Why are newspapers not important in the 21st century?
Newspapers are the only source of information for all classes of people in our
Society. As we know newspapers first appeared in Europe in the 17th century they had an
evolution slowly and gradually from a similar type of publication to a single sheet of
paper that would respond to events which were unusual. Although newspapers currently
and those in the past were similar in many ways, newspapers and their content have
changed over time. The decline of sales in newspapers has been widely due to
ever increasing newsprint prices, decreasing advertisements sales, the loss of putting classified
advertising and drastic drop in circulation. Recently, the number of newspaper
publishing houses forced foreclosure. Bankruptcy has risen especially in the United
States where the industry has almost removed one fifth of its journalists since 2001.
Revenue generation has increased for internet media and that has squeezed older print
publishers. In the modern day market we have seen a rise high in labour costs which is again
hampering the production. This has primarily affected The United States or the English-speaking
markets like Europe though there is a large rise in sales for countries like China, Japan and India
where we have the youth population as the majority.
Cause of decline in popularity of Newspaper: In schools, colleges, clubs having a daily
newspaper subscription is expenditure adder which they are abiding by having simple, free e
papers, the electronic versions of daily magazines. In order to have access to newspaper one
should at least be literate enough, which is a big issue in developing nations like, India where the
literacy rate is below 65%. With televisions and radio coming into picture that issue got
eliminated completely.
Introduction of television media: With the arrival of televisions in 1950, the total
circulation of newspapers has decreased drastically. With the help of television one can go
through the daily news and affairs ,which is saving their time as well as labour to get that daily
newspaper delivered to their place, Moreover television has an edge as it provides visual and
audio effects which everyone enjoys which are not there in the newspaper. Television brings
news to the consumer faster as compared to newspapers where someone has to wait until the next
day. The competing medium like television also offers advertisers the advantage to use
moving sound and visuals to directly market their products. “Seeing a murder on television can
help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give
you some.” ― Alfred Hitchcock . If someone asks me to choose between conventional
newspaper and television, I will definitely go to the television as while listening to the news I can
complete some other important work at the same point in time which again is not possible in the
New Era of Internet: A new medium named as Internet has also gone one step farther
than its rival television in denting the income from advertisement in the newspaper as unlike its
rival it proves a convenient option for classified advertisements especially in fields like real
estates, matrimonial, jobs and vehicles where I can apply to them real time without having to
wait for a response after giving a call to the concerned as in the case of newspapers. “If
television's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who won't shut up.” ― Dorothy Gambrell, Cat and Girl Volume I
Now it is said that if with television or Internet would have come in front of newspapers;
probably the later would not have existed. Now with the Internet it has become easier and
cheaper to move information across long distances this again had a huge impact on newspaper
business.The ever, increasing use of internet search engines like Google, Yahoo etc., has also
changed the habits of the readers. Previously I used to sit on my chair every morning with a cup
of tea to enjoy reading news, but from the time I am owning a tab, I surf news from that
as it is quite convenient and I can also save some of the items that I feel is important.
The option of providing comments to a certain blog or publication is also very lucrative where
he also becomes a part of passive journalism. I am now a part of many good participating forums
where we can exchange thoughts, political views while going through day to day news. As a fact
at the past when I moved from my place that is on an office tour, I used to miss my regional
newspaper. But now I have the option of the electronic form of the same that I can read
at my convenient time. I do not need to wait for my regional newspaper to get circulated
at that location.
As we see that many big newspaper publishing houses has opted for an electronic
version of their respective products. The income generated from these internet sources is not
still good enough to meet their requirements as they are free and open sources. If we
still hope to produce journalists and photographers who can sustain journalism we must
make an effort to produce newspapers that people want to read. In countries like
India, China the popularity is still there as it is mandatory for students there to read daily
Newspapers and magazines as a part of their curriculum. The remote places and
villages here are still to have internet connectivity and hence physical newspaper is of
immense importance. According to me, for Journalism to prosper and grow beyond scopes it is
important for us to keep technology and conventional methods on the same level until the time
the former becomes more profitable and informative than the latter. My concerns here are if
people only go by tabs and phablets, then they might lose the appetite of mining new things from
the daily newspaper, which is rich in information and vocabulary. As a matter of fact when we
are only reading a newspaper we can concentrate on the most, but while using a phone
we may get diverted to some other things like, music, video etc., In a modern era where we
are busy all the time running after earning money newspapers give us an option to sit with our
family and at least enjoy a cup of tea with them. “I still love books. Nothing a computer can do
can compare to a book. You can't really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have
offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, 'If you can make something that has a nice
jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we'll talk.' All the computer can give you is a
manuscript. People don't want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good.
They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.” ― Ray Bradbury .
As far a student is concerned reading a daily newspaper or magazine helps him to get
worldlings.How diligently they read them!
Here they find their law and profits,their judges and chronicles,their epistles and revelations.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Works Cited
1.Jan Schaffer. “Civic Journalism: The Savior of Newspapers in the 21st Century?” 6 August 1999. < http://www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/pubs/chrispeck.html>
2.Sourav Roy. “The Truth About Newspapers in the 21st Century” 12 June 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sourav-roy/newspapers-digital-age_b_2241391.html>
3.Dr Penny O’Donnell. “Journalism at the speed of bytes” 25 February 2014. <http://www.walkleys.com/files/media/SpeedofBytes.pdf >
4.Tony Rogers. “A (Brief) History of Print Journalism in America” <www.http://journalism.about.com/od/ethicsprofessionalism/a/printhistory.htm>
5.John N. Gardner & Betty L. Sullivan. “The National Newspaper as a Tool for Educational Empowerment: Origins and Rationale” <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/college/faculty/coll_mono_gard.html>
