In very simple terms the newspaper can be defined as a printed means of conveying current information. In this sense, the first organized attempt at bringing out newspapers was in ancient Rome, where 'newsletters' were distributed at far off places to inform people about the happenings in the capital. These were, of course, in the 'written' form, as printing had not been invented. During the times of Julius Caesar there were the acta diurna or daily announcements of the government and other activities, which were pasted in the capital's public places in the form of wall newspapers. These were also handwritten. The earliest hand-printed news bulletins probably appeared in China during 618-966 C.E. under the T'ang dynasty. Mostly government officials read these. The next big development came in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Germany where the Fugger family, a powerful group of merchants and bankers,issued newsletters. Agents of the Fugger family were spread all over the world and sent regular reports back home. These reports were combined in the form of newsletters and circulated to all units of the family business in different countries.
NEWSLETTERS TO NEWSPAPERS: The transition from newsletters to the newspaper came very slowly. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, the newsletters spread to many parts of Europe and other places. For example, the first time news was presented in printed form in Mexico was in 1541. In England in the year 1621, 'Coranto' was published. It was also called "Weekly news from Itlay, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France". This is claimed to be the first newspaper of England. Benjamin Harris made the first such attempt in the Amercian colonies. A bookseller by profession, Harris published ‘Public Occurences- Both Foreign and Domestic' in 1690. Soon Harris got into trouble with the authorities and his paper died an unceremonious death after its very first issue.
The second newspaper in the American colonies came fourteen years later in 1704 when John Campbell, who was the postmaster of Boston, brought out the 'Boston News Letter'. Soon newspapers spread to all parts of the world - mainly due to the British and French colonies. The newspaper reached its modern phase after passing though many stages. In the first phase, it was known as the 'Relation' or 'Relacion' in the beginning and contained a single story. It had no fixed periodicity and often was brought out once or twice a year. The second stage was the 'Corranto' or 'Corrante'. This was also called a series of relations as it had a number of stories. Mostly corrantos were weeklies. But the title of these Corrantos changed every week depending upon the content. Corrantos covered stories from many countries. The third stage was the 'Diurnal'. It was more regular than the Corranto and it gave more domestic coverage, which was neglected earlier.
The final stage was called the 'News Book' or the 'Mercury'. It was a series of stories covering a long period of time. It was published in the book format. Perhaps the first newspaper of the world was the 'Oxford Gazette'. Muddiman in London published it in 1625. The ‘Oxford Gazette’ was published twice a week. This paper had many of the characteristics of the modern day newspaper. Slowly much technical advancement occurred. At the same time journalistic developments also took place. And in 1702, the first daily newspaper appeared in London. This was called the 'Daily Courant’. E. Mallet published it. And slowly most newspapers developed in to the format we are familiar with now.
Today, A newspaper is regularly published (daily or weekly), printed on unbound newsprint in broadsheet or tabloid sizes, and serves general interests or specific communities with news, comments, features, photographs and advertisements. This definition, however, is not binding, as many newspapers today are available on the Internet. Newspapers vary in size from tabloid size to the regular broadsheet. They range from eight pages to almost 100 pages. They also range from local newspapers serving the needs of small communities to large multi-edition papers catering to readers in many countries. Newspapers also vary in content from general newspapers covering all topics to specific ones covering business, politics, finance, fashion, etc. Newspapers have traveled a long way from being elitist and catering to the sophisticated literates to being a mass medium reaching people of all classes. Now again, some papers have carved special niches for themselves and cater to groups having particular interests.
ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS: As a medium of mass communication, newspaper's most notable contribution has been as a purveyor of information. Books and magazines are purveyors of ideas. Readers around the world depend on newspapers for information about important events- near and far. Of course, in the earlier days it was the only major means of information from around the world.
Now radio and television reach people with information much before the newspaper. In fact, many people doubted if newspapers could fight off the challenge posed by radio and television - both being immediate and more entertaining. Newspapers have successfully fought off this challenge and are thriving.
