Life without newspapers

As I was sipping my hot and steaming cup of coffee with the newspaper in other hand, I wondered how life would have been without newspapers. Giving out daily news in detail is just one facet of the newspaper, but it does much more than merely giving out news. The date would be unknown without newspapers. One need not be too imaginative to realize how dull our lives would be, in a world devoid of newspapers.. Our most awaited day of the week - the Sunday, would have been just like any other day. Apart from assimilating current events, most of us reach out to the newspapers for learning high-quality phrases and words. In a year of 365 days, we would learn as many new words by picking up one word each day from the newspaper, thus increasing our vocabulary. Of course, the movie segment of the magazine section does not go unnoticed for many of us.

The newspaper makes the reader an intrinsic part of itself by portraying daily news to an individual making the reader feel informed and important. It plays a very crucial role in congregating the masses together for all purposes; be it social or political. With the advent of television, there have been several debates on the ubiquitous newspaper coming to an end. We tend to forget that the first tool for mass communication was the newspaper itself. Watching television can at times become monotonous. Moreover the whole story being telecast might not be thoroughly understood.. In case of newspapers, one is free to decide when to read what news. While television binds the viewer in certain limitations, like time and schedule, the same cannot be said of newspapers. Though the shelf life of a newspaper is only a day, the stories have more credibility. This is due to the physical presence and the aura of authenticity which a newspaper carries with itself.

With the upsurge of internet and the world turning online, everything these days is available just a click away. Be it daily news, shopping, entertainment or any other topic under the sun, the Internet provides us with vast amount of information whereas newspapers present an adequate amount of information that the common man needs to know about a certain topic or issue. With print, one might not have the latest news, but there does exist a built-in sense for its freshness. Although web based news is dynamic as compared to a newspaper, which in contrast is static, the humble newspaper presents a solidity that is more reassuring, constant and secure. Internet updates itself almost every thirty minutes and puts the reader in a dilemma as to what to believe in. Another observation: print has a defined beginning and a defined end, which contains the time you spend with the news. With the web, there is no such finiteness, allowing a flexibility to spend as much or as little time at one’s disposal.. This in return ends up costing more time, than little.

With the influx of newspapers in regional languages the common man senses contentment and gratification. Knowledge of any particular language is not a pre-requisite for reading a newspaper. Hence the growing circulation of regional language newspapers is indeed a matter of great significance. Looking at the circulation of these printed copies, no doubt we cannot do without the newspapers. One way or the other it has become an integral part of our daily routine which we cannot do without.