Print Media Vs Internet

 - Dasu Krishnamoorty

Fears of press guys that the net will grab some of print media's space are unfounded, according to a report released by the World Association of Newspapers on Tuesday. Senior editors in India also addressed these concerns last month and found no substance in the doubts about the future of the print media. WAN figures provide fresh evidence of the durability of newspapers. The survey shows that many newspapers are attracting more readers through their online sites. Of interest to India are the figures for developing countries which point to dramatic increases in circulation in that region. Despite the phenomenal growth in the use of the Internet and the satellite TV media, newspaper circulation in the country recorded a rise of 28.7% over last year's figures.

Even in the west, where newspapers have been in the habit of pressing the panic button every time a new technology appeared on the horizon and threatened to convert their audiences, there has been a slowing down of the downtrend. Experts recall how many prophets had said that newspapers were doomed when radio was about to become popular in the 1920s. Many authoritative figures predicted the same when television was about to take off in the early 1950s. Despite the challenges of radio and TV, newspapers not only survived but also prospered because radio and TV stimulated the public’s interest in news. Now, the net is being portrayed as the villain.

Discounting the fears of the net submerging the print media, Asia editor of Time magazine Donald Morrison told a Press Club of India gathering recently “the print medium is on the threshold of its golden age.” The latest report of the Registrar of Newspapers in India showed that newspaper circulations in the country increased by 20% in 1998 over the previous year, despite a marginal fall in the number of publications registered during the year. It is the ubiquity of electronic media that generates a feeling of insecurity in the print media.

Though the net is hijacking newspaper audiences in the developed countries, to visualise such a prospect in our country and discuss steps to face it is too premature. To become a rival, the net calls for not only the same degree of literacy a newspaper needs to use it but also a certain level of prosperity. It may be that the electronic newspaper is similar to the print newspaper barring the medium used to print the text. In print media, the text appears on paper and in electronic newspaper on the computer monitor.

Yet they are different in several ways. It is easier to buy a newspaper than to buy a computer with access to the net and then read the news on the monitor. In a poor country like ours, it will take decades before an average newspaper reader can acquire the affluence needed to buy a computer and access information on the net. Besides, a computer does not necessarily stop people from reading a newspaper. At any given time, in a scenario such as ours, the circulations of newspapers will be several times more than the number of computer owners. The real threat to newspapers is a fall in ad revenue. Even this is not a major problem if the print media adopt a pluralistic reader constituency.

In fact, the print media and the net newspaper supplement each other. The online editions are an acknowledgement of the existence of a qualitatively superior constituency. Many a time the net becomes an appetiser, driving the netizen to the print medium for variety and amplification in coverage. WAN survey proves beyond doubt that audiences of all newspapers are undergoing major expansion through online editions. In India, there has been a 383 % growth in the number of persons browsing online editions. In short, both the print medium and the electronic newspaper are on a fast track.

Now about TV and radio as a threat to newspapers. Since literacy is not a prerequisite to listen to radio news or watch TV news, it is assumed that they will cut into newspaper circulations. This is an illusion because several issues figuring in broadcast news require that the listener/viewer have a certain degree of informedness in public affairs acquired only through an exposure to print media. Also, it is natural for state and other agencies to intensify the literacy drive with a view to catch up with or overtake population growth. And all that consequent accretion to the ranks of the literate constitutes potential readership for newspapers. As Richard Ernst, Swiss Nobel laureate, said in New Delhi last year, “it is not enough to have the top brass of computer experts with laptops on the one hand and with illiteracy on the other. In India, what is lacking is basic education which is denied to the poor and untouchables.”

Ernst has thus indicated the agenda for the print media: the poor and the untouchables. The space devoted to the activities of celebrities is demonstrative of a system of news values that bypasses the underclass and woos the elite. Nearly every thinking individual and institution has expressed reservations about the changed focus and direction of our print media. The second Press Commission reminded the press that it should play a helpful role in the country’s development process, be freely accessible to all sections of the society, promote internal stability and defend national sovereignty. It must be remembered that there was ample representation for the press on both the press commissions. Till now, the print media have not shown any inclination to invite an all-embracing debate on, or outside scrutiny of, their performance.

The least that editors can do is to examine if the threat to print media is not from within and if the threat from the electronic media is not a ploy to divert attention from their own failures and inadequacies. Such exercises, which turn the spotlight on media performance are common in the United States. The Hutchins Commission appointed by the publisher of Time magazine in the early 40s was first such exercise. Last year, a group of 28 editors, reporters and journalism teachers in the U.S. issued a ‘statement of concern’ at the state of journalism at a time when entertainment or sensationalism is often favoured over more serious news coverage. The only threat from the net is its lure for print journalists to migrate. All other threat perceptions are imaginary.

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