The reasons behind this are many. First, newspapers offer detailed accounts, which is not often possible with radio and television. The printed word carries a lot of credibility than the spoken words of radio and TV. Also while one has to wait for the new bulletins on radio and TV, in case of newspapers, one can read any time one wants.Newspapers have faced constant threats from other media. But they have fought hard to maintain their integrity, independence and economic viability. Along the way they have continued informing, educating and entertaining the readers. Newspapers have been instrumental to a great extent in eradicating illiteracy. It is perhaps played the most important role in creating, orienting and molding public attitudes and opinions. The persuasive power of newspaper is so strong that it is still used as a major medium for advertising- both commercial and social.
Newspapers have also played the watchdog function very effectively. Newspapers have been most effective in holding governments accountable to the governed.Today newspapers are no more family-owned or political mouthpieces. They are now mouthpieces of business houses as most newspapers are part of businessconglomerates. Newspaper business has come to a stage of monopoly in many
countries. Among recent changes, the number of daily general interest newspapers has dropped. Special interest newspapers have consolidated. On the other hand advertising revenue continues to rise. The competition for bigger circulation has led to many such practices as price cuts.
FUTURE OF NEWSPAPERS: Four colour offset printing, electronic newsrooms with all the latest computers and such other gadgets, facsimile editions are some of the features of today's newspapers. The newspapers of tomorrow could be paperless. People have been experimenting with paperless newspapers for a long time now. One step in this direction is the tablet newspaper. This has flat liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, mostly in the tabloid size, which can collect the contents of any newspaper through telephone lines or cables. Everything will be displayed on the screen at the click a button. On the other hand most major newspapers are available on the Internet. Another development of the future could be that the newspapers will be customized. Following the 'theory of selectivity' or reader's tendency to read only what appeals to them, mass-oriented newspapers may not be published any more. Instead, homes will be equipped with receiving units (on personal computers). Readers can scan all the available 'items' on the monitor and get printouts of only the required items. This way the readers will exercise a lot of control on the contents of newspapers of tomorrows. This self-interest in selecting news and other items will result in high degrees of polarization. And the daily newspapers, once described as "the poor man's university" by George Bernard Shaw, will become too elitist. This is because only few people will have access to such electronic newspapers.
MAGAZINES
A magazine is a periodical publication that contains an assortment of items in each issue. The term magazine means 'store house’. Keeping with this, magazines originally contained diverse contents. But in recent times these have become highly specialized, each attracting a clearly defined audience, catering to their specific range of interests. This arrangement works out real good from the advertising point of view as advertisers can reach specific target audiences more effectively. Broadly, magazines can be divided into four groups: consumer magazines, trade and technical magazines, company publications (public relations publications), and literary & scholarly journals. Consumer magazines are usually dependent on advertising. They try to reach the general public or particular segments of it like men, women, children, elderly people, sport lovers, film lovers, etc. Trade and technical magazines, including business journals, are directed at relatively small and highly specific audiences in trades, business, industries, and professions. These carry information on topics related to these specific areas. Corporations, government agencies, educational institutes and other such organizations issue Public Relations periodicals to promote their interests among employees, customers, clients, opinion leaders, etc. Literary and scholarly journals are published with an aim of promoting and spreading knowledge. These magazines do not have much commercial viability. Media groups and individual publishing houses publish magazines. Magazines are also published by small societies, by corporations, by trade associations, educational institutions and religious organizations. Even government departments and political parties publish magazines. Magazines are mostly published weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. These are also published quarterly or half-yearly. A few magazines are also published once a year.
Magazines can be as general as the 'Readers Digest' or as specific as the TV programme guides. However varied magazines are, they share two common characteristics. They are published regularly and each magazine appeals to the interests of some specific segment of society. Historically, magazines developed as a hybrid form of printed media and appealed to audiences as it bridged the gap between the purely informative newspapers and the highly intellectual books. They provided some information and some entertainment. The origin of magazines is somewhat obscure as in the early days, the demarcation between newspapers and magazines were not so clear. However, one of the earliest magazines known is the Journal des Scavans. It was founded in Paris in 1665. Initially it carried abstracts of books. Soon it carried original material as well. Then came the Tattler and the Spectator (by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele) from England. These were published in the first quarter of the eightieth century. Both these magazines included more opinion and entertainment and very little of news. Two of the earliest American magazines were the 'General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America', and the 'American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies'. Both were published from Philadelphia in 1741.Benjamin Franklin published the General Magazine and it came, just three days after the American Magazine, which was published by Franklin's competitor Andrew Bradford. Both these magazines closed very quickly.
