3. INTRODUCTION
• MAN IS A SOCIAL ANIMAL AND EVERY HUMAN BEING HAS AN
UNQUENCHABLE THIRST TO COMMUNICATE.
• NEWSPAPER CAN BE DEFINED AS A PRINTED MEANS OF
CONVEYING CURRENT INFORMATION. TODAY THE NEWSPAPER IN INDIA
IS A PROUD INSTITUTION OF OUR SOCIETY. WHILE WORKING AS A
VEHICLE OF PERSUASION ITS BASIC FUNCTION IS TO PROVIDE INFO-EDU-
TAINMENT (INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT). IT ALSO
PLAYS THE ROLE OF ‘WATCH DOG’ OF THE SOCIETY.
• MAN HAS EVOLVED VARIOUS SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR
COMMUNICATION.
• DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE AND SCRIPTS TO PRINTING AND
FINALLY TO THE WORLD-WIDE-WEB OF THE INTERNET, WE HAVE
DEVELOPED AN IMPRESSIVE ARRAY OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS.
• WITH THE HELP OF THESE SYSTEMS ONLY, WE ARE ABLE TO SEND
MESSAGES INSTANT ACROSS VAST DISTANCES AND AROUSE SIMILAR
MEANINGS IN MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SIMULTANEOUSLY. BE IT
NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, BOOKS, RADIO, TELEVISION ETC.
4. • HISTORY OF NEWSPAPER IN INDIA
- THE FIRST NEWSPAPER IN INDIA WAS
PUBLISHED ON 29 JANUARY, 1780 BY JAMES
AUGUSTUS HICKY UNDER THE BRITISH RAJ
AND ITS NAME WAS ‘THE BENGAL GAZETTE’.
IT WAS ALSO CALLED AS ‘CALCUTTA GENERAL
ADVERTISER’ AND PEOPLE SIMPLY
REMEMBER IT AS ‘HICKY’S GAZETTE’.
INCEPTION STAGE
Contd...
5. CONTENT TYPE
• IT WAS VERY SMALL TWO SHEET WEEKLY
NEWSPAPER. AND THE PAPER WAS FILLED WITH
LOTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS WITH THE NAME-
THE CALCUTTA GENERAL ADVERTISER. IN FACT,
ITS FRONT PAGE WAS FILLED WITH
ADVERTISEMENTS ONLY.
INCEPTION STAGE
Contd...
6. • AFTER FEW MONTHS OF HICKY’S PAPER MESSER B MESSINCK
AND PETER READ BROUGHT OUT THE ‘INDIAN
GAZETTE’ IN NOVEMBER 1780. MANY OTHER NEWSPAPERS
WERE ALSO STARTED, NAMELY CALCUTTA GAZETTE (1784),
THE BENGAL JOURNAL (1785).
• IN 1785, RICHARD JOHNSON IN MADRAS BROUGHT
OUT ‘MADRAS COURIER’ IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE. R.
WILLIAM’S ‘MADRAS GAZETTE’ IN 1795 AND
HUMPHREY’S ‘INDIA HERALD’ IN 1796. IN 1785, RICHARD
JOHNSON IN MADRAS BROUGHT OUT ‘MADRAS COURIER’ IN
ENGLISH LANGUAGE. R. WILLIAM’S ‘MADRAS
GAZETTE’ IN 1795 AND HUMPHREY’S ‘INDIA HERALD’ IN 1796
• CENSORSHIP WAS FIRST INTRODUCED IN MADRA S IN 1795
WHEN THE MADRAS GAZETTE WAS REQUIRED TO SUBMIT
ALL GENERAL ORDERS OF GOVERNMENT FOR SCRUTINY BY
THE MILITAR Y SECRETARY BEFORE PUBLICATION.
7. SOCIAL CAUSE
• THIS PERIOD WAS MARKED BY SOCIAL REFORMERS LIKE RAJA
RAM MOHAN ROY
• TOWARDS THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY, MANY SOCIAL
REFORMERS BEGAN ACTIVELY CAMPAIGNING FOR RADICAL
CHANGES IN INDIAN SOCIETY. THE REFORMATION OF HINDUISM,
THE MOVE FOR ABOLITION OF SATI AND EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE
WIDOW REMARRIAGE WERE SOME OF THE MAJOR REFORMS.
INSPIRED BY THESE GREAT LEADERS, MANY NEWSPAPERS WERE
STARTED IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. INTRODUCED A
NEW APPROACH TO JOURNALISM IN INDIA.
• THEY INITIATED CLEAR JOURNALISTIC PRACTICES AND COVERED
THE PROBLEMS OF LOCAL PEOPLE AND THEIR LIVES.
PRE-INDEPENDENCE ERA
Contd...
