News On Local Newspapers

By Lunminthang Haokip *

Introduction: The ever-increasing craving to know what happened where, when and how make members of myriad families vie with one another to first grab the lettered daily home-delivered broad-sheets called local newspapers. In a state like Manipur where bundhs fluctuate fortunes and punctuate the pace of life, the propaganda published in the print media, usually set the agenda of the day.

Own Favourites: Preferred columns vary from person to person. Straight from bed, the father feasts his eyes upon the latest political comments. The mother's primary concern, however, is the gas cylinder- update or item issued by school authorities that helps her decide as to whether children are to be readied for class or not. Masculine as male-priority is, the son of the house goes gaga over pot-shots on cricket stars or hot reports on soccer and other sports. Coming to girls, the flippant type who grew up on MTV aren't much bothered about news. But the serious wannabe woman-of-substance does not miss a column and a word of the occasional exclusive article--more so if the author is one of her liking.

Medium of Info: The advent of the Television cannot rob the radio of its well-entrenched place in the listener's psyche. Likewise, the impact of the Internet in no way diminishes the utility of newspapers. For one, among the vehicles of mass communication, the newspaper is cheap and convenient. No other medium can beat it when it comes to access to the masses. You can go through it lying supine on the sofa seat, while in rapid transit, in the zoo or inside the loo and aboard the train or the aero plane. It also caters to the need of every stratum of society by ventilating and moulding public opinion, tapping popular expression and providing remedies to the ills of evil systems.

The local newspaper is a low-cost medium of advertising, publicity, information and propaganda. The visual sophistication of the electronic media cannot belittle the down-to-earth appeal of good old newspaper. Its affordability certainly is an asset. Arriving home late, you can miss choice radio or TV program, but printed news can be read any time of the day or night. Through it flows out the power of the press. But for it, in a democracy, the press is termed the fourth estate.

Localization of News : An exotic gourmet recipe may look delicious and taste thunderous in places of its origin. Yet, it's the regional delicacies that tickle the selective native palate. In the same manner, national and international newspapers are not as vocal about and focal to area-specific sensibilities as their local counterparts are. Burning issues of a particular region can only kindle the special interest of the immediately concerned. A scandalized scoop rocking relationships in a city does not create the same sensation elsewhere. A calamity of tragic magnitude occurring in alien land loses its shocking-impact when it reaches one's hometown.

Taking Sides: In contrast, incidents of national importance that happen in obscure townships aren't given the proper treatment they deserve in metropolitan tabloids. That's why we see readership loyalty gradually tilting homewards. The vernacular press that vociferously champions parochial feelings are looked upon by patronizing readers as the conscience-keeping messiah of hope. They see their joys, sorrows and dreams adequately reflected in it.

The language papers, in turn, side with the common people in any controversy that the establishment and the underdogs lock horns in. They, for sure, know which side of their bread is buttered. That discerning sagacity keeps them afloat in tempestuous times and helps them articulate a buoyant personal rapport and an emotional attachment with their subscribers.

Conflicting Constraints: Most of the small newspapers have big financial problems. They are therefore vulnerable in several ways. Their circulation figures are modest - fetching humble ad-rates. Unpaid ad-bills pile up only to gather dust. Still, the show must go on--every evening and morning. Purchases of press-items are to be made urgently. The employed staff cannot live by words alone. So, a conflict of role and status emerge inevitably. By and large, the scribe community had, more or less, accepted their positional plight of being paid low to subsist in tune with high expectations.

Journalistic Brinkmanship: However, the silver lining in the dim scenario is that some of the vernacular papers are doing profitable business by local standards through classified ads. Such leading dailies play key roles in state-level political affairs. Their crusade against atrocities and excesses on innocents, fearless exposure of injustice in public life and timely echoing of popular sentiments earn for themselves endearing soft-spots in the hearts of the readers.

Size Does Matter: The wearer knows best where the shoe pinches. Running a small newspaper is harder than one thinks it to be. Hazards begin right with the declaration itself which is filed with the District Magistrate. The DM has to refer the proposed title to the RNI for clearance and registration. Lakhs of titles accumulate at RNI's desks awaiting entitlement. The otherwise formidable fort of the fourth estate is fraught with double-think and double-act. Some file a declaration but never publish a sheet. Many file more than a declaration during a year with an eye on newsprint quotas. To top it all, RNI is too under-staffed to weed out the in-operative titles.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss: Once registered, the local daily has to maintain account books as per directives of RNI and DAVP if it desires to get newsprint or government advertisement. Of course, such formalities are not imposed upon the smallest newspapers. The fact of the matter is that most of the small newspapers do not maintain these accounts as they are not aware of the facilities. But ignorance is not bliss here. Sooner or later, they enter into agreements with one printing press or another under which the press itself provides the paper and charges them dearly. This happens because of the mysterious difference between the number of newspapers registered with RNI and the number of applications seeking newsprint.

Rolling Out Mediocrity: Besides, newsprint supply can never keep pace with its demand. When big publishers take away their share, scanty stock is left in the market for the small ones. Moreover, newsprint comes in rolls to suit big players who print on rotary machines. Small players have no choice but to pay more as cutting charges. The rolls are cut into sheets for flat-bed presses. The woes are endless. They not only have to fish out more money for inputs like paper, ink, printing charges etc., but also cannot afford to engage better qualified staff nor provide reference libraries. The net result is mediocrity.

