Electronic Media vs. Print Media

Journalism Lectures, Day-15

On Day-15, we discussed the challenges that the Indian print media faces from its electronic counterpart. These challenges bring into question the very existence and survival of newspapers and magazines in the country. The influence of television news channels on the Indian public is quite remarkable. Online journalism in India also accounts for a large share of the media business in the country. The electronic media vs. print media debate led to some interesting exchange of ideas and thoughts.

Except for one girl, all the other students believed that print media would survive the onslaught made by the electronic media in India. She believed that in 5 years time, newspapers and magazines would lose their importance. But there are some unique advantages that only the print media can lay claim to.

1) A road accident in your city may not get reported by the electronic media. But you will surely find a mention of the accident in your national daily. Depending on the severity of the accident, the newspaper report can appear as a front page news or in the inside pages of the newspaper.

Since a national daily is published from multi-city locations, it has the distinct advantage of providing local news at a much grander scale than television news channels and online news portals. Since the electronic media caters to a wider cross-section of people, it would always find it difficult to offer local news content.

2) The electronic media is always working under the pressure to offer "Breaking News". If NDTV doesn't cover it, CNN IBN or Aaj Tak will! That sort of competition is what makes the news channels broadcast half-baked or "half cooked-up" stories.

The print media, however, has more time on hand to observe developments, investigate stories, analyse information and present it to the readers in an accurate and correct manner. They get an entire day's time to determine a story's credibility and, verify facts and figures. The print media can wipe out the mess created by the electronic media; it just takes a day's time to do it!

There are other important points related to the electronic media vs. print media debate that I'll discuss in subsequent blog posts.