PRESS evolving to ‘Press this’: In India
Press Evolution:Newspaper
By press in common parlance we usually refer to Printing press, but in journalistic & mass communication terminology, we mean print media such as newspapers, periodicals, magazines, news agencies, press syndicates and any such printed material.
The idea behind forming a press in terms of newspapers and similar related agencies has been to share public information, from the nation or the people themselves and create a powerful vehicle of expressions and information. Today, newspapers have evolved in terms of not only content but also the way it is presented to the mass across countries.
From the time of Maharajas (Kings) and before the period of Christ, we can see wall carvings, signs and stone art symbols across cultures and religions. Kings like Ashoka and Mughal emperors have made powerful use of these media for ages to keep the public informed and educated.
As wall carvings went to the next level of stone and sculptures with writings to newsletters as manuscripts, the development of the printing press was gradually taking place. Soon enough India found its first official newspaper courtesy of James Augustus Hickey in the form of Bengal Gazette in the year 1780.
The first printing press was established in Mumbai in 1674, second in Madras and third in Calcutta in 1779. Hickey’s Bengal Gazette also known as the Calcutta General Advertiser began on 29th January 1780. It was described beautifully as a ‘weekly political and commercial paper open to all parties but influenced by none’
The first two decades of the 19th century saw rigid control of the Press by Lords Wellesley and Warren Hastings. In-spite of this, slowly the Indian readers were soon enough exposed to a very large number of printing houses in the form of newspapers and newsletters across Mumbai, Calcutta & Madras in the form of Darpan, Dig Darshan, Samachar, Friend of India etc.
During this period came the father of the Press industry revolution who raised the need, awareness and to give what the press very truly deserved, “the freedom of the press”, he was none other than Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
Soon enough there was established the first truly owned Indian newspaper by Gangadhar Bhattacharya which was also called as the Bengal Gazette. Rapid developments across languages soon evolved in the form of print press in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujrati, Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Punjabi in the later part of 1850’s. As another decade moved in with the war of independence breaking in, the press became more prominent, more popular and a much needed power tool for information and education for people in general.
When we look into the advantages behind a newspaper and such other print media, even if there is low subscription or reach in terms of actual sale of the IP of newspapers, magazine, newsletters etc. the readership finally goes high. Especially in a country like India where there is still a huge number of people who are not literate, the news spreads in the form of sharing information from person to person. So the power of PRESS is a revolution on it’s own.
Over decades as the most famous and influential newspapers such as Bande Mataram, Kesari, Maratha, Free Press Journal, Madras Standard, Bombay Chronicle etc kept creating waves, so were prominent influencer’s like the great Mahatma Gandhi, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar etc associations with it.
The support for this medium of education and information became larger than life. Soon enough the influence to influence increased with technology contributing and forming a major role into the digital revolution of information sharing.
Today with millions of users across globally, India ranks high amongst users of internet and stands 2nd across Asia and with more adding up every day.
One of the most popular forms of using press or print information across India today is through blogs and micro blogs. No wonder we find more and more newspapers and magazines going ‘online’ and being a part of the larger revolution of the ‘spot content generation & sharing era’.
Today press has taken a larger role of not only entertaining and educating but also of rapidly evolving with the passage of time. We will soon be seeing a lot more of micro blogging platforms and blogs presenting the power of Press to us.
So till then, press this, share and keep evolving & learning!
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Ananth V
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