Small Town Mentality: With the progress of literacy and explosion of population, there is a massive growth in the development of reading habits. The small towns and villages also have a proportionate share in such a growth. Language newspapers are quick to cash in on the benign atmosphere. But there is a flip side to such newly acquired reading habit. In the country-side, one copy of a newspaper is read not by one but on an average, by five persons. In the deeper interiors, a single copy, at times, is even shared by the entire village. Having perused, they tear the paper to pieces and use them to roll tobacco into cigarettes. One wonders whether there is a relationship between purchasing power and readership.

Habits Vary: Folks in downtown Churachandpur in Manipur cultivate a better habit of buying newspapers than those in Moreh or Chandel. But settlers of national highway region of Sadar hills are regular readers although they do not have the same purchasing power as their kindred in CCpur have. Local tea-stalls are the fave haunts of news seekers who do not have the aptitude to subscribe or buy a copy on daily basis.

Storm-In-A-Tea-Cup : What's considered as an insignificant newspaper in the State capital is regarded as a cherished daily arrival in a small town. Lacking in other media of communication, the printed word is taken seriously as the ultimate truth. News items, in rural areas are read and verbally raped repeatedly. They form the basis of animated discussions in road-side tea-stalls for crazily lazy family-men who try to compensate their allergy to manual works in the fields with a superior grasp of the happenings around the world. Such a fancied fad can only be fed by local dailies.

Political Pundits: Electoral predictions and party politics are the pet topics of conversation over sips of cups of tea taken on credit which sometimes end up in storm-in-a-tea-cup kind of heated argument. Participants in such debates know all the names of the Ministers and MLAs. They are experts in psycho-analyzing imagined situations by correlating the news items with the rumours they heard through the word-of-mouth channel. Shrewd as they are, some of the VLPBs ( Village-Level Power Brokers) adopt the witty opinions incorporated in the editorials as their own, aggressively defend them and increase their (fake) prestige percentage in the backblocks. Knowledge, indeed, is power- borrowed though it may be .

Symbiosis of Govt And Press : The government and the press are made for each other. One can only pretend a healthy existence without the other. Of late, the government's role had diversified from limited concerns of maintenance of law and order and revenue collection. It has become a potent tool of social change through meticulously planned development. But all the high-sounding pro-poor policies and the satisfactory (in parts) achievements mean nothing to the subjects if due publicity is not given to them.

Press Pressure: That's where the print media comes handy. Prominent coverage of honest implementation of rural and urban schemes will boost up the morale of the agencies. Investigative reporting on embezzlement of funds and lamentable elements of lapses will serve as a deterrent to future fraud. On the other hand, newspapers can make good use of govt. notifications, court summons, and display ads.

If the respective parts are played with no strings attached, any symbiotic relationship between the press and the government will end up in the benefit of both. Posterity ought to remember Gandhiji's succinct saying, "One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand the popular feeling and give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; the third, is fearlessly to oppose popular defects ".

Desired Future Role: Manipur had been thriving on diversity of culture and religion. Many languages and dialects are spoken here with Manipuri as the lingua franca. Human nature being what it is, pot-boiling conflicts are bound to erupt in social interactions. The local newspaper, with all the influence at its command, for a change, should shift focus and concentrate on regional news and events.

Then, it must effectively poise and employ its credentials as the reconciling confluence of ambivalent viewpoints that need to be thrashed out thread-bare in print under the guiding rationale of the general-will. The via-media mid-way meeting-point it hammers out should then be chiseled to be channeled to enhance the affluence of the state in fraternal amity.

The need Is Righteousness: By His grace, God had blessed our state with abundant resources, salubrious climate, fertile hills and dales. Heaven endows the citizenry with brilliance in sports, culture, art and science. But why aren't we making capital of the divine blessing ? What hinders us from getting our acts together towards organized economic prosperity ? Why do we once too often suffer the ordeal of a financial crisis that shows no sign of improvement ? And why are we losing out a huge sum in remittance for outside studies ?

Head Held Low: There are questions individuals would rather leave to the press to answer. The press, on its part, sometimes, cannot resist the temptation to be partial. Better sense fails to prevail at crucial junctures. Big or small, the print media survives on the strength of the collective moral support rendered by its readers. When a critical issue mentally arm-twists media-men to ignore the glaring truth so as not to offend the majority readership, facts are mutilated with guilty nonchalance. Lesser voices are throttled. Truth is buried under fear. Why?

God Sees All: The print media, using its hold over the masses and classes, should initiate a social survey-cum-research and suggest viable remedial measures. Personally, I think we have collectively grieved the all-knowing all-seeing God in individual and public discharges of responsibilities. More often than not, truth had been trampled and falsity lapped up for petty gains or shady bargains. Only "righteousness can exalt a nation (or state)" - Prov. 14:34. Everything else will end up in grief. Going by the trend that is socially in vogue, we may be drifting towards the cesspool of a hopeless mess of a social system.

Healing Not Impossible: But there is hope in the written Word in the scriptures. If we truly repent and make suitable amends, we can still en-cash the riches of God's promise in II-Chronicles 7:14, "If my people ,which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".

Lunminthang Haokip

* Lunminthang Haokip, a resident of Old Lambulane, Imphal is a regular contributor to e-pao.net.
The writer self-describes himself as 'an occasional pen-pusher and a regular reader of E-pao!!!' . He can be contacted at minth8657(at)gmail(dot)com.
This article was webcasted on August 30, 2010.