8. FREEDOM STRUGGLE
• THIS PERIOD WAS MARKED BY STRICT GOVERNMENT CONTROL
AND CENSORSHIP .
• DURING THE BRITISH RULE INDIAN NEWSPAPER CAME INTO
EXISTENCE AND PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE COUNTRY’S
FREEDOM STRUGGLE. IN FACT NEWSPAPER WORKED AS ‘MOUTH
PIECES’ OF THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE WHETHER AT THE NATIONAL
AND REGIONAL LEVEL.
• BAL GANGADHAR TILAK BROUGHT KESARI AND
MAHARATTA NEWSPAPER, MAHATMA GANDHI STARTED YOUNG
INDIA AND HARIJAN.
PRE-INDEPENDENCE ERA
Contd...
9. • FROM THE TRIALS OF TILAK IN 1897 AND 1908,
MAHATMA GANDHI IN 1922 , VERNACULAR PRESS
ACT OF 1878, THE NEWSPAPERS INCITEMENT TO
OFFENCES ACT OF 1908.
• THE INDIAN PRESS ACT 1931 BEAR TESTIMONY OF
THE SUPPRESSIVE AND OPPRESSIVE MEASURES
TAKEN AGAINST THE INDIAN NEWSPAPERS.
10. POST-INDEPENDENCE ERA
• MISSIONARY PHASE OF NEWSPAPER WAS REPLACED WITH A
PROFESSIONAL APPROACH. IT STARTED PROVIDING EMPLOYMENT
TO THE PUBLIC AND SO, THE NEWSPAPER AGENCY BECAME
PROFIT-ORIENTED.
• ALL THESE SUPPRESSIONS AND OPPRESSION REACHED BRUTAL
HEIGHTS DURING THE 1975-77 EMERGENCY REGIME OF INDIRA
GANDHI. BUT LATER THE CONDITIONS OF PRESS CHANGED AND
REACHED TO ITS ZENITH. FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IS A VERY
IMPORTANT AND ALSO NEWS-MEDIA, PRESS ENJOYS GREATER
FREEDOM IN A DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY.
• DAILY NEWSPAPERS LIKE TIMES OF INDIA, THE HINDU,
HINDUSTAN TIMES, THE STATESMAN, ECONOMIC TIMES, THE
TRIBUNE, NAIDUNIYA, DAINIK BHASKAR, AMAR UJALA, ETC. HAVE
BECOME THE MOST CIRCULATED NEWSPAPERS IN THE COUNTRY.
11. • FROM THE DAYS OF WOODEN BLOCK PRINTING, NEWSPAPERS HAVE
UNDERGONE A SEA CHANGE. TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION HAS MODERNISED
THE PRINT MEDIA. FOR A LONG TIME, THESE WERE PRODUCED BY HAND
COMPOSING. LATER, THESE WERE REPLACED BY MONOTYPE AND LINOTYPE. IN
THIS PROCESS, A MACHINE OPERATED BY A KEY BOARD WAS USED TO COMPOSE
LETTERS. THIS HAS ALSO BECOME OBSOLETE NOW. TYPESETTING IN
COMPUTERS, OFFSET PRINTING AND LASER PRINTING HAVE TAKEN OVER.
DESKTOP PUBLISHING HAS BECOME QUITE COMMON NOW.
• VARIOUS TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS TOOK PLACE, IT INVOLVED IN A
READERSHIP BATTLE, RISE IN LITERACY LEVEL, INTEREST TO KNOW WHAT IS
HAPPENING IN THE SURROUNDING MADE GROW NEWSPAPER.
• IN EARLIER DAYS, NEWSPAPERS WERE PRINTED ONLY IN BLACK AND WHITE.
COLOUR PRINTING WAS NOT POSSIBLE AT THAT TIME. BUT NOW ALMOST ALL
THE NEWSPAPERS PRINT COLOUR PAGES . SOME PAPERS PRINT COLOUR ONLY IN
SUPPLEMENTS AND SPECIAL PAGES. COLOUR PRINTING HAS MADE THE PAGES
LOOK BRIGHTER AND ATTRACTIVE.
PRESENT DAY
Contd...
12. • ACCORDING TO THE AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION
(ABC) REPORT IN MAY 2017, PRINT CIRCULATION HAS
GROWN FROM 39.1 MILLION COPIES IN 2006 TO 62.8
MILLION IN 2016 IN INDIA -- A GROWTH OF 60% IN 10
YEARS. THIS, WHILE PRINT MEDIA IS STRUGGLING IN
EVERY MAJOR ECONOMY ACROSS THE WORLD
• HOWEVER, THE PLATFORMS AND METHODS
THROUGH WHICH THEY ARE BEING DISTRIBUTED AND
THE BUSINESS MODELS THAT SUPPORT THEM ARE
UNDERGOING SIGNIFICANT CHANGES.
CONCLUSION