The magazines that followed also did not survive for longer times because of limited circulation and lack of advertising. However, magazines flourished in the nineteenth century. Portfolio, North American Review (1815) and Saturday Evening Post (1821) were early success stories. Magazines like Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Gleason’s Pictorial, and Harper’s Weekly followed soon. The golden age for magazines in America came in the late half of the 19th century. Channels of distribution were created as surface transmission networks developed in 1860s and 1870s. A decade later the Postal Act of 1879 made many of the magazines much cheaper. Other developments of this time were the development of cheaper pulp paper, improved printing processes, and the invention of linotype, which facilitated automatic typesetting. Another development of this time was better photographic reproduction. This way magazine could be produced less expensively, more rapidly and more attractively. Also magazines could be distributed to far off places at cheaper prices. Both the circulation and advertising revenue also increased. Successful magazines of this time were American, Colliers and Cosmopolitan (published by William Randolph Hearst). Many technological and other developments in the early part of the twentieth century gave birth to the modern magazine. It was low cost, enjoyed large circulation, supported well by advertising and catered to diverse audiences. During the decade following World War I, several big magazines were established. These were Reader's Digest (1922), Time (by Hennzy Luce, 1923) the New Yorker (1925). In the mid-1930s came Life followed by the first men's magazine- Esquire. Today magazines are published on a wide variety of subjects. The American Audit Bureau of Circulation classifies almost thirty different categories of magazines. Some of these are: automobiles, brides or bridal (matrimonial), beauty and sewing, business and finance, computers, crafts or games, fishing and hunting, clubs and associations, fashion, gardening, health, home, mechanism and science, men's, motorcycle, music, news, photography, senior citizens, sports, travel, women's, and youth.
Another classification puts all magazines under three basic categories - news magazines, entertainment magazines and advocacy or opinion magazines. Today the majority of magazines are narrow either in content (subject), in target audience, or both. Few magazines are broad in both in terms of subject and audience. Readers Digest is one of the few which is broad-based both in terms of subjects covered and readership. Magazines competed with newspapers right from the very beginning. Soon they faced tough competition from the new media- radio, films, television, etc. But like newspapers, magazines have also successfully fought this challenge. Magazines, in fact, have thrived and prospered. One example of this is the hundreds of film magazines in India, which are doing roaring business despite numerous TV channels providing film-based programmes. Magazines on many other subjects also have been started and grown despite the rise of newer media. The importance of magazines as a medium of mass communication, the number of magazines, the range and nature of their content, the use people make of them, their relative prestige etc. vary from country to country. All these things are influenced by historical, societal, cultural, economic, and political factors. Countries practicing free economy have more number of magazines than the socialist countries. In many countries, magazines are considered secondary in importance to newspapers.
However, magazines play an important role as disseminators of information,opinion and attitudes. And historian Theodore Peterson has credited magazines with “providing social reform, putting issues in national perspective, fostering a sense of national integration, providing low cost entertainment, serving as an inexpensive "instructor", and offering a variety of entertainment, education and ideas representing a wide range of tastes and interests.”
FUTURE OF MAGAZINES: The journey of magazines has been from elitism to a pursuit of the largest possible readers, and to the present age of specialization. Now magazines cater to readers differentiated by social, economical, educational, professional, cultural, recreational, religious, and many other interests. This trend will continue in the 21st century. Technologically and economically, the magazine of tomorrow will differ from that of today. There will be fewer bulky magazines. More and more magazines will be printed on lighter paper. Also more magazines will be available on the Internet.This will result in rapid and widespread dissemination of information. Custom-made and made-to-order magazines will arrive. These will give readers freedom of selection. They can select the items they want from a menu and get them printed on their printers at home.
