Credibility of newspapers in the era of social media news

The credibility of national media today is not what it used to be once upon a time. People in the era of social media are so aware that mostly they behold national media as national leaders only. The element of doubt now raises a big question about their credibility.

Talk about the popularity of the national media, it won’t be easy to say whether the love or respect of the people has gone up now or not, nevertheless, the number of readers and viewers certainly has grown a little bit. But in comparison with social media popularity and viewership or readership, it does not stand anywhere.

Today the circulation of newspapers itself shows that the choice has considerably shifted to the easy media which is social media. Now the number of new newspapers and news channels has badly gone down in the last one and a half decades. Now all the mainstream print and Satelite news platforms also have helplessly taken shelter in social media as their prime platform.

The circulation of many newspapers in Hindi and English along with other Indian languages is in lakhs and their readers’ number is in crores. Around four to five decades back in the 1970s there used to be two-three editions of a newspaper in the market, and then it was considered a big newspaper, but now there are not a few newspapers, whose dozens of editions are printed.

The same is the case with TV news channels. People in the beginning used to watch only available four-five news channels on their television sets, but today hundreds of channels are seen operating in different languages and from different states in the country. Talk about the viewership, which is also in crores. Some surveys also reveal that viewers now spend several hours watching TV every day. The easy accessibility and affordability have also defeated print media in comparison with satellite media. What about social media then? Its accessibility does not need much affordability and it has come to the top of the list leaving print and satellite media behind.

Despite this, it is not easy to figure out if there has been an increase in the authenticity and credibility of newspapers and channels. In today’s big crowd of TV channels, only two-three channels have serious and authentic debates. Otherwise, most of the channels keep showing bullfighting of party spokespersons and pieces of biased journalists on every issue.

The bullfight debates showcase mud-throwing, allegation pelting, and also the use of indecent language. This creates a kind of kick to the viewers and the TRP along with a jugglery of advertisements goes in favor of the owners of TV channels. The helpless anchors are also compelled to pout in order to satisfy their bosses.

Earlier Americans used to call television stupid terming it -Idiot Box. Though that is purely an exaggeration, nevertheless today there is a great need to inculcate objectivity, authenticity, objectivity along with seriousness in Indian TV news channels.

The level of credibility is shown today with one bare fact that the readers and viewers can easily tell which newspaper or television news channel will come out with what kind of opinion on an issue. Readers already are aware of which side the editorials and articles will lean on. Still, the readers as per the habit, keep reading the newspapers, and they have to chew and swallow the gram which is served to them. The uniqueness of newspapers is almost equal to digital news that they contain a lot of news and the reader also has the facility to see the read news again any time in the future.

They also have the option to check the veracity of the news they have heard and read. The biggest difference between newspapers and TV news channels is reading and watching. When you watch the news, the spoken word cannot be taken back but the written ones can be erased with correction in the next issue. That is the reason, readers mostly rely on newspapers more in comparison to TV news channels.

People’s keenness to check the veracity of news has today made social media extremely popular. People now spend hours every day on their mobile phones, computers, WhatsApp, Facebook,  Twitter, etc. They enjoy using these mediums more than newspapers and TV. Here the reason is on these platforms they can freely express their anger, happiness, frustration, sadness, and disappointment – everything they feel they have the option to share that.

TV channels also do not give the facility for listeners to express their reactions, whereas social media allows anyone at any time can do anything they want. And also, within no time it reaches to crores of people via Whatsapp, Twitter, and Facebook.

This is such a cheap and comfortable facility that it is becoming more popular crossing even the popular markets of traditional media. Though it is easy it is dangerous also at the same time. It also helps people to spread blatant lies, they are also able to create confusion and incite violence.

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Governments also have been imposing various restrictions from time to time, and also the companies that operate them, are very cautious these days. Nevertheless, it is not easy to control social media, and always tougher than Newspapers and TV channels. It is just like the waves of the ocean. The only way it can get controlled is for people themselves to control it, not sharing, opposing, and thus stopping wrong and dangerous news from getting circulated on social media platforms.