Short essay on the Types of Print Media available for communication

There are varieties of print media available for communication. Newspapers, periodicals, journals, books, booklets, pamphlets, newsletters are the various types of print media. The discussion in this chapter will mainly focus on those used for mass communication purposes.

Newspapers

A newspaper is a complex package of news, comment, information and entertainment, and the combination of these contents varies from paper to paper. Most people choose their daily paper to match their specific tastes, and individual newspapers have developed in different ways to provide for these.

The ‘tabloids’ are the popular papers, printed on half the broadsheet size. For example, Mid-day, in India, Sun and Daily Mirror in Britain.

There are newspapers which are called national newspapers or national press. Such as, times of India or Indian Express in India or Observer in Britain or USA-Today in United States of America.

These newspapers fulfill the role of national newspapers, with their nationwide and international circulation. These national newspapers provide readers with a serious and comprehensive coverage and analysis of the national and international news of the day, with informed comment on social and political issues.

The local newspapers or local press has also developed strongly in India due to the multifarious languages of the country. The national newspapers may be the prestige newspapers, but local newspapers are read just as avidly. Many people get their news from the vigorous regional or local publications.

They cover the issues concerning regional and local people and cover the interesting activities of the people. The readers get the news which is close to them and may have involved people they know. These newspapers also serve as a focus for the local community, bringing people together, for support or fight for any common cause.

Jha (1991) says, “There are bad newspapers and there are good newspapers and on the whole, most newspapers have distinctly improved over the years. They look better and brighter, and writers and editors look at the reader more often than the tips of their noses.

And although politics, of the personality kind, still gobbles up a lot of our column space, we do have more art, film, science, lifestyle, business, more variety in the paper than before.

There is more good writing now than ever, although not as much and not as good as we would like to see. In short, it is more fun to read the newspaper in 1997 than it was in 1977″ (1977:52).

Recent Developments in Newspaper:

Over the period, many changes have taken place in the news papers. They have many pages now and are filled with advertisements. Today journalism has become one of the prosperous professions. Some of the newspaper houses in India are among the most affluent industries.

The number of news papers has risen sharply and profits have also boomed. Development of information technology has made the work of news paper publication easy and less laborious.

The journalists’ range of coverage of news and other items remains increasingly limited to the wired world of computer and telephone. This leaves agriculture ignored by the national newspapers, except for occasional sponsored features. The race for advertisement revenue is also eroding news coverage.

Bhattacharjea (1997) says, “Multi-colour printing and arrays of types and designs, all programmed on computers, enable newspapers to compete with TV in trying to titillate the urban palate.”

Sharda Prasad pointed out, “In the print medium, the most striking difference in the last fifty years is the growth of the mother tongue newspapers as compared to the English ones.”

The largest circulated newspapers in our country today are those published in regional languages (1997:15). According to him this is a reflection of the burgeoning of state-level and grassroots democracy. These regional newspapers have played crucial role in bringing forward the state issues and making and unmaking of government in their states.

Today’s newspapers are being criticized for serving the consumers and not the readers. The press today is facing various pressures such as technological, financial, professional and so on, which affect its credibility.

Some of the well-established newspapers still resist pressures and temptations. They still show their concern for credibility and society.

As pointed out by Bhattacharyya (1997), “In other countries, newspapers are realizing that they cannot compete with TV in impact or glamour. They can, however, provide back grounding and informed comment to be read at leisure.

But for that they must retain credibility. The TV viewer must continue to turn to his paper to validate what he sees on the screen” (1997:13).

Most of the dailies devote space for advertisements ranging from 40% to 60%. Income from advertisements is an important factor in the economic structure of news papers. Out of 254 dailies, which supplied data pertaining to their advertisement, 32 dailies (9 big, 6 medium and 17 small) derive more than 75% of their income from advertisements.

Another change in the press is the gender revolution. Many women journalists are either employed in the press or they work as freelance journalist. Many of them come with academic background and qualifications in journalism.

Today’s newspapers have lots of investigative stories/reports. This contributes to bringing in light big scandals and scams resulting into fall of a person.

Jeffrey believes that demand for news papers will grow. Firstly because exposure of television or any single medium leads to the consumption of other media. The regional language newspapers will be able to adapt to it and ride on it. Secondly, the growth of literacy, slow though it may be, is steady and unstoppable (24).

Magazines:

There was a ‘Magazine boom” in India in 1980s. Magazine publication grew in both English and major Indian languages. The trend started with the launch of India Today in mid- seventies and the new look of Illustrated Weekly of India under the editorship of Khushwant Singh.

In early eighties other magazines, like Gentleman, Fashion Quarterly, Onlooker, New Delhi, Bombay, The Week, ‘G’ were started.

Magazines appeal to an expanding range of reading tastes and interests. They are designed for homogeneous or special interest groups. Despite their design for special groups, they developed as a mass medium because they appeal to large numbers in a national market that cut across social, economic and educational class lines.

Mainly there are two types of magazines. General interest magazines and special interest magazines. General interest magazines attempt to cater to a wide variety of reading interests.

D’souza points out, “Increasing affluence, education and leisure time had fragmented the mass audience and enabled people to peruse a variety of interests to which hundreds of specialized magazines responded” (201).

Pointing out the functions performed by the magazines, De Fleur and Dennis said, “The magazine as a contemporary medium continues to serve surveillance functions, monitoring what is going on, transmitting the culture, and entertaining the population.

It’s most notable function; however, is correlation that is, interpreting the society by bringing together diverse facts, trends and sequences of events. Magazines in essence, are the great interpreters of what is happening in society.”

