Essay on Importance or Pros and Cons of Newspapers
Newspapers are a powerful medium of mass communication. Due to the fairness, fearlessness and authenticity of newspapers, their credibility has increased rapidly. This is the reason that the sales of newspapers presenting news in a balanced way are increasing day by day.
The newspaper started with the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth century, but its real development took place in the eighteenth century. By the nineteenth century, their importance began to increase rapidly, making it a popular and powerful medium in the years to come.
There are many types of newspapers – quarterly, monthly, fortnightly, weekly and daily. In some cities, morning and evening editions of newspapers are also presented. At present, along with other countries of the world, the number of daily newspapers in India is more than other types of papers.
Newspapers in India also started in the eighteenth century. The first known newspaper of India was ‘Bengal Gazette’ published in English language. Its publication was started by James Augustus Hickey in 1780 AD.
After a few years, the British banned its publication. The first Hindi newspaper was ‘Udant Martand’. According to the annual report published by RNI for the year 2013-14, at present the number of registered newspapers across the country is 99 thousand.
The major English language daily newspapers in India are ‘The Times of India’, ‘The Hindu’, ‘Hindustan Times’ etc. In Hindi daily newspapers ‘Dainik Jagran’, ‘Dainik Bhaskar’, ‘Hindustan’, ‘Nav-Bharat Times’, ‘Nai Duniya’, ‘Jansatta’ etc. are prominent.
As far as the functions of newspapers are concerned, it is known for building public opinion, dissemination of information, exposing corruption and scams and presenting the true picture of the society.
News, features and other information are published in newspapers keeping in mind the people of every category. People can read news, features or other miscellaneous information according to their interest and requirement.
Where there is annoyance with the advertisements of television news channels, the same newspaper advertisements prove to be helpful for the reader. Newspapers are of special importance to both people looking for employment and companies looking for professional people.
Despite the rapid increase in information dissemination along with technological progress, the Internet and television cannot be its substitute. Newspapers not only get information about every activity of the country, but also for entertainment, news like fashion, sports, cinema etc.
Newspapers also act as a bridge between the government and the people. The general public can make everyone aware of their problems through newspapers. In this way, newspapers have become the watchdogs of democracy in modern society. Describing the power of newspapers, Akbar Allahabadi has said-
“Don’t pull the bows, don’t take out the sword.
When the cannon is available, take out the newspaper.”
The power of newspapers can be estimated from the fact that sometimes they play an important role in forming public opinion. After the formation of public opinion, not only the people’s revolution, but many other changes are possible. Even sometimes they are successful in toppling the government.
Fodder scam done by Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar, Postage stamp scam done by Telgi in Andhra Pradesh, A. The role of newspapers has been important in exposing various types of scams, match-fixing etc. Raja’s 2G spectrum scam, Kalmadi’s Commonwealth Games scam etc.
Newspapers also played an important role in the Indian freedom struggle. In the twentieth century, the role of the then newspapers was important in awakening the spirit of freedom in Indian society and in motivating it.
Immortal freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Surendranath Banerjee, Lala Lajpat Rai, Arvind Ghosh, Madan Mohan Malviya, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi were also directly associated with journalism.
Apart from all this, writers like Munshi Premchand, Bharatendu Harishchandra, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Pratapnarayan Mishra made newspapers the main and powerful weapon of freedom struggle through journalism. Napoleon said, “I am more afraid of three opposing newspapers than of a million guns.”
Here, for a few years, the trend of ‘paid news’ news has increased according to the money and business benefits of publishing news. This has raised questions about the credibility of newspapers.
The reason for this is that most of the newspapers in India are owned by some industrial house or the other. They are more concerned about the interest of their enterprises than the public interest and the country.
So they give priority to their interests. The influence of government and advertisers can also be clearly seen on the newspapers. Newspapers often avoid publishing anything against their main advertisers.
This type of journalism is dangerous for any country. Journalism is more service than business. Professional commitment destroys the values of journalism. To guide the public in any country, it is necessary to have fair and fearless newspapers.
Newspapers present the correct picture of the political, social, economic and cultural activities of the country. Newspapers also have to bear the responsibility of making the general public aware of social and moral values in elections and other situations.
Therefore healthy democracy cannot even be imagined in the absence of newspapers. Mahatma Gandhi has said very important and clear things about newspapers.
Newspapers should have three purposes:
(i) To understand and give expression to the popular sentiments of the masses,
(ii) To create desirable feelings among the people and
(iii) Boldly expose popular cults.
If the owners of the newspapers and the people concerned with their editing publish the newspapers taking inspiration from these words of Mahatma Gandhi, then surely the welfare of the public and the country will be done by them.
Disadvantages of Newspaper
As news published in newspapers brings benefits, they also have disadvantages, because many times some people of news agency print false news by being biased and for their own benefit. The results of which can be very bad.
Incorrect news published in the newspapers and news of any one caste class can spread casteism in the society and there can be fights and riots also. People and castes maintain enmity with each other and as a result of which anarchy spreads in the country, therefore news should be published in newspapers with correct information by being impartial.
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