Print Media & Its Future

Ever since John Gutenberg invented the Printing Press, the printed word has been shaping the civilization of the world. All print media share one common characteristic i.e. they are composed of words inscribed on paper by ink. Their form is strikingly different from the flowing signs and images of televisions and films. For much of their history books have been controversial because of their content rather than their form. In an age when new electronic channels of communication are taking hold, the question been heard is “will the book survive?” The television set & the computer epitomize the electronic challenge to books. However, matter that is intended to be read as a whole and that can command an audience will continue to be more effectively disseminated in traditional book form – inexpensive, compact, portable, requiring no equipment to use and easy to handle & read (Singel, 2000).

The real competition between books and computer-based information technology might be in the field of those books which are designed to be consulted rather than read (i.e. reference books) from which reader seeks specific item or concise element of information rather than extended text. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, etc are examples of these kinds of books. The information in such books is of course a database. It can reside on a magnetic memory in a computer as well as in printed form. “Looking up” these books by online access to a database is more practical and widely used. The superiority of these systems lies in their indexing power which facilitates easy retrieval of relevant pieces of information

Newspapers are another important component of print media. They are facing stiff competition from electronic media. In the good old days there used to be a couple of news bulletins in the day, but now there are channels exclusively devoted to news. These news channels “break” news around the clock. It’s the era of “live coverage”. This is probably one area where newspapers however hard they try can never compete with the electronic media (Hills, 2001).

However the fact remains that newspapers still constitute the cheapest and most efficient media for mass communication. Newspapers fulfill a very important role in forming public opinion. It is the public opinion which keeps the wheel of democracy turning. On a lighter note it may be said that nothing can be more satisfying than “holding the paper in your hand, browsing through the various sections in the paper, page by page, column by column. This, accompanied by a piping hot cup of tea is a daily morning ritual for many.

New electronically-based technologies offer unique advantages for information transfer –flexibility, rapid delivery low-cost, compact storage and interactivity (DeFleur and Dennis, 1998). But the disadvantages that would result from the wholesale substitution of print by electronic media make it rather unrealistic to assume that the new technologies will displace print as a major medium of dissemination, at least in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, the arguments put forward in favor of electronic systems suggest that there would be considerable need for and demand for those back up mechanisms provided by print media. There will be many areas where electronic systems might be very useful, but the need for print on paper will continue. In fact far from threatening the viability of print, the emergence of a whole new spectrum of technologies alongside print may increase rather than decrease the use of printed formats, by generating many new opportunities for those communication activities for which print is most suitable. Such an interaction already exists between television and books. For example, an author whose book has been put on television can look forward to vastly increased sales, if it has been well presented. On the other hand many popular television soap operas may be subsequently also published in book form. Similarly a complementary relationship already exists between online bibliographic data based systems and full text in printed form. Publishers are no longer restricted to using only paper, but can also publish on-line, on CD-ROM, on film, on interactive laser discs. Publishers of electronic information offer search facilities & access to specific sections in their publications, maintain databases of their own publications on the Internet.

A new environment is emerging where a variety of media co-exist. But the print media will continue to hold its own unique position, a position which will never be threatened by the onslaught of the electronic media. In fact print publishers have much more to gain than to fear from the new technology. The new technologies will substitute for print in certain areas that lie along the margins of print’s competences. But their principal will be, on the one hand to afford kinds of information dissemination not possible by the use of print and hence not previously available, and on the other, to make the production, marketing and delivery of printed works much more economical and efficient (Mead, 2000)

References

DeFleur, M. L. & Dennis, E. E. (1998). Understanding mass communication. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin.

Hills, P. (2001). The future of the printed word. London: Open University Press.

Mead, M. (2000). Print media: a bright future. Information Today, 13(5), 57-62.

Singel, S. (2000). Books, libraries and electronics. New York: Knowledge Industry

Publications.