Media and Masses

Unarguably the only human pursuit that must comply with the factor of punctuality is production of dailies in various languages of the land. Not all readers are aware of the sleepless nights that their managements experience in ensuring their deslivery at the doorstep of the subscribing readers virtually on the dot. Reporters, copy-writers, printing crew, the tribe in the distribution system, apart from the machines in the press and communication channels have no option other than working in union, all for ensuring continued patronising of their favourite rag, particularly in an atmosphere of cut-throat competition on the dog-eat-dog lines. Features of the periodicals such as coverage of goings on, matter portraying the conduct of vote-mongers, acts of criminal nature, information pertaining to civic requirements with deadlines for citizens to comply with, articles by seasoned writers on subjects in a wide range, print quality, desire of columnists to see their writings in print, layout and what have you that different sections of readers adore are themselves volatile. Hardly any reader interacts with the crew in the press or the management on the above issues.

The history of newspaper is traced to an era of distant past when neither paper nor printing technology existed. Whatever had to be conveyed to the citizens is said to have been etched on stone slabs and placed at a prominent public place in ancient Greece. That journalism, per force, dictated decision-making on publishing matter, with greatest care unlike in modern times, when print ’n’ be damned is the principle.

Opinion is divided about the future of print media, one view being that there is no threat to the newspaper industry in its present avatar in foreseeable future, despite the emergence of e-editions on respective websites, thanks to the unstoppable march of digital technology. Expectations from different sections of the newspaper reading public being diverse and also volatile as days progress, survival of the industry’s players offers no option other than anticipation of reader-behaviour and take the challenges head-on keeping all eyes and ears in the open. In this context, while print media has to provide column-space in a big way for affairs of the politicos for all-too-familiar reasons, some sections, particularly the society’s intelligentsia, can be heard expressing their disenchantment about the disturbed state of the country in particular and the world at large.

Revenue from advertisements being the only factor of sustaining power in the newspaper industry, its players are compelled to be pro-active 24 x 7 in ensuring a rising trend in the number of subscribers. In turn, the rag has to be more responsive to whatever the reading mass expects, than the intelligentsia’s preferences. In short, the fickle nature of the masses, who are the patrons of the industry, keeps its players on their toes all the time.