RADIO
Skeptics had labeled it dead and buried. Die-hard fans were lamenting its decreased popularity. But radio staged a come back. It is alive and kicking today. What better proof than this piece of statistics. Americans listen to radio for an average of 25 hours a week. Older Americans (above 65 years) listen to radio for over 30 hours a week, Younger Americans (18-34 years) listen to it for about 27 hours a week. That is a whopping four hours of radio listening a day and in a country where other more entertaining and highly visual media abound. Radio may be small in size. It may not be a status symbol. It may not be as complete a medium like television. But it is doing pretty well - in terms of programming, listenership, number of stations, and of course, revenues.
Radio has ceased to be a major mass medium. But it plays the supplementary or support role to perfection. It has got many features, which are not there with other media. It ranks behind television and newspapers as a source of news and in terms of credibility. It is highly portable. It is inconspicuous. But it is always there for us. Television may fail us. Newspapers may not reach us. But radio never fails us. One of the reasons why it is neglected is that it is a background medium. We often listen to radio while doing other things like driving a car, shaving, cooking and even while reading newspapers. Radio may not be a major medium today. But it is credited with a lot of 'firsts'. Radio introduced over-the-air-advertising. It established major networks. Radio pioneered programme effectiveness research and introduced the rating system. But radio was hit really hard by television. With the rising popularity of television, it almost became extinct. But it recovered from the brink of extinction by learning how to speak to the audience one to one and newer technology. It became the most personal medium. Radio has achieved an intimacy, which no other medium possesses.
HISTORY OF RADIO: Samuel Morse invented telegraph in 1844. Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone in 1876. Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. The monopoly of printing was nearing its end. At such a time, a new era in electronics was heralded when in the last decade of the 19th century; Guglielmo Marconi of Italy invented a way to transmit sound without using wires. By 1901, Marconi succeeded in creating a wireless communication link between Europe and North America. In 1906 Lee De Forest along with John Ambrose Fleming perfected the 'audion' or the vacuum tube, which made clear transmission of voice and music possible. These developments paved the way for the first ever broadcast that took place on Christmas Eve, 1906 in Massachusetts, USA. Reginald Fessenden was the pioneer behind this very first transmission. It took ten years of hard work to perfect the radio. This led to the first ever radio news cast in 1916. Following World War I, three American companies joined hands and formed the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). These were General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, and American Telephone and Telegraph (AT & T). This marked the beginning of organized and regular radio broadcasting. Very quickly radio established its place in the minds of listeners. Heavy doses of infotainment (music, drama, talk shows, etc., supplemented with news made radio popular almost overnight. This popularity was reflected as radio went commercial in 1922 and attracted heavy advertising. Soon radio industry developed far and wide
spreading networks and by the 1930's radio become America prime mass medium. By that time it had spread its tentacles almost all over the world.
TELEVISION
Television made its entry by the mid 1930's. And few years’ later radio was overtaken - in terms of popularity - by television. Radio needed a savior. But it was already there. Columbia University professor Edwin H. Armstrong had invented frequency modulation (FM) transmission in 1933. It was static-free and had high fidelity sound quality. These qualities had been demonstrated by 1938. But use of FM was started only after World War-II. And only in the 1970's large-scale use of FM radio started. In America FM has overtaken AM radio in terms of audience share. FM has caught like wild fire all over the world. In India there are about 200 FM radio stations. Most FM channels offer 24-hour service. There are dozens of private players operating FM channels.
Today radio has branched out. No more it offers only dramas, comedies and soap operas. Also radio is not solely dependent on music. Radio today offers a wide variety of programmes. It has started specializing and tries to reach smaller and more loyal audiences and advertisers. It provides a mix of local and topical information, news, current affair programmes, talk shows, interviews, musical programmes, drama and documentaries.
FUTURE OF RADIO: Radio's future is a mystery. It is not easy to predict the future of radio. The future of radio would depend on changing regulatory scenarios, technological advances and changing audience appeal. However, radio's current localization and specialized programming will continue. Radio transmission will improve greatly particularly because of satellite technologies. Stereophonic broadcasting over AM brands will be further improved. And FM will continue to grow at a faster rate Be it the Gulf War, the Olympics, the Soccer and Cricket World Cups, audiences get to watch it on their television screens. Television brings events of far off places to our drawing rooms. Television captures our imagination like no other media. We see things on it, we hear and we see life-like-movement. And it is the most complete and the most dramatic of all mass media. Television captures actual events for us, reaches as immediately, gives us shared meanings for events, situations, happenings, etc. But in addition to packaging reality, television also packages fiction, drama, culture, economy and many other things with equal or better ease. And increasingly this idiot box (so named because it provides everything on a platter) has steadily increased its hold on us.
