Do you think that with the growth of TV and the internet in India, the print media has been sidelined? Give your comments.

OR

The beginning of the printing press led to the growth of the idea of a ‘Nation’ as an ‘imagined community’. Comment as suggested by Benedict Anderson.

In India, the circulation of newspapers began to grow with the advent of the television and the internet.
1.The introduction of new technologies increased the circulation of newspapers. This is evident from the entry of glossy magazines into the market.
2. Many literate people are migrating to cities. This has increased the circulation of the Hindi daily Hindustan. Nearly 64000 copies were printed in 2003 while the drastic increase was witnessed in 2005.

The number of copies increased to 425000.
3 . The local language newspapers enable the readers of the small towns and villages to have knowledge about the happenings of the world. Malayala Manorama and Eenadu are some examples. These newspapers caught the attention of the readers by opening a separate column of the district news.

Dina Thanthi, another leading Tamil newspaper, has always used simplified and colloquial language.
4. Newspapers used a trend of giving supplementary magazines and pull outs and niche booklets to boost sales.
5. Many consumer contact programmes, door-to-door surveys were also carried on as a part of marketing strategies. Thus, modem mass media has to have a formal structural organisation.

6. It is seen that vernacular newspapers have increased their circulation in rural areas while the English newspapers are circulated across major cities and towns.
7. Many strategies such as reduction in prices and new editions from many regions were adopted to compete with the internet.

Even though growth in the circulation of the print is seen with the introduction of television, the advent of the internet has made it worse as everything is available as soft copies.

OR

Benedict Anderson suggested that we could think of the nation as an ‘imagined community’.

1. The development of the printing press laid the foundation of the first modern mass media institution.
2. Europe was the first place where the first attempt was made to print the book using modern technologies.

2. Johann Gutenberg developed the technique by printing religious books in the year 1440.
4. Printing industry began to flourish with the advent of the industrial revolution.
5. The top literate class of the society was able to access to the first set of books printed. Gradually, in the mid 19^th century, newspapers were accessible by the mass because of the development in the transport, communication and literacy rate.
6. The printing industry was able to unite both the reading and the hearing population together.

7.This connected people from all classes of society and developed a sense of oneness and a sense of belonging.

Thus, Benedict Anderson argued that this printing technology helped the growth of nationalism and developed a sense of togetherness among the people of the nation.