Marshall Mcluhan was in no doubt about the revolutionary effect of mass use of print. Print created individualism and rationalism in the sixteenth century. No person exposed to it can resist being changed by prints subliminal charge. Reading he argued created individuals.

Print broke down reality in to discrete units, logically and casually related, perceived linearly across a page abstracted from the wholeness and disorder and multisensory quality of life. Print, he concluded created Henry Ford and the assembly line and standardized culture (In Jeffery:27).

Increase in the use of print media indicates that literacy is spreading and communications are improving and it is affirmed that the communication revolution has in no way subtracted from the influence of the press and printed media.

It has proved that the telecommunications explosion have actually substantiated the permanence of the written word.

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The impact of print media depends on their credibility among readers as well as on how the content is presented, understood and interpreted. How different people or groups will read the same content depends on their social background.

Thus, sometimes print media only reinforce widely held beliefs and status quo rather than bringing about change and development. The period of emergency showed how the credibility of the press could suffer due to lack of freedom.

Many times newspapers, activists’ journals or so called grassroots print media have played the role of watch-dog and acted as a catalytic agent to hasten the process of social and economic change.

For example, dialogues generated by news papers on women’s Political participation, urban development, new education policy, new Economic policy have contributed greatly as a catalytic agent.

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They have been playing the role of watch-dog when they report about teams, scandals, corruption, improper implementation of development Schemes, programmes or projects.

The editorials of the newspapers and periodicals have contributed to steering public opinion in a particular direction.

For Example, when editorial criticizes the action taken by the Governor in Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat or appreciates aloud the action taken by the president or discusses the scam or scandal from its various angles or justifies war between two countries, it contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the people of a given situation.

Although people tend to resist newspaper influences, it does certainly exist, particularly in the long term sense of reinforcement of opinions already held.

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Chakravarty discussing the impact of newspapers on opinion building, says, “It is amongst these relatively knowledgeable readers that the newspaper is most likely to influence opinion.

Over a long term period, the newspaper’s influence can be very pronounced (especially, as has been seen in the sphere of foreign affairs).

The process by which readers’ opinion is eased along in its natural direction may not only take the form of very strong reinforcement, but many also border on the formation of new ideas, in that it sows seeds and implants suggestions on points to which people have upto now given next to no thought.

Provided that these are, at least superficially, compatible with the reader’s own outlook, they stand a good chance of being incorporated amongst his attitudes and opinions.” (25)

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As far as the news values are concerned, people have become aware that all the newspapers are same with minor differences, though they bring out more editions in terms of content and ideological bias. That is, the criteria used by all newspapers in selecting the content for publications are the same.

In India, print media have been the active participants in the political process right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. It has frequently set the national agenda on domestic and foreign policy issues.

They have provided indigenous enrichment. They have served as valuable check on executive power in the absence of a strong opposition.

With the globalization, foreign media also entered into the country. Foreign newspapers and magazines are, happily visible and available all over the country, but there is surely a difference between mere availability and being published in India.

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A New York Times editorial on the Indian political situation will not have the same weight as one written by its own Delhi edition.

Majority of the newspapers and magazine houses are located in big cities and the editors and writers are mostly the elites of the cities. This results in to almost negligible reporting on rural affairs or development. Even urban slums and lower strata hardly get coverage in the print media.

Press Commission has also pointed out that there is a need to give news values a different orientation in the interest of higher professionalism and national development. Newspapers in India have not taken up dynamic journalism because of which the impact of the development programmes is not known to many of the country people.

This is hampering the process of social revolution. Today’s journalism is more of pragmatic nature and business oriented. Therefore, the kind of impact that print media could create during the pre-independence period, cannot create today.

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Poornananda blames Indian press for playing a significant role in promoting commercial attitudes and practices. He says, “It has been an important input into the steady deterioration of the communal climate in our country to the extent where our democratic system is threatened as never before.

The newspapers in Indian langauges and English have worked for an ill-informed and biased public opinion instead of an integrated and enduring social order.” The reports of many inquiry committees on communal riots indicate that the press has contributed to the escalation of tension between the communities.

As far as development or extension work is concerned, print media such as booklets, pamphlets, folders, leaflets, circulars, wall news papers have played important role in communicating with target groups of farmers, homemakers, rural groups, etc.

These media have helped development workers in making their advisory work more interesting. These are either read or listened to by their target groups. They help in convincing and motivating people about the new ideas.

For example, new varieties of crops, new ways of farming, water shed management, environment protection etc. Printed material such as circular and pamphlets have helped development workers to communicate quickly, inexperienced and effectively. Moreover, these media help them to maintain communication with the client system in a regular and friendly manner.

In eighties, Arun Shourie’s writings had demonstrated this type of journalism. Newspapers and magazines are indeed breaking far more stories on corruption than ever before.

Newspapers today have acquired strength in features, photographs, graphics and quality of paper used. The newspapers have been able to stand with magazines by publishing supplements in areas of general interests along with their regular editions. This is due to revolution in printing technology.

Print media like magazines are affected adversely due to onslaught of television. The news stories of magazines become obsolete, when published fortnightly or monthly. Magazines are required to constantly try to create new identity for themselves.

There are hardly any studies conducted on the impact of print media except the readership surveys, which throw light on what people prefer to read.

For last four centuries, printed world has ruled unchallenged in shaping and expressing public opinion. That monopoly has not ended with the development of radio, television and video. But the printed word still plays an important role behind the curtain in the form of the scripts or software for these media.

Availability of various types of printed media has provided readers with wider choice for selecting the printed medium as well as the content. However, it has also resulted into people browsing through newspapers and magazines in order to go through all those available to them. This has reduced the concentrated reading on part of the readers.

With the wider choice available in print media, readers have become so much ‘want’ conscious that the front pages of daily newspapers are dominated by politics, conflicts and tensions and development news gets hardly any coverage. It is true that since a newspaper is a marketed commodity, it will naturally carry what the readers want. But should that be the sole consideration?

Mass Media in India (1992) report mentions that English newspapers which are read by the middle classes in the cities denote as much as 17.4 per cent of space to development while Hindi newspapers denote only 14.1 per cent.

The role of the press in a developing country like India is to aid in the process of economic and social transformation and to accelerate it. It can do so by being more relevant by reaching out to the vast multitude living in the countryside.

The print media in India has yet to make attempts to reach out to the large population of neoliterates whose number is growing fast and to convert them into readers. Development and social content is the first priority for these groups rather than sensational and selling political news and articles.

In distance education programmes also print media are the most important medium. This applies to all conventional correspondence courses as well as courses of open university. Print media have proved largely effective in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.

The functions served by the print media in earlier times were limited, but now day’s newspapers have shown impact in persuading people to support particular candidate, policies and programs.

They get coverage in their front or editorial pages. At the same time some newspapers provide favourable or unfavourable coverage of institutions, candidates and issues. There is great impact of the information function performed by the newspapers.

This function is alive and well served by the various parts of the newspapers which are devoted to news. Advertisements in print media also perform this function.

Newspapers and magazines today are performing the function of entertainment also by including human interest stories, puzzles, comics, recipes, advice columns, sports, film and television and so on.

Malhan criticized news papers for three reasons:

1. News papers in India continue to be largely urban phenomenon. They are either published in metropolitan cities, big towns or state capitals.

2. Plagiarism has entered Indian print media. Reporters or editors do not read public documents properly and add a few words of their own and publish, which is not interpretive, educative, expository and promotional in nature.

3. Newspapers in India have not adequately taken up development journalism or reporting which is based on field work or direct observation or participant observation.