Kopec: Essentials ofMedia Planning, Crain Books, Chicago, 1975. P.1 [3] Barban, Arnold M.Donald, W. Jugenheimer and Lee F. Yound Grid Inc. Columbus Ohio 1975 P.4 [4] Behrmann, William: Putting Effective Frequency to work in Media Planning in Transcript Proceedings: Effective frequencystate of the Art, New York, Advertising Research Foundation 1982. [5] Bruce G. Varden, Bergh Helen Katz: Advertising Principle, Choices Challenges Change, NTC Business Books, Lincoinwood Illinois, USA. About the author: Dr. Asok Biswas is a Professor, Head of the Department of Journalism & Multimedia in the Chandigarh Group of College-Jhanjeri, Mohali, Punjab. His research focuses on Media planning and buying, advertising, human behavior and media management, market research and survey.

Copyright

Copyright © 2024 Dr. Asok Biswas. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.