Here is some proof about the astounding reach of television. In India, Doordarshan reaches about 260 million households. In American, more than 90 percent of the homes have TV sets. Most Americans have multiple TV sets. An average American watches TV for more than 30 hours a week. Viewers depend on television for a whole lot of reasons ranging from information, entertainment, and education and of course, to see advertisements on TV.
HISTORY OF TELEVISION: The inventions and discoveries in the late 1890s and early twentieth century lead to the invention of television. Vladimir Zworykin, an American scientist of Russian birth, took the first big step in the development of TV. Zworykin developed an all-electronic television system in 1923 and perfected it by 1928. However, only experimental TV broadcasts were conducted in the early days. By 1937, quite a few experimental TV stations were in operation. Only in 1938, TV sets become widely available. And since then, television has not looked back. It has climbed the ladder of success and has become the number one mass medium in many regards. In India, television arrived with small scale experimental telecasting in 1959. Slowly the half hour programme experiment grew. New TV stations also started coming up. In 1975, the Satellite Instruction Television Experiment (SITE) was conducted. It used an American satellite and reached viewers in six states through 5,000 communities TV sets. The growth of TV was very slow in India in the early
days. But it has grown by leaps and bounds since the early 1980s. While Doordarshan was the only channel available all over the country through the 1980's, the TV scenario in India changed with the arrival of CNN through cable TV in 1991. Since then private TV channels, running through cable networks have mushroomed. Now we have more than 250 TV channels available in India. From generalized programming of the early days, we now see specialized TV channels. BBC, CNN, NDTV, AAJTAK, Star News, Zee News, Total TV, INDIA TV and DD News the list of news channels is endless. There are exclusive sports channels - Star Sports, ESPN, Ten Sports, Nimbus, and DD Sports. National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet are highly specialized channels covering nature and wildlife exclusively.
RATING SYSTEM: In the television the products (programmes) are offered to the customers (viewers) free of cost or at a very nominal rate for the pay channels. As there is not much direct income through sales, television is mostly dependent on advertising for revenue. More advertisements are shown before or during popular programmes. Popularity of TV programmes is judged from the rating of the programmes. Although rating was first practiced for radio programmes, television uses it more. Refinement of survey methods and the advancements in the field of computers have turned the
rating practices into highly reliable systems. The most prominent of these systems was developed by the A.C. Nielson Company. Another company doing rating research is the Arbitron Company. These ratings are often criticized as they use very small sample sizes. For example, Nielson Company uses a sample size of 2,000 households to study and measure the programme tastes and likings of the whole of America.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION: Over the years television has grown as a medium of advertising also. In America more than half the advertising money is spent on TV. Television is used as an advertising medium for many reasons. One of the reasons is its massive reach. TV reaches every one and everywhere. Young and old, literate and illiterate, students and scholars, workers and experts, house wives and working women, no one escapes television. It also offers great many new dimensions to advertising that are unmatched by other advertising media. These include drama, humour, dramatic effect, colour, stereo-sound and most importantly, the element of movement or motion. TV also has a unique ability to create mood, excitement and a sense of involvement.
TELEVISION NEWS: Viewers' addiction to TV news is reflected from the following findings of a research study in America. These statistics hold true to a great extent for most other countries also. One third of the adult population receives most of their news from television. For half the population, television is the only source of news. And most people find television news to be more credible. People watch news on TV because it is immediate. Also it is more convenient and requires less effort than any other news media.
TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY: Up to the mid-1970s, television production, like cinema, depended on celluloid film. Handling this film, particularly editing was cumbersome, time consuming and costly. Film also involved bulky camera and elaborate processing and editing systems. It also was very costly. All this changed with the advent of the magnetic videotape. These tapes were reusable and were easy to edit. Another improvement - particularly for TV news - was the development of electronic-news-gathering (ENG) equipment. ENG was highly portable and offered news crews greater mobility. Now portable digi-cams have revolutionized TV production. Improvements in satellite technology and transmission facilities have resulted in sophisticated outdoor-broadcasting (OB) systems.
CRITICISM OF TELEVISION: It has been called by many names. The boob tube, the plug-in-drug, the one-eyed monster and of course, the idiot box. Television has turned millions of watchers into couch potatoes. TV, it is said, results in 'transcendental vegetation'. Television generally concentrates its efforts on entertaining the masses. It, however, has the potentiality to do better things. As Edward R. Murrow once said, "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate, and can even inspire. But it can only do so to the extent that viewers are determined to use it to these ends. Otherwise, it is merely wires and lights in a box. Used carefully, television could be immensely useful in the battle against ignorance, intolerance and indifference".
CINEMA AS MASS MEDIUM:
Film is based on an 'optical illusion'. Still frames of individual photographs are mechanically speeded up and projected in such a way that they blend into one another, creating the illusion of motion. It is known by many names - movies, cinema, films, or motion pictures. Film is considered a mass medium because it reaches very large audiences. It is not as immediate as newspaper, television or radio. But reaches large masses of people over a relatively long period of time. By 'film' we generally mean the commercial 'masala' films. But there are many other variations including art films, cartoon films, educational films (used as teaching aids), social documentaries, television films (specifically made to be shown on TV), and children’s films. Film does not have a well-defined audience like other major mass media. It also lacks the overwhelming presence as enjoyed by radio, TV and newspapers etc. But it has a big advantage. It commands attention. Once inside the darkened theatres, audience members forget the outside world and become captive to the charm of films. The larger-than-life format of film (from 16mm, 35 mm, 70mm, cinema scope to the most recent I-max format) provides the film producer absolute control over emphasis, order of presentation, continuity, dramatic effect, and timing.
These characteristics have been polished and refined over the last 100 odd years. And film has become a superb medium of entertainment, instruction, and persuasion. Some scholars compare films with books. Both films and books are relatively expensive to produce, both are long term undertakings, both deal with unity and specificity of subject matter, and most importantly neither is supported by advertising. In fact, film has been called the electric book.
HISTORY OF FILMS: Film works on the principles of 'persistence of vision'. The eye retains an image for fleeting seconds after it is gone. So when individual photographs or visuals are shown one after the other at a very fast rate, then we get an illusion of movement or motion. Long back Leonardo da Vinci developed the camera obscura. In 1671, Athanasius Kircher developed 'magic lanterns’. Both
these machines attempted to project moving pictures. Photography and projection were united when Leland Stanford developed the 'Zoopraxinoscope'. Soon many developments took place. Thomas Alva Edison invented the electric light. Edison's assistant William Kennedy Laurie Dickson combined the phonograph (to record sound) and kinetoscope (to record moving pictures). Soon there were many imitations like the Vitascope, Biograph, etc.Then came the Lumiere brothers. In 1895, they produced and started having commercial shows of films. Soon others followed suit and by the beginning of the 20th century, film became the third mass medium after books and newspapers. Soon films became a form of family entertainment. Movie theatres opened everywhere. People wanted longer films with more interesting content. So the 'star system' came into being. Films now had proper stories, and technically a lot of improvements took place.
The combination of all these factors made films a booming entertainment medium. The early films were silent ones. Towards the end of the 1920s came the talkies (Alamara, the first talkie in India was produced in 1931). Films production centers like Hollywood and our own Bollywood opened up all over the world. And the business of films - with its huge networks of production, distribution and exhibition - grew to the status of an industry. Film has had an obvious impact on the audiences. One reason is it is not imposed. It does not come to us. We go to theatres to watch films. So there is willingness on part of the audiences to get transported to another world for two or three hours. Then the language barrier is minimal. Films deal with universal themes. Also it is for more transportable. Audiences all over the world watch Hollywood block busters. People in Russia and China loved Raj Kapoor's films. Transportability led to exchange and soon film became a cross-cultural medium.
No comments:
Post a Comment