Page 58 - 30NOV2018E

Newspapers are here

to stay despite options

Amid the growing culture of alternative media, India with diverse regional languages would
continue benefitting the newspaper industry, writes nava thakuria

hat was an amazing story English news channels, not to speak of ers. Now, most of those media groups
but equally frightening for alternate media outlets, which are in- have experienced the slow but steady
us. For some unresolved creasing their appreciators nowadays. shrinking of circulation figures and
demands with the media Guwahati, that supports over 1.5 mil- they opted for online editions with an
T group owners, the newspa- lion dwellers witnesses publication of aim to tap the readers worldwide.
per hawkers in Guwahati decided to nearly 30 morning daily newspapers in In India, the situation is yet to be
boycott their routine works. For five various languages like Assamese, Eng- alarming as the internet access to half
continuous days, the Guwahatians did lish, Hindi, Bengali, etc. Moreover, the of our population remains a dream. We
not receive their daily newspapers at pre-historic city supports eight satel- can claim 500 to 600 million Indians
their residences. However, the news- lite news channels namely NewsLive, today enjoy some access to internet
paper selling shops were open always DY365, either through their computers (and
as usual. laptops) or smartphones (and tablets),
Ignoring the hawkers’ demonstra- but there is a sizable population in the
tion, every media house owner went on vast country which continues admiring
printing newspapers at midnight. They About 500 to 600 newspapers.
kept waiting for the distributors, but million Indians A few weeks back, while interacting
they did not turn up. Some owners even with a group of Guwahati based scribes
erected temporary stalls in prime loca- today enjoy some through video conferencing from Mur-
tions of the city so that their dedicated access to internet, ray Bridge in South Australia, Alan
readers can get the copies of newspa- Gray, editor and publisher of the highly
pers. Few people bought newspapers but there is a followed news portal ‘Newsblaze.com’,
from those stalls but the response was predicted that Indian newspapers in
lukewarm. sizable population various languages would continue
We were keenly observing the situ- in the vast serving a huge population with news,
ation and thought the city residents views and analytical pieces.
would soon start criticising us for not country which “Alternative digital media may be
resolving the situation. When I was continues admiring growing in India, but the conventional
sitting at Guwahati Press Club during and mainstream medium including
those days, I remained apprehensive newspapers newspapers still has a future in the
about the outburst. But it never hap- populous country. India today emerges
pened and everyone (who seemed to be as a land of millions of smartphone &
a serious newspaper reader) interacted PragNews, PratidinTime, News18 internet connected computer users,
with me normally. In fact, nobody com- (Assam/NE), AssamTalks, NELive and but there is a sizable population which
plained to me about the inconvenience. NewstimeAssam, which telecast news lacks access to the new medium and
Now, we realise that they are not and other programs mostly in Assa- continues to depend on print media
much dependent on newspapers at mese language. outlets,” said Gray.
home like earlier. Either they pick it But, the situation is not Guwahati He, however, asserted that regard-
from the stalls or simply skip the habit or Assam or India centric. Rather it’s less of the increase in digital access, the
of reading newspapers in the morning a western phenomenon, as many ac- basics of journalism in all media forms
hours. Nonetheless, they get enough claimed newspapers in western world remain the same. Aspiring journalists
news contents from the regional and start facing the ignorance of read- must do proper groundwork before

tehelka / 15 november 2018 58 www.tehelka.com

58-59 Nava Thakuria.indd 2 02/11/18 11:41 AM