NEWSpapers - any relevance left?

Gone are the days when I use to have tea and breakfast while reading newspapers. Reading newspapers while sipping hot tea, trying to manage the flying pages and yet completing the paper was the way morning use to begin. Time has changed a lot and thus the technology. Today I just scan the newspaper, and read important news online between work. With technology advancement the frequency at which news is delivered has increased and the time lag between occurance of an event and its reporting has drastically come down. But what about the content? The relevance? The focus on important issues?

It doesn’t take much time, now-a-days to read newspaper. Not because nothing is happening but because sensational news that ensures increase in newspaper sale, are reported again and again, ignoring the events which would otherwise doesn’t help in increasing the top line of the company.

Content: When you pickup the newspaper from outside the door, the first thing you read is the headlines on the front page. What is your reaction when you see the IPL news or Mr Lalit Modi appearing daily for 20 days on front page headline? Dhoni says something and it is published on the front page. The publishers forget that they are the national newspaper with huge circulations reaching the masses. Important issues that the masses are concerned of, always take a back seat. Such issues are published in some corner of some page. If you look at the content of each page by the way it is classified, for example “Nation” page should carry all the important events happening in India. And the followup of those issues. But you would actually find more than half of the page with advertisement or some state/ central government propogating achievements.

Focus: If an issue is published over and over again, it becomes a big news. How much importance should be given to a particular event is also justified by the number of days it appears on newspaper and its follow up by the media. Lalit Modi managed to seek reporters attention every now and then. But Mr. Jairam Ramesh, who has spoken so many things contradicting to the government policies, in his on-going visit to China, but such news are reported once or twice and becomes history. The issues that are against government, against BCCI, against ruling party of any institute appears as if it happened and it didn’t impact anyone. Jesica Lal verdict, poor farmers plight in Vidarbha, ever rising inflation, fallout of Greece economy and other more serious issues are reported as if they dosent make sense for a comman man.

Importance: An event becomes as big as where, or on which page it appears on the newspaper. If it appears on the front page, it should be a serious one, which might impact masses and for a large time. Mr. David Cameron became UK’s prime minister, a conservative party leader after 13 years of democartic government rule. It is Britain's first post-war coalition government. Now a news of such importance which will definitely have lot of repercussions on the Indo-UK trade and ties, if not published as a headline, isnt honesty with the profession. News related to powerful people or glamourous people never fails to appear on the front page with larger columns.

fOoD fOr ThOuGhT: We read and form an opinion. We see the world the way it is shown. NEWS paper should refrain from biased opinion or undue promotions. Let the public decide what they want to read and how much and not the publisher and powerful few decide what to feed.

"To hear one voice clearly, we must have freedom to hear them all." Kerry Brock