Tracing Newspapers

Hey Everyone,

It has been in my mind for quite a while,but recent mishap of Boeing 737 Dubai-Manglore, acted as spur and inspired me to write this post.

Oxford Dictionary defines Newspapers as 'Regular printed publications of loose folded sheets with news etc.'
what does it define news as?
News..'Information about important or interesting recent events, when published or broadcast'!
consider published here.

Let us take a very short ride into the past and trace how was the structure of newspapers in india a few decades back.

The history newspaper in India began in 1780, with the publication of
the Bengal Gazette from Calcutta(now kolkata).
The newspapers collected their news from the news agencies. India has
four news agencies namely, the Press Trust of India (PTI), United News
of India (UNI), Samachar Bharti and Hindustan Smachar. Newspapers and
magazines in India are independent and usually privately owned. About
5,000 newspapers, 150 of them major publications, are published daily
in nearly 100 languages. Over 40,000 periodicals are also published in
India. The periodicals specialize in various subjects but the majority
of them deal with subjects of general interest. During the 1950s, 214
daily newspapers were published in the country. Out of these, 44 were
English language dailies while the rest were published in various
regional languages. This number rose to 2,856 dailies in 1990 with 209
English dailies.y 2007, 62 of the world`s best selling newspaper
dailies were published in countries like China, Japan, and India. India
consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007, making it the second
largest market in the world for newspapers.
Enough of these boring facts!

ahh..India sure has been a land mark in terms of consumption, But my
question here is what kind of consumption.


Let us trace these 'kinds'.
We wil skip to the beginning of this year in the vast timeline of newspaper..for things have changed very fast in the past few years which has brought a revolution.One of the major component being The Internet,it wont be of much use to trace what were newspapers like
in the days of Gandhiji!

Kinds of consumptions be divided into most simplest but widely covering
:-
Positive &
Negative.

Wil have to Agree what is Positive and what Negative varies according
to individual but I am talking about magnitude where any sane person wil agree 'Peace' as Positive and 'Terrorism' as Negative!

Over the years Newspapers hav undergone changes,lets not forget the
increase in its weight(pages)!
Out of tons of sections in the news paper...I may want to focus on its
very first page.

Its an amazing day...today you didnt even burn your breakfast...the coffee has the temperature you wanted with that smell of brew..you finally take your breakfast plate with your fresh edition of news paper and sit on your dinning table...You jus place that fat paper on the table and there it is..On the very first page The Mood Spoiler!
Headlines of your newspaper...
'5 year Old Raped by some dumb losers of life!'
or '1250 years building collapsed with 77 dead 155 injured but a dog
unscratched as it is said every dog has its day!'
or 'I am not Pakistani, i am an actor Damn it!'
and many other...
Want Evidence?
Evidence 1
Evidence 2
Evidence 3
Evidence 4
Evidence 5

Let me talk personally now...I hav been reading The Times of India for 5 years...and almost every edition since last couple of years!
Times is respected all over the world...but sincerely speaking even it has been under this cyclone...Lately Times has also been quite negative when it comes to the headlines on the first page..!
Frankly no one wants to hear his national politician guilty in some bribe case or its judiciary system being criticized or its incapability in controlling population..as his very first news sentence!

Positivity is needed!

I agree let it be a plane crash or a some high profile sting operation or any of the above negative news..people have the right to know!
but then i never said that editors should delete these news
completely...I just want these news to be just shifted anywhere in their 50 pages but the first page.

Then What should be on the first page?
something like this..
Positive 1
Positive 2
Positive 3

any news with 'general' positivity in itself may b published on the very first page!
Inventions...Go Green progress..national positive achievements..sports honor..successful deals..etc!
You never know this may evn help cure certain mental disease one of the major bein depression...Number of people havin mental stress in a street are more than the lamp post in that street!

So,it is my sincere request to all the news papers to be a little positive in its first page because terrorist can wait if you can create life in Lab!


-Atit Kothari