Technology is become an inseparable part of our society. Ever since then it has kept growing making life easier and simpler for people and also the most convenient way to reach out to large number of people for sending and receiving information through the internet. Internet has gained tremendous importance through its social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp making interaction all the more easy and is used as a platform for providing information and news.
So can these social networking sites take the place of newspapers? Newspapers are traditional way of spreading information far and wide and it is best known as the MIRROR OF THE SOCIETY. Even though the use of internet has increased tremendously people still relay on the newspapers for in-depth information about the current happenings all around the world. It is useful medium providing local, national and international news to the readers.
Most of the people begin their day with the newspaper even though they have their high-tech gadgets providing information in the form of forwards, SMS, Facebook post etc. Why is it so? It’s is because newspapers are a part of our day to day life. As one says “Habits are hard to die”. Reading the newspaper is become a habit, a hard core newspaper reader cannot even enjoy his sip of tea or coffee without reading the newspaper, some even read the newspapers in the toilet (Laugh), in public transports, anywhere and anytime. The younger generation may rely on their phone but people in their old age find it hard to fiddle with the internet so they prefer reading the information. Basically a common man in search of hard core news may still prefer newspaper providing in-depth information unlike Facebook or Whatsapp who provide news in bits and pieces. It provides ample of information in minimal expense. Everyone may not be able to afford a television set, an expensive android phone or most of the people in India are not much educated to make use of these, so for such users newspaper is the best and convenient source of information and it is affordable. Although it may be easy to carry an electronic device but finding its Internet connection is a huge task while travelling, a newspaper is very portable it just requires your time and patience to read it. Through the Internet, people still prefer to e-papers over other sort of news articles. The papers are definitely a rich source of information which includes the news from every source and region. We can have much advanced technology still newspapers still do exist.
Does only existence of newspapers matters or readership matters? Today, with the growth of technology, a lot of news channels and online news sites update news every minute which the newspapers cannot. Hence newspapers face a tough competition from them. Also statics says that about 30-40% approx people read the newspapers, and remaining people are among those who do not have their means of earning, some being illiterate and ignorant about the world while others read only the front page for breaking news and the last games section for fun. Although we cannot deny the fact that newspapers cannot be replaced so easily but if this is the current scenario than the future could be anything especially when technology seems to be overpowering. So the question arises will the newspaper still continue to be the mirror of the society?
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