I love to know the news regardless of its form. Everybody likes to know the news, the primary reason being the curiosity of knowing what is happening to things that affect you and also at different parts of the world.
The debate print versus online media is a tricky as both seem to have their own unique pros and cons. Let’s weigh them.
Pros of Print media:
Local coverage
Print media provide good coverage of events of the locality from where it is printed. What is happening locally really affects us in our daily life and is worthwhile to be informed. The day’s local weather report, roads diverted, train service delays, etc is equally important to know early in the morning as is Gujarat polls or petrol pump allotments(infact the latter can wait for latter part of the day).
Cheaper
It is cheaper for those who have to pay for internet usage. If you are getting online for news alone from your home or an internet café, it can pinch you.
Local sales and bargains
It also informs about the local store sales and other sales in town. Some of the online news sites have local store advertising, but they are more geared toward a wider audience.
Convenience
You can read your newspaper anywhere – while commuting, while having your breakfast, while in a restaurant waiting for food to arrive, while in a taxi, etc. Though it requires some skill to turn pages in a crowded compartment without hitting people standing next to you with your elbow.
Cons of Print:
Lack of timeliness
Newspapers are normally not published more than once a day. So up-to-the minute news reporting is not possible as on television or Internet.
Waiting
Waiting for newspaper to arrive is a pain. As you wait endlessly for him to arrive, you might want to go up the curb to your local newspaper stall and buy, but then that requires the trouble of going and getting it.
Holidays
Newspapers are not printed on national holidays(at least not in India), which could rob you of the pleasure of leisurely reading news over your cup of coffee.
Waste
All the old newspapers clutter around the house. And then you also have to bother about recycling or selling them.
Pros of Online:
Timeliness
Online news offers fast, up-to-the-minute news coverage. While the paper is still reporting the election turnout, the election results would already be available online. Live update is an important feature of online news.
Choice
Online helps you to use different newspapers for different purposes. One paper will give the kind of sports news you want, while another will give the financial news you find helpful. You can easily read only articles of interest to you instead of hunting and manually turning through pages of newsprint. You can also access any newspaper from all over the world, which is not possible with print.
Cheap
You have to pay for your newsprint. However most online papers are free, though some are limited editions and only include the top stories. [This is ignoring the telephone and ISP charges].
Links
Many newspapers provide links in their online edition. Some link to past articles while other links to organisations or events related to the article, which you might find very helpful.
At Work
Since most people use computers for e-mail or other purposes at work or at home, online news reading will not be a problem for them.
Interactivity
Some newspapers provide forums and message boards where you can interact with other readers about the news and editorials.
Images and colours
The images and pictures in an online news sites are colourful and enlargeable and you can in most cases save them.
Archives
Another benefit of online news is that if you missed a story or want to re-read one, they have archives for some specific period of time.
Cons of Online:
Readability
It is difficult reading a newspaper on the Internet, or for that matter online reading in general. My boss still wants that report in hard copy on his desk even after I mail it to him. Maybe that is only because of the practice and people will find it less difficult as time passes.
Time
If you are dreadfully short of time, you cannot scan a lot of news items at a time online, because stories only pop up one or two at a time. Whereas on print, you scan a page quickly and grasp many news items at a time.
Harm
Computer screen gives off harmful radiations that are bad for your eyes and can also cause headaches Coming to think of it, did I read that in an online newspaper or on print?
Computer problems
Online news requires a computer, which opens up a host of problems. Some people can't afford computers, though that number continues to decrease. Some people are computer illiterates. Then there are the problems of computer crashes and power outages.
There are also other advantages of both online and print news. But overall, as you see, online definitely seems to have more advantages than print.
Television news
Television media is yet another news source which was to prove detrimental to print media. It offered the feature of timeliness and constant updates. The uniqueness lay in the fact that you did not have to read the news; somebody read it out for you. In the days of Doordarshan, I used to watch news regularly. And then there was also ‘The World This Week’. Then came the satellite channels, and DD viewers switched to BBC and CNN. But now with online news around I doubt if people watch these television news service that much. Still it remains one of the powerful source of news.
Conclusion
I am a user of both print and online news. I feel that both are important and should be kept available. Rather than compete with each other, they should complement each other. Television was to have been the death of print media, but both survived. Each formed its own market and served it well. I hope that online news will find its own niche and not kill either print or television news.
A news source that gives news according to preferences, at will and accurate and timely at that is always the ideal. Considering that print media may not hold on for long and online might prevail. It may still take some time until ISP and telephone charges becomes negligible, web surfers can stop waiting, monitors stop flickering and people start going around with their palm tops.
I would have argued that print media would be around for some more time till one year back. Now I'm not that sure. Practically anything that is provided on newsprint is now accessible on the net. Mass transit commuters who cant buy palm tops and people whose company has not yet installed the Internet might still continue to buy newsprint. But it is only a matter of time before others shift. Those who spend most of their time on the Internet during work will be the first to drop print media.
Those who haven’t read news online, I suggest you do that. You might find it difficult in the beginning, but that is only due to your lack of practice of reading online. Continue doing that for a month. Chances are you will be pleasantly surprised.
But then, you really can’t wrap things in your computers, can you?