Kumar notes that the magazine boom continued in India in 1990s despite the closure of long-established magazines like “The Illustrated Weekly of India” and “Bombay”.

The growth was spectacular in the case of special interest magazines, especially those dealing with business and finance, computers and electronics. Several special interest periodicals such as Parenting, Auto India and Car and Bike were launched in 1993 (1997:78).

Magazines have been much more visually innovative than newspapers. Their covers blaze from newsstands and market racks, thus attracting the readers’ attention with colour and allure of advertisements besides their articles.

These are basically news magazines but they include sections on arts, culture, sports, films, business, politics, industry, environment and so on. There are about 500 such general interest magazines focusing on news and current affairs, having largest readership.

For example, India Today, The Week, Frontline, ‘G’ etc. (Kumar, 1997:98). These are opinion magazines, which set agendas, shape ideas and start trends. These are read by government officials, business leaders, educators, intellectuals and others who affect public affairs.

Special interest magazines:

These magazines cater to the interest of a specific profession or group. Such as Business India or Business Today, women’s magazines such as Femina, Women’s era, Savvy, Gruhshobha etc., Children’s magazines such as Safari, Chandamama, Target, etc.

There are many other special interest magazines for readers interested in interior decoration, literature, architecture, sports, medicine, etc. Advertisers use these magazines as medium for publicizing their products to the special target groups.

For example, products for women in women’s magazines or products for children in children’s magazines. They get people in and out of them easily and quickly.

The number of magazines and periodicals in 1994 increased to 31,264 from 29,597 in previous year. It indicated the increase of 5.63 per cent. They are brought out in all the principal languages of the country.

Compared to television news or immediacy and impact of daily newspapers, magazines serve the function of informing modestly. Even in case of fictions or feature stories, newspapers have stolen the market.

The advantage that magazines have is that they have the luxury of expressing their biases and they can make long investigations and present their findings in lengthy form. The magazine business has become very competitive and dynamic. Many varieties of magazines are started every year and many fail also.

Activist Journals:

The alternative press has emerged as a result of the need of some of the groups such as feminists, environmentalists, ethnic minorities or political activists, etc. to permit their point of views many such groups feel that their voice is not heard and mainstream press is complacent and biased.

So they publish their own papers and news sheets. Many such newspapers have grown into profitable journals. But many find it difficult to attract advertising or to have good distribution because of their radical views. They perform a valuable function in offering a platform for a wide spectrum of opinion.

There are magazines and journals which are started by individuals or groups or organizations which are involved with the serious issues of social concern. These journals have created distinctive niche in the print media.

No data is available regarding the number of such journals, their frequency, circulation, financial viability and so on. No systematic content analysis of these journals has been done.

Sethi points out, “Last decade has been one of many booms- from concepts like development, popular participation, to now organizing the poor, concern about environment and ecology, Medicare, gender equality, and one can go on in this vein all as part of a search amongst, ‘concerned intelligential and citizens’ for ‘a viable, just and humane’ alternative to an oppressive present” (29).

Some of such journals published in English are Voices, Manushi. Dalit Voice, Muslim India, Other India and so on.

These journals/magazines provide space for the ideology or viewpoint of the concerned activists, academicians or policy makers.

These journals are produced by NGOs, academic institutions, or mass organizations, who want to communicate their specialized interests and viewpoints to others, more so, since each activist group is convinced not only of the correctness but the centrality of its ideas.

Few of these journals have been able to maintain their frequency and status, which are the one brought out by reasonably funded institutions.

These journals have contributed to raising new ideas, refining them and raising the level of both academic and activist debate.

Many such journals disappear from print world for many reasons. Such as lack of funds, followers, dedicated team of workers, and lack of market or death of the pillar person or founder member.

Other Print Media:

Textbooks, other books, booklets, pamphlets, brochures, folders, periodicals, wall newspapers, publicity and promotional literature also constitute media for mass reading, information and enlightenment, they less extensively used as compared to the newspapers and magazines.

Books are non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding the cover page, published in any country and are made available to public. Today India is among the ten largest book producing countries in the world and ranks third, after USA and UK in the production of English Titles.

It is estimated that there are over 11,000 book publishers in the country. The largest number is that of Hindi publishers followed by those in English and Bengali. India, as a large producer of quality books, has a growing potential for exporting books, and our books reach over 80 countries (Malhan:126).

The National Book Trust plays an important role in the promotion of books in the public sector, produces books of good quality at moderate prices. It publishes reading material for children and rural masses.

Central and state governments also publish dailies and periodicals. Administration of Andaman and Nikobar and government of Bengal publish one and two dailies respectively. Language wise largest number of government publications appears in English followed by Hindi and other principal languages.

More than 700 periodicals are published by the government on the subjects like news and current affairs, animal husbandry, commerce and industry, social welfare, banking and co-operation, films, radio, sports and so on.

The Publications Division of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is one of the leading publishing houses in the country. It sells its publications through a network of booksellers and the Division’s own sales section. It brings out journals such as Yojna, Indian and Foreign review, Kurukshetra and Employment News.

The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DA VP) is the Central agency of the government of India for undertaking advertising and visual publicity campaigns on behalf of various ministries and departments through press advertisements, printed publicity materials and outdoor publicity items of various forms.

Apart from these, NCERT, Universities, public relations departments, tourist departments, produce pamphlets, brochures, folders, posters, reports, speeches and other informational literature.

There are publications which are not studied by press in India, but they have definite periodicity. They do not contain news or comments on public news. There are astrological magazines, fictions, market reports/bulletins, publicity journals, school/college magazines and so on.

These are published as weeklies, fortnightlies, quarterlies, annuals or dailies. There are bimonthlies and half year lies also.