Home ›› 30 Oct 2022 ›› Special Supplement
While freedom of expression is a coveted idea in the current age, what one does to achieve the end depends on sensible thinking. Whether one would spread violence as they have access to a particularly violent incident or keep a lid on the spread of brutal information and footage begs the practice of restraint and sensible judgement.
Most adults in Bangladesh would remember the frenzy that broke out in several districts across the country in 2013 over the conviction of war criminal and top-tier Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee by the International Crimes Tribunal for the war crimes he had committed during the Liberation War in 1971.
On March 4 of that year, a section of his followers spread rumours that Sayedee’s face appeared on the moon and urged people to take to the streets. In that particular instance, miscreants resorted to physical means as well as social media to spread fake news that resulted in the loss of valuable lives.
Gatekeeping — no matter if one likes it or not — is a necessary media ethic, which is absent in most social media content and constitutes the gulf of difference that lies between mainstream media content and those of social media in terms of credibility.
The mainstream media, whether it’s print, television, radio or the online version, will continue to sway its supremacy over social media unless the latter comes under an editorial guideline or proper gatekeeping. While publishing or airing any news item, the newspapers or the TV channels always keep in mind the reach, importance, outcome or impact of the news story and make their respective editorial judgement accordingly, which is completely absent in social media content.
Fact-checking will always be a major responsibility for traditional media outlets and by doing so, they ensure that no untoward situation is being incited by a news item they are going to publish or air. This necessary trend is by and large absent in social media content.
This, however, impedes the idea of freedom of speech for people who can articulate themselves unhindered through social media, whereas their voice is more likely to be lost in the case of the mainstream media.
In this connection, another interesting point can shape a discussion — what if the same person is a part of both social media and mainstream media?
Any journalist working in mainstream media is likely to be acting as a gatekeeper whenever releasing a news item. Arrays of issues such as objectivity, trends, and financial or political interests will lead the journalist’s hands in shaping a particular news item. But, when that same person takes to social media and starts writing on that very topic, the writing may seem unhindered as there is no question of censorship or gatekeeping.
That same person can get a lead for a story from social media content and may end up running a major news item for the mainstream media. In such cases, the spread of social media can be high, but the impact of mainstream media on the same topic is likely to be higher.
In mainstream media, alongside ensuring objectivity, a journalist is also tasked to prove any claim made while publishing or airing any news item, whereas all sorts of content is being used in social media for making personal attacks or to demean an institution.
In May 1897, the great American humourist, novelist and social critic Samuel Clemens — best known by his pen name, Mark Twain — was in London. It was one of the stops on a round-the-world speaking tour he’d embarked on in 1895.
While Twain was in London, someone started a rumour that he was gravely ill. It was followed by a rumour that he had died. One major American newspaper actually printed his obituary and, when Twain was told about this by a reporter, he quipped: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
This writer believes that the doomsayers’ view that the print is on the verge of death is exaggerated. A recent survey by Deloitte found that 88 per cent of magazine readers in the UK still prefer to consume articles via print. Half of the respondents to its state-of-the-media survey (2,276 UK consumers, aged 14 to 75) owned a smartphone. As long as there are people who derive satisfaction from tactile connections to the written work — newspapers and books — there will be a market for printed newspapers.
Many find a measure of comfort in touching the newspaper, flipping back and forth from section to section, from cover to jump page, to bend the paper over to isolate an interesting story without the interruption of an online ad or promotion. One can put it down, sip coffee, pick it up again and manipulate the pages without scrolling.
Print media is retainable. People actually keep it (warranted it’s not a boring DL leaflet or something else you get from someone on the side of the road that lacks quality design, quality finishes or an interesting shape). There is a reason Amazon is suddenly constructing physical bookstores everywhere. People like tangible things.
Although the digital trend is in, people will always come back to things that they can touch, see, smell, feel, experience, and own. As Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky put it, “The stores are a great way for customers to engage with our devices, to see them, touch and play with them, and become fans.” Even Amazon understands that in certain situations, tangible is more effective than digital.
Print media is not dead; it’s just evolving. It is much easier to read and navigate a printed product than it is to navigate a website. Are you sure you clicked the right tab and read everything relevant on that website? With printed products, you only have so much material to read, and running out of data on your cell phone will not affect your ability to do so.
Also, we all know what it feels like when our eyes get strained from staring at screens all day. The contrast of ink on paper, when it comes to print media, is much better for your eyes. According to Hubcast, 80 per cent of respondents in a Two Sides survey indicated a clear preference for reading print on paper.
No distractions. Forbes hits the nail on the head in the article “Print is Dead? Not So Fast,” which says, “The saturation of digital pop-ups and banner ads on the web can be overwhelming and the fear of spam and viruses is enough to make people wary of clicking.”
Have you ever read an article on Facebook and found yourself two hours later simultaneously buried in the depths of Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn; watching memes about cats, reading up about the current exchange rate drop and planning a summer holiday in Italy? We most certainly have, which is why print media is sometimes more effective than digital.
People skim read online, 90 per cent of the time they will not read more than your second paragraph before an advert on the right of the screen catches their eye and suddenly they are wondering if they should buy that giant blow-up flamingo on One Day Only.
When it comes to print, you can take away all the clutter and, as a result, people actually read what they are supposed to be reading. Hubcast also discovered that “88 per cent of respondents indicated that they understood, retained or used information better when they read print on paper, compared to lower percentages (64 per cent and less) when reading on electronic devices.”
Whether the print media will survive the onslaught of electronic media or not has become a hot topic of discussion in recent days. With the advent of tablets and e-readers, one may argue that there will be a time, and not too far away when print media becomes obsolete. Already a number of newspapers and magazines have closed shop or have gone for the web option.
However, in this writer’s opinion, there will always be people who won’t have access to or simply won’t prefer Kindles, iPads, PCs, iPhones, etc. In many cases, it is much simpler and more practical to have something on paper, rather than on a screen. In any case, some people’s eyes are bothered by constantly looking at an illuminated screen. Although much of the written word will move to the digital domain, there will always be a place for print media.
Yet it’s also true that the newspaper industry here is on the decline. In Bangladesh, it is believed that many prominent newspapers are losing circulation as well as revenue. Interestingly enough, globally the circulation figures of major newspapers around the world have increased over the years; publishers have come up with a deluge of books and new magazine titles pop up from nowhere every day.
But the current situation may not be a permanent one. The solution perhaps lies in adaptation. The editors may need to find more creative ways to bring their publication to the consumer, but it is quite obvious that the print media still has a place in modern society. Newspapers and books are trying to get more attractive with the incorporation of visuals and graphics and interactivity to some extent, and all of them together are going online.
If we take a look at the online world, the most popular information websites are still operated by big newspapers. The quality of journalism produced by traditional print media is still way ahead of the combined might of all the bloggers that inhabit cyberspace. There are simply too many spelling mistakes and poor grammar that fill the online media. Some articles or blogs are so full of errors that they are well-nigh unreadable.
Now see the contrast in printed publications. The very permanent nature urges writers to take more care with what they produce. The newspapers and magazines also employ trained sub-editors to minimise errors.
Since print emerged four centuries ago, it has been a highly effective communication tool. In the last couple of decades, innovations in communications have presented new challenges to print, but it still maintains its important status on the market and studies have shown that the highest revenues are reached when the print is incorporated into multimedia campaigns.
Print media has been around for so many centuries and the reason why it has survived for so long is the reason why it will not die in the future. So it can safely be said that like Mark Twain’s death, the predicted demise of the print media has been exaggerated.
The writer is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Business Post
